Dumpster diving

Dumpster living

Dumpster striving

Dumpster giving

Dumpster follow

Dumpster thinking

Dumpster wallow

Dumpster stinking

Dumpster culture

Dumpster habits

Dumpster vulture

Dumpster rabbits

Dumpster eyes

Dumpster feet

Dumpster hands

Dumpster seat

Dumpster climb

Dumpster jump

Dumpster scurry

Dumpster trump

Dumpster go

Dumpster flee

Dumpster know

Dumpster free

Whispered inclination

Vulnerable heart

Zombie mind

Phantom will

Trap is laid, snare is set

Unsuspecting feet

Hidden hands, lurking darkness

Brief, mercurial susurration

Silence

The deed is done

Lucid golden aspirations

Lilting silver snowflake dreams

Bloodstains of a slivered conscience

Lust and greed arrest heart screams

Steel trap snap

Asphyxiating soul

Clawing, clutching, clinging–

Closing…

Inner death, outer life

Along for the ride

Jump on the bandwagon

Follow the crowd:

Easy

Drift with the undertow

Blow with the hurricane

Move with the earthquake:

Easy

Anchor in the storm

Salmon in the river

Body in the quicksand:

Hard

Road less traveled

Lure not taken

Following conscience:

CHARACTER

Don’t turn your back

Don’t close your ears

Listen and learn

Alleviate your fears

Some have gone before

Been there, done that

Let them be your buffer

More than idle chat

Experience instructs

Wisdom charts a course

Follow their lead

Avoid the need for force

Submission leads to beauty

Despise leads to decay

Enslave yourself to wisdom

Free your heart to obey

~ Inspired by Proverbs 1:8-9

Your house is to be called a house of PRAYER.

Not a house of EVANGELISM. Not a house of DISCIPLESHIP. Not a house of PREACHING. Not a house of TEACHING. Not a house of COUNSELING. Not a house of WORSHIP. Not a house of SERVICE. Not a house of FELLOWSHIP. Not a house of MINISTRY. Not a house of OUTREACH. Not a house of MISSIONS. A house of PRAYER.

What happens when prayer stops being the main thing?

Church becomes little more than a weekly social ritual.

So a true revival is not only a revival of evangelism but first and foremost a revival of prayer.

Without prayer there is no EVANGELISM, there is no DISCIPLESHIP, there is no PREACHING, there is no TEACHING, there is no COUNSELING, there is no WORSHIP, there is no SERVICE, there is no FELLOWSHIP, there is no MINISTRY, there is no OUTREACH, there is no MISSIONS. Everything in my house must be permeated and saturated with prayer. Otherwise I am not in it.

But the Bible says all those things are God-honoring!

How can I be in all those things when there is no room for me to be in all those things because the door that opens to my presence in all those things has been locked by prayerlessness?

Which is exactly what you warn against in 2 Chronicles 7:14 when you say “IF my people…will humble themselves and pray.” That’s a really big IF, especially in this day and age when our time is largely filled with countless, meaningless, techno-savvy distractions.

I would say it is the biggest IF my church has to overcome today. It’s even bigger than “If you love me, obey my commandments.” There simply is not nearly enough prayer cascading toward my throne from my church.

So true spirituality is a trickle-down effect from prayer to obedience.

Exactly.

But the trickle can’t begin just anywhere, can it? I mean, isn’t that the problem with our churches today? We try to put a bunch of different things in place of prayer, and then ask you to bless them, still fully expecting this trickle down effect from whatever area we choose to emphasize over prayer. Trouble is, we are starting the trickle from a place you never intended.

No substitutes allowed. Prayer is the beginning point of all true spirituality. If you don’t communicate with me, don’t expect me to bless you or your efforts. My blessing is always given in proportion to your prayers.

Some people think they aren’t spiritual unless they curl up with you in their own little designated prayer closet, when in reality this kind of posture and position and location is really quite difficult to come by.

Yes and no. Yes, I did tell you in the New Testament to go into your room and close your door whenever you prayed, but no, that is not the only time you can commune with me. In fact, I prefer you communicate with me as often as you can. The more you communicate with me, the more fresh and vibrant our relationship will be.

