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TALK LESS! PRAY MORE: The Voice

2012-01-25T14:52:00.041-06:00

George Whitefield: The Voice of the Great Awakening

One of my earliest understandings of the calling of a preacher came during my first semester during a preaching course in seminary. It was the fall of 1974, and we were given an assignment by Dr. Harold Freeman to seek out and define the words in the Bible that best described the roles and responsibilities of preaching. One of the words I came across was the Greek word, "kerusso." It meant to herald, to be a herald, or to proclaim. It was a word picture of a servant or soldier in the king's service who was given the assignment to ride into the village squares of the realm, to sound the trumpet to gather the people and to deliver faithfully the message sent by the king to his people.

The powerful connection with preaching and the herald of a king is rather obvious. The servant delivering the message focuses solely on what the king had to say, and does not detour from it. Heralds do not mistake the spotlight as an opportunity to tell the listeners what he has on his mind. Regardless of the reception the King's word received, the herald was to deliver it to the people, faithfully, consistently and accurately. His commission required him to overcome every hardship and obstacle to the mission. The herald was then to return and report to the king when his mission had been accomplished. Any honor or reward was not to be sought or received from the listeners to the message. The sender of the message was the one who had the authority to commend or compensate the herald. Preachers speak on behalf of The King. They must answer to Him for their stewardship of The King's message. The King has sent to His people, by means of His heralds, a message of faith, hope and love.

History is filled with the stories of the lives of men who fit this definition of a preacher. Perhaps no one has ever personified this kind of preaching more than the English evangelist, George Whitefield (1714-1760). He was an ordained Anglican minister, a contemporary and a personal friend of John and Charles Wesley. He had grown up in a humble home. His father owned a tavern in a pretty rough neighborhood, and he was frequent attender of bawdy stage shows, plays and theatricals of his day. His plight was not that of a child in abject poverty, but his family background provided him with no pedigree or status. He had to work his way through college as a servant waiting tables and running errands for the wealthier students. He experienced what he referred to has his "new birth" at the age of 21. His keen mind was ripe for learning and he graduated with his Bachelor's Degree from Oxford, and at 22 he was ordained as a minister in the Church of England. He preaching was marked by great power and persuasive oratory.

At the peak of his popularity Whitefield announced his intention to go to Georgia as a missionary. He had been influenced by the spiritual fervor and devotion of Moravian missionaries, who were the contemporary standard barriers for carrying the Gospel around the globe. His own personal call to missions took him to the city of Savannah in the Colony of Georgia. He discovered that many of the settlers that had come to America were unprepared physically or emotionally for the challenges they faced. The early deaths of parents left many children without the means to survive. On his return to England, he set about raising funds from wealthy friends and would later come back to Georgia to build an orphanage for the children of those who had died settling the frontier. The Bethesda orphanage still exists outside the city of Savannah today.

Factor out the voice of George Whitefield, and America might very well be a very different kind of a nation. His impact on America's religious, political and social standards was enormous.

Whitefield's preaching has been credited as a powerful force in unifying the people of the 13 separate British colonies. He moved up and down the eastern seaboard from Georgia to New England, and drew huge crowds everywhere he went. His listeners came together from various denominations and social backgrounds. His egalitarian messages focused on the unity of the Body of Christ that was based upon being adopted into the family of God through a life-changing surrender to the Person of Christ. As thousands of people all over the colonies began to gather at his open air meetings, a transformation took place on another level. They began to recognize they had a great deal in common. Whitefield's preaching did a great deal to help America avoid the religious blood baths that had taken place in Europe between the established church and the dissenters. He was instrumental in contributing to the people of the various colonies the concept that they were all Americans. They began to see that they had more in common with each other than a distant mother country.

Although an ordained Anglican minister, Whitefield opened his arms to preachers of other denominations, and persuasions. His meetings were marked by an openness and acceptance that was quite unusual for the days in which he lived. His powerful voice and exemplary life made him one of the most popular preachers in America. When Whitefield voyage home to England, he would publicly express his friendship for the American cause to the members of parliament, and raise funds for the mission work that he had started in Georgia. The City of Savannah, Georgia still honors his memory today with a beautiful city square that bears his name, and the Bethesda Orphanage that he began upon his second trip to America is still operational.

If Whitefield was the voice of The Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards was the intellect of it. Birth pangs of the The Awakening had broken out in small, isolated parishes in New England as early as the 1720's, but the full force of this movement rolled into his parish church in Northampton, Massachusetts by 1734. Edwards compiled a history of what had happened, and wrote a treatise that was printed and distributed throughout Great Britain. It became the impetus for a prolonged impact of the Great Awakening in the lives of people who read it, and longed to be a part of it.

Today Edwards is still considered to be one of the greatest preachers, theologians, scientists and philosophers America has ever produced. Both Edwards and Whitefield gave great encouragement to one another and to their followers in recognizing and emphasizing the importance of extraordinary, intercessory prayer in the arena of spiritual awakening. They understood prayer was the best resource a person could have when they came to the end of themselves.

Whitefield made seven trips from England to America. Those 13 crossings of the Atlantic in tiny ships that provided little shelter and comfort from raging storms were long and dangerous journeys. No doubt they did much to break down his body and lead to his early death. Whitefield's seventh journey across the Atlantic became his last trip to America. His exposure to the elements as he traveled by horseback and on leaky vessels from place to place to preach eventually took their toll on his body. He died in 1760 in New England shortly after preaching his last sermon. His body is buried there. No one deserves the title of Honorary American more than he. His prayer journals contain a simple phrase that gave him great confidence in God's provision no matter what trial, test, or triumph came his way. He was fond of saying. "Man's extremity is God's opportunity."

The impact of Whitefield's life on the spiritual climate of America through his mass meetings is well documented. The touch of his life on individual lives requires the use of history's magnifying glass. This intensified glimpse of his ministry reveals some astounding consequences, when it is seen through the lives of just three people who were influenced by this powerful preacher.

Samuel Adams: The Voice of the American Revolution

Adams was raised in Massachusetts in a devout home. Along with Puritan piety, he was immersed in the political activities of his father. From an early age he learned how the system worked and what it took to move the machinery of government to accomplish a task through the body politic. He was also influenced by the piety of his mother and sister. He often had the opportunity to listen to the leading preachers of his day, Cotton Mather, and Jonathan Edwards when they came through town. His sister took copious notes and they would discuss them together at length.

Before Adams headed to Harvard, at the age of 14, he had expressed a desire to be a minister. In his own autobiography, Benjamin Franklin mentions Whitefield made his triumphant way to Philadelphia in 1739. What impressed Franklin the most about Whitefield's preaching was the change that came over the people who heard him. Franklin testified that it was impossible to walk down any street in Philadelphia in the evening without hearing the singing of Psalms ringing out from within every house along the way. He was taken by the fact that a totally irreligious community could talk about nothing but the work of God in their city.

When Whitefield preached on the campus of Harvard in the fall of 1739, Samuel Adams was a student, and he had a life changing encounter. He totally embraced the Puritan piety that Whitefield espoused. He changed the way he dressed to somber Puritan gray, and though he didn't become a minister, he was encouraged to impact audiences the way he saw the great preachers of his day move them. This campus revival spread to Boston Commons and Whitefield preached to over 23,000 people who had come to Boston for the occasion. This crowd was larger than the population of the city of Boston. These days had to be indelibly imprinted on Sam Adam's memory.

After leaving school after the campus revival, Adam's father was brought to a serious financial crisis that evaporated a great deal of his fortune and by implication Samuel's inheritance. Arbitrary decisions from the royal governor and his officers were instrumental in stripping his father of office, land and cash. Samuel Adams never forgot it. While working on his Master's Degree at Harvard, He began to exhibit skills of a man who had an innate comprehension of the art of politics, but an understanding of the need to give those skills a voice that would move the people out of complacent acceptance to courageous action. For the next 40 years his writings, speeches, and personal influence impacted the leading men of his day, and infuriated the British establishment.

Samuel Adams became the voice of the American Revolution to the ears of the British authorities. Their focus on his capture and their obsession with the removal of this thorn in their side empowered Adams to be seen by his contemporaries as the Father of Independence. His keen insight into the needs of the American people stoked his passion to defend their rights with an evangelistic zeal. He understood before many other leaders that America must separate themselves from England. He believed if Americans missed the opportunity that was before them, they would be held in a permanent relationship as the subservient and weaker partner to Great Britain. His insight was not expressed in dry lectures or detailed legal briefs, but with a passionate proclamation that called on the people of America to claim their independence from tyranny by declaring a war of independence. He had been impacted by the voices of Great Awakening preachers who called thousands to accept their chance to be born again. His ministry became one that called them to have the courage to birth a nation. Samuel Adam's legacy is not as well known as some of the founding fathers, even though they made less of a contribution to the birth of America. He appears to have been quite content to pass the leadership baton to younger men who carried on his legacy.

Patrick Henry: The Voice of Liberty

Patrick Henry is best remembered for his famous statement before the Virginia House of Burgesses when he announced, "Give me liberty or give me death."

However, his life was impacted by the Great Awakening that swept through America as a result of the preaching of George Whitefield. The birth of the Great Awakening took place in Northampton in 1734, but its height came in 1740-1743. Although its greatest work took place in New England, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, it did reach Virginia as early as 1739 when Patrick Henry was only three years old. Samuel Morris, a brick layer, was concerned with the lack of spiritual devotion in the Anglican Church. Whitefield had made his way to Williamsburg by 1739, but the sermons of the era's great itinerant Anglican preacher were not embraced by the Anglican establishment. They saw him as a radical and a dangerous influence to the status quo. "Whitefield had recently captivated both Britain and America with his passionate rhetoric and open air meetings. In 1745 Whitefield came to Hanover and expressed his desire to preach in the Anglican church pastored by Patrick Henry's uncle'. When Whitefield arrived at the church followed by a large crowd, he had great reservations regarding Whitefield's motives, but he could see by the size of the crowd that he was powerless to stop him. Patrick Henry's mother joined a Presbyterian congregation sympathetic to the great evangelists preaching, and would take little Patrick with her each Sunday. After each sermon, she would ask him to recite the passage of Scripture used by the preacher and to give her a summary of that morning's message. The preaching of the Great Awakening was instrumental in removing the unchallenged authority from the hands of the politicians and the parsons, and placing it in the hands of the people. This is the climate in which Patrick Henry was raised. He grew up breathing the fresh air of religious liberty, and he never got over it.

Although he never left the Anglican church, as a young lawyer he took a case against an Anglican minister who was suing the local people for his salary. The government had assigned him to them, and they refused to pay someone they had not hired. His argument won the case, and was another sign of the broke grip the established powers had on the purse strings of the people, when they exercised their liberty.

As a representative of the frontier people who had no voice in the House of Burgesses, he began to stand firm for less government intrusion into the lives of ordinary citizens. He championed their rights for more personal freedom. He became a spokesman for those who believed that more government control would always lead to tyranny. It is probably safe to say, Patrick Henry would not recognize the United States as the one that he helped birth.

Benjamin Franklin: The Voice of History

Benjamin Franklin is often portrayed as a non religious scientist, an agnostic politician or at the very best a benign Deist. It turns out that Franklin was a man who was aware of the importance, the impact and the implications of the Great Awakening more than some of the contemporary clergy of his day.

In his autobiography, Franklin mentions his friendship with George Whitefield. He was very impressed with his preaching, and took pains to note that when Whitefield arrived in Philadelphia in 1739 that the local pastors closed their doors to him and would not let him preach from their pulpits. This probably raised Whitefield's stock in the eyes of Franklin. He was not known to suffer fools gladly, and had no great love for the clergy as a rule.

Franklin enlisted Whitefield's help in raising money to build a large preaching hall so that the crowds who wanted to hear him could be accommodated. Later this hall was deeded to trustees who chartered what became the University of Pennsylvania. Today there is a statue dedicated to Whitefield on the campus of the university paying tribute to his investment in its founding.

What impacted Franklin the most about Whitefield was the immediate, and widespread influence Whitefield's preaching had on the citizens of the city of Philadelphia. He describes Whitefield's ministry with this scene, "

Always the shrewd businessman, Franklin contracted with Whitefield to print all of his messages and pamphlets, and he saw that they were distributed as well in the newspapers that covered the city. He would often attend his open air meetings, and as a scientist took the challenge to verify the power and the range of Whitefield's voice. Franklin chose to place himself in the crowd of an open air meeting and pace from the platform to the edge of the crowd, and then measure the circumference of the audience, granting a two square feet allotment to those standing in the street. He determined by his own calculations that Whitefield's voice could be heard by 30,000 people until the sounds of a busy street began to interfere with a clear reception of his message. Franklin attributed this to the powerful voice of the man, his use of clear and precise diction, and the rapt attention of the audience. It gave him confidence to know that what he had read of king's and generals addressing large crowds of people or vast armies was indeed possible to achieve.

Franklin remained a friend of Whitefield until his untimely death and never forgot what he had seen happen through the life of the evangelist. He states in his autobiography that although Whitefield often prayed for his conversion, he was never given the satisfaction of knowing that his prayers were answered. After the American Revolution, Franklin was called as an elder statesman to attend a convention that commissioned to amend the Articles of Confederation. For several years the independent states had attempted to unite themselves under this document, but it had not resulted in a unified nation. The convention in Philadelphia became a quagmire of division. It seemed that every delegate was filled with suspicion and driven by personal or regional ambition. At one point the convention was close to dissolving into chaos, and concluding in disaster, Franklin begged to be heard. Although he had never professed a personal faith in Christ to Whitefield, or ever identified with a specific church or denomination, Franklin revealed that he had been paying attention to those who had placed their faith in God as their Guide and Christ as their Savior. He expected more of them. It took the oldest man in the room to remind them of what he had seen during those crucial and crisis filled days. He said,

"How has it happened, Sir that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly of applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding. In the beginning of our Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers sir were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have engaged frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid, We have been assured,Sir, in the sacred writings that ' except the Lord build the house they labor in vain who build it. ' I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. ...I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessings on our deliberations to be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate. "

In spite of the opposition of Alexander Hamilton, Franklin's motion carried the day. As a side note, Hamilton feared that word would get out that it had come to this. His pride kept him from admitting that they were at an empasse, and that they were forced to call on God to intervene. As the discussion raged, opposition voiced concern that the people of the United States would lose confidence in the Assembly if they admitted they didn't know what to do, and sought God's counsel for the next step.

Preachers have tremendous opportunity to impact the lives of those who hear them. They may not always see what God is doing in the lives of those who sit in the pews. They may not have the satisfaction of knowing that the hand of God is using them at that very moment to bring about change in the life of another person. They may often times be discouraged that someone they have often prayed for and preached to remains resistant and unmoved by their message. It may be when they are least hopeful that they are being heard that their voices are being used by God as a catalytic converter to inspire the heart of someone that He will use in His way and in His time. Franklin's own words in his autobiography do not give us an indication of his acceptance of Christ as his Savior. However, Franklin certainly expected more of those who had given their hearts to God. He called on them to lean on Him for the direction, protection and correction, that he had personally seen provided to them in direct answer to their prayers.

The Convention did meet to pray, and in short order they came together in agreement on a founding document that they could present to the States. I was ratified by the various states, and as they say, the rest is history. To this day the Congress of the United States is called to order and a prayer is offered for the guidance of the business of the day. Sometimes it is those outside of the family of faith that God uses to call His children back to the promises He has given to them. Franklin was certainly used by God to implement the will of God for the Assembly that had come to the end of themselves. One can't help but wonder if Franklin recalled the very words or perhaps the passion of his young preacher friend, "Man's extremity is God's opportunity."

Preaching differs from politicking. The preacher is a herald with a message. The politician is an actor with a script. The preacher delivers a message to the audience sent to them from the King. The politician is an actor on a stage reading from a script written by the audience. He must become what the people want him to be or be replaced by someone who will. The preacher is a servant who has been given a message to deliver from his King, regardless of the reception to it or rejection of it. The audience does not dictate to the preacher what they want to hear. The King communicates to His people through His messenger. When the preacher takes his cues from the audience, he has become a politician, and forfeited his primary role as herald of the king. Preachers are not cheerleaders waving political pom poms for any political party. They are messengers of God who dare not flinch at the mission of delivering His Word to His people.

Thank God for a faithful preacher who had a lasting impact on the lives of these three men. George Whitefield was the voice God used to influence them, and they were used in a very special way to impact the birth and direction of a new country. The questions comes to mind, "What if?" What if Whitefield had listened to the voices of the audience, or compromised with the climate of his culture. If he had been driven to please the crowd rather than faithfully deliver the message of His King, the very unique history of this nation may have turned out to be very different from what it is today.

It is always a wonderful thing to see what a difference one life can make on the life of another person. Today use your voice to encourage someone to seize the moment and listen to the direction God has for their life through the Person of Jesus Christ. One voice really can make a difference. Let it be your voice today.

Praying for preachers today to...Sound the trumpet. Gather the people and...PREACH IT!

Dr. Gary Miller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

gmillerlight@gmail.com

Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Heart

2011-12-23T09:34:00.013-06:00

"This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." Isaiah 15:8

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Say it loud! Say it proud. I never get tired of hearing or saying these two small words. For me and millions of other people they carry a great deal of meaning. For years I have been on a one man mission to remove the use of the auto response mechanism, "You too!"

There is a reason why "YOU TOO!" is not emblazoned upon Hallmark Christmas cards. It will never become a best seller.

It's not too much to expect another Christian to celebrate the meaning of the season and to simply repeat, "Merry Christmas!" It may be a bit of a stretch to hold a high expectation for a person who doesn't hold any meaning to the birth of Christ to respond with a hearty "Merry Christmas!" However, don't expect those of us who place great meaning on it to stand by and watch "Merry Christmas" bullied off the scene by a plethora of politically correct phrases. In other words, don't mess with Christmas!

Still, the militant Merry Christmas cadets ought to have some degree of understanding about what they are saying before they arm twist a perceived heretic into spouting them out. They should also avoid saying the words without having their heart engaged in obedience to the One who gives the words substance. There are more platitudes and pop culture Christianity on tap this season than at any time of they year. I draw little Christmas cheer from mindless mantras repeated over and over,

"And that's what Christmas is all about."
"Jesus is the reason for the season."
"Keep Christ in Christmas!"
"Put Christ back in Christmas!"
"Christmas is not just one day a year."
"Celebrate the Spirit of Christmas all year long."
"Cash or charge?"

OK, I threw that last one in just to see if you were still there. I know it was a little off message, but not by much. Christians could do with a healthy appreciation of what it took for Christmas to have any meaning for them at all. They can fall prey to the same advertising campaigns and commercialization of Christmas as those who have no comprehension of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Don't fall into the trap of becoming a Christmas snob who thinks that repeating two words makes them better than those who have yet to see The Light.

It is important to remind those determined to put Christ back into Christmas that they were never commanded by The Christ to celebrate His birthday. He placed no great significance on it. His last words to His disciples challenged them to remember His death, burial and resurrection. They were told in no uncertain terms, "DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME!"

Putting Christ back into Christmas simply requires obedience to what He said. To do this is going to really cramp the style of churches all over the world. The bale of hay and a bathrobe pageants, the live nativity scenes, the lazer light shows, and the countless cantatas will take a back seat to Baptism and The Lord's Supper. Not quite as flashy, but they carry the reason for the season with a great deal more substance.

It dawned on me this year, that THE CRADLE, THE CROSS, and THE TOMB are all vacant. I know I'm not the sharpest knife in the theological drawer so cut me some slack on this, but to make much of them and still miss Jesus is still disrespectful to Him. THE HEART is the only place where Jesus can be found. A heart filled with Jesus gives His Spirit elbow room to keep Him as the focus of a person's life every day of the year. That kind of fulness is marked by obedience to what The Risen Christ desires for His followers to be and to do in His name.

"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." John 15:12

"Love one another." Profoundly simple, and simply profound. It describes the unconditional love to be expressed to those closest to us, and to those who drive us away from them. Simple? Yes, but simply impossible until there is a change of heart in the one required to do the loving. Jesus describes this kind of love as obedient behavior in response to His command. Singing the "Happy Birthday" song or choking "Merry Christmas" out of a heretic is not on His "To Do" List.

In September 1996 I had the privilege of attending a conference at The Cove in Asheville, NC. Warren Wiersbe was teaching that week on The Book of Romans. It was an amazing experience. The setting was spectacular with The Smokie Mountains, and The Lodge at the Billy Graham Center serving as a backdrop to the study of the Scripture. It just doesn't get much better than that for me.

One of the statements made by Dr. Wiersbe that has stuck with me over the years was his reference to sin as it related to the teaching in Romans. I believe I am doing him justice to quote him as saying,

"The heart of the matter is the heart, and the matter of the heart is sin."

He went on to describe how Paul taught that a person's heart cannot be made right by keeping The Law or through a slow process of self-correction. The sinner's heart required a state of grace to be declared between The Law Giver and The Lawbreaker. There was simply no hope for a change of heart to take place in the life of the sinner without an act of grace being administered in the heart of a sinner.

Sin separates a person from Holy God. Only a righteous Judge can declare an end to the separation. Healing of the breach is not a matter of want to on the part of the sinner, but can do on the part of the Judge. God judges a person to be right with Him based on the work done on behalf of a sinner by His Son, Jesus. When Jesus came to THE CRADLE it was a start. When Jesus died on THE CROSS, it was a finish. When Jesus rose from THE TOMB, it was a promise. THE CRADLE, THE CROSS AND THE TOMB are all vacant. Only THE HEART can be filled with Jesus.

THE HEART remains the one place in the world where JESUS desires to live. Without Jesus there is no reason for the season. Without The Spirit of Christ there is no Spirit of Christmas. All that is left is the tinsel, the glitter and the sentiment, but there is no change of heart. THE HEART filled with Jesus is filled with His Spirit, and allows Him the elbow room to develop the character of Christ in the life of the follower of Christ. The change of THE HEART is in an instant, but the development of The Character is a process that will take a life time.

THE HEART of the matter is still the matter of THE HEART. A life of obedience comes from a heart full of Jesus. THE CRADLE preceded THE CROSS and THE TOMB. Jesus told His disciples to remember His death, burial and resurrection, not His birthday, but none of those remembrances will have real meaning until THE HEART becomes the residence of THE RISEN CHRIST.

"Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said...'What shall we do?' Peter said, 'Repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, and as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." Acts 2:37-39

Don't forget the real gift giving of Christmas. Give your heart to Jesus and experience The Gift that keeps on giving, The Spirit of Christ.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Gary Miller,

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Whitefield Project

gmillerlight@gmail.com

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Room

2011-12-03T04:17:00.037-06:00

"O, magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together." Psalm 34:3

December 1, 2011 our immediate family gathered in Fort Worth, Texas at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at a brief ceremony for the rededication of THE DON and LIBBY MILLER PRAYER ROOM. Dr. Jack Terry was our gracious seminary host for the event. We were honored by all the family and friends who took time out of busy schedules to make this special occasion even more meaningful for my parents, Don and Libby Miller. Mom and Dad are in their nineties and still two of the greatest prayer warriors I have ever known. They have been married for 66 and a half years, and their life verse is:

"O, magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together." Psalm 34:3

After serving as pastor and church planter for Southern Baptist churches in Texas and in New York, God called my parents to launch a prayer ministry in 1977. For over 34 years of their marriage, Mom and Dad travelled around the world challenging people to get alone with God and pray. Their ministry has taken them to every continent of the world, and most of these United States. They have personally led prayer conferences in over 1,000 churches, and their teachings on prayer have been expanded to countless other venues by video and now DVD formats. They made the transition from overhead projector to PowerPoint in their late eighties. My favorite quote on prayer comes from my Dad.

"Prayer is the intimate communication between the Heavenly Father and His child."

The Room is located on the northwest corner of the second floor in the new McGorman Chapel on the campus of Southwestern Seminary. The Chapel, named for Dr. Jack McGorman, honored and respected New Testament professor of the Seminary, is spectacular. Dr. McGorman remains to this day one of the finest Greek scholars ever produced by Southern Baptists, and the Chapel is a fitting tribute to this rare treasure of a man. He and Dad have been long time friends, and it was a precious moment being able to reconnect these two war-horses over lunch. It was a great reunion, and designed by God to take place.

