On the Joy of Intercessory Prayer

For 31 years I prayed for a spiritual breakthrough to the awareness that Christ was not ashamed of him. There was incredible joy as he stood with me on a soccer field near my home and shared that it had finally become clear. He cited a work by John Piper which I had given him as a major factor in his transformative epiphany. While those 31 years included moments of barrenness; nevertheless I sensed that the effort wasn't going to be futile.

About five years ago when praying in our local congregational prayer group we were bringing yet-to-be saved spouses before the throne of grace. On one occasion, my identification with one of the situations broke my heart and I couldn't refrain from crying. The work in my heart was a melting of a critical spirit toward these men and a growing capacity to trust God's timing and response. I count it a privilege to remember these before Him and delight in what He will do.

If the "joy of the Lord is my strength," then where am I most likely to experience that joy? The time spent in intercessory prayer is fertile ground in which the Holy Spirit cultivates the fruit of joy. The spiritual pulse of a congregation may be taken by the degree to which the saints intentionally pursue prayer as a primary means of grace. In that personal and collective prayer time the spiritual food of the sermon, the Sunday School learnings, the missionary zeal, the fellowship of care groups, etc. is digested. This results in the transformation of our Christian mind, the shaping of our natural and religious affections, and the renewal of our wills for new obedience.

I am gratified by the support of the covenant community leadership where my family worships; that they are committed to growing the intentional intercessory prayer opportunities within our body life. I know that those who are drawn to consider life together with us will be blessed with a characteristic joy and excitement, as we see our faithful Lord stooping to hear and respond to His children's prayers.

See you at the Potter's wheel!
G.K. Sexton

"Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name. Ask that you may receive that your joy may be full."  John 16:24

On Mind and Heart

The transformative impact of the Gospel is holistic. That is, the Good News of God's loving rescue operation in Christ's finished Cross Work applied to the believer, brings radical change to the whole person. All our faculties of mind, heart, soul and strength of will are, because of the empowerment of grace, brought into a dynamic process understood as sanctification. The fact of our being declared righteous (justification),  having received by faith the accrediting to our account Christ's righteousness, is foundational to our live-a-day progression toward becoming more like Jesus (sanctification, cf.  2 Cor. 3:18) In grammatical terms the INDICATIVE mood is framework for the IMPERFECT and IMPERATIVE moods. The Gospel thus brings us to the place where we live in real Reality. That which is objectively true is the atmosphere in which we "work out our salvation with fear and trembling." A practical benefit is that we are able to wait upon the Lord, with the inner work of the Holy Spirit working in us long-suffering character.  As the lyrics of the hymn state, we "trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey."

This dynamic life of trusting obedience expresses that our existential experience (moment-by-moment awareness) is a constant interplay of the mind (thoughts) and our heart (core being & emotions). I know myself to be too prone to validation by emotions (cf. Debby Boone's question: "If it feels so right, how can it be wrong?"). Therefore I need the more reliable grounding of God's objective truth and principles revealed in the Scriptures.

At 17 years of age I learned to fly small aircraft. One of my lessons involved learning to rely upon the data and indicators in the instruments, such as the artificial horizon, altimeter and airspeed indicator. My instructor put us into some fairly scary situations where the physical feeling produced by my inner ear would contradict what the instruments said. My instructor convinced me that there is a time when it is appropriate to vote against one's feelings (physical sensations) to trust the objective truth of the instruments. In similar fashion the constant necessity is to bring our emotional heartfelt responses under the scrutiny and liberating sway of truth (cf. John 8:32)  For my purposes, I understand that something is true because it is revealed in Scripture and/or is consistent with real Reality as God designed it to be.

Having grown up in the American culture which puts a premium on experience (witness that a $5.00 Starbucks coffee is as much about the whole experience as the aroma and taste of java), I am grateful that I can humbly recognize that any momentary emotional reaction to a given situation, should be tempered by the realization that I may not have all the data at hand.

At the same time I celebrate recent treatments that express the validity of our emotions and heartfelt responses to the truth. In particular, I have recently been encouraged by John Piper's Desiring God, Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. Piper asserts that we have a biblical warrant for experiencing joy knowing God as he is revealed in Scripture inasmuch as we have been created for just such a relationship with our Triune God.

See you at the Potter's wheel!  
G.K. Sexton

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." -- Psalm 37:4

ChristCraft Launch

Family and Friends,

Return of the Prodigal Son

Today I launch out for the first time into the blog world. I do so with some trepidation realizing that this forum is an opportunity for transparency which exposes me to the scrutiny, critique, feedback, affirmation, correction, reproof, correction and blessing of those who post here. I respectully request that your comments be well considered, constructive and seasoned with grace with a view to edify one another as we travel together in our life long pilgrimage as intentional students and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

One of my hopes is that through blog conversations I can fulfill a hard-wired urge to say something meaningful that will require me to think Biblically while engaging my posters in a real time thinking aloud about our Christian experiences and provide mutual stimulation to love and good deeds. I am not looking for agreement in any particular area but do desire exchanges which are good faith contributions to the adventure of growing in grace in this limited "cyber-community."

I was originally encouraged to consider blogging by my sweetheart and helpmate of 35 years, Frances Jo. She knows me better than any human being living on planet earth. For years I have been prompted by her and several close friends to consider writing a book. They seemed to believe that I actually had something worthwhile to say. Well, recognizing that I haven't the time or skill to commit to such a daunting endeavor, I believe that blogging will afford me the means to "chunkify" my awareness and to articulate them in digestible portions.

I relish the opportunity to interact with you in future posts and will devote the early contributions to some appropriate self disclosure. Again, I am a Myers-Briggs Extroverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiver (ENFP). You may want to Google that personality type for a great synopsis on that particular style. I strive for transparency in a fallen universe knowing that I may attain a greater degree as I yield to the Holy Spirit's work of conforming me to the image of Christ by the Scriptures. I am thankful that I am able to daily discern the Lord's calling as He did in Eden:  "Why are you hiding?"

See you at the Potter's wheel!
G.K. Sexton

 “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” Jeremiah 18:2