Intentional Faith

Good Jesus, the water of your teaching flows in silence.  Your gospel is not poured into our ears by an eloquent tongue but is breathed into our hearts by your sweet Spirit.  Your voice never strains nor shouts.  You do not force us to hear you.  You ask only that we open our hearts to you and in tranquility your love enters our souls.

It is amazing that a poor human creature is able to speak with God in heaven and not be afraid.  When we pray, the heart and the conscience must not pull away from God or stand in fear.  We must hold fast and believe that God Himself has heard our prayer.  It was for this reason that the ancients defined prayer as an ‘ascenus mentis ad Deum’: “a climbing up of the heart unto God”. 

O Lord Jesus, I will embrace you who became a little child for me.  In my weakness, I clasp you who became weak for me.  As a mere man, I embrace you who is God made man.  You came a man as poor as I am and you rode into Jerusalem seated on a borrowed donkey.  I embrace you, O Lord, because your lowliness is my greatness, your weakness is my strength and your foolishness is my wisdom.

Aelread of Rievalux

When we pray we should keep in mind all of the shortcomings and excesses we feel and pour them out freely to God, our faithful Father, who is ready to help.  If you do not know or recognize your needs or think you have none, then you are in the worst possible place.  The greatest trouble we can ever know is thinking that we have no trouble for we have become hard-hearted and insensible to what is inside of us.   Martin Luther

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, It is the only thing that ever has.”   Margaret Mead

THE ASCENDING OF JESUS

     The Christian scriptures treat the ascending of Jesus as an integral part of the Easter event. The earlier accounts tell of appearances of the already risen and ascended One. Paul includes his Damascus experience among these appearances in his letter to the Corinthians(1 Co.15:8). The later stories tend to separate the resurrection and the ascending of Jesus.
     Luke has Jesus’ ascending on Easter Sunday evening – or at the latest – the next day(Lk.24:1-2,31,50-51). John has Jesus ascending at sometime between the appearance to Mary Magdalene(Jn.20:17) and the appearance to Thomas a week later(Jn.20:26ff). In Acts the time of the ascending is after "forty days"(Ac.1:3,9-11) where the number of days symbolizes a time of revelation rather than meaning to suggest that the ascending actually occurred on the fortieth day!
     Mark’s account of the ascension is very concise. After speaking with his friends, Jesus "was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God. The formula in the passive voice indicates that the Father is the One at work. The physical absence of Jesus opens up a new time – the time of the community of the disciples.

ACTS 1 : 1 – 11

     The author summarizes the life of Jesus (vv.3-5). The summary provides a smooth transition from Luke’s earlier gospel to this second work of reporting the ‘good news’ of the Acts of the Apostles. The ascending of Jesus is mentioned (v.2). The same narrative that completed the account of Jesus’ ministry in Luke’s gospel serves now to launch the new stage of the community’s life(vv.6ff).
     The Christian church began with the community formed by Jesus with His disciples. But in the present time the community now lives with the absence of the historical Jesus. Jesus’ former mode of presence has ended. The community of disciples must recognize Jesus’ presence in a new way and assume responsibility to continue the risen Christ’s mission(Ac.18).
     In Luke’s theology, the ascending of Jesus(v.9) serves to explain the community of disciple’s life and mission. The forty days, during which the risen Christ instructed His disciples(v.3) evokes the formative forty years the Hebrew people sojourned in the desert; and Jesus’ forty days of testing. Jesus had told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to await the Father’s promised Spirit there!(v.4a) Jesus had cautioned the disciples against any preoccupation with the exact timing of the restoration of God’s reigning(v.7).

Every person has secrets and there is a reason we hide them.  And no one knows more of our secrets than our spouse.  Now answer the question: Do they feel safer or scared that you know so many of their secrets?  Shame is a terrible master and our task as a spouse is to help our partner deal with those shames.  We don’t overlook them but neither do we condemn them.  We love them and offer whatever help is needed.  We fight for their purity and their spiritual health by seeing to ours and supporting them in theirs. 

Guard your mate’s secrets but do not let them come to harm.  Recognize their struggle and let them know they are safe with you.  Then come along side and join them in putting those secrets to rest.  Today, pray for one of those secrets you know about your spouse.

Proverbs 17:9 (NLT)
⁹ Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.

Genesis 2:25 (NIV)
²⁵ The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Psalm 139:2-4 (NIV)
² You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.

You cannot change your spouse.  If you haven’t learned that by now, you haven’t been listening.  You would do better to imagine yourself as a farmer planting seeds.  You can water, cultivate and weed but growth depends on factors like rain and the seed itself.

Practice good farming in your marriage.  Pray for your spouse.  Do the things discussed so far to tend to your spouse but above all pray for them.  Pray for their relationship with God and their spiritual growth.  Pray for their heart and their joy.  Then depend upon God to give the results.  You will not grow your relationship without Him and He will not grow you until you submit.

Finally, pray faithfully.  Remember:

Matthew 7:7 (NLT)
⁷ “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.

3 John 1:2 (NJB)
² My dear friend, I hope everything is going happily with you and that you are as well physically as you are spiritually.

Luke 18:1 (NLT)
¹ One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)
⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.