Valley of Vision Prayer - Holy Scriptures (1)

“O God of truth, I thank thee for the holy Scriptures, their precepts, promises, directions, light.

In them may I learn more of Christ, be enabled to retain his truth and have grace to follow it.

Help me to lift up the gates of my soul that he may come in and show me himself when I search the Scriptures, for I have no [lead] lines to fathom its depths, no wings to soar to its heights.

By his aid may I be enabled to explore all its truths, love them with all my heart, embrace them with all my power, engraft them into my life.”

The Valley of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennett, Banner of Truth Trust, page 346

I suppose we all get junk mail. Sometimes unrequested mail comes in the form of official government documents - from envelope to letterhead to bureaucratic-sounding language. Sometimes these deceitful envelopes and letters are so realistic that I wonder how many unwary people fall for these solicitation scams. I am so jaded by advertising deceit that at times I’m tempted to toss anything that remotely appears to be junk mail. However, more than once I’ve opened a nondescript envelope to find something important such as a new ATM card or a computer-generated check. There are times what looks important is a scam and what doesn’t look important is valuable.

Imagine a man or woman on the verge of losing his or her home, in the depths of fear and anxiety, going to the mailbox and sorting through the mail. Item after item appears to be either a collection letter or a solicitation - and item after item gets tossed without being opened. Six months later, our man (or woman) is living with friends, trying to get back on his feet, having lost his home. The future looks bleak, he has little hope, he is just trying to get through each day doing the best he can. He is in his office working when the receptionist walks to his door and tells him that he has a visitor. He gets up from his chair and walks down the hall to the lobby, fearful that the visitor is a bill collector who has the temerity to actually come to his job. He braces himself for a confrontation.

When he arrives at the lobby the receptionist points out a smartly-dressed woman sitting and looking at her smartphone. He tentatively walks over to her.

“Ms. Beckham? I am Al Jones, how can I help you?”

“I am sorry to bother you at work Mr. Jones, we’ve been trying to track you down and finally found you via Linkedin. I went by the last address we had for you but you’ve obviously moved. None of our letters have been answered and we’d really like to close the books on your uncle’s estate.”

“What?”

“Your great-uncle Walter Jones, your grandfather’s brother; he passed away eleven months ago. You know he had no children and after leaving a good portion of his estate to charity he bequeathed money and property to family members - he’s left you $265,000.00. We sent you a number of notifications over the past year but you have not responded. Do you have time for us to go over the details and arrange payment?”

“Sure, let’s go to my office.”

In his office, as Al watched Ms. Beckham remove papers from her portfolio, he recognized the letterhead on the documents, the same letterhead that had been on more than one envelope he had thought was junk mail and had thrown away at his former home.

We have a propensity to look for answers everywhere but in the one place where we can find the true answers - the Bible. We think that whatever is newer must be better. We think whatever is shiny must be more valuable. We think that whatever is popular must be what we need.

Do we not stop and consider that for ages men and women, rich and poor, powerful and humble, from myriad cultures, languages, and backgrounds have found treasure and fulfilment and their destiny in the Scriptures? Do we wonder how this can be?

Do we wonder why people and institutions and cultures are so hostile to the Bible? After all, if it is only a book what is there to be afraid of. If it has no power or influence why care whether it is read or not?

Sadly many of us have preconceived notions of the Bible fostered on us by those hostile to the idea that there is a God, that life is more than the “natural” world, that something is inherently wrong with us that needs healing (what the Bible teaches is the result of sin). These people assume the role of “expert” in denigrating the Bible and doing their best to discourage others from reading it, sometimes to the point of ridicule. These people would like you to throw God’s letter to you away as if it were junk mail.

As the above prayer excerpt demonstrates, the Scriptures are God’s communication to humanity, more than that, they are God’s self-disclosure to us; God reveals Himself to us - in one sense it is a “tell all” book. Of course, God does not just tell us about Himself, He tells us about ourselves. I am more excited about the Bible today than I have ever been, it is fresher to me today than it has ever been - I began reading the Bible in 1966 and I was excited about it then, but I am more excited now.