Kind of like human relationships. In a truly God-honoring marriage, a husband doesn’t just communicate to with his wife at a designated time every day. He communicates with her as often as he can. Some conversations are short, some conversations are long, some are intense, some are hum-drum, but all go toward building a solid relationship with his wife. And they don’t all happen in the same location, either. Much happen on the go.

Prayer that truly pleases me is exactly that–relationship-building. Your prayer won’t always win an Oscar for dramatic effectiveness, and your prayer won’t always be boring beyond words. But you should always still pray. I don’t care what it sounds like or how you say it. What I care about is you living your life in me so I can live my life through you. A prayer life is merely the spiritual continnum and equivalent of communication between human beings. It’s not some foreign object you can’t understand. If you can talk to human beings, then you can surely talk to me. I think you’ll find I’m a pretty good listener.

You’re ready to listen. We’re experts at talk. What’s our big problem then?

2 Chronicles 7:14. “If my people…will HUMBLE THEMSELVES and PRAY.” You have to have a humble heart in order to pray effectively, and you have to humble it in my presence through confession and repentance.

Meaning we have to deal with our sin before we can deal with our prayers.

Exactly.

But we’re not so big on sin, are we? Just like Adam, we would much rather attempt a getaway into the woods than have to face up to the sins we’ve committed against you and against others.

Pride goes before destruction…

And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Just a few willing hearts and this nation will see a revival like at no other time in its history.

Hey God, Jeremy here.

Yes, my child.

I have a question about the presidential election.

Yes?

Why is it that one candidate gets investigated to the teeth about a very intimate family situation, and the other candidate does not even get investigated to the shoelaces about certain questionable mentoring associations?

Good question.

Do you have an answer?

I do, but you cannot bear it at this time.

What can you tell me then?

Let’s go back to the Bible. Do you recall what I said about how I treat people?

You said that you aren’t a respecter of persons. Another translation says that you show no partiality. In other words, you have no favorites.

I have no favorites, and I don’t play favorites.

But what about people who know you versus people who don’t know you? Don’t you favor those who obey you and disfavor those who disobey you?

Now you’re starting to understand the clash between impartiality and justice. While I do favor and bless those who obey me, and disfavor and bring guilt upon those who disobey me, my justice demands I treat everybody as they deserve. My impartiality demands I treat everybody equally.

How is that possible?

My ways are above your ways and my thoughts are above your thoughts. Your thoughts are on the earth, and my thoughts come straight from the throne room of heaven. I don’t expect you to understand. I only expect you to bow down and worship me.

I love to worship you! But how does the fact that you are not a respecter of persons tie into the situation with the presidential candidates?

See how frustrating favoritism is? When it comes to modern American politics, impartiality is a concept of the past. America is divided because the majority of Americans operate according to partiality, without regard for objective truth.

And a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.

Exactly. And a partial media makes it all the more difficult to discern and determine objective truth about each candidate.

I feel as if we are standing on the brink of a national collapse. Collectively we have all finally arrived at the proverbial cliff of stability, and are just waiting for a cataclysmic earthquake to shake the ground from under us. I fear the election of the wrong candidate will make the tenuous needle of the Richter scale jump off the charts.

No need to fear, my child. Just trust.

Okay…

The core of your faulty thinking is placing too much emphasis on the cause-and-effect relationship of candidates to the future of America. It’s what the media wants you to believe. Now, this thinking would be true if you lived in a monarchy, and everything the king said was law, as in the time of King David. Your democracy has been set up with checks and balances to prevent any one person or party or branch of government from gaining or wielding too much power.

That’s not exactly a comforting thought.

More importantly, nothing ever escapes my hand.  Do you trust me?

Of course I do. I trust you with my life, my marriage, my finances, my home, my future.

Then you can also trust me with America. Remember the book of Isaiah: the nations are little more than a drop in the bucket to me. And I’m the one that squeezes the sponge.

Do you think maybe you could also squeeze some objective truth out so the American public can truly understand the gravity of this election? It would give me much peace of mind to have the truth about each candidate revealed for all the world to see.

Silence

You still there?

Silence

God?