The Miller clan was invited to take part in a delightful luncheon prior to the dedication service. Mrs. Dorothy Patterson was our gracious hostess. The Miller family wishes to express to Dr. and Mrs. Patterson their deepest appreciation for their willingness to prioritize the space in the new Chapel for The Room. At the luncheon, Mrs. Patterson was so apologetic that all the furnishing had not arrived, and that she feared it might appear to be incomplete. I was glad to quote what I have often heard Dad say, "Less is more, when God is in it." I assured her my parents would be pleased if there was room enough to kneel.

After the final wave of family arrived, I looked around to see if I recognized anyone in the room that Dad might want to meet. I was pleased to see that Dr. McGorman was just a few steps away from Dad's table. I went over and reintroduced myself to him. He had been Dad's New Testament Greek professor while he was in seminary. I had followed in Dad's footsteps and studied Greek under Dr, McGorman twenty-five years later. I remember Dad referring to him affectionately as "Cactus Jack" McGorman. It was a nickname he had earned among WWII veterans who entered seminary after the war. Any cockiness they brought to the campus after defeating the Axis powers soon evaporated in the battle they faced with "Baby" Greek. "Cactus Jack" was a tough drillmaster. They discovered that what he knew about Greek prepositions could make a grown man cry. My days with him translating Galatians still brings tears to my eyes. It was pretty embarrassing! But I digress.

As soon as I mentioned Dad's name, Dr. McGorman's eyes lit up. He exclaimed, "Your father is Don Miller! Is he here?" I was thrilled to be able to escort him over to Dad and watch them reconnect. Dr. McGorman said, "Don, do you remember when we were together at Wilmer?" They rolled down memory lane like it was yesterday. In a flash, they were young guns again recalling when they had teamed up to lead First Baptist Church of Wilmer in revival services. Dad had pastored this church during his student days over sixty years ago. It was my first church too. I was born on a Sunday afternoon while Dad served as the pastor of FBC, Wilmer.

I am not doing a very good job describing the scene that I witnessed. I can only hope you get a little bit of the picture. It was a glimpse of two warriors on the threshold of Heaven who have fought the good fight and finished the race with their friendship and their character in tact. As the young people often say, "Sweet!" Men like these two giants are my "Rock" stars. I want to be like them when I grow up.

The Room has a view. Three spacious windows offer an elevated perspective of the beautiful 100 year old campus. There is a spectacular stain glass work depicting the artist's Biblical perspective on the bowls of prayer. It is set in the window on the west wall, and when the setting sun hits the stained glass, that room will be a rainbow of inspiration to people gathered to pray. However, the view of the room is not to be found by looking out, but by looking up. Prayers in The Room will be offered up behalf of the pastors and the churches of North America. The best view is always seen from God's perspective.

The call to pray for the next Great Awakening will take place in The Room. Prayers will be lifted up to God that will call on Him to do what only He can do. There has never been a greater need for Spiritual Awakening in America. The soul of a nation is at stake. The nation is in a crisis that man cannot solve. The view of The Room will be best seen by kneeling down before God and lifting up our empty bowls to Him in prayer. God's view will not be found by standing up and looking out the window, but by kneeling down in prayer and looking up to Him. When things look their worst, often God is up to His best.

"Man's extremity is God's opportunity." George Whitefield

It is my prayer that what takes place in The Room will become a model for what needs to be birthed in the lives of pastors and churches all over America. The Great Awakening that takes place in this nation will be a gift from a gracious Father who has heard the cries of His children. The Room can become a lab where the next generation of church leaders learns to cry out to God for what only He can give. If this inspiration takes place in the life of a pastor while a student on the campus, it will be replicated in the life and ministry of a pastor in the church.

"The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless work, prayerless studies or prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray." Samuel Chadwick

The Room is furnished with kneeling benches and a wonderful clock that shows the path of the sun as it moves across the nations of the world. The most important message contained in the room may very well be the Scripture verse that is framed, and placed on the wall to the left of the entry doors. It is an important reminder to the purpose of The Room.

"Call unto me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, that you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3

Father, we know from Your Word that You answer when Your children call, and admit to You that they do not know everything they need to know. Father, grant that The Room will be graced with the humility of those who enter this place to seek Your face, and discover the great and mighty things that will bring about The Great Awakening that only You can provide. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Dr. Gary Miller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

GMillerLight4U.blogspot.com

gmillerlight@gmail.com

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Lie

2011-11-04T07:06:00.004-05:00

"Put away from you a deceitful mouth. And put devious speech far from you." Proverbs 4:24

The truth need not be a victim of a lie. The casusalties only mount up when words stop meaning what they once meant. Liars are shameless posers who use the same vocabulary other people use, but they change the meaning of the words to fit their own purpose. They have learned to be influence people by using their own private dictionary. They change the meanings to fit the occasion.

For a liar to be a very effective, they must first lie to themselves. This kind of deceitful and devious behavior is nothing new. Proverbs warns about deceitful lips of salesmen, strange women, and self-delusion. Listening to a lie and buying into it always exacts a high price from the consumer. Putting away a deceitful mouth and devious speech starts in one's own heart. The greatest protection a believer can have is the guard placed on his own mouth. Speaking the truth to oneself helps a believer identify when someone else is lying to them.

Recently I returned to my college notes from an upper level religion course taken at Baylor University in the Fall of 1971. The course was entitled: "American Cults and Sects." There were several comparative religion textbooks used for the course and the syllabus was a detailed outline of the various religious groups that have sprung up in the United States in the 19th and 20th Century. Mormonism was a major emphasis of this course of study.

The professor, Dr. Wood, was well prepared, non-judgmental and throughly professional in his presentations. Dr. Wood offered wise counsel to us. He told us we did not thoroughly understand what someone believed until our description of what they believed was agreed upon by them. I have found this to be great advice over the past 40 years. I have also found it extremely difficult to achieve. There is often a theological slight of hand that takes place in the arena of ideas. When people keep moving the pea under the cup, it is hard to pin them down of the differences between the defining issues.

My notes reflected that the original followers of Joseph Smith flirted with the same qualities associated with less accepted cults. They also revealed similarities with groups known as "Sectarian Judaism." Neither of these two positions made them embraceable by mainstream Protestantism in the 19th Century. Simply put, they used the same vocabulary, but they had a different dictionary. This is what makes what they really believe so difficult to describe to a post-modern culture in the 21st Century. Secularism has become the unwitting friend of Mormonism by expunging Christian beliefs from the public square for almost 100 years. Today when Evangelical Christians try to express what they believe in contrast to Mormons they are labled as intolerant bigots by the professional and social media. Even more disturbing is the fact that they are criticized by those who claim to hold mainstream Protestant beliefs.

Recent remarks by two pastors, one from Dallas and one in Houston, on the differences between Mormons and Christianity have gone viral. One simply stated what was taught 40 years ago, without venom or angst, at the largest Baptist University in the world. He was vilified as the new poster boy of intolerance. The other embraced Mormons into the mainstream of Christianity. He was deified as the new and improved Rodney King. In other words, "Can't we just all get along."

Mormons believe some things that I cannot bring myself to believe. That is why I am not a follower of their teachings. I take no offense at what they believe. I take offense only when they want me to believe that we believe the same thing. I would like to suggest that what a person believes says alot about them.

For someone to say that they do not care what a person believes as long as they do what they want them to do makes some kind of sense. For instance, a person who is a fine Christian and a lousy mechanic is going to be a huge disappointment to someone needing their car repaired. The better mechanic may not know the Good Book, but if he is Mister Good Wrench, the consumer leaves satisfied with the job that was done. He may also leave overcharged for the work that was done, because the mechanic has no value system that would stop him from doing unnecessary work and charging double for it.

Deceitful lips and devious speech have been around for a long time. The best protection from deception the believer has is the Word of God. It is the source of truth, and the well spring of God's wisdom. Read His Word, and liars stand out like microbes under a magnifying glass. The first level of exposure is in our own hearts. When we lie to ourselves, we do the most damage to ourselves. When we read God's Word we find how far we have drifted from Him. My father wrote in the fly leaf of a Bible he gave to me on my 12th birthday, "Sin will keep you from this book or this book will keep you from sin." Great advice.

We have very little control over the problem of deceitful and devious speech coming at us from the lips of others. They say it. We hear it, and something once said cannot ever really be unsaid. The best way to recognize it for what it is still comes from reading God's Word. Martin Luther once said, "I can't stop the birds from flying over my head, but I don't have to let them build a nest in my hair." Great perspective.

I am praying for two pastors today, one in Dallas and one in Houston. For the first one, I am praying for courage. For the second one I am praying for clarity. Oswald Chambers observed, "Discernment is given for intercession, never faultfinding." I think it is time for me to pray for them. They need it, and I need the practice. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Dr. Gary Miller, Director

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

gmillerlight@gmail.com

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Honor

2011-11-03T09:38:00.012-05:00

"Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of your produce." Proverbs 3:9

Jesus lives to give. His life and death exhibit the character of God on the issue of giving. Paul reminded the Church at Ephesus of the last words Jesus spoke on the subject, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35

The glorification of the consumer culture often misses the point God has in mind when He blesses His children with more than they need to survive. He intends for His children to pour out on others in the same way He has poured out on them. It honors Him to see His children exhibit the character of Christ when He places in their hands the means to be a blessing to others.

God is not honored by His children hoarding what He has given them. He intends for His children to be known as generous, and life-giving relief to those who are passing through difficulty. Honoring the Lord with "your" wealth is a far cry from the demands of selfish people who expect to meet the needs of people they don't know with resources taken from someone else.

The tragedy of compassion in America began when the church of Jesus Christ abdicated to the government their God-given responsibility to care fo the needs of people. Tax exempt status for churches was established on the principle that the family of God was critical to providing the care and compassion needed by the less fortunate.

When churches of the Son of God become self-absorbed country clubs that ignore the cry of the less fortunate, it brings dishonor to the Father, and shame to the family name. For churches to mobilze marches and verbalize support for their pro-life position and yet have no passsion for funding adoption services or formula for single mother's is an appalling expression of hypocrisy.

God calls on His children to honor Him with their own wealth. This means giving from what they have in their hands, not what they hope to take from someone else. This also means includes setting a priority on giving to God first, and not leaving His Church the leftovers.

Honoring the Lord with your wealth takes place respect for Him is shown when dispensing discretionary income. We honor the Lord with our wealth when we ask for His wise counsel before we buy something stupid. Q: Is there any connection between consumer debt and being to proud to pray and ask for His advice before a purchase is made? A: HMMMMMMMMM! Can I get a big O yeah?!

A child enters into the world looking out for number one. A hungry child is only interested in having their own needs met. When they have fouled themselves, they scream for their own relief. The have no concern for the comfort of others. When faced with a competitor for a toy, they instinctively pull, pout and proclaim, "S'mine!"

The difference between a newborn child and a reborn child of God is the mature desire to bridge the gap between, "Mine!" and "Thine!" When seeking to honor the Lord with your wealth, prayer turns "Mine" into "Thine" every time. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Dr. Gary Miller, Director

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

gmillerlight@gmail.com

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Cry

2011-11-02T06:51:00.009-05:00

"For if you cry for discernment; lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowlege of God." Proverbs 2:3-4

Allyson, our youngest daughter, was born in Houston, Texas on the eve of Hurricane Alicia, August 16, 1983. In July, Dana and I had been called to pastor a church in Tempe, Arizona and we were waiting for our new baby to arrive before making the move. We have often thought that in all the confusion of both arrivals, the names of Alicia and Allyson may have been switched. From the moment they both hit our beach the impact was life-changing.

Allyson was to have been our son. We had already picked out the name Austin in anticipation of the big day. When that little girl came on the scene, all pink and cuddly, she won my heart. No regrets here.

However, we soon discovered Allyson was a world class crier. She was relentless. She only let up due to complete exhaustion. After a little nap, she was back at it again. We did not know what to do, and she was getting on our last nerve. When you get thrown out of a McDonald's Burger joint, you know something has got to change.

Dana was at her wit's end with this new baby. She took being a good mother seriously, and having a baby that she could not comfort was very disconcerting for her. With both of her newborns, Dana readily embraced God's way for feeding her little ones. I fully supported her in that choice. It just didn't make sense for me to get up for those 2:00 AM feedings. Since I couldn't do anything to help her, and I might get in the way, I stayed in bed and prayed for her. You get the picture.

Still, I was beginning to have second thoughts about this second child. If we didnt' get some answers soon, life for us and Allyson was not going to get any better. We made another trip to the pediatrician, and he discovered the solution. He said, "She's crying because she's hungry." Dana felt so guilty. She had done everything by the book, and had been faithful to feed Allyson every time she cried, but nothing she did ever satisfied her. The doctor asked a few questions and concluded that the trauma and drama of the move from Texas to Arizona may have impacted the level of nutrients the baby was getting from mother's milk. He suggested starting her on cereal to see if that would solve the problem. It sounded too good to be true, but...

It was a miracle! I remember the day when the spoon touched Allyson's lips. Her little eyes widened in surprise, and then her survival instincts took over. She swallowed the contents and immediately opened up for more. After devouring everything she was offered, she became content, and fell asleep...for hours! It was amazing. Her crying stopped. She was transformed. She became more loveable. Her cries had finally been satisfied. She received what she needed, and she was at rest. Her crying had been an indication of her hunger. She was not being difficult or rebellious. She was calling out for help. She was not ever going to stop crying until her need was satisfied. Her crying was a call for someone to meet her need. Sound familiar?

"If you cry for discernment...then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God."

Proverbs reminds us that the person who refuses to accept substitutes for what he really needs is going to have to cry out to God for wisdom. The word "cry" carries with it the idea of accosting a person met. Almost 700 times in the Old Testament, this Hebrew word is translated "call" or "cry." It communicates the passion of someone who willingly admits they are in need of knowledge and they hunger to be taught. Hungry people are not unreasonable. They are actually teachable. They know they will perish without consuming what they need. This is not a whimper, a whine or the faint cry of a victim. This cry is like that of a new born baby screaming for the nourishment that it needs for survival. This is not a point of preference, but an issue of survival.

Prayer is God's design to meet the needs of people who hunger after Him. From the very beginning of His ministry, Jesus was very clear,

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Matthew 5:6

The way you come on is the way you go on. Hungry people keep seeking nourishment. No matter how good the meals were yesterday, they are insufficient for the nourishment that is needed today. Prayer is God's meal plan for hungry people. When they read His Word, and cry out to Him for discernment, He supplies what they need...knowledge. This knowledge is tempered, flavored and guided by the character of Christ...wisdom.

It is not enough to know the truth about God. We must spend time with Him. Those who hunger after His Presence will receive insight that satisfies the longing of their heart.

"Knowing God's will in specifics comes out of consistent companionship with God." Lloyd John Ogilvie.

Discerning the fear of the Lord leads a person to intercede for the needs of others. God feeds His children to empower them to lead others to Him. The family name is not honored when His kids become self-absorbed Bible brats or divine divas seeking out preferential treatment or pious perks from their Super Sweet Sugar Daddy. Prayer provides access to God and releases the character of Christ that turns a person's focus away from their own navel and towards a lost world. Being fed results in being led to pray more for others than you do for yourself. It certainly means a well-fed person should learn to discern the difference between sharing and caring. Gossip is fed by talk and leads you to share. Compassion is fed by prayer and leads you to care. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Dr. Gary Miller, Director

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

gmillerlight@gmail.com

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Reproof

2011-11-01T10:03:00.011-05:00

"Turn to my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you." Proverbs 1:23

Ron Dunn was the man God used to point out to me the importance of being under authority. He poured great insight onto a statement made by a Roman soldier who crossed paths with Jesus. The Centurion desired for Jesus to heal his servant, but he saw no need for Jesus to make a trip to his home to accomplish the task at hand. When Jesus offered to go to his home and heal his servant, the Centurion humbly expressed that he was not worthy of the honor. He said to Jesus, "I also am a man under authority."He encouraged Jesus to just speak the word and the will of The One He represented would be done. His submission to Caesar's authority enabled him to recognize Jesus held a similar position. Jesus had influence and power because of the honor and respect he held for the One who had sent Him. Jesus remarked, "Truly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel...Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed." Matthew 8:5-13

Reproof carries the description of a verbal rebuke. It is a concerned call to turn back from a dangerous path. It involves chastening and correction meant for direction and protection. It is based upon a genuine love that a parent has for a child, or a teacher has for his disciple to avoid the disastrous consequences that will result from uncorrected behavior. The word spoken is swift and it is sharp. It is meant to cut through the din of deafening and deceiving voices that have led someone to make poor choices. The same word is is used to describe correction, argument, rebuke, correction, chasten and reasoning. None of these word indicate a concern for a person's feelings, self-esteem, ego, or a toleration for the platitudes of political correctness. They are meant to convey a crisis is at hand and that a correction must take place immediately.

Turning, in and of itself, is a learning experiencing. Learning to trust God's Word to speak to us at the first sign of enemy activity allows Him to provide us direction, correction and protection. God's Word provides His Wisdom. The character of Christ, unveiled by His Spirit, sheds light in the darknes. We sometimes wander into the dark due to our own inclination to sin. We are inlcined to separate ourselves from The One who loves us the most. When we trust to be true in the dark, what we knew to be true in the light, we take a huge step in the right direction.

Repent is not a word that will ever be popular word in a culture that honors self-absorbed and the self-destructive behavior. Waywardness is wilfuluness moving away from the sound of God's still small voice of reproof. The longer we walk in the wrong direction, the stronger the reproof must be. Gov. Mike Huckabee was once asked if he had every heard God speak to him in an audible voice. Huckabee responded, "No it was much louder than that!" Now that's what I'm talking about! Can I get a witness?

Jay Strack passes on a valuable piece of insight for anyone interested in correcting behavior. He often says, "Rules without relationship always lead to rebellion." In other words, it is unlikely that you are going to have much success in turning a person back to the right path if that person has no respect for you. If the person in need of correction senses that you place more value on your rules than you do on them, they are likely to reject both you and your rules. Being right and being rightly related to someone are not one and the same thing. Go figure!

I know this is anecdotal analysis, but I am pretty sure the first complete sentence a child learns to say is, "You're not the boss of me!" There is something in the human spirit that makes even the youngest fool resent the fool out of being called a fool. There is even greater resentment and resistance generated by having to admit to being a fool.

Wisdom is a sign of maturity. It is not found in taking pride or taking credit for being right. It comes from the humility of making course corrections that are a result of having to admit that we are often wrong. One of the great reliefs of a child of God is the coming of age revelation that Father knows best. Reproof from God the Father is sent to His children with the divine intent of providing direction, correction and protection to the ones He loves the most. The rules are based upon the relationship He provided for His children through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son. He sustains this relationship with those He loves by the outpouring of His Spirit upon those who will quickly turn to the reproof of still small voice and the truth of His Word.

Turning leads to learning more about the Father's love for you. Thank God for His love for you. He loves you exactly the way you are, but He loves you too much to leave you the way He found you. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary Miller
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
gmillerlight@gmail.com

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Shield

2011-09-30T05:39:00.006-05:00

"Every word of God is tested. He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words or He will reprove you and you will be proved a liar." Proverbs 30:5-6

"In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints." Ephesians 6:16

"Is this going to be on the test?" Every teacher has heard these words uttered in their classroom. It often expresses a lack of interest in what is being said at the moment. It reveals an inclination to ignore the lesson completely unless there is a consequence for not paying attention. In other words, "Is this important? Is it necessary? Is it something I need to know? Is this going to come back and haunt me at a later date?" When asked if a particular person was a student in one of his classes. A professor replied,

"No. He is not one of my students. He just attends one of my classes." Dr. William Barclay

Ouch! I sometimes resemble that remark. How about you? Know doubt about it, The Word of God has been tested and tried. These two words desribe a process. Tested involves purification. It comes from jettisoning a trust in anyone else but God. Tried refers to proven confience that results when protection from God is provided. When people face their toughest tests in life, they discover that the Word of God can be trusted for the answers to the test. Purification comes from God knocking you out of you so He can fill you with Himself. Proof in His protection comes from having tried a number of disappointing substitutes before coming to the conviction that God is really who He says He is, and everyone else is lying. People who are satisified to be filled with themselves or the false promises of others never hunger and thirst for what God has prepared on the menu for them.

The truth of the Word of God does not always make the test any easier, but it leads a genuine student of the Word of God. Jesus is always the right answer to any test that comes our way. Passing the test does not always mean surviving the test, or eventually thriving from it. The test is meant to be passed. This means the student of the Word must trust his Teacher for the length and the outcome of the exam. If the test is before him, it must be necessary and it must be passed. When asked what he had learned from a prolonged, and painful illness that would eventually take his life, one great man of God replied:

"Tell them the last test is always the hardest." Allen Redpath

There are no short cuts or easy roads for the person God intends to prepare for a great work. Dependency upon the Word of God provides refuge from the fire of the enemy, but not an exemption from the battle. Refuge is often only sought after running out of supplies. Reaching a point of physical exhaustion or spiritual battle fatigue leads a person to then end of themselves and the beginning of God. As long as a person feels adequate for the mission, they are tempted to believe they are equipped for it. Receiving new power for God's work comes from seeking greater protection from His Shield. This learning curve of preparation is not painless or void of fear. It comes from consistent companionship with The Champion, Jesus Christ, and it involves the fellowship of His suffering.

"For God to use a man greatly, He must hurt a man deeply." A.W. Tozer

The shield of faith provides protection from the flaming arrows of the enemy. Fear tempts a warrior to run in spite of having been ordered to stand and face the enemy. When the smell of the burning tar reaches his nostrils, and the screams of the wounded fill his ears, the warrior begins to doubt what he knows to be true.

Paul challenged the Church at Ephesus three times to stand firm and reminded them to pray at all times in the Spirit. He knew then what we know now. Prayer raises The Shield of The Champion to protect us while we shove The Sword of The Spirit down the throat of the enemy. Prayer silences the voice that questions the integrity of God's Word.

Prayer fuels faith. Talk feeds fear. Talking about a crisis takes our eyes off of The Champion, removes us from behind The Shield of protection, and fans the flames of the enemy. When the enemy hears believers talking themselves into fear it raised their morale, and encourages them to pour it on. Prayer turns our fear into faith, and drives the enemy to fear.

"The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless work, prayerless studies or prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray." Samuel Chadwick

Prayer draws us closer to the protection of The Champion's shield of refuge. Running to Jesus is how the warrior is able to stand firm in the face of the enemy's fiercest attack. Running away from the battle line leaves the warrior unprotected and vulnerable to the worst attack the enemy has to throw against him. The choice is between running away and running to pray. Choose wisely. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Summit

2011-09-22T10:23:00.007-05:00

"I will lift up my eyes unto the hills. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord." Psalm 121:1

In August of 1973, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with a team of thirteen other people. Our two Tanzanian guides led us on a five day journey that would cover 85 miles and reach an elevation of 19,700 feet at Uhuru Peak. The first three days covered rolling foothills, rainforest, alpine meadows, high sierras, and the dusty saddle between Mt. Mawenzi and Kili. After three days, we found ourselves at 17,500 feet elevation at the base of "The Scree." This steep slope of fine, grey, sandy, volcanic ash created a formidable barrier between us and The Summit.

We were resting in crude shelters trying to rest up for the final ascent. The climb would begin at Midnight and take approximately eight hours to cover the last 2,000 feet. It would be a long cold night. Sleep was hard to come by, and food made us nauseous. Altitude sickness added to the sense of foreboding. We felt pretty bad right where we were, and were not looking forward to what was ahead.

We had a team meeting. We were now down to thirteen. One of our party had been escorted down the mountain due to oxygen deprivation. This meant we had one guide left. We could not make the climb without a trained, professional mountaineer. He was certified to take us to the top. He was the only one who had been to the summit, and he alone knew the way there and back. If anyone else had to turn back, the climb was over. We had come a long way. We were close, but we were still far away. One of our team had unsuccessfully attempted to make the climb on two other ocassions. She had made it this far, only to be turned back by sickness somewhere between The Scree and The Summit. We pledged to her, and to one another that we would all make it. It was a simple statement. There was no drama in saying it, but there would be trauma in keeping it.