When the above prayer says “I have no lines [a reference to leadlines once used by ships to measure depth]  to to fathom its depths, no wings to soar to its heights,” I know that feeling - the vast expanse of the Bible is overwhelming, its vibrancy, its life, its wisdom, its hope, its joy...and the peace that we can find in a relationship with the true and living God. While God used others to lead me to Himself, it was through reading the Bible that I met Him; I have known others with the same experience.

The Bible is more than a book, and it certainly is not junk mail; it is supernatural, it speaks to our inner person, it gives us an eternal perspective, and it is where we touch God and are touched by Him, and it is where we can touch and be touched by one another.

Had Mr. Jones not thrown away the letter informing him of his inheritance his life would have been different.

Margaret (6)

I need not have wondered whether Margaret would be at the next ALPHA gathering, or the next, or the next, for despite her father-in-law’s attitude toward the Gospel Margaret was her own person and thanks to her neighbors, Shirley and Ralph, she was able to be at every ALPHA evening and attend our weekend retreat.

Margaret injected a special joy into our ALPHA dinners, telling funny stories about her family and herself. Whichever table she sat at in our church dining hall was the group whose laughter filled the room with energy - the rest of us wanted to be at Margaret’s table. Since Vickie often sat with Margaret I would ask her after the evening was over, “What was so funny?” and she’d tell me what Margaret had shared to get her group laughing until they cried.

As I mentioned before, after dinner and the night’s presentation, when we split into small groups, Margaret was focused on the needs of others...listening, asking questions, caring. As we explored ALPHA’s subject matter her questions about God and Jesus and the Bible were thoughtful - she was not “buying” anything she heard without carefully considering the evidence.

While Margaret never focused on herself, when asked how she was doing she would give us the latest on her cancer, and as the weeks passed we could see her growing weaker and weaker...yet every week she came to ALPHA. Occasionally she and Frank and the kids came to church, but it was difficult for her and Frank to get the children ready on Sunday mornings.

The week after my first visit I stopped by her home again, thus beginning a pattern of weekly visits, some longer, some shorter, depending on how Margaret was feeling. Frank was often home, working remotely, and Fran, Frank’s mom was usually there - when Fran wasn’t there Frank Sr. would greet me; he was always polite and no mention was made of our conversation in Winchester.

The first few ALPHA evenings centered around the following topics: Christianity: Boring, Untrue, and Irrelevant?; Who Is Jesus?; Why Did Jesus Die?; How Can I Be Sure of My Faith?; Why and How Should I Read the Bible?; Why and How Do I Pray?

A couple of days after we explored “Why and How Do I Pray?” I was visiting Margaret when she said, “Bob, I’ve come to know Jesus. I’m sitting with Him on the loveseat. I feel like He has been drawing me to Himself ever since I started ALPHA. I’ve asked Him to show Himself to me and He has. I’ve asked Him to forgive my sins and He has. I don’t want to die and leave Frank and my children, I really don’t want to die; but if I do die I know that I’ll be with Jesus...but I really don’t want to die.”

As I listened to Margaret I thought of my own mother who died when I was 17 years old; my brother Bill was 15, and my brother Jim was 12 - she left three children and it was likely that Margaret was going to leave three children (while I had not given up hope for healing - I had to face the situation as it was). I thought of other young mothers I’d known who left life all too early. I have wondered what my life might have been like if my mom had lived...perhaps I would have been more focused and stable in my early adult years, I would like to think so. I wonder what it would have been like for Mom to have known her grandchildren. I think of things I would like to talk to her about. I know so little about my mother’s childhood and her college years, how she met my father - actually I know next to nothing - I was too self-centered when she was alive to care about anyone but myself.

I listen to Margaret, and as I listen I silently pray for her and her family. My role is to be with them through this season of life; to listen, to pray, to share God’s love and grace, to hopefully help them come into a deep relationship with Jesus Christ. If we’re not accidents looking for a place to happen, if we aren’t the products of a cosmic roll of the dice, then this life is a prelude to beyond this life, and because of that this life matters - how we live matters, whether or not we are living in the life of God in Christ matters, the pathway we are on matters, knowing Jesus matters.