Silence

What about the actual presidential election? We didn’t even get to discuss those things yet. What am I supposed to do about that?

Come and see, my child.

Political polarization (e.g. Republicans vs. Democrats) among Christians is the direct result of sacrificing a biblical worldview on the altar of political fancy.

Were God allowed to have a voice, even the most cursory examination of biblical truth would reveal that at some point along the way God’s teachings step on the toes of all political parties–Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, Green Party, etc. etc.

This being true, the question for biblically informed Christians is not what political party to support, but which political agenda most glorifies and honors the values God espouses in His Word?

The third commandment states, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” This commandment has often been construed as a prohibition of all forms of cussing, from four-letter words to non-glorifying references to Jesus Christ. And just like that we excuse it: “God said not to cuss, so you better nor cuss.”

That’s not how the Hebrews heard it. The Hebrew mind knew that God’s name was interchangeable with God’s person, and that to take His name meant to voluntarily identify yourself as His follower. So to take His name in vain means to identify yourself as a follower of God, but then not abide by God’s rules and regulations or believe what God tells you to believe. In other words, calling yourself a follower of God but not acting and believing like a follower of God.

But what if I don’t know what the Bible teaches on certain moral and social issues? Can I just vote according to how I was raised, or what I think is best? You can, but you would be committing spiritual treason against our Lord Jesus Christ by taking His name in vain.

Being a Christian obligates you to uphold Christian beliefs, values, and principles, and in an election year,  to support candidates whose platforms most closely mirror the teachings of Scripture. If you don’t know what Scripture says about abortion, the economy, war, education, size of government, appointing judges, or foreign policy, then you truly do not know where to stand on political issues. You may think you do, but in God’s eyes you don’t.

But the answers are there. Take time to read, research, and compile from Scripture a list of guiding convictions according to which you need to vote this November. Then read, research, and compile a list of issues each candidate stands for, and vote for the candidate whose values, beliefs, and convictions, and past records most closely mirror that of Scripture.

Then every four years, reevaluate your political party affiliation to make sure that the candidates and issues you support glorify and honor God.

THAT’s the Christian thing to do.

The last thing you want is for the lifeblood of your student ministry to be pop culture commentary.

Though it is essential to understand youth culture in order to communicate to youth culture, making youth culture the preeminent focus of your student ministry is tantamount to building your ministry on shifting sand.

A biblical youth ministry exalts Christ though His Word as the Supreme Head over all creation, and utilizes culture as the wrapping paper in which to package gospel truth.

The metaphors found in youth culture today function much the same way agricultural metaphors functioned in Jesus’ culture. It is no more or no less biblical to cast biblical truth in terms of movies, music, and internet concepts than it is to cast it through vine, branches, fields, harvests, threshing, and sowing so long as…

THE CHOSEN MODERN CONCEPTS ACCURATELY COMMUNICATE THE ORIGINAL MEANING OF JESUS’ ORIGINAL AGRICULTURAL METAPHORS.

This principle applies to the rest of biblical truth as well. Make it relevant by packaging it in accurate, meaningful cultural images and icons to which modern culture can relate.

All things considered, there are still moments when certain events provide a perfect opportunity to waver from the prescribed curriculum in order to speak cutting-edge biblical truth into student culture.

It is to the detriment of your student ministry to ignore such God-given opportunities.

What makes the the birth of Maddie Spears, newborn daughter of 17-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears, who is the younger sister of Britney Spears, so relevant to student ministry is the fact that Jamie Lynn and her boyfriend, the father of the baby, met at CHURCH in their YOUTH GROUP.

Read that again. They met AT CHURCH in their YOUTH GROUP.

Passing up the opportunity to provide a loving, truthful biblical critique of this situation at a time when interest from teenage America is at an all time is like winning a million dollars and squandering it on a lifetime supply of Hubba Bubba. Missed opportunities only come around once.

To make this lesson a reality, visit the Center for Parent and Youth Understanding at cpyu.org. Click on the blog called “Understanding My Lines” by Walt Mueller and read the blog entitled “1,000,000 words.” You will easily figure out what to do from there.

This is a discussion you will not want to miss.