We headed up the mountain in a slow, measured pace that traversed The Scree in a zig zag pattern of steps that seemed slower than necessary. We became impatient and critical of the guide's patient plodding. We were ready to get on with it. He knew more about the next few hours than we could understand at that moment in time. We would become quick learners. As the slope grew steeper, our pace grew even slower. The dust from the ash coated our tongues, and dried out our mouths. When we reached for our canteens, we found the water frozen by the drop in temperature we were encountering. Thirst would soon become a huge issue. The darkness made the climb seem endless. It became an intimidating series of steps that were three paces forward, and two paces back. We were almost walking in place. Progress was slow, and our lack of depth perception gave us no markers to help us gain our bearings. We were in the hands of the guide.

At one point, we came to a frozen spring seeping through the rock wall, and we broke off ice-cycles to try and suck some water out of them. It stuck to our lips and tore at our flesh. It was frustrating to be so close to water, and not be able to get life from it. We moved on into the night. Halfway through the night, our legs and our lungs were on fire, but our hands and our feet were freezing. We had two members of the team experience servere reactions to the lack of oxygen. One collapsed and the other started moving down the mountain. I had to tackle the one who had reversed course, and drag him on my back, until we regained our ground. The guide said that if anyone else tried to leave, he was taking us all down the mountain. Four of us began to trade off carrying the two sick team members up the mountain. Literally, we took two steps and collapsed. Then we passed them on to the other. It was a rotating, passing of a heavy baton for the next four hours. I thought my lungs would explode.

By dawn, we arrived at the lower summit, and saw the sun rise up out of the clouds. We were all very near the highest peak on the continent of Africa. However, there was still more ahead for six of us who pushed on to The Summit. It was only another 500 feet, but by the time we crossed the soft snow and melting ice of the glacier, we arrived at Uhuru Peak four hours later. This meant, we had time to take a picture, and write a message in the log book, and then leave before the snow storm that was heading our way socked us in. I wrote the verse of Scripture that I quoted at the top of this blog. I did one more thing. I promised myself that I would never scratch the itch to come back to this spot on the earth.

When we made our way down The Scree, it took minues as opposed to hours. What was once a night filled with gasping for air and grasping for a foothold, was now filled with laughter and joy. What took eight hours to climb took less than an hour to descend. Gravity was our new best friend. When we arrived at the base of The Scree we were ravenous. We had not eaten the night before, and we had expended a huge amount of energy. We didn't count calories. We shoved everything edible into our mouths and washed it down with ice cold water. A group of Dutch Air Force climbers were observing us as we gorged ourselves. They had just arrived at this level of elevation, and I remember their faces were a serious shade of green. They all suffered from the nausea of oxygen deprivation, and could not comprehend our behavior. How could they? They had not been to the summit. We had been to a place in our lives that had made a profound difference in our ability to cope with conditions that had once been a major obstacle to us. We had returned to the same location, but we had a different perspective. We were able to overcome the obtacles down below, because we had been to The Summit. We did not have the capacity to live at The Summit. The climb had been part of the journey to prepare us for The Summit. The Summit had prepared us live life with a greater degree of joy in the face of people who could not comprehend where we had been. Even though we had to return to a lower elevation we were experiencing a higher standard of living.

This week of ReFesh at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia has reminded me of that week on Mount Kilimanjaro. The climb up Kili did not prepare us to be planted permanently at The Summit, but it equipped us to handle life in the valley in ways that once seemed inconceivable to us and to others. ReFresh is a great opportunity to meet with Jesus. I am so glad that God has sustained the vision for this conference in the heart of Michael Catt, and the sweet people of Sherwood. Since 2003, I have always looked forward to it as a time to gain a higher perspective and prepare for a restorationof power for life in the valley.

When I leave the city limits of Albany, I do not leave my Guide behind. The climb to The Summit of Refresh is not the ultimate goal of the conference for me. It is all about reconnecting with my Guide. Jesus guided the couple on the Road to Emmaus back from the intimidating hill of Calvary and gave them a new perspective as they made their way home. Jesus said on the cross, "It is finished." On the Road to Emmaus, The Risen Christ interrupted two despondent people gasping for breath and grasping for a foot hold on a slippery slope of dispair. They had talked themselves senseless, when He showed up, and asked them what they were talking about. In anger, Cleopas snapped saracastically, "Are you the only one who doesn't know about the things that have been happening around here." Jesus responded graciously, "WHAT THINGS?" He interrupted their independent lecture series and turned it into a converstation with Him. The more He shared with them, the greater their heart burned for more of Him. He did so by responding to their invitation to stay with them.

Jesus always responds to the invitation, "Stay with us!" He always has more to share with us. When we are willing to let Him make sense out of the senseless, the valley experiences are enriched and impacted by what He teaches us at The Summit. My prayer for those who attended ReFresh 2011 is for their heart's cry to be "STAY WITH US!" As we return to the valley, there is no need to leave the guiding hand of Jesus. He has so much more to share with us. What He finished on the cross has just begun to be shared with those around us. If you pass me on the road, honk if you have learned to TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Thanks Michael!

Gary Miller and Dana L. Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

3717 Mossbrook Drive FTW, TX 76244

gmillerlight@gmail.com Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Distance

2011-09-15T05:38:00.006-05:00

"The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayers of the righteous." Proverbs 15:29

"If I could hear Christ praying for me, I would not fear a million enemies. But the distance makes no difference. He is praying for me." Robert Murray M'Cheyne

This morning I woke up with the sobering realization that this is the last day I will have my little family of four under the same roof, and under the same name. My wife and daughters are fast asleep for a little while longer. Hopefully, changing the battery in one of the chirping smoke detectors will help them rest without any further interupptions.

Tonight we go to a rehearsal to prepare for the wedding of our first born, Ashley. She will spend tonight with us for the last time as a Miller. She will change her name to Warren on Friday night, and it comes as no surprise that she won't be living under my roof or under my name any longer. This is a great day for her and a sad day for me all rolled into one. Don't ask me to explain it. I can't. It must be a Dad thing.

There have been so many "last minute" things to do to prepare for the wedding rehearsal and dinner, that the final hours are coming at me with the speed of light. There has been the moving of our daughters from their apartment to our home. We transferred Ashley's furniture over to her fiancee's home, and painted bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen. Allyson downsized and moved in with us for a few months. She needed time to let the dust settle after serving as Maid of Honor, taking on a new job, and graduating with her Master's Degree in Leadership from Dallas Baptist University. Her move-in meant a move for me too. My upstairs office had to be reduced and relocated downstairs. I sifted through my shelves and culled out, gave away or reboxed my books for storage in the garage. Did I tell you this has been the hottest summer on record in Texas? We have chosen to do the craziest of things in the hottest of times.

There are family and friends gathering, from all over the country. Some are on the road, and expected momentarily. Others are heading to the airports and their ETA's are in God's hands. We are anticipating a houseful in a few short hours. There will be a wedding rehearsal at the church and a dinner at a restaurant tonight. Dana will host a Bridesmaid's Brunch in our home on Friday morning, and then it will be time to head to the church to decorate and prepare for the wedding at 7:00 P.M.

It doesn't take much of a prophet to foresee that solitude to reflect on this day in such a concentrated space and tight time frame will be hard to come by. These early morning hours are quiet enough now for God to give me a little peace of His mind. I'm going to take advantage of his availability while everyone else is sleeping.

Father, thank you for placing Ashley into my life. She has been an answer to my prayers and the deepest longing of my heart. As a young husband, I recall the season of my life when you placed in me a hunger to be a Daddy. It was a new feeling for me. I had never experienced anything like it.

When Dana and I discovered she was expecting, it was a great day in our lives. We couldn't wait to share the good news with everyone we knew. We will always be grateful for those folks at First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma who prepared such a soft landing zone for Ashley. When they discovered that the church's health insurance plan did not cover pregnancy, they put together a party and raised up a "Money Tree." When we picked the fruit, we had $2,500.00 to pay for the hospital and medical bills. God, you have such a great and generous family. Thank you for letting us be a part of it all these years.

Ashley, you have been loved by some of the finest people God ever made. You may not remember their names, but just the same, never forget them. They have not forgotten you. I am so glad that you arrived in my life on December 6, 1979. I will never forget what Sharon Ross said to me that day. She was standing next to me at the window of the hospital nursery. You were only a few hours old, but already such a beautiful little girl. I was trying to take it all in when she said, "That is a little blank slate, and you can write on it anything that you want." I almost passed out with fear. I had never felt so indadequte for task in all my life. I still do. Being your Daddy has been one of the greatest joys of my life. Trainng up a child in the way she should go has brought me to the end of myself so many times. Often I felt unprepared for the calling, and I called out to God on your behalf for Him to do for you what I could not do. I believe my prayers have been heard. You are an amazing work of His grace and His handprints are all over your life. Thank you for listening to God when I did not know what to do.

My heart has ached for you to know the love, the companionship and the completion that comes to a person when God brings a mate into their life. Truly, Dana has been God's perfect gift to me. I have prayed that your marriage partner's heart would be stamped with the same undeniable impression, "MADE IN HEAVEN." Again, my prayers have been heard. Receive Brent as God's perfect gift to you. God picked him. God prepared him. You prayed for him. Don't stop. "No complaints. No exchanges. All sales final." THE MANAGMENT.

Back in December 0f 2010, you were facing another birthday, and you could not see what God had in store for you. You needed hope. I felt strongly impressed to buy your wedding dress for you as a statement of faith in God's plan for your life. In days of old, young ladies would prepare for their wedding day, and marriage by setting precious items, momentos, or clothing in a hope chest. I felt you needed to place your hope in God, and prepare for this day with a sense of expectation and joy. It was my joy to take you out and buy your wedding dress before God revealed His choice of your husband. I loved seeing your face light up with the idea that God was up to something in your life. Never forget that you are always on His mind, and He is always planning how to place the gift of His grace in some new package just for you.

God's delay does not always mean His denial. It may mean that He is doing such a great work that He wants to complete His finishing touches on His gift. He loves to see the look on His child's face when He exceeds their expectations. You might recall, the night I shared with you about my sense of urgency for your dress, I was scheduled to have coffee with Brent at the Starbuck's in Southlake Town Center. He and I spent the evening catching up on what had been going on in his life. In a few weeks, he was asking my permission to step into your life, and ask you into his. The rest of your love story has yet to be written, but I really like the intro.

Ashley, I have always enjoyed our morning times together. Since you were a little girl in second grade in Borger, Texas, we have been going out on breakfast dates together. I was so glad when the day came that we moved from Burger King to McDonalds. Then we graduated to I-HOP, and a real breakfast menu. Recently you have shared your love for Starbuck's with me. So, today Starbuck's it is. I look forward to our last cup of coffee with Miss Miller, but I am looking forward to many more with the lovely Mrs. Warren.

Remember that your Heavenly Father is only a prayer away. Keep Him on speed dial. He has a great long distance plan. I am on call too, and always will be proud to be called...

Your Daddy.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Wedding

2011-09-12T08:16:00.014-05:00

"On the third day there was a wedding...and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding." John 2:1-2

"Whatever He says to you, do it." John 2:5

"Fill the waterpots with water. Draw some out now..." John 2:7-8

In just a few days our daughter, Ashley, will marry her fiancee, Brent Warren. Today is the 12th, and on the 15th we head to the rehearsal. Three days to go. So much to do. So little time.

I have been in my share of weddings, and conducted hundreds of them. This is not my first rodeo, but I feel strangely unprepared for the occasion. It is different from anything I have ever done before.

Don't get me wrong. I couldn't be happier for them. They are in love, and their story is one for the ages. God made them for each other, and He has put them together. God has begun something in their lives, and He has promised to complete it in them. Marriage has always been God's plan for turning two people into one, and Ashley and Brent are ready for the next step.

Dana and I have prayed for Ashley to find God's man, and to be patient enough to give Him the elbow room and the time to prepare a husband for her. I have seen God work in Brent's life. I saw God call him into the ministry when he was a college student. I was there when he was ordained to the ministry. For over 20 years I have watched God develop him into the kind of man He uses. Humble. Available. Teachable. Moldable. Dependable. Expendable.

Dana has prayed for Ashley's husband and for this day with an intense fervor long before she was born. Dana carried the significance of this day in her heart while carrying Ashley in her womb. When Dana was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in March of 2008, she determined to do everything in her power to be a part of this special occasion. She prayed with more power and greater passion than I had ever seen. She asked to be granted God's favor for healing, so she would have the privilege of taking part in her daughter's wedding day. Her prayers were answered. Mine too. This is a big deal.

Any Dad who has ever viewed the Steve Martin version of "The Father of Bride" can remember the scene where he hears his daugher's unexpected engagement announcement. He hears her, but cannot process what she is saying. He can only "see" her sitting across the table from him as as his little girl. It is a great scene, and based on more fact than fiction. I can relate to Dad's who have a tough time letting their little ones grow up. This is a big deal too!

Back to The Wedding. I am meeting with Ashley and Brent tomorrow to go over the final details of the wedding ceremony. Father's of the Bride and Ministers conducting the wedding have one thing in common. They come at the end of everything else. Rings - check. Counseling - check. Church - check. Invitations printed-check. Invitations addressed -check. Invitations mailed - check. DJ- check. Music - check. Flowers - check. Decorate- check. Photographer-check. Cake-check. Food-check. Beverage- check. License- check. Minister - oops! It happens all the time, but I have learned over the years, it always pays to have the last word.

I love the fact that marriage was God's idea. This is what I love the most about Ashley and Brent's wedding. God put them together, and they have invited Jesus to take part in their great day. They are following in a grand and glorious tradition of couples who expect the Son of God to show up at their wedding, and do something in their lives that only He can get credit for. The couple at the wedding in Cana made sure that Jesus was invited. To their great joy, he decided to show up. Note to any future wedding planners out there: Jesus shows up where He is invtied. The Bible records the first miracle of Jesus, the turning of water into wine. It may not have been his first miracle, because His mother, Mary, said to the servants,

"Whatever He says to you, do it."

Mary seemed to be aware of the potential of something special breaking loose any time her son took hold of what others couldn't handle. Mom's are like that. They are special ladies who always seem to have a sense that God is on the move in the lives of their children. The wise mother doesn't panic when life overwhelms their kids, they pray and point them to Jesus.

"Whatever He says to you, do it." What great advice! Ashley and Brent, I cannot improve on this. I believe no less of a miracle takes place every time a couple invites Jesus to take what they give Him, and do something with it that only He can get credit for. You are both called, anointed and accomplished servants of God. He has done great things through you individually. It is only the beginning of what He has had in mind to do through you as a couple. Don't forget the lesson of the couple in Cana. They invited Jesus to show up at the beginning. When their challenge was put in His hands, He orchestrated a happy ending. Coming to the end of yourselves is the best preparation for receiving from Jesus what He wants to do for and through you.

Ashley: Thank you for being patient with me, and allowing me to discover the joy of being a father to a precious little girl who has become a woman of God. I am so proud of you, and always feel a little taller when I am introduced as Ashley's Daddy. I will always be there for you. I have passed my sword of protection to your warrior husband to stand by your side. I have kept my shield, and I will hold it over you both as you take your stand as husband and wife next to your Champion, Jesus.

Brent: Thank you for allowing God to work in your life. Continue to yield to His will for your lives as Ashley's husband. Run to Jesus and let Him walk you both through every trial, test, tear and triumph. Take this sword from my hand and protect my daughter with your life. She is worth fighting with and fighting for. She is an amazing woman, and I am grateful that you receive her as God perfect gift to you.

Well nuff said. Time for me to take my own advice and TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries: C/O The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive FTW, TX 76244 gmillerlight@gmail.com Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Wise

2011-09-09T07:55:00.013-05:00

"Reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Proverbs 9:8-10

God is reachable. Prayer makes that possible. The Wise are teachable. Humility makes that possible. The distance between reachable and teachable is only as far away as a teachable spirit. People who know it all are very common, and so are their first cousins... The Fools. The Wise cultivate a heart that is open to receive the seed of God's Word. They allow it to take root until it bears the fruit of His character, and they are able to reap a harvest of His wisdom.

The wisdom literature of Proverbs points out that success in life is a result of meeting God at the juntion of the vertical and the horizontal. Being rightly related to Him holds the key to being rightly related to others. Self-absorbed people blasting through life politely ignoring God end up running over others who get in their way. When someone gets the idea that God is merely a speed bump on their road to success, they do not mind crashing through a crowded crosswalk filled with ordinary people.

"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right name." Author Unknown

Prideful people are prayerless people. There I said it. Calling pride by the right name leaves some hope for putting it where it belongs. It must be kicked to the curb or it will constantly try to get in the driver's seat. Prayerless people have great difficulty yielding the steering wheel to God and allowing Him to be in control of their lives. They have grown accustomed to being large and in charge. They don't know where they are going, but they are making great time. Racing everywhere they go, running on fumes, and terrorizing anyone who gets in their way, they seldom stop and ask God for directions. The last words out of their mouth as they crash through the last barricade and plummet over the cliff is, "Jesus Take the Wheel!" It is little wonder that the writer of Proverbs saw this coming from a long way off.

"The wise at heart will receive commands, but a babbling fool will be ruined (thrust down)." Proverbs 10:8

My first born, Ashley, opened up a Twitter account for me. She has introduced me to the sound byte world of Tweeting. I love the gentle reminder that flashes on the screen, when I have used more than my 140 characters to Tweet my message to the waiting world. It is profound to be told by an unseen monitor of the account that I must be more clever. WOW. That is a nice way of saying, "You twit!" It gives me pause, causing me to distill my thinking into less expansive prose or write in unintelligible text-speak. U No Wht I mn?

A recent study of the Hebrew word, "wisdom" led me to "Hebrew for Christians." Thanks to John J. Parsons I learned that the Hebrews defined wisdom (khohkh-mah) as a noun that meant wisdom or cleverness. They thought of the wise man (khah-kahm) as one who was prudent and clever. The Hebrews believed that the sage advice of a person who was wise at heart came from walking circumspectly. This describes someone who had lived a life clever enough recognize what they had learned was a landmine, and to see the wisdom in walking around it rather than stepping on it. They did not yearn to personally experience the trauma and drama of an explosion. They chose to learn, not to yearn. I was reminded by Parsons that the "wise" are "clever." I couldn't agree more. I think the person who had a hand in setting up the automatic warning on my Twitter account might agree with him too. Less is more. Be brief. Be clever. Be safe. Be quiet.

"A babbling fool will be ruined (thrust down)." What a statement! It makes a strong case for keeping one's proverbial pie hole shut. Clever people are those who learn to listen to the one in authority. A fool yearns for the sound of his own voice. Go figure. Clever people learn to pray through a crisis. The Fool yearns to talk his way out of it.

The writers of Proverbs would feel right at home on a Twitter account. Very few of the statements made in the thirty-one chapters of this book would violate "The 140 Rule." The prose, parallelisms, and poetry of Proverbs are brief, to the point and packed with wise counsel.

The clever person will learn to pray. They hear and obey God's voice. The Fool debates with God and delays obedience to His counsel. The Wise learn to listen. The Fool yearns to speak. The clever learn. The foolish yearn. One humbly places themselves under authority and listens for marching orders. The other grabs the command seat, and starts giving directions. Humility leads a clever person to realize that there is no need to experiment with every disastrous decision in life. The humble do not yearn to use their lives as a test lab or their bodies as a crash dummy to prove God wrong. Through prayer they yield to His perspective, His principles, and His Person. They are wise because they have learned to listen. They have heard God's voice, and have come to trust His direction, protection and correction. They are clever because they have come to the end of themselves, and the beginning of God. They are not whipped down, stripped down versions of what God had in mind for their lives. Through prayer they have learned to rest in God's best for them. Through prayer they turn their eyes towards Jesus, and away from themselves as their center of attention and center of gravity. Prayerless people are prideful people focusing only on themselves and their own solutions.

"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less." C.S. Lewis

The Wise lead the way to the next great spiritual awakening. It will begin in the Church, and it will be a result of the obedience of Christ followers to the commands of Jesus. He described what He was looking for from His Church as a First Love Awakening. Jesus called His Church to remember that leaving Him and serving Him are not compatible concepts. Lack of intimacy with Him reveals a corrupted character that must be corrected. The Wise hear and obey. They learn to TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Revelation 2:7

Gary Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

C/O The Whitefield Project

3717 Mossbrook Drive

Fort Worth, TX 76244

gmillerlight@gmail.com

Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Condition

2011-09-06T08:04:00.015-05:00

"There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers." Proverbs 6: 16-19

Proverbs reveals the heart of God. It serves as a Leadership Training Manual for the young princes, governors, rabbis, and judges of Israel. God's character takes shape as each chapter unfolds more and more about His will and His way for His people. Perhaps the most succinct synopsis of what He holds dear is the revelation of the things he hates the most. Reading it is like taking part in an autopsy of The Fool. All the body parts are identified, and the cause of death is catalogued. It leaves even the casual observer with an inclination to hold his breath, as the stench in God's nostrils begins to reach his own. The list is short, but it is long enough to cause the reader to hope for it to end sooner than later.

The point is clear for the future leaders of the land. Love who God loves, and hate what God hates. Don't change the price tags of His value system. The currency of the realm is God's character, and He is the bank you go to get what you need. The Wise hear and obey God. The Fool ingores God, takes his own counsel and makes up the rules as he goes along.

Prayer brokers a heart exchange between you and God. When you pray, you come to God with your heart, but you leave with His heart. Rushed and harried as people are by the cares of their lives, they seldom spend enough time in God's Presence to receive what He has for them. They have such tight grip on their "Whine List" that they forget to leave it with Him and refuse to take hold of what God wants to give to them. Putting God on speed dial for a quick solution to a long standing problem in your life seldom transforms your restless heart into a peaceful one. Receiving God's heart requires you too pray long enough until God completes the transplant. God is not done with you until you have His heart in you.

The only condition of Paradise was obedience to God's commands. From the very beginning of His relationship with man, "The Lord God commanded the man." Genesis 2:16. Intimate communication is based on obedience of the child to the Father's command. "Prayer is intimate communication between the Heavenly Father and His child." Don Miller, Bible Based Ministries

"In the beginning" God ordained obedience to Him as the basis upon which His favor is found and His blessing is received.
Hearing the voice of God and obeying what He says to do are one in the same thing in the mind of God. The Hebrew language places equal importance on hearing and obeying, by utilizing the same word for both. The Hebrews understood that to hear God was to obey God. Hearing God speak was not a matter of receiving information or increasing intelligence. It required a response. The only condition to an unbroken relationship between God and man was immediate, complete, and absolute obedience. Disobedience to God resulted in Paradise Lost. There will be no semblance of Paradise regained by cultivating a deaf ear and a rebellious spirit to the commands of God. "The Father in heaven asks, and requires, and actually expects, that every child of His yield Him whole-hearted and entire obedience, day by day and all the day." Andrew Murray, "The School of Obedience," 1898

Obedience to the commands of God is the condition upon which Paradise is regained. God provides a way for His disobedient children to get back in touch with Him. The whole redemption of Christ restores obedience to its place of honor. The call to spiritual awakening at this time in the life of The Church is an invitation of The Spirit of God to restore what has been lost.

When Jesus confronted the Church at Ephesus, He challenged them to return to their First Love. His call to them was not for renewed effort, but restored intimacy. Obedience to His call has always required a response. Can you hear Him praying for you? He lives to intercede for His followers. Respond in kind. Through prayer make your voice familiar in Heaven. Prayer enables you to take your disobedient heart and place it in the hands of Jesus. The Son intercedes for you with the Father, and The Spirit transplants God's heart in you.

Prayer is a heart exchange. It transforms you into an obedient child of God who loves who He loves and hates what He hates. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary Miller, Founder and Executive Director
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries
c/o The Whitefield Project
3717 Mossbrook Drive
FTW, TX 76244
gmillerlight@gmail.com
Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Watch

2011-09-05T05:22:00.010-05:00

"For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all his paths." Proverbs 5:21

One of the discoveries a new father makes is the joy it brings to their child to call out, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy...Watch me!" The most important thing for my two little daughters was the need to verify that Daddy was watching them. Every time they attempted to repeat something they had just learned to do, or if they were about to enter into a new adventure, they would call out, "DADDY! WATCH ME!" It still brings a smile to my face when I recall those times when it meant the world to them to have their Daddy's eyes on them. It still means the world to me, and now from the predawn hours, until I call it a day, I am still watching over them whether they know it or not. Some things never change.