We are all going to die; some of us sooner and some of us later - the death rate on the planet is 100%. This isn’t morbid, this is common sense, it is reality. I just read of a study that found that people who had recently visited a cemetery were more likely to treat other people better than they usually do. There is value in realizing that we are all mortal, we can all be crushed by a car, die from pneumonia, or be killed in a freak accident - longevity is not guaranteed. We have a friend who, the Lord willing, will turn 100 years old in a couple of months; he is still active, tilling his garden, riding on the back of a jet ski, his mind is still agile - but he won’t live forever - this isn’t morbid, it’s the way it is because our DNA has been polluted by sin and death - we weren’t designed to die, we were designed to live. In Christ we have the promise and certainty of eternal life, of restoration to our eternal original destiny in God.

Why don’t people talk about the most important thing in life, why don’t we talk about God and life and death? We talk about graduating from school, about our jobs, our families, even politics, but we don’t talk about eternal matters. We are bombarded about planning for retirement and long-term care insurance; we have anxiety over Social Security...why aren’t we concerned about dying? Do we think that if we close our eyes it won’t happen?

Death for some people will be a graduation into the Kingdom of God and the Presence of Jesus Christ; for others death will be…

For the Glory - Eric Liddell

I just finished reading For the Glory - the Untold and Inspiring Story Eric Liddell, Hero of Chariots of Fire, by Duncan Hamilton. Since I borrowed this as an ebook from the library I haven’t highlighted passages to quote but I do want to share some thoughts about the biography.

The subtitle is right in that Liddell’s life is inspiring - well beyond what is portrayed in the movie, Chariots of Fire; it is also “untold” in terms of what the general population knows about Liddell, for what we know is typically confined to the movie.

Duncan has done his homework, both in archives and with personal interviews; this is evident throughout the biography as he reproduces excerpts from letters, newspapers, other documents, and from interviews. His compilation of sources further testifies that this is a well-researched book. Duncan inserts photographs throughout For the Glory, thus linking them to the subject matter of each chapter - I find this much more helpful than a dedicated section of photographs, usually in the middle of a book, which requires the reader to flip back and forth when reading to identify a photograph with the particular page he is reading.

This is a biography, taking the reader on a journey with Liddell from his birth in China to missionary parents, to his death in China in a Japanese prison camp. The events surrounding the Olympics are more dramatic than what is depicted in the movie, in which what, I suppose, we consider “artistic license” was taken.

In real life Liddell knew well before the games that qualifying races were to be held on a Sunday, as did the British Olympic Committee, and even though the Committee knew that Liddell did not compete on Sundays, and even though Liddell had made it clear that he would not run on Sundays in Paris, the Committee assumed that Liddell would do the practical thing, the thing that most everyone else would do, the thing that ego would drive most of us to do, the thing that any “patriotic” person would do - and run on Sunday at the Olympics.

Duncan brings the Olympics to life, indeed he brings Eric Liddell the athlete to life, but more importantly he brings Eric Liddell the person to life, for you cannot separate the person from the athlete, not at least with Eric Liddell. Liddell was a Christian and a gentleman first (not all “Christians” are gentlemen) - always gracious to those he competed against, always desiring to display sportsmanship in the best sense of the word - a sense we’ve pretty much lost today. Liddell did not look at the Olympics as an opportunity to display national one-upmanship, but as an opportunity for people to find common ground.

After the Olympics many people assumed  Liddell would cash in on his fame. They assumed he would compete in future Olympics (Duncan illustrates just how great, yes great, a runner Liddell was). However Liddell had made a commitment to complete his education in the UK and return to China as a missionary; China - a land in perpetual turmoil, a dangerous land, a land with an unknown future. Well-meaning people tried to get Liddell to delay his missionary commitment, they tried to convince him that he could do more good by staying in the UK; but Liddell was steadfast and unwavering.

