Jericho prayer walks

Lately I’ve been involved in some warfare of the spiritual kind.  I feel like I don’t often know who my "enemies" are, yet I do know there’s an unseen world where battles for hearts are raging.  If I want my life story to count for the Lord’s glory, then I cannot shrink from battle.

So one tactic a friend and I have been using this spring and summer was inspired by the Biblical story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho…  My friend and I have been practicing what we call: Jericho prayer walks.

Whenever we can – usually once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less – she and I march around our "walls" and pray them down in Jesus’ name.  Now if you’re not a follower of Christ, this may seem odd to you; I understand, and assure you we’re really not weird. J  And if you are a follower of Christ, it may also seem a bit extreme to you, but I don’t think it should…  Because let me tell you: there are "walls," there are "enemies" behind them, and there is victory for all who believe and “march” and pray in faith in Jesus’ name!  We’ve experienced this...

So what does a Jericho prayer walk – our version – look like?  Well, I live a mile from downtown, so my friend comes to my house and we walk the mile downtown.  First, we chat and catch up on our lives and what the Lord’s been doing.  Usually that’s the first half-mile or so…  Then we take turns praying, inviting the Spirit of Jesus to guide our prayers.  Well, before we know it we’re downtown, where we have coffee or an iced tea at the local coffee shop, sometimes with food, and continue our catching up as friends.  And then we start the walk home – usually a mile full of praise and requests and heart “battle cries,” if you will.

By the time we get back to my house we’re so full of God’s peace and presence that I think we are both glowing.  A sweat enhanced glow, perhaps...

Okay, so the bottom line that I believe is intended for anyone who reads this is: do you have faith in the one true God?  And if you do: do you take Him at His Word?  You might want to consider gathering with a fellow follower of Christ, and pray down some walls in your individual lives.  You never know, until you try something like this in faith, what it might please Him to do.

And, for the record, these walks are not about our faithfulness (mine is flawed) - or about the glory of this particular tactic.  They are about the glory of our Heavenly Father, and the power we have through Jesus Christ and His Spirit working in us.  They are about His faithfulness and His desire to be in a relationship with us.  They are about His working beyond what we could even ask or think...  Praise Him!

God and enemies

This week God is showing me something new about enemies.  First, He gets to decide who they are; and second, He chooses to bring Himself glory through them.

There have been, and continue to be, times in my life when I simply can’t believe that someone, or some organization, is treating me a certain way.  Yet very rarely do I think to myself, “Well, I guess that person/organization is my enemy.”  More often I will think, “What more could I be doing to get that person/organization to like me?”  Or: “How could I facilitate this situation with them in such a way that will bring about a reasonable and palatable result for both of us?  There must be something God will help me do to turn this nasty thing around.  Or perhaps my prayers are not yet adequate for this difficult situation?”

This thinking comes from a place of believing that God can work anything out for good.  Yet, it also can come from an arrogant (sinful) place of thinking I also know how He should do it.  You see, my way doesn’t require evil to be crushed; it requires evil to be changed into good.  It's the feel-good ending where everyone wins, and no one or thing needs to be defeated.  (It certainly doesn't require a cross, or my Savior's agony and pain on that cross...)

This week, I’m seeing this as defective thinking on my part.  It became clear to me when I read in Exodus 14, in two different places, that God was the one who was planning to harden Pharaoh’s heart - not Pharaoh himself.  And this would cause Pharaoh (and his army) to chase after Moses and the Israelites.  Now if I had been Moses, I would have been inclined to think my prayerful, carefully executed discussion with Pharaoh had failed when Pharaoh's heart became hard.  That I had not said enough of the right thing in an effective enough way…or that maybe I didn’t pray enough before I requested that Pharaoh once and for all let me and my people go.  Wouldn't God surely want Pharaoh to become a believer and send the Israelites out with a prayer service that the reformed king would lead?

Until now, I had never really let this truth sink into my mind and heart:  God wanted Pharaoh’s heart to be hard; he wanted him to chase after the Israelites and scare them half to death.  And why?  To display His glory and show people that He’s the Lord!

“I have planned this to display my great glory through Pharaoh and his whole army.  After this the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord!”  (Ex. 14:4 NLT)

God, being God, gets to pick His enemies (which, as His children, become our enemies, and vice versa) and He chooses to harden their hearts, even when it might make things very difficult for us for awhile.  But then, oh then - He stops them cold, and in doing so, displays His great glory.

Our tactics may seem more reasonable to us, and we are called to be peacemakers in this world, so I don’t even think our collaboration efforts are usually misguided, and often He works through them to bring resolution.  I’ve just come to realize that I need to acknowledge, respect and praise Him for His right to declare and defeat my enemies in His way – for His great glory...and who doubts - for the benefit of His grateful daughter.

Faith's unchanging dad

This Friday will be the ninth anniversary of the day my dad, Harold Revne, passed to the other side of eternity; so it seems like a really appropriate week for this guest post about a special dad, from one of my BFFs: Faith Tasker. She and I have been great friends since we were two years old. She spoke this tribute about her dad on Father’s Day, in the church he served as pastor of, for many years. It’s more than just stories about her earthly father, however...

(Oh, and yes, the Ann in the story is Yours Truly. And I still don’t like to touch frogs!)

My Dad’s name is David Peterson. Dad was a Wesleyan Pastor for 50 years in the Wisconsin District including over 21 years as pastor of this church (Wesleyan Church in Spooner, WI), and he was “Dad” to three kids: two boys and one girl. It’s a difficult task to select the stories to share with you, as there are so many throughout a lifetime, but I think of a time when I was 12 or 13 years old.

My parents used to let me practice driving in the church parking lot and I would practice pulling into all the stalls between the lines. When I was done one day I headed over to the parsonage to watch Hogan’s Heroes and later Dad came over from his office at the church. Very calmly, without raising his voice he said, “Faith, you need to remember to put the car in park when you get out.” In those days you could turn a car off and take the keys out without putting it in park. The car had rolled across the parking lot, ran into the cement bumper at the edge, pushed the bumper OFF the lot and then amazingly stopped just before going all the way over the steep drop off into the gully below. Dad was consummately patient with me. A trait of the Heavenly Father.

Earlier, when I was 10 or 11, my best friend, Ann, had come to visit me from Eau Claire for a week. The County Fair was there at that time and we wanted to earn some extra money to spend on rides. We got the brilliant idea that if we could catch frogs, there would be lots of people who would love to buy them to use for fishing bait. Of course we were afraid to touch frogs, so we enlisted Dad to catch them all. We ventured down into the swamp right behind the church. Dad got down on his knee in his overalls in that swamp and had an amazing way of moving his hand in circles: getting smaller and smaller to mesmerize the frog, and then he would grab it and put it in our bucket.

We painted a sign that said “FROGS FOR SALE” and stuck it in the ground right next to Hwy 70 and stood waiting for the masses to appear in dire need of frogs. To our surprise, no one stopped. Finally my oldest brother’s best friend and wife showed up and gladly bought all our frogs. We couldn’t believe our luck! Only years later did I learn that my dad had asked John to buy the frogs and even gave him the money to do so! Just as our Father in Heaven, Dad longed to fulfill my dreams and bring delight and pleasure to my heart.

Many years later, came a time that I was willful and made some bad decisions. The kind of decisions that affect you for the rest of your life… I broke my parent’s hearts and the heart of God. I know this was so difficult for Dad, but I remember what he said to me. He assured me of his love forever, and said that although this path was not the perfect will of God – “Plan A” if you will – there was now “Plan B” and God was not done with my life and would not throw me away because I had done wrong. God still had a purpose for me and could do great things in and through me. Dad did not give me the judgment and punishment I deserved, but rather showed me unconditional love, just like God does.

Dad steadfastly extended patience to me. He did his best to fulfill dreams, hopes and desires in all his children. And he showed mercy and love in the face of great disappointment. Put all of these traits together in the consistent way that Dad lived, and I would say the one that most reminds me of God is that Dad was unchanging.

James 1:17 (ESV) says: “Every good gift and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

When I reach heaven I want to see my Savior, Jesus, first of all, but then I want to run to find my earthly dad. Love you, Dad! --Faith

Thank you, Faith, for your friendship, and for sharing these fun, and inspiring, memories of your dear dad.