The Day My Dad Almost Shot the Neighbor Kid

My dad and me

My father was the biggest man I’ve ever known, even though he was relatively small of stature. He did a man’s work on his family farm from the time he was twelve. He was a gifted athlete, hunted all his life, and boxed Golden Gloves as a young man. He was a man’s man.

I’ll never forget the day I thought he might kill the neighbor kid.

My parents had invested a small fortune in a Brown Swiss heifer, a lovely animal with large brown eyes and a beige and tan coat. They were hoping she might improve the milk production of the small dairy herd on our Western Colorado farm.

Not long after we bought her, Dad found her dead in the pasture, a bullet-hole in her head. It was obvious to him that one of our neighbors’ adult sons had shot her.

Unlike most of the “salt of the earth” neighbors in our farming community, the Corcoran clan (not their real name) were sour, unpleasant people, touchy and arrogant. Their two sons, Ray and Johnny, were in their early 20's. They were bullies, and as a little boy, both of them scared me. They had a reputation for physical violence and careless use of firearms. Dad had good reason, but no evidence, to suspect Johnny the younger of the two.

Prayer Retreats 101 (Continued)

If you love and admire somebody, you want to spend time with him or her. Because we love and admire Christ, we take seriously the challenge of going on a prayer retreat.

Last time I tried a Q & A approach to explaining prayer retreats. Today I have two more questions…

Q: What do you do on a prayer retreat?

The idea is to pray, of course. But it helps to have an outline of your time. Here's mine.

• Plan. I determine ahead of time why I’m going away. What’s my purpose for this retreat? It could be: to pray for my family; to seek God’s wisdom for a particular decision; to ask Him for guidance for the next season of my life.And of course I have to find a place (see below) and schedule time in my calendar to make it work.
• Unpack. When I finally arrive at my retreat center, I’m usually stressed and my mind is racing. I try to “unpack” mentally and emotionally. I make a list, randomly writing down anything that is rattling around in my head—personal problems, questions, fears, pressing assignments, upcoming decisions, family issues, everything. I spend anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour with this.
• Remember. I look back on how God has been working in my life. Making a list of His recent blessings might take only 20 or 30 minutes, but it puts me in a humble, grateful frame of mind.
• Read. I try to soak my mind in God’s word. I might read for an hour or even longer. I usually go for an entire New Testament epistle, a big chunk of the Psalms, or multiple chapters of Isaiah.
• Connect. My hope is to move into the presence of God. I confess my sins. I worship, perhaps with a CD of praise music. I also want to express to the Lord my submission to whatever He might have planned for my retreat (and for my life). Sometimes taking a walk helps me relax into His presence. All told this might be an hour or more.
• Listen. I might not get to this step until my second day. I take the list of “stuff” I unpacked, and begin to hold it before the Lord. “Listening” is about quieting my heart and waiting for His guidance. Maybe I’ll see a problem from a different angle or have new insight about a solution. Often I’ll think of Bible verses I read earlier, or passages I’ve studied or memorized, and see how they speak to my issues. Occasionally a sudden, pointed thought will emerge, almost as if the Lord is whispering it to me. I write all this down. This phase may last several hours.
• Wrap up. I finish the retreat with thanksgiving for what God has been showing me. I summarize what the Lord seems to have been saying, and develop a “to do” list to help me apply my retreat for the weeks and months ahead.

 Q: Where do you go for a prayer retreat? If you’ll commit to going on a prayer retreat, you’ll find a place. Here are some suggestions:

• Motel-6 or similar inexpensive lodging. I’ve taken plenty of retreats at cheapo motels.
• Christian camps and retreat centers. They’ll often rent you an inexpensive room, and sometimes you can arrange meals.
• Campgrounds. Yes, you could take an RV or actually tent-camp.
• Arrange with out-of-town friends to stay at their place.
• All day at a public park is also do-able. Not as good as an overnight, but a shorter retreat is better than no retreat.
• I still insist it’s better to go away than go the “stay-cation” route. But in a pinch, you could hold up in your own house.

For more help, consider ordering the workbook “How toExperience an Effective Prayer Retreat," by Paul Becker. You might also check out the suggestions at Prayer Today Online.

The idea of going away for an overnight may seem daunting. But if you had the chance to spend a day or two with Christ, just the two of you, why wouldn’t you make the effort?

Prayer Retreats 101

First night of my retreat

This week I went away for my annual January prayer retreat. For two days I spent time in prayer, reading, and reflection.

I’ve been taking prayer retreats two or three times a year for the last 20 years or so. Why? The short answer (and I’m not trying to be cute) is that I admire Christ. Actually I can’t imagine not taking prayer retreats. Being alone with Him for extended periods helps me know Him better. It also keeps me sane and (I think) makes me a better Christian.

But I’m writing this because I want to convince you to take prayer retreats. Let me try some Q & A.

What is a prayer retreat?

My friend Paul Becker, President of Dynamic Church Planting International, has a great definition: A time you set aside to go away to be with God.

•  “A time you set aside” means you have to plan for a prayer retreat or it won’t happen.
• “to go away.” Okay, you could stay home and set aside time for a prayer retreat. To me, though, it’s a little like a “stay-cation.” You can do vacation from home if you have to, but it’s definitely plan B.
• “to be with God.” That’s the main purpose. Without a prayer retreat, how much actual time do you spend with the Lord each day, just you and Him? Maybe an hour a day? A lot less?

