...Plain Upon Tablets

In last week's post , I mentioned the booklet Holy Boldness that I received from Great Aunt Blanche. This week, I'm focusing on the short (1-1/3 pages) introduction. Despite its brevity, the reader learns quickly that there is no time to be wimpy in your boldness and that you will be doing BIG things with this boldness. Image by Steve Harvey at Unsplash Let me state that this text was created by the American Bible Society and published in 1995. It was prepared for The Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. Because there is no expiration date on God or the Word, I'm diving into these words 25 years later still expecting to learn a thing or three. Now, let's jump in... Essentially, the introduction, written by the late Bishop Felton Edwin May, states that there are two prerequisites to Holy Boldness. "First, we need to know what we believe." We need to know and believe that Christ was both crucified and resurrected, and because we know ...

I was blessed to have a grandmother with six beautiful sisters--women who were bold, funny, kind, encouraging, and faithful among so many other wonderful things. Let's get BOLD! In picture: back row l-r: Aunt Caroline, Aunt Lee, Grandma Audrey; front row l-r: Aunt Margie, Aunt Blanche, and Aunt Ethel; missing from pic: Aunt Edna When my grandmother Audrey passed in 1998, one of these awesome women stepped up to encourage me along my journey: my aunt Blanche. My Grandma Audrey and me at my B.A. graduation My grandmother was a fervent believer of God. Never knew anyone who believed more or loved him more (though my mom is close behind her and Aunt Blanche is tied). She was the one who constantly kept me in the faith, and she was the one left heartbroken when I had my moment of disbelief in God. She wouldn't know that losing her and then my grandfather four months later would only deepen that disbelief. My great-aunt Blanche About a year after Grandma passed, Aunt Blanche began w...

So often, we struggle, we fight to live just above life's currents so that we are able to, at the very least, breathe as we make it from one day to the next. That is not the way life is supposed to be. We are called to be joyful and to find joy even in the most devastating of circumstances. Chronic Stress Disorder (CSD) often makes it hard for me to see joy and keep joy near. For me, CSD is like having my nerves constantly on fire while they are pricked by millions of the sharpest needles ever created. This is what it feels like when I'm stressing about things that my mind knows are perceived and not real. This feeling is amplified when dealing with stressors that are tangible, immediate. Despite these feelings and the other issues that cower under the CSD umbrella (anxiety, depression), I do realize that there must be consistent intentionality to the pursuit of joy. As with anything. If you want to lose weight, you have to be consistent, intentional of what you eat...

Day 12 of Andrew Murray's The Secret of Intercession poses the following question: Why must all our prayers of intercession be based on Christ's prayer, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10)? Murray lays out the answer to this in a few short pages, but we get the answer in the first paragraph: "When He made man in His image, it was, above all, that man's desires were to be in perfect accord with the desires of God" .... "in the human flesh man was to be the embodiment and fulfillment of God's desires" (48). In short order, Murray tells us that man's fall set God in doing "the great work of winning man back to make the desires of God his own" so that man could once again be in perfect accord with God (48). Through Christ, that opportunity for perfect accord is at hand. "The Son, as man, said in agony and blood, ' Thy will be done ,' and made the surrender even to the point of being f...

I have to say that I come to Day 11 of Andrew Murray's The Secret of Intercession with some major trepidation. And it's all for fleshy reasons. With some of the heartbreaking goings on in the world these days, it's been hard for me to think Christlike. It's been hard for me to pray for some transgressors. And that's unfortunate considering this is a vital staple of being an intercessor. It's easy to pray for those we love, those who aim to do right and walk good, giving, loving paths. It's not so easy to do that for those who commit heinous crimes, those who might do any number of things we deem wrong . A few months ago, a major altercation presented itself directly where I live, and it left me shaken, scared, angry, and full of rage. After the tears washed away some of the fear, what was left was this vigilante that wanted to rip and run the streets, find the person that had shaken my world terribly, and take. him. down. Sometimes, even now, wh...

In day 10 of Andrew Murray's book, The Secret of Intercession , he concludes with the following question: Why is it essential to be filled with the Holy Spirit before you can be an intercessor? Day 10 speaks specifically about this question. Murray starts the day with the words "Abba, Father," using them to tell us what the words meant when coming from Christ's mouth while in Gethsemane: "it was the entire surrender of Himself, even to death, so that the holy will of God's love in redemption of sinners might be accomplished" (40). Through his total surrender, through this short, yet poignant prayer, Christ "exercises the wonderful power of intercession and the power to pour down the Holy Spirit" (40). So, from the start, we see that "The Holy Spirit has been bestowed by the Father to breathe the very spirit of His Son into our hearts" (40). Christ surrendered his all, even his life, for our lives, our souls. And, as intercess...

In Day 8 of Murray's book, The Secret of Intercession , he seems ready to take us to school on what we need to give if we are to be the partners of Christ on earth in intercession. What are we to give? He shows us what Jesus gave up by quoting Isaiah 53:10-12: "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed....He shall see of the travail of his soul....Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great...because he hath poured out his soul unto death." In this passage, we see soul  mentioned three times. This is important to note because for Murray, "the pouring out of the soul -- that is the divine meaning of intercession" (33), and because Jesus gave "Himself over to live and die that He might save the perishing was a revelation of the spirit that has power to prevail with God" (34). Because Jesus is the  example for us, and he poured out his soul, gave of himself for others, as intercessors, this is what we are to ...

In Day 7 of Murray's book, The Secret of Intercession , he compares watchmen to intercessors. The watchmen warn men of impending danger... and call to God when they need his help with a threatening enemy. In tying the watchmen to the intercessor, he says, "The great mark of the intercessors is that they are not to hold their peace day or night, are to take no rest, and are to give God no rest, until the deliverance comes" (29). "Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him" (Luke 18:7). After a short commentary about the need for more intercessors, the need to have a united, fervent community of intercessors to ignite the power of the Holy Spirit, Murray asks, "Will you not, dear reader, offer yourself to God for this blessed work of intercession and learn to count it as the highest privilege of your life to be a channel through whose prayers God's blessing can be brought down to earth?" (30) With every "day,...

Some time ago, I began posting on Andrew Murray's book, The Secret of Intercession . The book contains 31 chapters, each chapter constituting a "day." In each day, Murray highlights a facet of intercession: what it is, why it's important, and how we are to come to it, among others. I posted on days one through five previously, and those links are below. Today, I'm talking on Day 6, "Christ as Intercessor." In this short chapter, Christ is called the true Intercessor as "God Himself would provide the true Intercessor, in Christ His Son, of whom it had already been said, ' He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors '" (Isa. 53:12; Murray 25). Murray provides other places in the bible where Jesus intercedes for man (John 17; Luke 22:32) before concluding with the most poignant prayer from Jesus to God - "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34) as Jesus was on the cross (Murray 26). With Jesus ...