Dads know a child can be relentless in the pursuit of their undivided attention. It is not enough for them to know that they are being heard. There must be eye-contact. There must be acknowledment. It is hugely important that their call is heard, but then in addition to this, they MUST be seen. Children have been known to drive their fathers to exasperation with the constant, repeating of and ramping up of the attention-getting cry, "Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy? Daddy? Daddy? DADdy! DADdy! DADdy! DADDEE! DADDEE! DADDEE!" The call of the child is for the father of the child to make eye-contact with their own child to assure the child that their words are being heard and their presence in acknowledged. No other Daddy will do. Their call is directed to the one who they want to impress the most.

Being heard and being seen are evidently HUGELY important to little girls. I can remember times when my girls would call out to me while I was on the phone, in the middle of another conversation, or watching a particularly exciting sports program on TV. I would ignore their cry for a while, knowing deep down inside that it was futile to do so. When I just couldn't stand it any longer, I would blurt out, "Why don't you just go ahead and ask the question?! Why do I have to be watching you when you say it?" For them, it was more about eye-contact with me than the answer they got from me. What they were looking for was a sense of my presence and interest in their life. If they wanted a really good answer, they were smart enough to know they could go ask their mother. What they wanted was time with me.

Note to fathers of little girls: Your daughters get their sense of self-worth and self-esteem from you. Don't make them vulnerable to the schemes of others who are willing to give time to them to get what they want from them. Give yourself to your little ones. Make time for them in your life. Let them know that they are important to you. I will yield to the parents of little boys to speak on the possiblity of any similarities.

The message of Proverbs reminds us that the Father is always watching over His children. He is aware of the choices made and the paths taken by His children. This is not meant as a threat to His children, but an invitation to seek His direction, protection and correction. The Wise child of God will never tire of running into their Father's Presence and calling out, "Watch me!" The Fool hides behind their own "I" problem and refuses to make eye-contact with their Father. They are deluded into believing that God cannot see what they are up to if they don't put it before Him. Prayer becomes harder and harder for them the longer they postpone coming into His Presence willingly. The Wise know that nothing is hidden from God. They have learned that any degree of separation from the path He has chosen for them is best corrected by immediate admission to Him and themselves that they are off course. Prayer promptly intitates immediate obedience and avoids the accumulative error that separates children from the awareness of their Father's watchful eye.

Prayer makes eye-contact with your Father. It brings joy to His heart to have His children cry out to him, "Watch me!" Two things break your Father's heart, rebellion and repentance. When a child separates himself from the love of their Father it is because of the "I" problem. Whenever you find sIn in your life, you will find "I" right in the middle of it. Children with an "I" problem need to run into the Presence of their Father more than ever, and call out, "Watch me!" Prayer is practicing the Presence of the Father, and it leads a child to a new level of confidence in His desire to listen and look at them with love in His eyes for them.

Don't make excuses for your "I" problem. Talking about your separation from the Father only prolongs the degree and lengthens your distance from Him. Praying puts the turnaround into motion. Prayer enables you to face your Father, and make eye-contact with the one who was watching you all the time you thought you were on your own. Trade your "I will" for
"Thy will" today. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

C/O The Whitefield Project

3717 Mossbrook Drive
FTW, TX 76244

gmillerlight@gmail.com
Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Balance

2011-08-30T05:48:00.011-05:00

'Two things I asked of You, do not refuse me before I die: keep deception and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion, that I may not be full and deny You and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God." Proverbs 30:7-9

My wife, Dana, is the most even-keeled person I have ever known. Her favorite word is...BALANCE. The sole exception to her passion for balance is her love for shoes. However, in her defense, she would point out to you that her workout shoes are made by New Balance. The siren call of a shoe store is hard for her to resist, but in her eyes her passion for shoes is not an inconsistency to her philosophy of life. She reminds me that she always maintains her balance by buying two shoes at a time, one for each foot. How can you argue with logic like that?

Proverbs records the ancient writer's prayer for balance in his life. His call to God was for a blessing to be relieved from the tug of war between his need and his greed. Reading his request to God, reveals to us that he has known the chaos and confusion of trying to discern the difference between the two. He has determined that he wisest thing for him to do is to ask
God for help in pointing out what is best for his life.

Lies and deception have always been a part of the contest of wills that takes place between seller and buyer. Proverbs reveals the struggle in the heart of a person that comes under that influence of a consumer culture. Truth in advertising is a moving target in any generation. To be aware is to beware of the pitfalls of believing everything a salesman tells you to close a deal. There has rarely ever been better advice than, "Let the buyer beware."

The balanced life begins at the point of prayer. Prayer is the means by which we can ask God for help in revealing the difference between our need and our greed. A person who becomes satiated with everything he needs is often the very first to resent God's delayed response in granting what they want and when they want it. People who feel entitled to what they want and take it rather than wait for God to give it to them are no better than common thieves.

Prayer purifies our motives and clarifies the difference between our wants and our needs. God's delay does not necessarily mean God's denial, but the process of praying does remind us God is the source of all provision. Prayer places our need and our greed before God, and lets Him make a judgment call on what is best for us. God is not a divine delivery boy for petulant children who pout when they hear the word "No."

In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus taught the fundamental lesson of "The School of Prayer." Facing the crisis of the crucixion, He prayed, "Father, not as I will, but Thy will be done." Grasping for what looks good to us is a poor substitute for waiting on God to provide His best for us. When the lines get blurred between your need and your greed. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! MINISTRIES
c/o The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Fort Worth, TX 76244
gmillerlight@gmail.com
Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE: The Breath

2011-08-25T05:53:00.018-05:00

"Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his his spirit." Proverbs 25:18

"Your walk with God is the next 20 seconds." In December 1986, I had been in very long meeting with a former NASA engineer, when I heard him make this statement. It was a life-changing moment. A month later, I met with him for a followup session, and had a chance to thank him for his input. He did not remember saying it to me. Go figure. I believe God used this short, simple phrase from this man to get my attention. He wanted to focus me on the breath in my lungs, before I tried to get a handle on His future plans. Think about it. Without being able to take a deep breath and get out a stop watch, how much breath do you already have in your lungs? Without warning, what do you have at your disposal to do business with God? I know, I know, it is a personal question. For some it may be more, and for others a bit less, but for me, it is 20 seconds.

For the past 25 years I have tried to keep breathing on a regular basis. That is how the system works. I know it is alot more complicated than that, but I can't get into a study of the whole cardio-pulminary connection without getting a bit queasy. So there you have it. Keep breathing on a regular basis and you will live. Use the breath in your lungs to keep walking and talking with God on a regular basis, and you will find it hard to drift into breathless panic or detour from a close walk with Him.

The problem is this. Life has a way of knocking the breath out of us on a regular basis. When Emmit Smith, former running back for the Dallas Cowboys, surpassed Walter Payton's NFL rushing record, someone figured out how many miles he had run. It was not very impressive compared to marathon runners. It takes on a whole new level of achievement when you realize those two guys had to run all those miles getting knocked down and getting back up every 3-5 yards. Looks a little bit like sport imitating life. Can I get a witness?

Proverbs warns us about losing control of our spirit. The Hebrew word means breath, and refers to the content and the character of a person's heart that flows out of person's mouth when they are under pressure. People under great pressure seldom say things under their breath. Crises on their mind or fears in their heart have a tendency to come out of their mouth. The older a person gets, the less control they seem to have over their mouth. Speaking one's mind has sometimes been referred to as the privilege of old age. It can also be a sign of approaching dementia. You are never get too old to watch your mouth.

"He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city." Proverbs 16:32

The Roman army was described as patient, or long-tempered. That would mean that as a military force they were not quick to take an offense, but when they were finally put into the field, there was going to be hell to pay. They were not in the habit of going to war unprepared, unarmed, or unaware of the consequences. The opposite is usually true of the short-tempered. They rush in where angels fear to tread. They speak their own mind before they seek to know God's mind. They bring a knife to a gunfight and end up stabbing themselves. The former description never found its way into active use in contemporary language. The second is alot more familiar to us. Little wonder that the God-breathed Scriptures describe two of the Spirit's characteristics as, "The fruit of the Spirit....is patience...self-control." Galatians 5:22-23

The sad truth is that we often find the fruit of the field to be more reliable than what we try to pass off as the fruit of the Spirit. When you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice. You can wrap a Christian in the latest holy logo wear, but when you squeeze him you don't always get what is on the label. Pressure on a Christian reveals the breath in their lungs and the focus of their lastest conversation. If they have been listening to the fears of their heart, and been intimidated by the things on their mind, it is revealed by the breath of their mouth. When our breath sheds more heat than light on the crisis around us, it is time to let God's light shine on the darker corners of our nature. He always picks up right where we left off in our last conversation with Him.

"The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the innermost parts of his being." Proverbs 20:27

Dr. Bill Hendrick was one of my seminary professors. His sanctified sarcasm speaks to me at this point. He always said this whenever anyone in the class asked permission to ask him a question in the middle of one of his lectures.

"Halitosis is better than no breath at all."

Talk is the bad breath we spew when we panic under the pressure of something we do not understand or cannot control. Prayer puts the same breath to better use, and calls on Jesus to step in and provide life support. When we are under attack by the enemy, talk reveals our vulnerable position and encourages them to keep pouring it on us. Prayer calls on our Champion, Jesus Christ, to take the field. When we pray, we have the courage to stand next to Him. Prayer takes the fright out of us, and the fight out of the enemy. They don't want any part of what Jesus brings to the battle. The enemy does not fear us, but as Sam Chadwick used to say, "... he trembles when we pray."

Jesus approached a down-hearted couple on the road to Emmaus, and found them talking about all the things they had seen happen in Jerusalem. The more they discussed, the more they were depressed by what they had experienced. Jesus stopped them, and asked them what they were talking about. Cleopas responded to His simple request with the bad breath only prolonged panic can put in a person's mouth. He rebuked Jesus for not being aware of all "the things" that had taken place in the last few days. Obviously, it had been over 20 seconds since their last conversation with Jesus. Their absence from Him had not made them more sensistive of His Presence with them. It always happens that way. Jesus spoke two little words that will always turn a panic into a promise.

"What things?" Luke 24:19

Talking results in alot of hot air, but it does not provide the breath of life. Talking about a crisis does not have the power to provide power to move us through the crisis and onto victory. It is bad breath. Talk leaves us stranded, vulnerable, dead in the water and reveals our weakened position to the enemy. Prayer calls for reinforcements, and gives us the courage to take our stand next to our Champion, and face the worst the enemy can throw at us. Prayer is the means by which our breath is put to the best possible use. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

"Prayer is how we set our sails to catch the wind of Heaven." G. Campbell Morgan

Gary Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

c/o The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive FTW, TX 76244

gmillerlight@gmail.com

Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Release

2011-08-24T05:30:00.010-05:00

"Do not say, 'Thus I shall do to him as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to his work.' " Proverbs 24:29

"I owe you one." This simple, phrase can carry two totally different meanings in contemporary culture. It is often expressed on an occasion when someone has done a good deed to us. Sensing a genuinely benevolent urge to return the favor ASAP, we say, "I owe you one." It is not a threat, or a promise to payback an offender for an offense suffered at their hands. It is an acceptable response to a gesture of goodwill. It is a gentle reminder to us that we are indebted to people who invest in us.

On the other hand, we sometimes use it when a resentful, malevolent spirit sets in, after we have suffered an offense. After the dirty deed has been done to us, we may be powerless to do anything about it. We may appear to the casual observer, or to our offender to have the grace to rise above the offense, at that point in time. This does not mean we have forgiven or forgotten about it. It just means, we can wait. Uttered under our breath, or written down as a mental promisory note, it warns of the wrath to come. Don't be shy. Say it loud. Say it proud. "I owe you one."

Offenses are often so unexpected, or of such consequence that a swift reaction is not in order or even possible. Those who are adept at collecting IOUs know the proper payback to the offender often requires dedicated preparation and deliberation. Initially, there a sweet satisfaction in the anticipation of the justice that will be delivered to the one who has given us a piece of their mind, stolen a piece of our property, or treated us like a piece of dirt.

Don't be deceived. This sweet, satisying feeling never lasts. Sinking your teeth into revenge leaves a bitter after taste. Prolonged chewing on something that makes you want to vomit, rarely improves the flavor of it. Trust your gag reflexes. Spit it out. Collecting IOUs creates ravenous hunger for vengeance that will eat out your heart. Chasing down people you intend to payback will rob you of your health.

God has a better plan. He desires His children to lead a debt free life. Prayer enables you to bring your IOUs to Jesus and to let Him settle your accounts. It is not a matter of letting someone get away with what they did to you. Prayer is all about letting go of what your IOUs are doing to you. Letting go of a debt does not mean someone is getting away with what they have done. It just means that prayer allows you to turn over the responsiblity of payback to the proper authorities.

Jesus set out the citizenship standards of His Kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount. He was speaking to a gathering of powerless, and abused people whose country had been invaded. They were living under the power of an evil empire, and being victimized by occupying soldiers, political sellouts, blood sucking tax collectors and religious hypocrites. The crowd was filled with people whose resentments to their condition ranged from nationalistic zealots filled with rage to the victimized peasants who had little hope for survival. It was not a pretty picture. Jesus challenged them to rise above their debt-ridden lives and become investors in a new Kingdom.

"You have heard that it was said, "AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.' But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you." Matthew 5:38-42

Are you kidding me? Jesus called for His citizens to be known as investors, not debtors. His Kingdom would not be built on revenge or paybacks. His people would not be known as passive aggressive victims or stingy, selfish hoarders. They would not be borrowers. They would be givers. He spoke these words to people who lived in a country that was looked upon by the political powerhouse of the day as the backwater of the Roman Empire. They were called upon to live as citizens of His new Kingdom, not to fight for survival in the old one. His words had to be shocking and revolutionary to people who had focused their hope in life on the possibility and promise of a political change agent coming to their rescue. They wanted someone who was going to drive the Romans into the sea, not lead them to carry their baggage to the beach. Turning the other cheek did not sit well with men who intended to stab the next Roman soldier in the back. His words probably seem just as obscure today to people struggling to make sense out of the chaos around them.

Paul underlined the words of Jesus to the church at Rome, "Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,' says the Lord. 'BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12:17-21

"Never" is a powerful word. It is about as restrictive,emphatic and all inclusive as any word can be. Paul uses it twice to set Christ followers on notice. Get the point? Step back from your collection of IOUS and give God the elbow room to do something about them. Taking matters into your own hands only postpones what God intends to do when you get out of the way.

In a state of prayerlessness these words always sound a bit harsh? Prayer will improve your appreciation for them like nothing else will. When you get slapped in the face by an offender, your head usually turns in another direction. Use it as an opportunity to turn your eyes upon Jesus. It has probably been a while since your last conversation. Use the offense as a chance to get caught up on how things have been going.

God has Jesus seated at His right hand. His Son has been assigned the task of receiving reports from you on what others have done to you. Don't be surprised if Jesus, The Intercessor, calls upon you to enter into a personal debt solution program. This will involve PRAYback, but never PAYback. Based on the prayer life of Jesus, you will be dropping the sinister use of the phrase, "I owe you one." Jesus prefers, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." You will discover that PRAYback is better than PAYback. Don't get me wrong. It is harder to hate those you pray for, not impossible, just harder. Pray for them anyway. They need it, and you need the practice.

Collecting a backlog of IOUs is a result of prayerlessness. Hiding what you owe to others from the eyes of Jesus does not release you from your debts. It raises your debts to the next level, and provides you no hope of release from them. Holding on to IOUs is a form of self-incarceration in a self-made debtor's prison. God never intended to serve as the warden of a prison built with your own hands, but He does have the power to release you from it. Prayer provides the release you need from the prison bars built by every IOU that you still hold in your hands.

Remember, letting go of the IOU does not mean God is letting someone get away with anything. It just means you have let go of the offense and placed it in His hands. He is the one who will deal with the person who inflicted it. Prayer gives God elbow room to do what He does best. He longs to release you from debts you hunger to PAYback. He releases you from your personal debtor's prison when you PRAYback those you once wanted to PAYback. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

c/o The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive FTW, TX 76244

gmilleright@gmail.com Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Heart

2011-08-23T06:06:00.014-05:00

"Do not let your heart envy sinners, but live in the fear of the Lord always. Surely there is a future and your hope will not be cut off." Proverbs 23:17-18

Thirty years ago, Dana and I rebranded our singles ministry in the city of Houston with the logo, "SINGLEHEARTED: Marked by Sincerity and Unity of Purpose." Our mission was to equip single adults to take their eyes off of themselves and focus their attention on a first love relationship with Jesus. They responded to this with a zeal and a devotion that I have seldom seen matched. Never underestimate the power of a group of people who sincerely believe that life is not about them, but it is all about Him.

Proverbs is filled with warnings about guarding and protecting one's heart from selfish desires, strange women, and unrepentant sinners. The heart needs to be harnessed for the best, or it will wander into the worst. The heart of the matter has always been the matter of the heart.

"Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, or desire his delicacies; for as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, 'Eat and drink.' But his heart is not with you." Proverbs 23:6-7

This passage gives us a clue to inner the recesses of the heart. It is the repository of the true self. A person's words cannot be trusted, if their heart is twisted.

"Every man's way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice is to be desired by the Lord more than sacrifice. Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin." Proverbs 21:2-4

Greek education dealt with the development of the mind, but Hebrew education focused on the heart. The collection of information by the student did not necessarily lead to wisdom. Elevation of the mind was nowhere near as important to the Hebrews as intallation of wisdom. Hebrew teachers focused on the creation of character in the life of their student. Education of the mind without the protection of the heart would lead the Greeks to focus on themselves as the center of attention. Hebrew teaching led a student to look to God for direction, protection and direction.

"Trust in the Lord, with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

Chasing after what really looks good to us, but in reality is not best for us is not a new temptation. Contemporary culture seems to have an obsessive compulsive urge to identify with celebries or attain rock star status. Seeking to be in the picture with cultural icons has always been relentlessly pursued, even before the invention of the camera or cell phone.

There has always been a temptation for the "Have Nots" to look upon the lifestyles of the rich and famous "Haves" with a voracious hunger. The point seems to be that this kind of longing for what others have, property, popularity, possessions, or power, is ultimately disrespectful to God. Looking at what others have and convincing yourself you are entitled to a piece of their property is a sin against God.

Proverbs warns against an "envy" of sinners that would lead a person to be jealous of or to be zealous for, or to provoke themselves into a passion for something that someone has. The word "sinner" describes someone who is exposed to condemnation, one who bears blame, one counted culpable, or reckoned as an offender against God. It is unacceptable to God for His children to envy the life and the property of those who choose to be separated from Him. Looking to other people and wishing for what God has not provided them is not child-like, but childish.

The Ten Commandments explicitly and extensively warned God's people not to covet what others had. This would protect their hearts from harboring thoughts of dissatisfaction and discontent. Looking upon the possessions of others with a seething, relentless resentment, or a work stopping, wishful thinking are two extremes of the pendulum of covetousness.

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor." Exodus 20:17

The Law of God specifically forbids the cultivation of a culture of covetous class envy. God's plan was never about a redistribution of wealth based upon the dissatisfaction and discontent of the "Have Nots" taking what they want from the "Haves." God's Law pointed out the blind logic that was a result of an "I" problem on the part of the "Have Nots." They were called upon to resist looking upon the "Haves" as source for getting hold of what they considered to be their "fair share" of property that did not belong to them. Desiring what others had did not make it theirs. They were to look to God for their needs, not take what others had to satisfy their wants.

The Hebrews saw the heart as having the capacity to: incline to understanding, hold fast to, keep, trust, flow, be inscribed upon, be wise, be perverted, be sickened, be in pain, rest, be open, be joyful, be sad, be cheerful, instruct, be haughty, be proud, rage, plan, be cleansed, be channeled, be weighed, be pure, be foolish, be given, hold abominations, and reflect the truth. They believed that what was on the inside of a person was going to come out, sooner or later. Long before people start hanging out with and enjoying the company of those who have offended God, their heart was regularly inclined to lean in their direction through misguided envy.

"As in water face reflects face, so the heart of a man reflects man." Proverbs 27:19

Spiritual Awakening begins with a wakeup call to those who have given their hearts to God. The Hebrews understood the heart to be the seat of the emotions and passions. In a man's heart resides the capacity for moral character and courageous living. The heart was a term used to describe the mind, the will and the emotions. From it flowed the knowledge and undertanding necessary to think clearly and to engage in reflective memory. Quoting God's word to others has value, but it pales in significance to the capacity and passion to apply it to one's own life.

A hardened heart is resistant to God's touch, but persistent prayer, like consistent rain, softens the heart of person to receive instruction from the Word of God. Prayer puts a person in a position to revere again what they once held dear, time with the One who has their best interests at heart. Prayer reflects the heart of a person who believes The Father knows best. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary and Dana Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries
c/o The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive FTW, TX 76244
gmillerlight@gmail.com
Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Name

2011-08-22T06:10:00.008-05:00

"A good name is to be more desired than great wealth. Favor is better than silver and gold. The rich and the poor have a common bond. The Lord is the maker of them all." Proverbs 22:1-2

Elections seem to be coming around earlier and staying on the scene longer than ever before. Names of potential candidates for national office are being offered up and torn down with regularity and intensity. From the right and the left, critics search for a kernel of "truth" that can be turned into a salacious sound bite or a scandalous series of articles. The whole process is mind-numbing, and it sheds more heat than light on the search for the best candidate. It is no small wonder that the electorate is left wondering if anyone's name is above reproach, or if any candidate is really who they say they are. Looks can indeed be deceiving, and all that glitters is not gold.

"A good name is to be desired more than great wealth." This should remind Christ followers that they would do well to invest in God's value system. This piece of advice comes directly from the lips of a man who had unlimited access to God's wisdom and had virtually limitless supplies of the world's gold and silver reserves. King Solomon had a net worth then, that would make Trump's treasure look now, like chump change. Still, after looking at his balance sheet, the wisest man in the world assessed a good name as a greater commodity than gold or silver. God has never changed the price tag He placed on character.

Current economic woes have spiked gold prices, and its value is at an all time high. It is nearing $2,000 an ounce. and shows no signs of weakening. It has become a reliable hedge against the falling dollar andthe roller-coaster rides of the unstable stock markets of the world. Over the centuries, gold has retained its value because it does not tarnish or rust away, when tested by the ravages of time. For as long as man has desired wealth, gold has been a valued portion of his portfolio. Men have sold their character, their country, and their children to get it and to keep it. As beautiful as gold is, the pursuit of it has not always provided a pretty picture. It indeed brings out the good, the bad and the ugly in the character of man.

God values a good name. When people come to the end of themselves, they do so because they have lost confidence in their own self-worth. They only turn to their Maker for correction, direction and protection, after they have reached spiritual bankruptcy. Rich and poor are in need of the same guidance and good name that only their Maker can provide. Each must recognize their true condition of need, before they are willing to take hold of this priceless gift from God. His good name cannot be purchased, it must be received. His favor cannot be bartered for or nor can one bid for it on the open market. His name is offered to those who are weary of their self-made status, and desire for their Maker to adopt them as one of His children.

God provides access to His Presence through prayer. His children are invited to enter into an audience with their Maker, not by making a name for themselves, but by invoking the name of His Son, Jesus. God values prayer, and the name of Jesus. The Wise look at these two commodities the way The Fool looks at silver and gold. The Wise pursue God. The Fool pursues gold. The Wise desire God. The Fool desires gold. The Wise accesses God, by invoking the name of Jesus, and receives favor from His Father. The Fool assesses gold. By investing in the price of it, he draws his sense of self-worth from it.

Self-made people rarely turn to their Maker for correction, direction and protection. Unless their value system proves to be unreliable and their treasure has been taken away from them, they place very little value on what God holds dear. The loss of their money often leads to the loss of power and prestige. In the world's system, this results in a collapse of their status and a devaluation of their "good name." They discover the harsh reality of the consequences of having what was once trusted become rusted. There is truth in the warning I once saw on a sign over a vendor's counter, " 'In God We Trust,' but everyone else better have cash."