So what kind of time are we talking about for a prayer retreat?

I’ve had helpful prayer retreats that were only a few hours in length. But for me, getting away for at least an overnight is best. A couple nights is even better.

But why take a prayer retreat?

• To spend time with Jesus, just you and Him.
• To refresh your soul and clear your head,
• To intercede for specific people. My January retreat is mainly for my family.
• To seek God’s will on specific issues and questions.

 Next time I’ll try to ask, What do you do on a prayer retreat? And where do you go?

One last thing for now: Jesus took prayer retreats. …great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray (Luke 5:15, 16, ESV).

Admirable Anger?

The Bible says, “Be angry and do not sin…” (Ephesians 4:26). So apparently it’s possible to be one and not do the other.

But how many people do you know who pull that off—being angry without crossing the line? Honestly, I know only one.

           

I admire Jesus' anger.

What makes you angry? Most of us get mad when our plans are thwarted, when people stand in our way, disappoint or betray us. Our anger is often (usually?) self-protective and self-centered.

But why did Jesus get angry?

• He got angry when His disciples kept little children from His blessing. His disciples thought they were guarding His time. But Jesus was “indignant” – much displeased (Mark 11:14).
• He was angry at the tomb of Lazarus—“deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled” (John 11:33). The Greek words mean He was agitated and upset.
• When our Lord overturned the tables of the money-changers and drove out the vendors, He was angry (See Mark 11).

Jesus was angry when people He loved were kept from Him. And He was angry at how sin scars and separates, and leads--inevitably--to death.

But Jesus did not get angry when His plans were opposed, when His disciples failed, or even when He was betrayed, falsely accused, and sentenced to die.

There’s a proper role for anger, and the only place I know to learn it is from Jesus.

Jesus and the Planet Me

Last Sunday night during our church's praise and prayer meeting, Brad, one of our elders, shared a devotional about Jesus, the friend of sinners, and about what a friend the Lord has been to him.

He talked about poor choices he had made in the past, and how coming to know Jesus has changed everything for him and given him a wonderful life he could never have imagined before meeting Christ.

His short talk brought tears to my eyes. Christ is so good to us, and anyone who knows Him could say what Brad said: where would I be without the friendship of Christ?

When he mentioned poor choices in the past, it made me think of Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 1:30: And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

Wisdom doesn’t mean how much you know but how much skill you have to live life. Before Christ my “wisdom” was all about minimizing pain and maximizing pleasure. My choices, and yours, all revolved around the Planet Me. No wonder we were messed up.

Jesus became to us wisdom from God. Not just that He gave us wisdom, but that He became wisdom. He became the way to live life. Wisdom starts with knowing who truly deserves to be at the center. No longer enslaved to the Planet Me, the Son in our solar system is Christ.

Wisdom is Christ, and it means a cosmic shift of lordship. True wisdom has Jesus at the center and source and destination for everything. My choices need to start there—with admiring Christ.

Praying in the Dark

One of the things I admire most about Jesus is His prayer life. His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane has long been a comfort to me.

"Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36).

How do you pray when what you’re facing seems too hard to bear? When a terrible trial overburdens you? When you’re facing heartache or disappointment? When the night is so dark you think morning will never come?

Christ felt all these things when He knelt in the Garden, His closest friends asleep and His immediate future unimaginably sorrowful. How He prayed shows us how we should pray.

1. Pray like a little child, coming to his father. “Abba, Father.” Abba is a little child’s word for his daddy. All of us in Christ can come to the Father this way (cf. Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).
2. Pray in faith. “All things are possible for you.” Jesus knew, and so should we, that nothing can stand in the way of our Father’s limitless power (cf. Mt. 19:26).
3. Pray with boldness. “Remove this cup from me.” We’re invited to come to the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16), to ask boldly for what we want. (God is too wise and too good to say “yes” to everything we ask. He said no to His own Son.)
4. Pray in submission. “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” ...we do not stop after bringing God our request. Instead...we balance our aspirations and our desires with submission to God's assignment. We leave the outcome to God.  (Robert Bugh, When the Bottom Drops Out, p. 41. Thanks to my friend Bob, for recommending this book.)
   

No wonder Jesus’ disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

The Weekly Puritan

Okay, my plan is to have a Puritan quote every week. So this is two weeks in a row. John Owen again. And remember my tip about reading Owen out loud.

So, in reading and studying the Bible, we ought to make every effort to search for the revelations of the glory of Christ in it as did the prophets of old. The glory of Christ is the ‘pearl of great price’ which we should make every effort to find (Matt. 13:45-46). And the Scripture is the ocean into which we dive to discover this pearl, or the mine in which we dig for its precious treasures (Prov. 2:1-5). Every sacred truth that reveals something of the glory of Christ to our souls, is a pearl or precious stone which enriches us. But when the believer discovers this pearl of great price itself, then his soul cleaves to it with joy. The Glory of Christ, p. 33.

Why do you read the Bible? Inspiration? Help to make it through the day? Principles for success? The Bible helps us with many things, but it is not primarily a book of inspirational quotes, a counseling text, or a self-help manual.

Jesus said “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me…” (John 5:39, ESV). Not just the New Testament, but all the Old Testament, too. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27, ESV).

Let’s read the Bible, looking for Jesus. He’s all over the place, and always worthy of our admiration, praise, and worship.