Like the stone David slung toward Goliath, the below truth hit me right between the eyes this week, and I am still seeking to recover.

There is no modern worship, and there is no ancient worship. There are no worship styles, and there are no worship preferences. There are only worship postures and worship practices, both of which are universally applicable to every generation.

Now there may be varying styles of music, but music in and of itself is not worship. There may be varying styles of singing, but singing in and of itself is not worship. There may be varying kinds of instruments, but instruments in and of themselves are not worship.

Worship, in Scripture, is wholly and finally a matter of the heart.

Cain brought God some of the crops he had harvested, keeping the firstfruits for himself.

Abel brought God the firstborn of his flock (an undefiled offering), and its fat portions (a valuable offering), giving God the very best of what he had.

Scripture comments on Cain and Abel saying that Cain was “of the wicked one” and Abel was “righteous” before God, thus introducing the concept of good and evil worship.

Abel chose good worship, giving God the very best. Cain chose evil worship, giving God what he could scrape together from the leftovers.

Time-money-resources-whatever: when you eat the steak for yourself and give last Thanksgiving’s leftovers to God, you are guilty of evil worship. But when you choke down last Thanksgiving’s leftovers so you can give God the best, your worship is fully and completely pleasing to God.

When our heart is right, we can worship right. “If you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

Is it like a Krispy Kreme doughnut hot off the conveyor belt, oozing and dripping with hot, sticky icing, waiting to bulldoze your bloodstream with blasts of liquid sugar?

Is it like school cafeteria or youth camp food, sometimes tasty sometimes bland, but often lacking sufficient seasoning?

Is it like chugging a schooner of freshly squeezed lime juice, all the while feasting on an appetizer of lemon peels?

Or is your prayer life like the most mouth-watering steak, simmering in the juiciest marinade, fork-tender, falling off the knife, and topped with the tastiest, zestiest, most flavor-accentuating sauce?

It’s not that Jesus didn’t teach us how to pray. He did. We just don’t follow His teaching. Like the Pharisees, we often think we will be heard for our many spiritual-sounding words.

The knee-jerk reaction to following Jesus’ teaching is that “Jesus surely doesn’t mean we have to repeat his model prayer word-for-word every time we pray. Wouldn’t that be vain repetition, and didn’t Jesus condemn vain repetition prior to teaching the model prayer?”

Absolutely. But notice His exact words: “In this MANNER, therefore, pray.”

Automobile manufacturers do not create the same car over and over again. They use the basic components of a car to craft a variety of makes and models. The basic components of the car are the blueprint by which all other cars are made. In order for a car to be considered a car, it must have all the basic components of a car. Otherwise it cannot be considered a car.

The same is true of prayer. In order for God to consider a prayer pleasing, or even for God to consider it a prayer, it must be constructed from the blueprint He provides. If it is not constructed from this blueprint, it cannot be considered pleasing to Him.

True prayer follows this format:

You are our Heavenly Father

You are King over all Creation

All glory belongs to You

Expand Your kingdom on earth

Accomplish Your will on earth

Meet all our needs

Forgive us our sins

Protect us from sin

Rescue us from sin

All kingdoms belong to You

All power belongs to You

All glory belongs to You

So where do specific requests for healing fall? “All glory belongs to You, Expand Your kingdom, Accomplish Your will.” And sometimes, if the sickness is largely sin-induced, “Forgive us our sins.” And in the event the burden of sickness is laid heavily upon a family such that weekly provision is severely affected, “Meet our needs.”

What about requests for someone’s salvation? “All glory belongs to You, Expand your kingdom, Accomplish Your will, Rescue them from sin, Forgive them of sin, Protect them from sin.”

What about temptations, tribulations, persecutions? “Meet our needs, Forgive us our sins, Protect us from sin, Rescue us from sin, All glory belongs to You, All power belongs to You.”

Use these words as a springboard from which to launch your own prayer. Just keep your prayer within the proper guidelines of each category and perspective.

The best part of God’s prayer blueprint is that you can use as much or as little of it as needed at any given point in time before going to His throne of grace. And the best part of using God’s blueprint is that the more you use it, the closer you come to tasting that perfectly prepared steak for which you have yearned so long.