God's currency does not come printed with the phrase, "In God We Trust." God loves His Son, Jesus, and God places great value in prayer. It is the currency of Heaven. God seated Jesus at His right hand to intercede for His children. Anyone who desires the favor of God will never try to devalue what He treasures the most. God offers His good name to His children, and grants access to His Presence through the name of His Son, Jesus. The Wise have learned,

"Your net worth is based on what money can't buy and what death can't take away." Adrian Rogers

Invest in God's value system. Make prayer a priority in your portfolio. You can't lose. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary and Dana Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

c/o The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Fort Worth, TX
gmillerlight@gmail.com

Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Authority

2011-08-20T03:46:00.007-05:00

"Many a man proclaims his loyalty but who can find a trustworthy man?" Proverbs 20:6

Recently at "The Response" in Houston, Texas, Tony Evans delivered a powerful six minute message that crystalized the role of pastors and the churches they lead during these tumultuous times. He gestured towards the playing field of Reliant Stadium. He reminded the thousands of people in attendance for the day of prayer and fasting that the arena in which they stood would soon host two opposing teams. These two teams would line up against one another in a quest for dominance on the field of competition. They would be joined by another team, the team of the officials. This third team would carry a rule book provided by the commissioner of the league. The officials could only maintain their integrity by maintaining their objectivity. They were accountable to the commissioner of the league for applying the rules of the game in equal measure to the two opposing teams. If they sided with one team or the other, they would lose their voice as a team of officials. If they did not remain impartial, theywould have to answer to the commissioner, and face the consequences for their lack of integrity.

The message was not lost on those who heard what the preacher said that day. The conflicts that are raging in our nation and around the world today will never be settled by pastors and their people siding with one warring faction or the other. The Church, the team of officials, must maintain the prophetic voice of their Commissioner and adhere to The Rule Book.

Pastors should never exchange the prophet's mantle, the shepherd's staff, or the two-edged sword for pom poms. When a pastor or his people take on the role of a cheerleader for a popular person or a particular political party, they violate the covenant of their office, and the mandate of their mission. The influence of the pastor's office does not come from associating with powerful people who are in authority. The power comes from a pastor being a person under Authority.

Jesus extended His highest praise for a Roman Centurion who came to Him requesting healing for his sick servant. Jesus offered to go to the man's home and honor his request. The Centurion said that he was not worthy to have His Presence in his home, nor was it necessary for Jesus to make the trip. He knew instinctively that Jesus needed only to say the word and His will would be done. He was familiar with the chain of command. He gave orders every day, and men carried them out based upon the authority of his Emperor in Rome. He saw in Jesus the same principle of power at work. By submitting Himself to the Authority of God, Jesus tapped into the power of God to transform people into the children of God. Scripture records the Centurion's insightful words, "For I too am a man under authority." Matthew 8:9

The role of prayer in spiritual awakening is all about keeping the people of God under the Authority of God. Whenever pastors lead their people to believe in other politicans and processes more than they believe in God and the power of prayer, they have forfeited their place in the chain of command. God's word is clear. The rule book states,

"First of all then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that they may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity...Therefore I want men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension." I Timothy 2:1-8C

Democratic elections have not always been held, and Christians have not always been able to select their own political leaders. They have been commanded to pray for them anyway. Paul told Timothy that God intended for His Church to be known as a source of prayer for and not criticism of "all who are in authority." Christians have not always played for the right team. They have sided with one party or the other and tried to muscle their way onto the stage of history by throwing their weight to one side and then the other. The Church must never forget that their voice comes from God, and His Rule Book is The Authority. His word must be applied equally to those who need God's direction, protection and correction. To do anything less is a gross misuse of power, and tempts God to pull His pastors and His people out of the game and replace them with those who serve under His Authority.

Pastors who take their opinions very seriously, but refuse to make prayer a priority need to remember the principle, "What a leader does in moderation, the people will do in excess." A prayerless pastor leads to an opinonated people and a powerless church. It is hard to believe, but people can convince themselves that it is possible to fix their problems without ever fixing their eyes on Jesus. Too often, the people in the pew model what they have seen from the pastors in the pulpit.

Jesus set the bar for anyone facing a crisis and in need of finding the power of God in the middle of it. He went to the Garden to pray on the night before He was crucified. His final words point us to the place that prayer is meant to bring us all...to the end of ourselves and to the beginning of God. The words of Jesus are the GPS for arriving at our correct destination in prayer, "...yet not as I will, but as You will." Matthew 26:29

The role of prayer in spiritual awakening: It is a wake-up call to the condition of our own hearts. Pridefulness leads to prayerlessness. Prayerlessness leads to carelessness. Carelessness leads to rebelliousness. Whenever anyone or anything becomes more important to us than being under The Authority of God we are in need of a heart transplant and a course correction. Prayer softens the hardness of our heart and replaces it with a willingness to yield to the touch of His Spirit on those areas of our life that have drifted out from under The Authority of His Word and the intimacy of His Presence. Prayer restores a fellowship with Jesus and allows His pastors and His people to hear His voice guiding them back to the place where they left their First Love.

Pray for those who are in authority. They need it and you need the practice. Don't subsitute a love for your party, your political celebrity or your country for a love for God's Son. America has no reason to exist without being "One nation under God." We get the kind of nation and the kind of leaders we pray for. Finding yourself in need of a First Love Awakening?...TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary and Dana Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries
c/o The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Ft. Worth, TX 76244
gmillerlight@gmail.com
Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Purpose

2011-08-19T05:15:00.012-05:00

"The fear of the Lord leads to life, so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil." Proverbs 19:23

Paul Revere's name has become synonymous with a ride made during the tumultuous days leading up to the American Revolution. His purpose was to warn the "Minute Men" of New England of an impending crisis. They were in danger due to the imminent arrival of the British forces that were marching towards them from the city of Boston. His message was not a symbolic gesture made in anticipation of inevitable defeat. It was not meant to sound a retreat in the face of overwhelming odds. He initiated a call to patriots to take a stand against a formidable enemy. The rest, as they say, is history.

I find it interesting that the name of our patriot horseman was Revere. "Revere" is an English word often used as a synonym to provide a contemporary expression of the phrase, "the fear of the Lord." Paul Revere was certainly an instrument used to put a sort of "the fear of the Lord" in the hearts of his fellow patriots. By their quick response to run to the sound of the guns, the "Minute Men" would effectively put the enemy on the run, and chase them back to Boston.

God's wisdom instructs us that, "The fear of the Lord leads to life." God expects His children to revere, respect and respond to His voice. There are times God's voice provides a calming, soothing touch to the restless heart that brings satisfied sleep in the face of a fear. On other occasions, God's word calls His children to awaken from their slumber, and to take their stand in the battle line beside their Champion, Jesus Christ.

There are times that a soul-satisfying sleep is a great expression of worship. It reveals a trust in the Omnipresent, Sovereign God to protect His children. Frantic and fearful children are not faithful representatives of The Father's loving concern for them. When they stay up all night talking about a crisis, or wrestling with it, they rob themselves of the rest they need, and they reflect poorly upon the Father's reputation in the eyes of others.

This Old Testament admonition is matched by the New Testament concern of The Apostle Paul, when he warned the Church at Ephesus, "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil...being subject to one another in the fear of Christ." Ephesians 5:15-21

Soldiers have always had to respond to the call to take their stand in the line of battle, if there was to be any hope for victory. Three times, in Ephesians chapter six, Paul urged Christian soldiers to take their stand. They were not called to charge or retreat, or to discuss or debate. They were expected to stand next to their Champion, and to be "strong in the strength of His might." (Ephesians 6:10) They were reminded to put on "the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm." (Ephesians 6:13)

In his book, "Turnaround Churches," George Barna described prayer as the church's world class weapon in the battle against evil. Prayer turns the eyes of prayer warriors towards the face of their Champion. Praying shifts their attention from their enemy, and locks their eyes onto the One who has already defeated, death, hell and the grave. They take their marching orders from their Commander in Chief. If Jesus doesn't panic, they will not panic. If Jesus stands firms, they will stand with Him.

The purpose of prayer is to provide the courage to stand and the boldness to speak in the face of an intimidating and relentless enemy.

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel." Ephesians 6:19

Prayer is the means by which the warrior calls on Jesus for the power of His Presence to demoralize and to defeat the enemy. There is no secret code ring necessary to tap into this power. There is no glib phrase or a magic mantra that unleashes the Manifest Presence of Jesus. His sole purpose in life is to respond to the call of God's children and to intercede for them. He is not trying to hide His Presence from God's children. Jesus, throuch His Spirit, is constantly calling His followers into His Presence. The feelblest prayer from the faintest saint ovepowers "spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Prayer reminds fearful prayer warriors that they are not alone, and provides them the courage to stand firm and speak up. Prayer reminds the enemy that their defeat is as certain, and His shield is more than "able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one."

There is an appropriate time for deep, satisfied sleep. There is a contentment and peace in knowing that God has taken the field, and Jesus keeps us untouched by the evil that surrounds us. There is also a time to hear a call from God's Spirit to awaken from slumber and to take a stand against evil. There are times when evil takes the field in defiance of God, and unless prayer warriors take their place beside their Champion, holy ground is given up that need not be conceded to the enemy.

There is a prayer movement taking place throughout the world. The Church has begun to hear the wakeup call to take their place in the battle line in an unprecedented way. This ride of The Spirit of God warns of a spiritual invasion that need not be tolerated. The Spirit calls for God's children to revere His voice and respond with courage to stand and boldness to speak against a spiritual enemy that has already been defeated. The battle trumpet rends the air. Run to the sound of the guns. Take your place next to your Champion. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. He will turn your fear into cheer. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

"The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless study, prayerless work, or prayerless religion. He mocks at our wisdom, laughs at our toil, but he trembles when we pray." Samuel Chadwick

Gary and Dana Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

C/O The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Ft. Worth, TX 76244

gmillerlight@gmail.com

Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Audience

2011-08-18T05:39:00.006-05:00

"O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together." Psalm 34:3

King David's Psalm of praise focuses on The Audience of One. When the glory of God becomes the priority of our lives, individually and corporately, everything changes. David's life never shined any brighter than when he was reflecting glory to God for the favor of God that was being directed towards him. David was not immune from becoming full of himself. His Psalm was an eloquent reminder to return humbly to The One who took him from the pasture and placed him in the palace.

Proverbs offers another powerful reminder to husbands tempted to think of themselves as the king of their own castle. Finding a good wife often leads them to the misguided belief that they are equipped to make her a better wife by finding fault in her. Finding fault with a gift from God does not increase the chances of finding favor with God. Don't change the price tag on something God values very highly. Praying with your wife reveals you share God's value system. He holds prayer and people very close to his heart. You should too.

"He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord." Proverbs 18:22

Since June of 1980, these two scriptures have taken on a significant role in my marriage. Dana and I had been married for three and a half years, when we came to the conclusion that we needed to take the focus off of ourselves if we were going to have any hope of building a lasting marriage. We were parents of a six month old baby girl, and actively serving on the staff of a growing church in a sprawling bedroom community of Oklahoma. We were stressed, stretched and struggling to make the transition from ME to WE. The harder we worked at our marriage, the more focused we became on our own navels. The new little bundle of blessing that arrived at our home added to the trauma and the drama of building a family.

A study of Luke 24 presented by my father, Don Miller, led me to believe that the two people on the road to Emmaus may very well have been a married couple. Recently, I came across an audio recording of the late, Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse. He was a great Presbyterian pastor who went home to be with the Lord in 1960. I was thrilled when I heard him make the same observation as my father. Reading the passage with this perspective has had a powerful impact on our marriage and ministry.

"And behold two of them were going that very day to a little village name Emmaus...and they were talking with each other about the things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them...And He said to them, 'What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?' " Luke 24:14-17

The couple had talked themselves into a dilemma that was moving them downhill literally and spiritually. What was required in their lives was a change of focus and a change of direction. In the middle of their conversation with one another, Jesus took the initiative. He broke in and asked them to tell Him what was on their minds. The husband, Cleopas, responded with a saracastic remark, but Jesus simply responded to his initial annoyance with two inviting little words, "What things?"

This is the point. The trauma and drama of crisis, real or imagined, can blind us from the only One who can make a difference in the middle of the chaos and confusion of life. Talking about a problem magnifies the size of it, until Jesus is not recognized as being available to do something about it. Praying takes the problem to Jesus, and He provides hope for a solution. HOPE arrives by H-Having O-Our, P- Perspective, E-Elevated.

One year ago, Dana and I responded to God's call to lead people to TALK LESS! and PRAY MORE! These four little words will change your direction in life. It is never too early or too late to start taking Jesus up on His invitation, "What things?"

Recently, I gathered with thousands of people in Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas for "The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis." I was not surprised by the secular cynics who sought to block this prayer meeting being called by a Chrisitan who also served as a governor of the state of Texas. I have to admit I shocked at the spirit of Cleopas that came growling out of the snarled lips of many members of the Christian community. They criticicized the man, the motive, the mandate, and the managers of the event. They missed the point completely. The focus of The Response was not on the one who inititated it, but on The Audience of One who called for it.

When the great spiritual awakening known as The Fulton Street Revival of 1857 broke out in New York City, it transformed a nation in crisis, and impacted a world with a message of hope. Newspaper editor, Horace Greeley, sought to document the prayer meetings taking place around the city during lunch hour, by dispatching reporters on horseback and by carriage to the various locations. They reported over 10,000 people were praying during the noon hour, and calling out to God to step in and pull the nation out of the current financial collapse. In one year, one million converts flooded into the churches of America. Millions more would be touched by this movement of the Spirit in America and around the world. Jesus stepped in then, and Jesus is knocking on the door of His church today. I believe with all my heart that He is still asking His people to talk to Him about what is going on in their lives and their nation.

Time will tell if the thousands who participated in "The Response" of 2011 in Houston, Texas or thousands more who watched the simulcast was a "flash in the pan" or if it was a signal of a movement of God that will have long lasting impact and divine duration. That decision is all in God's hands. What remains in our hands is "a nation in crisis." The question of Jesus to the couple of the road to Emmaus remains to be answered by us today. Will we keep talking to each other about it or answer His invitation to tell Him "What things?"

I choose to focus on The Audience of One, and respond to the call of Jesus to return to my "first love." The voice of critics, secularists or saints, must not drown out His call in my ears. I must tell Him more about "the things" that are on my mind. I must stop talking to others more than I talk to Him. He is The Audience I must focus upon.

Don't be confused about God's value system in these days. Talk is not cheap. It is costly! It robs us of hope, and blinds us from seeing the face of The Audience who is seated at the right hand of The Father, and is available to hear us when we pray. Jesus is available, and accessible and attentive. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary and Dana Miller, Founders/Directors

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

C/O The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Ft. Worth, TX 76244 gmillerlight@gmail.com Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Cost

2011-08-16T05:28:00.015-05:00

"Pray that you may not enter into temptation." Luke 22:40

Prayer is the currency of the Kingdom of Heaven. God uses gold for asphalt on the streets of Heaven, but He places His highest value on the prayers of His children. Jesus is seated at His right hand. God has assigned to His Son and our Savior the office of Chief Intercessor. His place and position are not merely symbolic, but are substantive expressions of the value system of His Father. By placing Jesus in close proximity to His throne, God communicates the prestige and the power He places on the priority of prayer in His Kingdom.

When Jesus challenged His disciples to pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was inviting them to take take up prayer as a world class weapon in their battle against evil. The disciples received His command as a sincere suggestion, but promptly treated it as an option, not a priority. They fell asleep. With the exception of a few wakeup calls, the Church as followed the lead of the slumbering saints in the garden for over 2,000 years. Jesus is still calling His disciples to pray, and they are still falling into temptation. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Recently, August 6, 2011, "The Response" was held in Houston, Texas. The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, had been convicted by the stories of previous leaders in American history who had called for days of prayer and fasting when the nation was in crisis. Organizers of the event entitled this good-faith effort to recall the days of Joel 2 as "The Response: A call to prayer for a nation in crisis." Reactions to the announcment were swift and loud and severely critical. Some of the most strident voices came from the "religious" community. They did not appreciate being taken to task by a politician. The more expected attacks came from the secular saints who did not see any reason for a leader to confuse his faith with his concern for his country. For them "separation of church and state" is a mantra and mandate of their chosen religion.

"The Response" was not a concert or carnival. It was not a political rally or preachathon. There was no promotional buildup of a VIP heavy program. There were no long introductions of celebrities. The concession stands dispensed bottled water, and little esle to the crowd of 35,000 plus people who spent most of the day in prayer and fasting. It featured prayer and praise that focused people on personal and corporate repentance. The doors opened at 8:00 AM and this prayer event lasted without a break until 5:00 PM. People of all ages, races and denominatinal persuasions called out to God for forgiveness for their sin, and asked God to begin something in Houston that would have a world wide impact. I count it as one of the great days of my life, to have witnessed such an incredible sense of the Presence of the Manifest Christ moving among His Church. It reminded me of the days of The Jesus Revolution of the late 1960's and early seventies. I left Reliant Stadium with a conviction that God was up to something and this was the beginning of a movement that only He could get credit for in the days ahead.

One of the voices I heard at The Response called for The Third Great Awakening. At the time, I did not question his zeal, but in retrospect, I might want to suggest a recount of his math. It is true that America was blessed with two great awakenings. The first was in the mid 18th Century, and the second was in the early 19th Century. Since that time awakenings, great and small have broken through the dark clouds of history, and their numerology and chronology can be a little confusing.

The First Great Awakening was birthed in the hearts of praying people of New England. Jonathan Edwards, pastor in Northampton, Massachussetts was a catalyst, and George Whitefield, evangelist from England was a carrier of this movement. Prior to the American Revolution, God used this awakening to restore a first love relationship in the hearts of backslidden believers, to introduce a whole new generation of Christians to the church, and to breakdown barriers between the colonies and the denominations as they focused upon their unity under the name of their Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Second Great Awakening emerged after the war for Independence from England. After fliritng with the Articles of Confederation, there was a focus on the formation of the nation under a new Constitution, followed shortiy with a second war with England. The rapid expansion of the frontier separated settlers from law and order and laity from the church. Alcoholism, lawlessness and atheism were rampant throughout he nation. There was the need of another course correcition. In short order, the wild and unruly frontier settlers were visited by a movement of the Spirit of God that birthed prolonged camp meetings in the wilderness and transformed itinerant circuit riding preachers into prophets on horseback. The churches of the land benefited greatly from this influx of new believers, but by 1857, the nation had drifted once again from a dependency upon God.

It is at this point in history of spiritual awakenings that I suggest a recalculation. The third great awakening may have already been given to the world through The Fulton Street Prayer Revival of 1857. Its sprang out of a passionate desire to call people to pray. Jeremiah Lamphier was a lay-missionary ministering with the Dutch Reformed Church in New York City. In 1857 he distributed handbills inviting men to join him for prayer during the lunch hour. Response to his request for prayer was meager at best and the numbers that met with him were miniscule, to say the least. Then it happened. Wall Street crashed. People lost savings, jobs, and hope. They turned to God in prayer in vast numbers. Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Herald Tribune, dispatched reporters by carriages to scenes of prayer meetings being held at lunchtime gatherings around the city and they reported over 10,000 in attendance in less than one hour. Within a year the "prayer revival" swept all over the United States and traveled around the world. In the United States over one million people were converted and affiliated with the churches in America. Countless other were impacted by what happened in this prayer movement. For the same impact to be experienced today, there would need to be 30 million converts added to the churches. By my count, and by its impact this may very well have been the third great awakening. It arrived just prior to the national calamity of The Civil War. It ushered many new believers into the a right relationship with Jesus prior to the carnage of 700,000 deaths and widespread destruction due to war between the States. It seemed to be the calm before the storm, not God's final answer to the nation's ills. It may have postponed the inevitable conflict, but it did not prevent it. Spiritual awakenings have their limitations. They often fall short of God's best due to the unwillingness of people to continue to follow the adjustments the Spirit of God requires to sustain them.

I believe what I saw in Houston on August 6th was a beginning of something only God can get credit for. In truth, I do not know how God calculates the order or the number of spiritual awakenings. I do believe He has at least one more in store for our nation and the rest of the world. I know this one thing for certain. I am praying for one more. Ultimately, I am not as concerned with the number given to it, as I am focused on the One who is able to send it. Call it what you want. Number it what you will. WE NEED IT!

My observation of the history of spiritual awakening leads me to believe that spiritual awakening is a community saturated by the character of Christ. Prayer is the climate that ushers in the movement of the Spirit. Prayer prepares us to set personal and corporate sails to catch the wind of Heaven. Praying for awakening for before it arrives, softens the heart of the intercessor. Prayer nurtures encouragement and expectancy in the lives of those who are asking God to do something only He can get credit for. Spiritual awakening, when it arrives, must be received whenever and through whomever it comes. It is not a subsitute for the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is a foretaste of it. When it comes it does not mean the worst is over. It may mean the worst is yet to come. When the Fulton Street Revival ushered in a great awakening, it came in the face of a Wall Street meltdown, and preceded tthe unprecedented death of thousands of young men. Spiritual awakening does not always bring peace. It sometimes brings a terrible swift sword of the Lord. Only God knows what will come in the wake of the next great awakening.

Periodically, God's people need to have their value systems recalculated, and their priorities recalibrated. Without His perspective, they begin to place more value on what the world holds dear to their heart, than what God holds next to His. God's children have to be reminded that the currency of Heaven is prayer. This is THE COST. Without prayer, His children are not going to experience spiritual awakening. In His Kingdom, God uses gold for asphalt, but He values prayer. God has seated His Son and our Savior at His right hand, and assigned to Him the office of Chief Intercessor. Prayer is close to His heart and right by the throne of His grace. Prayer doesn't purchase God's favor. It does not buy His love. The cost is not based on what we give to Him. God values our prayers based on what Jesus did to grant us access to Him in prayer. Prayer is how we show God how much we value His Gift to us. We close our prayers "In Jesus' Name" because we have no access to God without Him. God is not moved by the volume, intensity or eloquence of our prayers. He inclines to hear us when we pray, because we glorify His Son when we pray.

The grace of God has never been cheap. It cost Him His Son, and it certainly will cost us our convenience. If we contemplate for very long on the cost, God's grace will change our sleep patterns, our prayer life, and our preaching. In 1937 Bonhoeffer contrasted cheap grace and costly grace. He left his safe haven in America and returned to pastor his people Nazi Germany. He was imprisoned and executed by Hitler's personal order days before Germay surrendered in April 1945. He said,

"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance...grace without the cross, grace without Jesus, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has...it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him...the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock." Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "The Cost of Discipleship"

When the tears and treasures of this world tempt God's children to devalue prayer, God often orchestrates circumstances that issue a call to pray to Him for wisdom and understanding in the middle of their crisis of faith. "The Response" was the first dividend of these kind of passionate prayers invested in the bank of Heaven. The Fool consumes. The Wise invest. Gold and silver cannot hold their value when compared to the wisdom and understanding God offers to us through prayer. If you find yourself in need of knowing the right thing to do and the consequences if you don't do it...TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

C/O The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Fort Worth, TX 76244 gmillerlight@gmail.com Twitter@garydonmiller

Hurricane Allyson

2011-08-11T05:28:00.010-05:00

"Many daughters have nobly, but you exel them all." Proverbs 31:29

August 16, 1983, Dana and I were blessed by God with a little bundle of energy that has continued to energize and vitalize our lives for the past 28 years. On that day in Houston, Texas, Dana gave birth to our second daughter, Allyson Dawn. Even through the thickening haze of the delivery room, I could see she was beautiful...as I slid down the wall. You can probably guess that I am not a huge fan of husbands being allowed in the delivery room. I don't live and breathe Lamaz. I don't berate it, but I have to confess it was never a religious experience for me. I know! I know! Children are a gift from the Lord, and husbands should be interested in the culmination of the process, not just the initiation of it. I have heard it all, and I don't disagree with any of it. Im just saying that if you want me to cut the cord, you will find me with my head between my knees, seated on the floor, with my back against the wall, and cotton balls of ammonia in each nostril. Check please! I'm outta here!

A few hours after Allyson's birth, Hurricane Alicia hit Houston with a solid punch. Destructive winds, and torrential rain led to flooded streets and fallen trees. Resulting power losses forced the hospital to go on emergency generators. For two days, the fallen debris made it impossible for me to get back to the hospital to see Dana and Allyson. Since that day, I have often thought we may have picked the wrong name for our little girl. Allyson vs. Alicia is still a race too too close to call.

Fortunately, I have had the last 28 years to clear my head and to get a better view of what God was up to that day. I have needed every one of them. From the moment she entered my life, she has taken my breath away, in more ways than one. I was more than a little surprised by the challenge. After all, I was an old hand at the parenting gig. I had been broken in by her older sister, Ashley.

Between December 6, 1979 and August 16, 1983 I had been actively enrolled in Daddy 101. I didn't realize two little girls may come equipped with the same plumbing, but gifted with totally different personalities. What a surprise to learn that my effectiveness in raising one did not prepare me for the other. It has been a thoroughly humbling, and incredibly delightful journey learning afresh and anew the true value of the gift Dana and I received August 16th, back in the day.

Don't get me wrong. The scenery along the way has not always been pretty. The trip has sometimes had the chill and the thrill of a world class roller coaster. Just when I thought my lessons had been learned and the ride was over, I would hear the ominous...click,click, click, and her mother and I would hold on to dear life and shout out, "Lord, help us!"

As the scenes have sped by, some of what I remember includes:

Diving into our pool in Tempe, Arizona to save her from drowning...twice in one day. I was fully clothed in my Sunday best, hosing down the cool-deck, and she was right beside me, holding my pants leg. Seconds later, I looked over my shoulder, and she was rolling over in the water like a dead fish. I dove in, pulled her out, and revived her. I recall hugging her and yelling at her all at the same time. She did it again that evening. Dana taught her to swim before she turned one.

Racing after her in Borger, Texas. She was always running! This time she was headed towards the street and about to cross the path of an on-coming oil field truck. The driver and I locked eyes. He was terrified. He knew he couldn't stop, and I knew she wouldn't stop. I ran after her, and dove. I knocked her down, just before she reached the curb. The driver slammed on his brakes and with the sound of screeching pads, and smoking tires slid right past us. He had his head on the steering wheel, and I had my hands over her ears as I heard the Panhandle French coming out of his mouth.

The valiant effort she made to stop sucking her thumb was epic. I saw her admiring a red wrist watch in Ann Holt's Boutique. She wanted that watch...bad. I told her I would get it for her if she stopped sucking her thumb for just two weeks. We went home and made a calendar and every day she brought it to me and crossed off a day she didn't suck her thumb. She hit her mark in 14 days. I still recall watching her sit in front of the TV set, and as she gradually fell into her comfort zone she would raise her hand to her mouth. Just before she put her thumb in her mouth, she would visibly shake and try to throw her hand away. It was a tremendous act of the will, and it gave me a little insight into what was in store for us.

She always held us accountable to our standards. One day we decided to set the bar for watching TV in our home. If there was a curse word spoken by an actor, we would turn off the TV or change the channel. During a particular intense episode of some long-forgotten suspense show, a word popped out. With the remote in my hand, I kept watching, totally absorbed in the drama. She looked over her shoulder at me, nodding her head toward the TV and making the motion with her hand to hit the remote. I was really ticked, but God had placed a munchkin prophet in the house. I hit the remote.

Breakfast at Burgee King! I started dating Allyson when she was almost four. We went to breakfast every Thursday morning until she graduated from high school. I held the door for her to get in and out of the car. I held her chair for her, and treated her like I would want a man to treat her on a date. The first time we went out, I taught her three little words to say if she was not treated with the kind of respect she deserved. "Take me home!" One Wednesday night we were driving home after a long day at church, and I asked her if we could go to lunch instead of breakfast. She didn't answer. It was very quiet in the back seat of the car. Dana leaned over and whispered in my ear, "That is all she has talked about all week." I immediately rescheduled the big event for breakfast, and she started laughing and talking again. Note to Dads: It is never too early to start treating the women in your life with the respect they deserve. Little girls get their self-respect from their Dad. Today we go to Starbucks.

She has always been a great little sister. I always loved hearing Allyson brag about her big sister, Ashley. She always spoke with glowing praise of her beautiful singing, and any other achievement she made in life. Her total lack of jealousy for her sibling may be her greatest expression of her character. They did their share of fighting at home, but she always had her sister's back outside of the home.

One day I called Allyson's elementary School to speak with the principal. The crisp, clear voice on the end of the line answered, "Bill J. Elliot Elementary School, how may I help you?" I expressed my need, and the receptionist said, " She is in a meeting, may I take a message, and have her return your call?" Something familiar about the sound of her voice caused me to ask, "Allsyon?" She replied, "Yes?" I said, "This is Dad." She responded, "I know that." In other words, she was at work, this was all business, and I should expect no special treatment. I was stunned at her poise, and professionalism. She was in fifth grade. Takes after her mother.

She has the heart of a runner and the spirit of an athlete. Her junior year in high school she ran the mile and two mile event. The two mile came at the end of every track meet, and made for a long day of waiting. At the Georgia Regionals she was up against a solid field of accomplished runners and the eventual state champion. She finished second that day, by gunning down every other runner in the field on the last lap. By the stunned looks on their faces, they were taken by surprise. By the time she was heading into the final turn, every athlete and coach had taken notice of what was happening on the track and they were all on their feet cheering for her, screaming at the top of their lungs. They knew she could not possibly come in first, but they knew she ran with the heart of a champion. Dana and I almost passed out with parental pride. Priceless!

Later that summer she accepted the challenge to skip her senior year in high school and go directly into her college studies. She crammed four years into three, and saved us a bundle of money by graduating a year early at the age of 20. Remember I told you she has always been a runner at heart. She missed graduated with honors by a fraction. Que pasa?

She has always had a great love for people, and rarely meets a stranger. I have never seen anyone more adept at connecting with people, young and old. This has turned out to be a real asset. She is now a recruiter for Dallas Baptist University, and calls on businesses all over the metroplex to discover people who may have a need for higher education.

This past week Allyson graduated with her Master of Arts in Leadership from Dallas Baptist University. The University administration has expanded her duties and given her a significant raise as a result of her completion of her second degree with them. We are so proud of her accomplishments, and have a deep conviction that what we have seen is only the beginning. God has a great destiny in store for her.

When Allyson hit our beach a few hours ahead of Hurricane Alicia back in 1983, she took my breath away. She still does. Thank you Allyson for making such an impact on my life, and for allowing me the privilege of being known as Allyson's Dad.

God bless you! Love,

Dad and Mom

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Reunion

2011-08-10T06:06:00.013-05:00

One day in mid-May 1980, I received a call late on a Saturday night at my home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a booming bedroom community outside of Tulsa. I had already gone to bed anticipating a busy Sunday at church where Dana and I were serving as the Associate Pastor of Student Ministries of First Baptist Church, B.A. The caller on the other end of the line introduced himself with a rich, deep, baritone voice as the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Houston. I was really taken aback. Instinctively, I covered the phone with my hand, and whispered to Dana, "It's Ed Young! Calling me!!" Actually, it turned out to be Dr. John Bisagno. WOW! Even better!

That phone call ended with an invitation to visit Houston on Memorial Day weekend and consider an offer to move to the city and help Dr. Bisagno pastor 3,000 single adults. Dana and I accepted the challenge to move that August and take on the assignment. As they say, "The rest is history." We spent three years in the fastest growing city in America, at the peak of the oil boom and "Urban Cowboy" culture. It was wild and crazy. Houston had three times the population of San Antonio, and the same number of freeway miles. It was terminally infected with road rage, and "Love Ya Blue" fever. It seems everyone in Houston was from somewhere else. A native Houstonian was a rare as a four leaf clover in a parking lot. Folksy, cowboy hat wearing coach "Bum" Phillips led the NFL, Houston Oilers, and his down home witticisms were always an inspiration. For the uninformed, the Tennessee Titans have their roots in a team once cheered as the Houston Oilers. Miss Ya Blue.

There were 750,000 single adults living in Houston in 1980, and we had a ton of them at HFBC. I don't know what I thought singles ministry would be like, but it involved alot of counseling. The most surprising aspect of all was that it involved a boatload of PRE-MARITAL counseling. The church employed three full time wedding coordinators, and held weddings every weekend. We conducted over 300 weddings a year, and they were often scheduled in rapid fire processions on Saturdays at 10AM, 2PM and 6PM. You get alot of single adults under one roof and you are going to have alot of weddings. Go figure.

Typically, we would have 10-15 singles a week join the church and baptize over 200 of them a year. Not bad for one staff member, and a part-time secretary. I often pointed out to the finance committee that every one of them had a job, and the 1,000 single adults attending Sunday School each week had the same stewardship punch as a church of 2,000 married adults. It never did any good. We were offered the least desired Sunday School space, and denied every request for additional assistance. With all the weddings, we were constantly having to reconfigure our leadership team. The turnover was enormous, but it was a huge boost to the attendance in the Married Young Adult area. After three years of burning the candle at both ends, I had 21 ulcers and a very weary body. I knew I wasn't going to be able to sustain the pace for much longer.

Dana and I led a weekly service for Single Adults on Friday night in the chapel. It started at 8PM and we called it "8's Thee Place." Later it morphed into the more agressive brand, "Single Hearted." This was our mission statement regarding the ministry: Single Hearted: Marked by sincerity and unity of purpose. The purpose of the ministry was to develop churchmen. We were focused on developing people you could count on, not just people you could count. While other ministires in town dealt with the touchy, feely, group hug, and gave singles dating tips, and advice on changing their oil or balancing their checkbook, we pointed them to the Word of God and prayer. Still works. Always will. Nuff said.

We were blessed to be associated with some of the finest people in the world. When we arrived in Houston, Henry and Wilma Hansen adopted us into their family. They treated our six month old daughter, Ashley, as if she was one of their own. Henry was director of our oldest single adult department. He was one of the greatest deacons to ever serve at HFBC, and he was a dear friend to me. Henry went home to be with the Lord not too long ago, but Wilma is still an active member of HFBC. She still sits in the same place in church each Sunday, just one seat over, and she still helps them count the offering. She is the original church lady. Dana and I easily found her in her place when we attended worship on August 7, 2011.

Following the worship service, Steve and Donna Bell hosted us for a reunion luncheon at a Mexican restaurant not far from HFBC. For four hours we were immersed in a steady stream of blasts from the past. It had been almost 28 years since we had seen one another, and although most of the other parts of our bodies had been rearranged, our hearts were all in the right place. It was a memorable time filled with laughter, tears, hugs, stories, and ALOT of pictures of children and grand children. It was a sensory overload of emotion and energy.

I was able to give a brief update of The Response, and thank them for their pastor's participation in the event. Greg Matte is doing a great job leading HFBC into the 21st Century. It did not surprise me to learn that Dr. Bisagno is his greatest cheerleader, and when he is in town he sits right up front to show his support for his pastor.

The Single Adults of HFBC were the first to put out a welcome mat for our youngest daughter, Allyson. She was born 28 years ago this month, the day before Hurricane Alicia hit. It was great getting to introduce her to people who have loved her from the day she was born. Donna and Steve, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am sorry it has taken us so long to get back to Houston. Dana and I look forward to doing this again, real soon.

Following the reunion, Dana and I headed to Katy, Texas to reconnect with Ray and Nancy Lewis. Ray was a deacon at HFBC, and the director of one of my youngest Single Adult departments back in 1980-83. His calm, quiet demeanor was always a great balance to my youthful, wild-eyed intensity. Ray is now 84 years of age, but I still feel my blood pressure lower when I am in his presence. Ray walked by my side faithfully for three years, and guided me away from more than one land mine. He is a pastor's friend, and his wise counsel was always a welcome relief to me. Dana was not sure the Lewises had forgiven us for taking Allyson off to Arizona. When she was only a month old, we moved to take on the pastorate of First Southern Baptist Church of Tempe. It was a long way from Ray and Nancy. Fortunately Allyson was with us when we arrived, and they let us in the house. We spent a very short hour reconnecting the love lines, and having prayer out on their patio before we headed back to Fort Worth.

The reunion we experienced in Houston is a foretaste of what God has in store for us in Heaven. Good friends are never really separated by time and space. When they get together after a long separation from one another, they just pick up where they left off in their last converstation. Love relationships are like that. They are seamless and solid, strengthened by a God-given bond that cannot be broken. We are grateful for the little taste of Heaven we were able to enjoy this past weekend. Thanks Donna and Steve for your kindness and hosptiality. FYI: Next time does the hotel have to be right next door to the Galleria? Just sayin'.

Until we meet again...TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary and Dana Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries
C/O The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Fort Worth, TX 76244 gmillerlight@gmail.com Twitter @garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! The Response

2011-08-09T05:23:00.025-05:00

"He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself. And he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you. Reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:7-10

Calling people to prayer takes the courage of a lion and the hide of a rhinoceros. When the focus is on calling pastors to return to the priority of prayer, I suggest gargling with testosterone, and adding extra body armor. From the disciples in the Garden to the ministers of today, there has always been a subtle temptation to drift away in slumber from the priority of prayer. Waking up someone from a deep sleep seldom results in a pleasant response. The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis, held in Houston's Reliant Stadium on August 6th generated a wide pendulum swing of reactions. They ranged from open hostility, to benign neglect, to active participation. Excuses were many, criticsim was great, but God's call to pray was heard by thousands in spite of the opposition. The harder the opponents of The Response kept shoveling out the criticism, God kept shoveling in His favor. They shoveled out. God shoveled in. God's shovel is bigger than theirs. Always has been. Always will be. Nuff said.

In "Words to Winners of Souls" (1877), Horatius Bonar quoted the personal confession of pious Puritan preacher, Richard Baxter,
"And for myself, as I am ashamed of my dull and careless heart, and of my slow and unprofitable course of life; so, the Lord knows, I am ashamed of every sermon I preach; when I think what I have been speaking of, and who sent me, and that men's salvation or damnation is so much concerned in it, I am ready to tremble lest God should judge me as a slighter of His truths and the souls of men, and lest in the best sermon I should be guilty of their blood. Methinks we should not speak a word to men in matters of such consequence without tears or the greatest earnestness that possibly we can; were not we too much guilty of the sin which we reprove it, it would be so."

Bonar added his own confession, "We are not in earnest either in preaching or hearing. If we were, could we be so cold, so prayerless, so inconsistent, so slothful, so worldly, so unlike men whose business is all about eternity?"

For 73 intense days, Dana and I were privileged to take part in an effort to mobilize Texas Baptist pastors to participate in The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis. It was Governor Perry's Joel 2 call for a solemn assembly held at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas on August 6, 2011. You may want to mark that date down for future reference. Something special took place more important than any Super Bowl that will ever be played in that stadium.

My small part in this great day began when I was invited to attend a meeting in Houston re: The Response on May 24th by David Lane, a long-time friend. David and I met for the first time in August of 1980, while Dana and I were serving as Minister to Single Adults on the staff of Dr. John Bisagno, Senior Pastor of Houston's First Baptist Church. During those three years at HFBC, we were so pleased to see David meet and fall in love with his future wife, Cindy. It was not love at first sight, but Cindy heard from God, and obeyed His call. She took on the daunting mission assignment, and married David. When she got on board the Lane train, we hosted their rehearsal dinner in our home, and our oldest daughter, Ashley, was a flower girl in their wedding. Years later, when I pastored in Fort Worth, David served as one of my finest deacons. He has always been a pastor's friend. God has placed a call on David's life to encourage pastors to turn their hearts to God, and to lead their people to turn the nation back to a focus on a Holy Spirit awakening. He prays for me every day. Dana and I have always felt honored to have him ask us, "Can you help me?"

The meeting in May was hosted by Doug Stringer. Doug and Lisa lead "Somebody Cares," a tremendous ministry in Houston with a world-wide impact. They are two of our newest friends. Their lives are a remarkable story of God's grace, and they bring to the table powerful prophetic and diplomatic skills that can cross generational, ethnic and linguistic lines with superb organizational ability. Doug stook his neck out for The Response, but without losing his head. He became the on site coordinator and communicator for The Response, and God used him to bridge divides and smooth waters that prepared the way for a movement of the Spirit in Houston prior to August 6th. Doug, John the Baptist would be proud of you, and maybe even a litte jealous. Baptists are like that sometimes.

The first week of June, I received a call from the Director of The Response, Luis and Jill Cataldo, dear friends from I-HOP in Kansas City, to assist the amazing Alice Patterson with mobilizing Texas Baptist pastors to take part in the event to be held in Houston on August 6th. I called Alice and asked her to pray for our efforts. After that, she never looked back. The lady is a lazer of light in the darkness. Alice, "Many daugthers have done nobly, but you excel them all." (Prov. 31:29). The web site went public for the first time on June 6th, and our first Response Team conference call took place on June 9th. For anyone who is counting, that is roughly 60 days lead time to mobilize pastors to get their people to a stadium in Houston that seats 71,000 people. We needed a miracle, and God was on the move.

To put the challenge into a more personal focus, I am an interim pastor of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. This a great country church with an attendance of thirty people, meeting for the past 107 years, 50 miles north of Fort Worth. It is a wonderful group of sweet people, but not considered the kind of platform from which to leverage Texas pastors who often associate size with significance. When I walked into the church's one Sunday School class on July 31st, they had prominently written across the little white board, PRAY FOR THE RESPONSE IN HOUSTON - AUGUST 6TH. I was moved to tears by their participation. So was God. The prophet Zechariah contained a warning in his question, "Who has despised the day of small things." Not God! He is not leveraged by the prominent or the dominant. He is moved by the slightest whisper of the smallest saint who calls out to Him for help. There must have been ALOT of small churches praying to a big God. Some larger churches sat on the bench. Mt. Pleasant brought their A-Game. Just sayin'.

In some cases the response to the call to prayer in Houston was underwhelming, but often, it was soul-stirring. I was so honored that pastor friends, Ricky Griffin of Amarillo would take time from serving as a pastor at Trinity Fellowship in Amarillo and take his place in prayer. Lakan Mariano drove from San Angelo to Houston to pray for 30 seconds on the platform of The Response. John Yarborough, made the journey from the mountains of north Georgia to intercede for an awakening. They were not alone, but these three men are poster boys for many men who set aside time out of busy schedules to "pray" their part in a call to God to do something only He could get credit for.

In July 2010, Dana and I began our fledgling prayer ministry, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! After ten months, we were hardly in a position to set aside a ministry we were trying to get off the ground, and volunteer for two months for The Response. In spite of our 35 year investment in Texas Baptists, we felt inadequate for the task of mobilization on several levels.

In light of this, God impressed me I needed to take my personal preparation for The Response to another level. I began to read, "Preacher and Prayer, by E.M. Bounds. I reopened, "Words to Winners of Souls," by Horatius Bonar. It contained, "The Ministerial Confession of 1651." This is a remarkable, startling corporate confession of the ministers of The Church of Scotland during a national crisis. I soon learned calling people to pray and praying are two different things. The Father began to awaken me at 4:oo AM every morning, and I spent three hours of prayer with Him before I began my work of mobilizaiton. It has been an amazing time. Getting up has not been a problem. One morning, I awakened to the sound of someone pounding on my front door. I bolted out of bed and with heart racing, and adrenaline pumping, I looked through the spy glass on the door, but no one was there. I think I heard the Holy Spirit say, "Good morning!" Believe me I was awake before the coffee was made.

The next person I called in this mobilization effort was Ted Elmore. Ted and Cheryl have been leading Texans to pray for years. In the middle of their battle against Cheryl's breast cancer, Ted met me for prayer every week, and took time to provide great counsel and assistance in getting word out to Texas pastors re: The Response. His intimate association with Southern Baptists of Texas was key to this. Many thanks to Jim Richards, Executive Director of the SBTC, and Gary Ledbetter, Editor of The Texan for their willingness to cheer Ted on and to encourage SBTC pastors to support an event they did not plan. May your tribe increase!

Everyone who took part in preparing for The Response, those who attended in Houston, attended a simulcast or logged in on their computer have a story to tell. This is mine. About a week out from August 6th, I began to sense we were going to have a crowd. My concern shifted from mobilizing pastors to sending a personal invitation to an Audience of One. I began to believe we were getting traction for The Response, but I feared we might draw a crowd and miss putting the welcome mat out for The One Person who could make all the difference in the world. I began to pray to The Father to allow His Holy Spirit the elbow room He needed to take part in The Response, and to glorify The Manifest Presence of The Risen Christ, His Son, and Our Savior, Jesus Christ. This was more about me getting it right, than God getting an invitation, but I'm glad I prayed this way. It calmed my fears, and focused my eyes on Him.

Another person who stepped in at crunch time was an old friend, Ron Harris. He helped me to make connection with radio stations throughout Texas who he knew would be willing to assist us with getting the information out regarding The Response. Thanks Ron for lending us your impeccable professional credentials and solid reputation at a critical time when we needed help in clearing the air of all the negative media coverage. Among many, Sharon Geiger at KCBI was a messenger from God. I am grateful, and God was pleased to use your influence to give us favor for such a time as this.

Each team member and attendee of The Response had to overcome obstacles to get to Houston. Some fought cancer, unsupportive church boards, suspicious and cynical critics from the right and the left, and all faced scorching August heat. Dana and I live by faith, and and get paid by works. We had worked hard prior to The Response, blessed with several ministry opportunities. It looked like our needs were being met in time for the big day in Houston. Our work was growing, but our faith underwent a test when the checks we were expecting to arrive were still in the mail before we had to leave home. We left Fort Worth with gas in our car, and eight dollars in our pocket. Our personal and ministry accounts had enough money to allow us to purchase gas to get to Houston. We were not sure we had enough to get back. At best, we would be traveling on fumes when we pulled back into town late Sunday night. We prayed, and went anyway.

Our weekend schedule was tightened and brightened by our daughter Allyson's graduation from Dallas Baptist University on Friday. After she received her M.A. in Leadership from DBU, we grabbed a few quick pics, a quicker lunch, and headed to Houston. We made it to and through Houston in four hours during the peak of rush hour, a miracle indeed. We arrived in time to serve at the welcome desk and register program participants for an organizational dinner at the Reliant Stadium. It was our first time to meet many of the people we had only known by conference calls. Jim and Sharon Garlow, from San Diego arrived together as the sun was setting and the heat/humidity index was oppressively hot. During the ramp up for The Response, she and Jim have been fighting a battle with her cancer at M.D. Anderson. She could see Reliant from her hospital room. She would look from her window during treatments and pray for God to meet her there. Her prayers were answered. She showed up and so did God.

I was able to introduce Dana to Rebekah Ayodele, a beautiful Nigerian prayer warrior who had been praying for years for this kind of solemn assembly to be held in Reliant. From the day the stadium opened its doors, she had been praying and annointing the entrances with oil, asking God to bring His Presence to Houston for a day such as this. The stadium may be the home of The Texans, but The Saints were in the house! It looked like a gathering of the United Nations. Late Friday night, we checked into the hotel and fell into an exhausted sleep.

Dana, Allyson and I were asked by Wayne Hamilton, an amazing and gifted special event coordinator to assist his team with some final behind the scene responsibilities. Dana and I have come to love and appreciate all they do to make events like this move from dream to reality. We also responded to Jill Cataldo's request to assist with the Hospitality Team. This meant we arrived at the stadium at 7:45 AM, and would be on our feet all day. My back went out that morning as we were leaving the hotel. I had to lean on a chair most of the day, but I had a great view of what God was doing out front, and behind the scenes at The Response. When the doors opened, Allyson and I were standing stage right, just beneath one of the huge projection screens. I was praying that the people would come. In spite of all the preparaton, my heart was still in my throat. THEN IT HAPPENED. The doors opened, and the aisles filled with people racing down the steps to the main floor. It was an unending stream of people, RUNNING to enter the room, and to get to the FRONT of the stage. I remember saying to Allyson, with tears in my eyes, "They're coming!" I had to add, "They must not all be Baptists because they're not sitting in the back. They are moving to the front!"

From 8:00 AM-10:30 AM there was a steady flow of people entering the room, and taking part in the prayer and praise that was being offered up for personal and corporate repentance. One of the stadium reperesentatives told us their estimate at that time was 35,000 people. It's their house. They should know. With the coming and going of the day from 8:00 AM-6:00 PM, I would not be surprised if the number of people who came to the event did not exceed 50,000. You feel free to watch the video on http://www.theresponseusa.com/ and make your own guesstimate.

You may not appreciate all of the music or the volume of it, but it didn't seem to bother God. He was there, smiling like a proud parent at a child's birthday party at "Chuck E. Cheese." Senior adults looked on with smiles on their faces as they watched young people worshipping God in a way that they could not fully comprehend, but they totally embraced. My favorite memory of the event involves Richard Ford. He moved from the reserved section out onto the floor of the arena. While the young people danced to the Lord, Richard whirled his battery operated chair in a circle with his head thrown back and a huge smile beaming toward Heaven. Richard is my new hero. I want to be like him when I grow up. Side note: It probably helped that I left the stadium with Bill and Vonette Bright's son, Brad and drove him to Walgreens to buy all the ear plugs they had. When we returned Brad handed them out to grateful senior saints. He could have sold them for a bundle. Remember the eight dollars? The thought crossed my mind, but Brad is a better Christian than I am.

This one thing I know. God's people prayed up, and God showed up. My prayer was answered when The Audience of One arrived on the scene. No one stole the show away from God. No one took His seat of honor. The focus was on Him from the beginning to the end. Governor Perry disappointed his critics by not turning it into a political rally. However, he probably angered them more by praying in the name of Jesus. Throughout the day, children, young people, and senior adults did the same thing. Personal prayer times and prayer groups were initiated from the audience, as well as from the platform.

In mid-July, I was invited by Luis and Jill Cataldo to participate in prayer on the platform at The Response. I love spending time with this couple. They know how to pray and how to laugh. A great way to live. They brought incredible energy and endless grace to a huge task. It is not easy to tell preachers of international prominence to keep their remarks under seven minutes. They kept control of the platform and made sure the prayer meeting did not turn into a preachathon. I am proud to call them friends. I was given 15 seconds to express a prayer focusing on the First Commandment. It doesn't sound like much time, but Luis encouraged us all to be in prayer as we walked to the stage, and allow him or Doug to simply place the microphone before us. They would break into our intimate converstation with the Father, and let others listen in. It made sense to me, so I timed the words, "Father, forgive us for exalting our systems and overshadowing our Savior, in the Name of Your Son, Jesus, Amen." When I got to platform, we were told we were ahead of schedule so the game plan changed to, "Ignore the timer, and let 'er rip." It is hard to believe, but I was a little annoyed. I had already memorized a perfectly good prayer, and now I had to shift gears. So much for prepared prayers. They never seem to work for me.

On a personal note, when I left the platform, I walked back stage and was met by my daughter, Allyson, who gave me a big hug. Right behind her was my wife Dana. She had her cell phone to her ear. I could see from her face that the conversation was important, but it was apparent that it delivered good news. She looked up at me with a smile on her face and announced, "The checks arrived!" What timing! We would be able to get home after all. It always pays to TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Response was a call to prayer for a nation in crisis. That crisis continues, and will not be solved by the change of political leadership, turnaround of the economy, or restoration of national pride. Trusting in politicians, pursuing wealth, and building armies have put us where we are today. The paradox of our dilemma is not lost on God. We worship money, but our currency is engraved with the words, "IN GOD WE TRUST." God is not mocked, and doesn't suffer fools gladly or endlessly. The Response was a call to repentance. Tony Evans took only six of his seven minute time slot and left 60 seconds of change. He pointed us to an exit ramp, that requires the bridge of God's grace for us to continue to cross over the wrong road. He reminded us that turning to access the entrance ramp to the right road must continue. Turning our lives individually and corporately in the right direction is a begining, not an end in itself. We must remain focused with our eyes on Jesus long enough to see His face clear enough to know when He knows enough is enough. A look from Jesus should be enough to give His Church direction, protection and correction.

We left Houston in love with Jesus. A look from Him will quickly remind us if we ever leave our First Love. Until then, join us and enjoy the journey towards a First Love Awakening as Dana and I learn to TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary and Dana Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries
c/o The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Fort Worth, TX 76244 gmillerlight@gmail.com Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

2011-08-05T05:54:00.002-05:00

"It is easier to speak or write about revival than to set about it. There is so much rubbish to be swept out, so many self-raised hindrances to be dealt with, so many old habits to be overcome, so much sloth and easy-mindedness to be contended with, so much of ministerial routine to be broken through, and so much crucifixion of both self and of the world, to be undergone. As Christ said of the unclean spirit which the disciples could not cast out, so we may say of these: 'This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."

So wrote Horatius Bonar in his powerful, magnum opus to ministers published in 1877. He entitled it, "Words to Winners of Souls." Bonar was a Scottish pastor, preacher, hymn writer and prolific author. His life and ministry spanned the 19th Century from 1808-1889. It is hard to believe the kind of impact that the voice of he and his brothers had on several generations of Scottish believers. Parents often named their sons after these lions of the pulpit. Long before contemporary milk-toast media ministers marketed their brand of Chrisianity, Horatius Bonar and his peers held sway in the land. God, I miss these kind of men.

Recently I was asked if I was reformed. I have been asked that alot lately. I have started responding to the question with this statement, "No I am more radical than reformed. I am redeemed." If you are interested, let me explain. If you mean reformed as in soul-winning George Whitefield, revival praying Horatius Bonar, and Bible preaching Charles H. Spurgeon, count me reformed. I am not impressed by much of what I see that calls itself reformed today. It tries to bully people into a Johnny come lately five point position that does not leave the Holy Spirit any elbow room to usher in the kind of Spiritual Awakening that followed in the wake of undeniably reformed men of God.

My studies have led me to believe that genuine Spiritual Awakening is a whole lot messier than raising hot house plants. It requires a resurrection, and periodic checkups that enable the Church to receive blood transfusions for courageous living.
This is nothing new. Horatius Bonar's quote mentioned at the top of the page is actually the thoughts of a minister in the 17th Century. Bonar went on to say,

"Such was the way in which he set about personal and ministerial revival. Let us take an example from him. If he needed it much, we need it more."

August 6th I will particpate in The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis. This day was officially called for by Governor Perry of Texas, based on a Joel 2 model for prayer and fasting. Although there is ample historical evidence of founders fathers, and subsequent government leaders calling for a day of prayer and fasting, Perry has been ridiculed by critics from the Left and the Right. Both extremes have taken their best shots, and done a great deal to intimidate the muddled middle into befuddled silence. Afraid of their own shadow or any sudden sign of life in anyone else, many main-stream ministers have chosen to prey on the event rather than pray for it. Every great movement of God has had to experience detractors and distractions prior to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

So the big day has finally arrived. The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis. When this day was set aside, no one could have known what kind of crisis our nation would be experiencing on August 6th. Unprecedented heat has parched the land. Unreasonable greed has paralyzed Washington. Unstable markets have stolen away life savings. Unconfessed sin leaves the Church in no shape to lead the way out of the darkness. It is indeed time for a day of prayer and fasting. I don't care who called it, I plan to be in Houston, and take part in it. Hope you can make it, but if you can't, pray for us. We need it, and you need the practice. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

I have to go pack, so read what Horatius Bonar would say to you if he were here. He wrote these words to his peers in the 19th Century. They reach out to us with a bold blast from the past.

"We have not been men of prayer. The spirit of prayer has slumbered among us. The closet has been too little frequented and delighted in. We have allowed business, study or active labor to interfere with our closet-hours. And the feverish atmosphere in which both the church and nation are enveloped has found in our closet, disturbing the sweet calm of its blessed solitude. Sleep, company, idle visiting, foolish talking, and jesting, idle reading, unprofitable occupations, engross time that might have bee redeemed for prayer."

Gary Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries
c/o The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Fort Worth, Tx 76244 gmillerlight@gmail.com Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

2011-08-03T05:33:00.015-05:00

"Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor the onslaught of the wicked, when it comes; for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught." Proverbs 3:25-26

"Man's extremity is God's opportunity." George Whitefield

"Do not be afraid of sudden fear..." What a simple and yet profound statement. Sudden fear...For crying out loud, is there any other kind? Fear confronts us all with the options of fight or flight. In spite of the "NO FEAR HERE" warning label on the package, the adrenaline starts pumping through our veins, and our heart starts pounding when God's unexpected "opportunity" slams into our "extremity."

Don't get me wrong. When the scary spectre of death, destruction OR destiny jumps out of the dark and stares us in the face, fear is generated. God sometimes wraps His greatest gifts in the scariest packaging, and ties them together with the strangest ribbon. Prayer is God's way for His children to bring what He gives to them back to Him, so He can make sense out of it for them.

The couple on the road to Emmaus, apparently witnessed the crucifixion of their friend, Jesus. However, it did not increase their faith, it confused them. Their traumatic experience blinded them from seeing The Risen Christ. They just couldn't make sense out of what they had seen happen to someone they loved so much. When Jesus approached them on the road, He asked them what they were talking about, and He received a full dose of Semitic sarcasm. "Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem, and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?" Luke 24:18

Rather than react in kind, Jesus provided the classic response to them and to anyone else who is ever overwhelmed by death and destruction and in doubt about their destiny and deliverance. He answers their question with a question. "What things?" Luke 24:19

Jesus gave these two people the greatest invitation ever been extended to people confronted by F.E.A.R. The real truth is this...False Expectations Appear Real. It takes the Person of Jesus to walk people through their fear, and to make sense out of what they don't understand by pointing them to the Word of God. "What things?" is still the question Jesus is asking His followers to answer. He lives to make intercession for them. His mission in life is to sit at the right hand of the Father, receive the prayers of His Church and lift up their requests to His Father for them. Talking about fears does not make them go away. Praying about fears places them in the hands of the only One who can turn the IMPOSSIBLE into the HIMPOSSIBLE.

"Nor the onslaught of the wicked..." There are enemies in the physical and the spiritual realm that do not wish the people of God well. They are dedicated to the mission of an ancient adversary who existsts to steal, kill and destroy. Christ followers are not immune from the attacks of those who sought to kill the Founder of The Church. Prayer is the means by which the people of faith seek the direction, correction and protection of their Champion, Jesus Christ. Talking about their extremity caused the couple on the road to Emmaus to miss the opportunity to see Jesus in the middle of their dilemma. Prayer seeks the face of God, and calms the hearts of His children. Talk expands the extremity in the eyes of His children and blinds them from the Presence of His Son seated at His right hand, available to do what they need done the most. What to do? TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

"When it comes." It is not a matter of if, but when some frightening extremity will step out of the dark and shout, "Boo!" When it jumps out, it always comes as a surprise. In spite of the warning from God's word, the adrenaline starts pumpling, releasing energy to run, but not always the wisdom to choose the right road. Jesus warned His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before He was crucified, "Pray that you may not enter not into temptation." Luke 22:40

Entering into temptation in a prayerless condition is disobedience to the Word of God, and it is disrespectul to The Person of Jesus Christ. Delayed praying misses God's opportunity, and prolongs our extremity. What to do? TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
So herein lies the lesson. If you feel you are caught in a trap, check your mouth. Feeling caught and being caught are two different things. Prayer enables you to catch yourself before you fall into the trap of talking and discussing what you fear the most. Don't fail to pray to the Lord. He is the Source of your confidence. Only Jesus can make sense out of what you fear, real or imagined. Sudden fear may often be self-inflicted. Fear that is self-inflicted can also be self-deflected by praying as soon as it shows its frightening face. You may be pleasantly surprised that by shutting your own trap you won't be prone to falling into Satan's trap. Prayer may be your first step out of the darkness of doubt and fear. Prayer allows you to hear the sound of sandled footsteps walking right beside you through some of the scariest extremities life can bring. Jesus is the Great Intercessor. He is still saying to His followers, "What things?" What are you saying to Him? TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary and Dana Miller
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries
C/O The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Ft. Worth, TX 76244 gmillerlight@gmail.com or Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

2011-08-02T09:41:00.009-05:00

The night before He was crucified, Jesus went to The Garden of Gethsemane to pray. He gave this challenge to His disciples.

"Pray that you may not enter into temptation." Luke 22:40

Jesus withdrew from them a short distance, knelt down and began to pray. The disciples fell asleep. When Jesus saw them sleeping, He reminded them that their prayerlessness was an invitation to the enemy.

There is a contemporary misconception about Satan. It is the misguided belief that the adversary is unable to hit a moving target. This may be why so many Christians refuse to slow down, and why most church calendars fill up with endless activities. Believers who live in the fast lane often end up out of gas on a dead end street. They were tempted to believe that God's business is expressed by busyness. It may be closer to the truth to understand that busyness often leads to barrenness. Prayerless people may be doing more, but the chances are they are enjoying less. Succumbing to the tyranny of the urgent, they forget what is most important. This temptation is nothing new in Satan's arsenal of spiritual weapons, but it is still highly effective.

In 1877, Horatius Bonar confronted his peers, the pastors of Scotland, with his book, "Words to Winners of Souls." He wrote,

"Why is there so little anxiety to get time to pray? Why is there so little forethought in the laying out of time and employments so as to secure a large portion of each day for prayer? Why is there so much speaking, yet so little prayer? Why is there so much running to and fro, and yet so little prayer? Why so much bustle and business, yet so little prayer? Why so many meetings with our fellow-men, yet so few meetings with God? Why so little being alone , so little thirsting of the soul for the calm, sweet hours of unbroken solitude, when God and His child hold fellowship together as if they could never part? It is the want of these solitary hours that not only injures our growth in grace, but makes us such unprofitable members of the church of Christ, and that renders our lives useless. In order to grow in grace, we must be much alone. It is not in society - even Christian society - that the soul grows most rapidly and vigorously. In one single, quiet hour of prayer, it will often make more progress than in days of company with others."

To find out the condition of your heart, you only need to use two diagnostic tools: your calendar and your checkbook. We spend time and money on the things we believe are important. The more we value something or someone, the more time and treasure we invest in that or them. Taking a look at a church calendar, and a church budget will often tell you what a church values. When the corporate preferences are polled and identified, then funds are designated by the church for a staff member to come on board to provide leadership to an area that reflects what the church family holds dear.

Setting aside time to get alone with God was and is something on which Jesus placed a very high value. His time on earth then, and His time in Heaven now is lived in close proximity to His Father. Seated at the right hand of The Father, Jesus lives to make intercession for His followers. What He is and what He does are inseparably connected. It is not a stretch to say, His Church ought to reflect His value system.

When the system overshadows the Savior, it squeezes out His value system and replaces it with a poor substitute, personal preference or political correctness. Nearness to God, and busyness for God do not accomplish the same thing. The disciples felt comfortable enough with their separation from Jesus that they could lower their guard and sleep. Jesus warned them that this was a habit that would lead them down a path they did not want to go. They slept anyway. Sound familiar?

The awakening needed in this nation and around the world begins with a wake-up call for slumbering saints, not a change of presidents, a surge in the economy or a victory over terror. The wise Christ follower will never yield to the temptation to believe anything else matters more than getting alone with God and praying for His protection, direction, and correction.

Exhausted from your busyness? Don't sleep away time better spent with Jesus. At the end of your rope? Stop making rope! Loosen your white knuckled grip on your personal preference, and clear your calendar for a life-changing encounter with Him today. The old hymn said it pretty well, "Tell it to Jesus." TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary and Dana Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Ministries

C/O The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Ft. Worth, TX 76244 gmillerlight@gmail.com or Twitter@garydonmiller

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

2011-08-01T11:37:00.013-05:00

Horatius Bonar was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in December 18, 1808 and died in that very city July 31, 1889. His death took place 122 years ago yesterday, but his words are as powerful today as the day he initially addressed them to his Scottish peers.

Bonar was a man with a passion for prayer and spiritual awakening. In 1877 he published a manifesto on personal repentance to ministers entitled, "Words to Winners of Souls." Bonar challenged the pastors of Scotland to remember their heritage. This was no nostalgic stroll down memory lane. He took them in short order to The Ministerial Confession of 1651. It had been prepared by the Church of Scotland during a national crisis of monumental proportions. This remarkably politically incorrect document was a passionate call for the pastors of Scotland to accept their responsibility for the conditon of their land. It was not a swan song, but a siren. The Confession of 1651 had all the subtley of a bugle blast. It was a medley of Reveille, Recall, and Charge. There is a timely word that bears repeating to any contemporary church, that finds herself in need of a new reformation. It describes:

" Refined hypocrisy; desiring to appear what, indeed, we are not. Studying more to learn the language of God's people than their exercise. Artificial confessing of sin, without repentance; professing to declare iniquity, and not resolving to be sorry for sin. Confession in secret much slighted, even of those things whereof we are convicted. No reformation, after solemn acknowledgements and private vows; thinking ourselves exonerated after confession. Readier to search out and censure faults in others than to see or deal with them in ourselves. Accounting of our estate and way according to the estimation that others have of us. Estimation of men, as they agree with or disagree from us."

WOW! What a statement..."Refined hypocrisy...thinking ourselves exonerated after confession." Apparently, 16th Centuray hypocrites would feel right at home in the 21st Century arena. No generation has ever officially honored hypocrisy. It is usually done with a wink and a nod through back room dealings, and behind the scene wheelings. Being called out as a hypocrite is bad enough, but to have your own peers give a shout out that you have turned it into an art form had to be an intimidating experience for the boys of Knox in 1651.

The ministers of 1651 were in need of a spiritual encounter with the Word of God. They had successfully pursued an intellectual faith, but they had not learned their lessons well. It should not have surprised them. They had to know from even a cursory study of the Bible that Jesus saved His harshest words for the hypocrites. Jesus did not suffer fool's gladly, but he had a special disdain for the self-righteous who put on a false front with a fake door and never led people into The Light. He rebuked religious people who knew how the sytem worked, were willing to work it to their advantage, and kick His Heavenly Father to the curb.

The church, The Bride of Christ, has never been in a greater need of a renewed focus on the only One who can restore their first love for The Groom, Jesus. The lesson from Horatius Bonar's book is urgently needed in 2011. In every generation, The Church, both pastors and people need to fall in love with Jesus. After all, He is the One who called for the First Love Awakening. In 1651, the Scottish Reformation had run into deep trouble, and The Confession of 1651 was issued. In 1877, just 20 years after the Great Prayer Revival of 1857, Bonar saw the same coldness creeping into the hearts of his peers and their people. There is a pattern here. Each generation needs to respond to the call of God to return to their First Love.

It has been over one hundred years since Bonar quoted the heart condition of one man who became a key prayer (not player) in America's First Great Awakening. This movement of God swept up and down the eastern seaboard of the American colonies twenty years before the American Revolution. Prior to it, one pastor in the small town of Northampton, Massachusetts cried out to God, praying:

"I have greatly longed of late for a broken heart, and to lie low before God." Jonathan Edwards

Edward's statement describes the condition of my own heart. It leads me to call out to intercessors, as we begin the final week of preparation for The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis. It is to be held at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas on August 6th from 10 AM- 5 PM. Thousands have registered on-line. Only God knows if they are people we can count on to show up or if they are people we can only count on to sign up. The stage has been set. The call has gone out. The waiting begins.

As I pray about the event that will soon be taking place, I find myself waiting and wanting for an audience of One to show up. When Holy God shows up in Houston, all will be right. If a huge crowd shows up, but we miss Him, all will be wrong. In truth, we only need One Person to show up for The Response to become something only God can get credit for. Pray that we will settle for nothing less than The Manifest Presence of the Risen Christ, and that His Holy Spirit will sweep through those who are present with a cleansing power and a healing touch, breaking the power of sin in their lives. Please pray that what God begins in Houston will become a sanctified tsunamai that transforms the lives of people throughout the world with a spiritual awakening that has the handprints of our Sovereing God all over it.

Gary and Dana Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

3717 Mossbrook Dr. FT. Worth, TX 76244

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

2011-07-30T06:09:00.013-05:00

Horatius Bonar,1808-1889, a popular Scottish pastor and preacher and a prolific hymn writer and author, has been a hero of mine since 1972. When I left home for a two year assignment to East Africa, my father, Don Miller, gave me a copy of Bonar's small book, "Words to Winners of Souls." Recently, I have sensed a call to return to it, and it has been a real blast from the past on several levels.

First of all, I made extensive notes in the book. This is a habit of mine, and it has served me well when I pick up a book and read it again. The notes have revealed to me my earliest steps in the direction of personal and corporate spiritual awakening. On another level, it brings to light the need for a revival on a regular basis in the life of a pastor and his people, no matter what century, country, or community they may serve.

The great tragedy of American Christianity may be an arrogant belief that the Church has outgrown or matured to a point that it no longer needs to heed any call from God to return to a personal, private, consistent companionship with Jesus. Bonar's book, "Words to Winners of Souls," was published in 1877, but it makes reference to the condition of the Scottish church in 1857. It was not a pretty picture. He called his peers to personal repentance and corporate contrition by reminding them of their heritage, and republishing the Church of Scotland's Ministerial Confession of 1651.

This Ministerial Confession of 1651 waas prepared and placed before the pastors of the land when their country was locked into a life and death struggle for survival in a war with England. Oliver Cromwell's forces had proven to be a powerful adversary and the Church of Scotland was on the brink of collapse in the midst of the chaos, confusion and conflict raging throughout Scotland. Every Scottish school boy of 1877 knew the chronology and consequences of these great events, but Bonar pointed the pastors of his day to The Confession of 1651 as a reminder to them of their responsibilty to keep their own hearts hot for Jesus, regardless of the tempestuous times in which they lived.

A brief review of The Confession of 1651 reveals a perpetual, and potent danger that stalks the leaders of the Church in every generation. Pastors constantly face the temptation of allowing the system to overshadow their Savior. In doing so, they may be faithful in carrying out their perceived duties within the Church system, but at the same time fail to maintain their personal intimacy with the Savior who gave His life to establish His Church. In 1651, after self-examination, and personal reflection, the pastors of The Church of Scotland confessed they had been guilty of spending more time in the work of The Lord than they had been spending with The Lord of the work. They had taken great pride in their reformed root system that had grown out of the powerful teaching and preaching of John Knox, but in less than a century, they had lost their focus on Jesus.

I believe the dilemma and the response of the pastors of The Church of Scotland in 1651, and Bonar's call to his Scottish peers in 1857 is a guideline to pastors in America and around the world in 2011. Allow me to share some selected quotes from The Confession of 1651 and see if you agree. Perhaps your own heart has grown cold and even if it is hotter than ever, you could benefit from a reformed reminder with a contemporary exhortation that "except for the grace of God, there go I."

Bonar states, "In the year 1651, the Church of Scotland, feeling in regard to her ministers 'how deep their hand was in the transgression, and their ministers had no small accession to the drawing on of the judgments that were upon the land' drew up what they called a humble acknowledgement of the sins of the ministry. This document is a striking and searching one. It is perhaps one the fullest, most faithful and most impartial confessions of ministerial sin ever made. A few extracts from it will suitably introduce this chapter on ministerial confession. It begins with confessing sins before entrance on the ministry."

"Lightness and profanity in conversation, unsuitable to that holy calling which they did intend, not thoroughly repented of. Not studying to be in Christ before they were in the ministry; nor to have the practical knowledge and the experience of the mystery of the gospel in themselves before they preach to others. Neglecting to fit themselves for the work of the ministry, in not improving prayer and fellowship with God, opportunities of a lively ministry, and other means and not mourning for these neglects. Not studying self-denial, not resolving to take up the cross of Christ. Negligence to entertain a sight and sense of sin and misery, not wrestling against corruption, nor studying mortification and subduedness of spirit."

OK! That's enough for me for now. Trust me, there is more, but this has to be taken in small doses. Too much light in your eyes will blind you! You also have to get your King James Version on to weed through the overgrowth of prose, but the truth is there if you are willing to look for it.

What caught my eye was the phrase hidden in the middle of the opening salvo of The Confession of 1651. I have emboldened the words for you. In every generation, prayer and fellowship with God are opportunities for a lively minstry. They knew then what we need to remember today. The way you come on is the way you go on.

Pastors who pray their way into the ministry need a gentle reminder to pray their way through the ministry. The more we learn, the more we tend to trust our own experience and expertise. With a little bit of success, or a few wins under our belt, the first thing to get kicked to the curb is humility. With the gaining of professional skills comes a confidence in our ability to perform the tasks required of the system. An active, personal prayer life often atrophies due to an apparent lack of need for advice or counsel from God. This is a dangerous way to live, and invites a relentless adversary to hit a pastor when his guard is down.

Before you recoil at this suggestion, let me ask the question, "Have you prayed too much and enjoyed too much fellowship with Jesus today?" Yeah, me neither. So it seems that in every generation, it falls on pastors to lead the way through the darkness of the system and shed more light on their Savior. Good to know, but it hard to do in a storm, when the winds of turbulent times keep knocking out the power lines! Regardless of the political, financial or social upheaval that surrounds you, don't settle for anything less or place your trust in anything other than personal intimacy with Jesus. The chill in your heart will always be removed by the thrill of getting closer to Him. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Gary and Dana Miller, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! MINISTRIES

CONTACT INFO: C/O The Whitefield Project 3717 Mossbrook Drive Ft. Worth, TX 76244 gmillerlight@gmail.com

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

2011-07-27T06:49:00.006-05:00

I can't remember when I was first introduced to Oswald Chamber's devotional book, "My Utmost for His Highest." I do recall that it had all the clarity of sanctified heiroglyphics. I found out later that it had been compiled as a labor of love by his wife, following his death in 1917. She took her notes from all of her husband's presentations and put together this remarkable, daily guide that has impacted the lives of millions.

Dana and I introduced this book to our children, Ashley and Allyson, when we held our morning devotions. Our girls patiently listened, but later admitted they were clueless most of the time about what Chambers meant. I have to agree, Chambers is an acquired taste. His use of the English language is a bit daunting, probably stemming from his professorial bent, and the change in the meaning of words over the past 100 years.

Still, there have been times when the light has shown so brightly in the darkness that the truth of what he was communicating became truly self-evident. My friend, Bob McEwen, is fond of saying, "The Jeffersonian prose, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident...' is a polite way of expressing, 'Any fool ought to get this." Spot on Bob!

There is one Oswald Chamber's statement I often refer to that came as a bolt of light into my own world of spiritual darkness on May 3, 2001. I read it in my copy of "My Utmost for His Highest" as the final words of the May 3rd daily devotional.

"Discernment is God's call to intercession, never to fault-finding."

These ten little words have had a profound impact on my life. In short, they have led Dana and I to invest the rest of our lives in challenging believers to TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

There is hardly a day that goes by that I am not tempted to say what I think, or to say more than I know about another person. The topics of religion and politics are just two areas that draw out an unending flow of a my humble but accurate opinions. I am not alone! Talk radio, cable TV, mainstream media, and casual conversations have a way of becoming independent lecture series that shed more heat than light on just about any subject, celebrity or fellow believer.

No doubt, God gives His people insight regarding the condition of a person's soul and the state of affairs of the community in which they live. The purpose for this insight from God is often misunderstood by His children. It is not a call to bring critcism or ridicule upon someone or their belief system. It is given as a Heaven-sent call to stand in the gap for them, and bridge the chasm by the means of intercessory prayer.

It is difficult to continue to hate someone, when you are praying for them. It is not impossible, just harder. This should not be a surprise to Christ followers. In His Constitution of the Kingdom (Matthew 5-7), Jesus said,

"Pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Matthew 5:44

Early on, Jesus took a dim view of those who were prone to talk about someone rather than pray for them. Too often the family of God is known more for its aggression than for its intercession. The great tragedy is that the toughest words of criticism a follower of Christ ever speaks are are often directed towards fellow members of God's family.

I have often repeated a little piece of ministerial humor, "Where ever you find two Baptists you will always find three opinions." Indeed, we are known as a skeptical and suspicious people who do not warm up to strangers who operate outside of our Baptist Bubble. We are not a peculiar people in this regard. The Church is made up of a patchwork quilt of prejudices and personal agendas that constantly keep us on our guard from those who would invade our turf or steal our sheep.

So what is a sincere response to a legitimate concern about a person's behavior or beliefs? TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Chambers said it more delicately and with an English accent. Nothing dresses up the truth like a Brit's way of using the King's English. Almost 100 years later, the printed message carries a powerful punch, even if it is wrapped in Kid's gloves. The point is this. When God gives you discernment about another person, it is not a call to criticize, ridicule, or reject them. It is not an invitation to speak your mind. It is a test to see if you are willing to bend your knees and call out to God on the behalf of someone who is in need of your prayers.

Wrapping ourselves up in our own personal piety and rejecting people we do not agree with on non-essential doctrinal issues leads to the development of a critical spirit. Furthermore, fault-finding seldom corrects the flaw in the person in whom we find the real or imagined fault. People are funny like that. They really do not have much appreciation for the person who publicly depants them. Go figure.

The call is to pray for people you discern are in danger of believing the wrong thing or moving in the wrong direction. Why should your response be one of intercession? Simple...They need it and you need the practice. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

GMillerlight4U

Gary and Dana Miller
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! MINISTRIES

Contact Info:
C/O The Whitefield Project
3717 Mossbrook Drive
Fort Worth, TX 76244
gmillerlight@gmail.com
817-975-5054

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

2011-07-26T09:28:00.008-05:00

One year ago, July 4, 2010, Dana and I entered into a new adventure. We launched our prayer ministry called TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! This is something that we had been talking about for over 20 years, and we finally had the courage to take the leap of faith to launch it.

We do not have an office building or support staff. We sold our home and have chosen to rent a house for the forseeable future. We sold our car, and we are now driving a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee that belongs to our youngest daughter. She had no use for it when the AC went out on it, and was told it would cost $1,200.00 to repair it. Our future son-in-law was able to get it repaired for less than $100.00. Pray with us that it lasts thru the summer! With 213,000 miles, Car Max offered us $500.oo for our Jeep, but we believe our Jeep is here to stay.

This past year has been full of exciting new adventures. We have travelled to 18 states, numerous hotels, and conducted TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! in some of the finest churches in America. Our trip to Israel in February of this year was a dream come true. Dana has received a good report from her oncologist, and she and I are training for a half marathon in December. Our daughters have brought us great joy this past year. Allyson graduates with her Master's in Leadership from Dallas Baptist University on August 5th, and Ashley marries Brent Warren on September 16th. We have all been busy!

Please pray for our next great adventure. We serve on The Leadership Team of The Response USA. You can find info on it at the website http://www.theresponseusa.com/ This meeting is a call to prayer to a nation in crisis. Governor Rick Perry issued a Joel 2 call for a solemn assembly of prayer and fasting 60 days ago, and since that time we have been mobilizing Baptists to head to Houston's Reliant Stadium on August 6th. This will not be a carnival, concert or conference. It will not be a politcial rally, patriot party or preachathon. There will be no food concessions, book tables, t-shirts, DVDs or CDs. People are encouraged to bring bottled water and bended knees from 10 AM - 5 PM, and enter into a time of personal and corporate repentance. At this time 50,000 people are registered. It has become a bug light for every activist and atheist looking for a camera and a microphone, so there will be a crowd even if the praying Christians stay home.

Thank you for praying for us during the past year. Please keep it up. We are so pleased that God has entrusted to us the privilege of teaching people how they can find relief in the middle of any crisis when they TALK LESS! & PRAY MORE! Talking has a way of magnifying the danger of the crisis, and praying has a way of magnifying God in the middle of it. Continue to pray with us and for us to be one of God's Magnifiers.

Gratefully Yours and Prayerfully His,

Gary and Dana Miller
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! MINISTRIES

Contact info:
C/O
The Whitefield Project
3717 Mossbrook Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76244
gmillerlight@gmail.com
817-975-5054

You Too

2010-12-23T12:27:00.010-06:00

There is still time left in the season to say, "Merry Christmas!" In just a few short hours, the long anticipated day will come and go, and the opportunity to greet people with these two words will settle down for an eleven month long nap.

A few years ago, I began to challenge people to say, "Merry Christmas." I had done some anecdotal analysis, and come to the conclusion that the words were losing their popularity even among Christians. They had been pushed off the scene by generic substitutes, "Happy Holidays!", "Season's Greetings!", and the like. I don't think the atheists in this part of the country are ever going to win the battle for the use of "Winter Solstice." Who can spell it?

Another personal discovery that I found interesting was the benign backlash that this greeting seemed to produce. Upon hearing, "Merry Christmas" people often responded with a mealy mouthed, and modestly mediocre, "You too!" It was a one-sided greeting to be sure. Such tepid response revealed that my effort in introducing Christ back into Christmas stirred more confusion than conviction.

Again, most of my experience for the past 35 years has been in the local church. This is a place where cradles, cantatas, candlelight carols, and crashing camels still reign supreme at this time of year. Alot of effort goes into these pageants, and programs to make sure the message is loud and clear, "Jesus is the reason for the season." Hopefully, the people they influence will get out from under the camel, go out of the auditorium with an understanding and an appreciation for what God did when He sent His Son into the world to be a Savior that could cleanse people from their sin. What a waste of time if it does not create a warm hearted desire to wish God's best on someone else this time of year with a gentle, and simple, "Merry Christmas!"

I am on my annual Christmas Crusade to challenge Christians to add two words to their vocabulary this year, and to get rid of two more. You may have already guessed what the first two words are. That's right. I encourage Christ followers to say, "Merry Christmas!" The other two words I encourage them to refrain from using are, "You too!" To say that this is an unacceptable response from someone who has been blessed may be an understatement. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "It is the least we can do."

Now, don't get me wrong. The spirit of this greeting is the key to its impact on the intended receiver. It is not enough to shout it out like a battle cry of defiance in the face of those who we hate for not using it. When people use it as a shout out to atheists to bully them to get with the program, it just sounds like, "Go to hell." In other words, it loses alot in the translation.

I believe the purpose of celebrating Christmas and Easter are very close to the purpose of salt and light, characteristics of the kind of followers that please Jesus so much. For people who have never had a taste of salt, a little dab with do you. For those who have been in the dark, a bright light is more blinding than illuminating. Let your greeting to those who may not share your passion be firm, and unapologetic. Let it also be graced with the reminder that, except for the grace of God you would be sitting in the dark with a bland taste in your mouth.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

GMillerlight4U

THE YEAR OF TRANSITION

2010-12-14T13:58:00.015-06:00

In the spring of 1977 my parents, Don and Libby Miller, resigned from their 11 year pastorate on Long Island, New York and moved to Fort Worth, Texas. They believed they were being led of God to begin a prayer ministry at a time when Deeper Life Conferences, Bible Conferences, Revivals and Crusades were all the rage. I remember hearing a seasoned veteran of the Texas church scene chide Dad, and tell him that he was crazy to try and conduct four day prayer conferences. He told him to stick with revivals because no one in Texas was doing prayer conferences. Dad's response was, "That is why I am going to start doing them." To Dad it seemed perfectly logical to step out on faith to do what God had called him to do.

After 34 years, and over 1000 prayer conferences, Dad's faith in God then has proven to be a safe bet today. He was a wise man to listen to the voice of God, and not the conventional wisdom of his day. You would be hard pressed to find someone in Texas who is making a difference, or making a living conducting four day revival meetings. Makes you wonder if there had been more emphasis on prayer if we might be experiencing more revival. But I digress.

During the last three and one-half decades, Mom and Dad have travelled to 48 states. The two Dakotas were the only holdouts. Still, they have crossed the borders to Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, India, South America conducting what he called Bible Based Ministries Prayer Seminar. To most people it was known as the "Don Miller Prayer Conference." He virtually gave away his little green and gold notebook on prayer, and spread it like seed corn all over the world awaiting a harvest of a new generation of prayer warriors.

Mom and Dad have ministered to missionaries, Mayans, Minnesotans, mainstream and no name churches all over the world. They have paid their own way when a church could not afford the travel expenses, and they have returned the love offering when they saw that the church needed it more than they did. Their selfless devotion to their passion for prayer has been a catalyst in the lives of many preacher boys who today are leading their churches to be a House of Prayer. What the world sees today as a revival of prayer is in no small measure a product of the prayerful perspiration of two people who have lived and developed a ministry from a small office in a 1400 sq. ft. home on the east side of Fort Worth for the past 33 years.

I will never forget staying in their home while they were on the road. When the phone would ring, it would always hold a lesson in geography. One day I handled calls from Australia, Hong Kong, England, Scotland, and a half dozen states. I often thought that in another dimension spiritual forces were at work all around that small home. It must have been a message center for angels coming to and fro carrying urgent requests for a movement of God. No wonder the word of God warns us to never despise the day of small things.

There are people who have made prayer a science and others who seem to have cornered the publishing market on the subject. Dad always kept it simple. "Prayer is the intimate communication between the Heavenly Father and His child." To him that meant that prayer was something that a person was meant to do. It was not a subject to be taught, a book to be bought, but an intimacy to be sought.

This meant that over the years Dad has been an early riser. He would begin his day sitting in his "Prayer Arbor." It was a swing, supported by a wooden frame, and topped with a fiberglass, corrugated roof. Nothing fancy. It was where he met God every morning spending the hours of 4-7 AM listening to Him, and conversing with Him. Rain or shine, cold or hot Dad was in his Prayer Arbor keeping his most important appointment for the day. He practiced what he preached and what he preached rang with the authenticity of a genuine walk with God. This was his secret. There have been those over the years who have wanted to teach his stuff, but did not have the right stuff when it came to prayerful preparation. When Dad prays it is not a performance, but a continuation of a conversation that began early in the day. When he teaches on prayer, he does not approach it as a subject but a reconnection with someone he longs to be with.

Last month, Dad met with his board of directors of Bible Based Ministries. At his request, they voted to close down their organization. It was a bittersweet moment. After 34 years of ministry a transition was going to have to take place. Don't get me wrong. Dad is still able to preach and teach, but the wear and tear of traveling has become more and more difficult for them. They have enjoyed preaching for pastors in the area who have arranged to pick them up and bring them to their church to preach. This has been a blessing for the church and for my parents.

This has been a year of transition for them, and it has become one for Dana and myself. After 20 years of praying about following this direction of our lives, we have stepped out on faith. Dana believed God was leading us in this direction over a year ago. It has taken me longer to get used to the idea of releasing the pastorate as my expression of ministry, but the time was right in July of this year. The past five months have provided me a growing sense of freedom and purpose about what is ahead. We have a growing confidence that God has called us to take up this mantle of prayer, and continue what Mom and Dad have begun. It will take on a different expression, but it will still have the main focus. We will continue to share with people that prayer is the intimate communication between the Heavenly Father and His child.

When we shared this new sense of direction with Dad, we were not surprised that he said he had felt this same leading from God for some time. When I hesitated in resigning and moving ahead with the leap of faith, he said quietly, "If God has called you to do this, you might want to think about being obedient." I'll let him share with you the commissioning that he gave us as we began this journey.

"What I have had in my heart, I have placed in your mind, and I have called on God to let it come forth from your mouth. This will mean that my ministry continues through you. There have been those who have wanted me to pass this mantle to them. They may have never asked for it directly, but I knew what they were seeking me to do. I have felt for some time that it would be you who would take on this ministry.

Since you were a child, I know God has been up to something in your life. Your mother and I were impressed to include my name in yours, Gary Don Miller. This may have been more prophetic then than we knew. It means something. It is more than a coincidence that this ministry is taken on by you, and that my name is carried on by you.

It is also interesting that you were born on a Sunday morning right after I preached, and after you were born that day I was able to return in time to preach that night. I was able to share the news with the congregation at the evening service that God had given us a son. Your ministry logo may carry a new name, but the message will be the same. The definition of prayer will always be 'intimate communication between the Heavenly Father and His child.' " Don Miller

After meeting with Dad's board, and our lawyer, Dana and I were impressed to commission this new ministry, "The Whitefield Project." God used this 18th Century preacher, 1714-1770, as a spark to ignite The First Great Awakening in America. We are praying for God to do something through us that only He will get credit for. The prayer journals of George Whitefield often called people to prayer with the reminder "Man's extremity is God's opportunity." George Whitefield

We are excited to be a part of what God is up to in the world today. Thank you Dad and Mom for believing in us, and passing this baton to us. Thank you dear friends for praying for all four of us during these days of transition. Mom and Dad will continue to preach and pray in churches that open their doors to them. Dana and I are going to spend the rest of our lives equipping couples, parents, and people of all ages and stages of life to utilize prayer as the foundation for family worship. The hope of our churches can only be built on the firm foundation of praying people who live out what they believe among those that know them best, and know them at their worst.

"The Whitefield Project" is a non-profit organization with a board of directors recognized by the State of Texas. Tax exempt status has been applied for with the Internal Revenue Service, therefore year end gifts and contributions to The Whitefield Project will be recognized as tax deductible.

If you need more information on how to schedule a "Pray2Gether" Prayer Conference, contact us at the following address or phone number. If you are interested in acquiring a DVD set of the Don Miller "Bible Based Prayer Conference" let us know. We have a limited number available for the low cost of $50.00 (price includes shipping).

Dr. Gary and Dana L. Miller
The Whitefield Project
3717 Mossbrook Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76244
gmillerlight@gmail.com
817-975-5054

Happy Birthday MOM

2010-12-11T10:14:00.009-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 90 YEARS OLD TODAY! Thank you for letting us share this great day with you. This is a huge celebration for you and your entire family and we are grateful that we get to share it with you!

Dana and I wanted to share some things about you that have had a great impact on us. We are grateful for...

Your courage to face the unknown with a look to the future that God has in store for you.

(One of my favorite stories about you is the train trip you made by yourself from Monroe, Louisiana to Orlando, Florida. You left your mom and dad at home, and you boarded a troop train loaded with rowdy soldiers right in the middle of WW II. You traveled to another state, planned a wedding and married your fiancee without a parent to stand with you on the special day. You and Dad have always made a great team, and the 66 years of marriage that you have shared is a treasure to us all.)

Your support that you have shown to your husband. You have been an example to us of a wife who knows what it means to love in sickness and in health.

(I will never forget the way you ministered to Dad during his two year battle for life after his emergency surgery in 1975. You endured the relentless round of surgeries, and prolonged recovery with a gentle grace under fire. Since 1997 you have been the tireless care giver who organizes the endless doctor visits and keeps him on track with the right medications. You are an inspiration to us at this time in our lives. )

Your extended family that you have shared with us.

(You have so many sons and daughters in the ministry, and we have always been proud to introduce our friends and church families to you. They all end up calling you Momma. I'm not sure I am in the will, but I am confident that a few of them are. This might be an awkward time to mention it, but we need to talk about that power of attorney thing later today.)

Your love that you have expressed to your children that has allowed God to take them on different paths, but has always provided an open door that has let them come back home.

(I know you have said over the years that you loved us all the same, but I still think that you loved Joy the best. I can't help but bring up that painful issue about moving Joy to Baylor. You influenced our workaholic Dad to make a two week trip out of it. He loaded the VW van, and pulled a U-Haul trailer filled with girly type stuff to Waco. For days you set up her room on the sixth floor of Collins Hall with carpet, curtains and comforter. It was a revelation to me that the love for a daughter was different than a mother's love for a son. Three years earlier, I had left New York in my 1966 Renault to head to Waco. I remember you waving from the porch as I pulled out the driveway. The pain still lingers, but even my therapist says I have to move on.)

Your gift of writing.

(Mom, you may not believe this but you are a great communicator, and your letters are a treasure. I always loved getting a letter from you. Whether I was at college, overseas or on assignment in a faraway state, your letters were always a tremendous encouragement. You have the ability to make great scriptural application, and current events read like an action novel. Thank you for shedding the light when we were in some pretty dark places.)

Your adventurous spirit.

(I remember driving you and Dad across the Serengeti plains in a Land Rover. There were no roads that we could recognize and the terrain had been torn up by migrating herds of antelope. It was rough! I found out later that you had undergone gall bladder surgery just a few days before you left the States. That was when surgery was done with a knife and not a scope. You were determined to go to East Africa, and not let a "little" pain get in your way. When the dictionary prints the term "steel magnolia" your picture is right by the definition.)

Your sanctified sanity that keeps a gentle rein on the divine designs of the men of this family.

(Mom, you have always buzzed around a conversation between Dad and I and acted like you weren't eavesdropping. The worst kept secret in our family is the fact that you can hear a mouse burp in the next room. Nothing ever gets by you. I remember Dad and I talking one day about getting a piece of land on a mountain in Vermont, and either building a cabin or refurbishing an older home. We thought it would make a great home place for the family. You were doing what you always do in the kitchen while we were talking at the table, kinda moving around. In one smooth move you glided by the table and injected these words of wisdom with your soft Mississippi drawl, "God called me this far north, and I was obedient to His call. He never said anything about wintering in Vermont. This is as far north as I go unless God speaks to me about it." I don't think Dad and I have used the word Vermont in a sentence in 35 years. The older I get the happier I am that we are wintering in Fort Worth this year. Thanks Mom!)

Your refusal to yield to the temptation to retire.

(You and Dad keep reinventing yourselves by reinvesting in people. I am so grateful for the example that you have given us that a genuine a ministry is focused on the love of God, and it will always express itself in a love for people. This kind of ministry does not have an expiration date on it, and is not carried out by clock watchers. You have a way of finding people who are in need of a dose of Jesus, and you always carry in your bag just what the doctor ordered.)

Dana and I love you so much, and are so happy to be able to wish you a very Happy Birthday. We are bringing our fire department gear to the lighting of the candles. Let's Party!

Love,

From your Favorite Son and the Wife He didn't deserve,

Gary and Dana

"A Half Marathon" - Part III

2010-12-10T12:45:00.010-06:00

December 6th is Ashley's birthday. This forever changed how Dana and I looked at Christmas. We always enjoyed the Christmas Season, but having a child of our own made it so much more meaningful. Dana always has the house decorated before Ashley's birthday and the celebration of birthday and Christmas keep us very busy the whole month long. Dana loves it. She is the Czarina of Christmas and decorates our home with a personal touch that always changes a little bit from year to year, but has her look all over it.

This year, my daughters added another tradition to our Christmas celebration. Ashley and Allyson wanted me to run the White Rock Half Marathon with them. It sounded like a great idea in July, but the night before the race, I was beginning to wonder what I had gotten myself into. I have to admit that where my daughters are concerned, I am one walking "YES" and I wouldn't have thought about letting them down. They had both trained so hard, and they were up for the challenge.

I had run "The Rock" back in 1995. That year I ran the full marathon, 26.2 miles. I had trained for five months, and logged over 500 miles, and competed in several serious preliminary races to condition my body for the event. Nothing prepared me for the 17 degree weather that greeted us that morning in Downtown Dallas. It warmed up to 19 degrees by the time we hit the run around White Rock Lake, but by that time the core of my body was feeling the chill. When I hit the wall, it was really an iceberg. I finished the race with the help of Dana. She met me at different intervals, and ran close to seven miles with me. She filled in for my training partner, Steve Simpson. Just before race day Steve developed kidney stones and could not run the marathon. He was courageous enough to start it with me, but after a mile or two I was alone with my thoughts for most of the day. Thank God for Phil Whittington who met me a few yards short of "The Wall" or 20 mile mark. He talked me through the final 6.2 miles to the finish line. Steve Simpson slipped in and ran the last few yards with me. We had been through too much together to miss out on the final steps of the race as partners. It was a great day, but it took its toll on me. The cold lingered in my body, and I couldn't get warm. I had to lead out in a Christmas service that night, and when I saw pictures I didn't recognize myself. It caused me to often say, I ran two marathons in one day...my first and my last!

With this experience under my belt, I knew what I was up against, and knew most of it was mental. I asked God to allow me to finish this race in good enough shape to continue my journey to health and fitness. I have lost 70 plus pounds since February, but I was still not pleased with my conditioning. I just did not want to fail to finish and end up with an injury that would impede my fitness regimen for the new year. It was a tall order, but God answered my prayer.

Dana and I picked up our daughters at 6:30 AM Sunday morning and drove to Fair Park in Dallas, Texas. We drove past a long line of motorists trying to get to the Fairgrounds. