Month: March 2021

Why Rush?

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn InspirationLeave a comment

Prayer takes time. In an age of instantaneous communication, and even quicker movement from here to there, prayer still takes time. Why?

Heaven. Too often disciples are in a rush: things to do, people to see, a living to make. But heaven.

David wrote:

שָׂמַחְתִּי, בְּאֹמְרִים לִי–בֵּית יְהוָה נֵלֵךְ

“I rejoiced in my soul when they said to me, ‘Let us travel to the house of the Lord.’”

David describes a journey. Journeys, by definition, take time. Even this inner journey of prayer takes time, at times, even more time than a journey of many miles.

With the miles of distraction, pressures, obligations, fears, heartache, etc. in our lives, prayer, really intimate prayer, is often a distance away.

The story is told of two men who met to pray and study. Both men began, silently, involved in their inner work. One finished long before the other. Why? What was his companion doing?

He explained, “You travel for business; why not just think of the journey, what you need to do at the destination, and imagine the return home in your mind?” “Because,” the man said, “I have to be there. I just can’t think myself there.”

Exactly. Prayer is being there. Not just talking to there, but a journey over the inner clutter along the way to be there, in His presence.

We should take time. Yes, it’s not always allowable, convenient, or desired; but we should learn to do the inner work of faith to appear before Him, and rejoice at the trip to be there; not just imagine it.

Why rush? We all know those precious times with family and friends, so sweet, that unfolded after the miles on the train, plane, or in an automobile.

How much sweeter the time before the Lord when we take our time, leave behind, even for a few moments, the urge to rush on to the next thing.

Yeshua/Jesus provides a beautiful example for us, as He lay aside sleep to go to the lonely places to pray, “Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” (Lk. 6:12).

He went out. It was inconvenient. It was physical movement. He demonstrated the inner journey of prayer for us by going out.

Shouldn’t prayer, speaking to the maker of heaven and earth, be the one thing we make time for, and not rush through?

Be well. Shalom.

Servant of Blessing

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn Inspiration3 Comments

Have you ever poured a glass of water for a thirsty soul? In the natural you have demonstrated the seemingly mystical act of blessing. It’s actually not mystical at all; rather, it is life changing and life filling.

The Hebrew word blessing, בְּרָכָה/bracha, is derived from a root meaning to kneel, as in kneeling to draw water from a pool; as blessing is related to the word for pool as well.

In Romans 12:14 Paul writes, “Bless those who persecute you – bless and do not curse.” Really? Why?

A blessing, in contrast to what we are accustomed to, is a special type of prayer requiring us to draw upon all the love we have for the human other. When we bless the other, over cursing, our renewed spirit is looking into the heavens, drawing water from the heavenly pool, and asking the Lord to fill whatever is missing from their life in order to heal them.

To bless the other requires love, in fact rabbinic thought suggests that you cannot bless someone you do not love. Blessing requires you to be sensitive in order to discern and the transmit the spiritual cup of water.

In that holy moment you become a faucet, a holy conduit connecting the thirsty to the source of all supply (Phil. 4:19). The beautiful thing is that the person you wish to bless need not be in your presence; you can be a servant of blessing to them from anywhere.

Paul in his wisdom doused the flame of vengeance by telling us to kneel beside the pool, clean and cool, reaching in and drawing out the supply for the others lack. I believe he drew this wisdom from a well-known verse in the Torah, but read slightly differently:

In Genesis 12:2-3, “I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you…”

It is as if the Lord is saying, “You shall be a kneeler at the pool just as I have served you.” Yet, there is more.

Genesis 12:3 opens וַאֲבָרְכָה, מְבָרְכֶיךָ, most familiar and translated as, “I will bless those who bless you.” This can be translated slightly differently, “I will bless those whom you will bless.”

Remember, he desired to make Abraham a blessing, so the Lord now says, “I will bless those whom you will bless.”

He will fill the pool. Supply the cup. He will give the unction of love necessary for you to kneel as a conduit. As Paul writes in Galatians 5:13, “through love serve one another.”

How can we overcome our very human urge to curse those causing us pain? Messiah. Messiah alone. And in Him we witness the power of heaven to shower down blessing upon those serving the other in Him.

Servants of blessing.

Be well. Shalom.

But How?

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn InspirationLeave a comment
The Jordan River.

In I Peter 2:11 the apostle writes, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.”

But how?

How can we be strangers and pilgrims among the people, places, and things we know? Can we really displace ourselves within our own lives? Be semi-present?

No.

Aa the book of Genesis comes to a close, Jacob, before his death, insists that Joseph make a pledge. Joseph, of course, is viceroy of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself; and of Jacob’s sons, only Joseph can fulfill Jacobs last request.

Having lived in Egypt for seventeen years, Jacob realizes that his family has no reason to ever leave Egypt. What was meant to be temporary, seemed to have become permanent. After all, it is well with the Israelites in their exile; they are fed, protected, and seem to have a secure future.

Jacob makes Joseph pledge to take him back to the promised land, to be buried with his fathers. Worried that his descendants would mistake the Nile for the Jordan, he sends a message: do not set your heart in a land I would not allow myself to be buried.

With His resurrection Yeshua/Jesus sent us the same message: do not set your heart where He does not rest.

We are to be strangers, but deeply connected to life around us. We are to be pilgrims, yet cultivating the vineyard of people’s lives for heaven. How to reconcile?

Don’t mistake the Nile for the Jordan; don’t mistake the temporary for the eternal. Set your heart on the place of the promise, on the place where a river of living water flows, the place where the King is enthroned.

When life gets uncomfortable, it is a reminder that this is not our inheritance. When life becomes too comfortable, Jacob and Yeshua remind us that the place of rest is in His promise.

Remember, you are just passing through, doing the work prepared for this leg of the journey (Eph. 2:8–10), until you to enter the rest of the Lord, beside a river greater than the Nile and the Jordan: the river of life (Rev. 22:1).

Be well. Shalom.