The story of Eric Liddell after his Olympic gold dwarfs his story prior to, and including, the gold medal. In one sense the Olympics were a precursor of what was to come, Liddell would deny himself to do what he thought was right in the eyes of God, he would choose hardship if that was what obedience to God’s call required. It doesn’t appear as if Liddell ever looked for the easy way out, he was not seeking a life of ease and privilege - he was deliberately making hard self-denying decisions. In reading the book I found myself saying, “Can’t you take a break for a while and enjoy some rest?”

Duncan’s well-documented detailed descriptions bring Liddell’s life in China alive in color; his marriage, his family, his friends, and his final years in a prison camp...after having sent his wife and two daughters to Canada (his wife Florence was pregnant with a third daughter who would never see her father). The author is good enough to conclude our journey with Liddell by providing us with “the rest of the story” of his friends and family from after WWII into the present century. Duncan interviewed all three of Liddell’s daughters; Patricia, Heather, and Maureen; and gives us a poignant description of his time with Maureen, the daughter who never knew her Dad.

At times I was wondering if I was reading an uncritical hagiography, so distinct was Liddell’s life from my own, and from the current condition of the church in the West. The author himself wonders if he hasn’t placed Liddell on too high a pedestal and poses this question to those who knew Eric Liddell. As I pondered these questions, I was reminded of three things:

1. I have known people like Eric Liddell; George Will, Anna Nichols, the two Christian sisters who operated the Anchor Rescue Mission in San Francisco, Sister Mildred Norbeck of Intercession City, FL...there are such people, there are still such people...they are “other” than I am.

2. Up until my own lifetime, those involved in missions often exemplified the self-denial that Eric Liddell displayed, they were like the first responder who refuses to view himself or herself a hero, but rather “just doing my job”. This used to be the ethos of missionaries, and contrary to the caricature often portrayed in movies and novels, these men and women were giving their lives for others rather than setting themselves up as lords and masters. Yes, there have always been religious charlatans - Paul deals with them in his New Testament letters and we will always have them in this age, but let us not allow those people to rob us of the beauty of the sacrificial service displayed by countless men and women and children who gave their lives for Christ and others. Duncan shows us that Liddell was not alone in China in giving his life for others, and he also shows us that missionaries cared for the entire “person” in serving - spirit, soul, and body - people are people, they are not disembodied souls; mission service was holistic.

3. Jesus calls us to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow Him (Mark Chapter 8) - just because my life might not exemplify this, just because the Western church has abandoned this ethos, does not mean that others have not lived it; it doesn’t mean that Eric and Florence Liddell did not live it - there is enough evidence to convict them of following Jesus.

One blemish I discerned in the book was Duncan’s tendency to lapse into mundane illustrations to make a point, often requiring the reader to know the contemporary (to our present time) person or event he references; this doesn’t happen often but when it does it is distracting...at least for me, it may not be an issue with you. He also interjects his own commentary on people and events, this doesn’t happen often but when it does he becomes almost a participant in the story. However, Duncan’s telling of Eric Liddell’s life far eclipses these (to me) irritants - it truly is an inspiring story, one that carried me over the authorial bumps in the road.

This is a compelling account of a remarkable life, a life of integrity and commitment and self-denial. I found myself in dialogue with Liddell throughout the book, for I often wanted him to make other choices, for example, I wanted him to leave China with his family. At other times my dialogue took the form of “I’m not sure I could do that,” “Could I have done that?” I did not agree with all of Liddell’s choices, but as Aslan would say, “That is his story that is not your story.” Maureen’s reflections on her Dad’s decision to remain in China gave me pause for reflection. Could I have had Maureen’s perspective? Could I have done what Liddell did?

There is one quote that I’ll share in closing, a quote that says it all. This quote is from Duncan and is a result of his numerous interviews with those who knew Liddell, including those in the prison camp with him. This is the answer Duncan received in the interviews when he asked those who knew Liddell if he, Duncan, was putting Eric Liddell on a pedestal:

“Eric Liddell changed the lives of those who were close to him.”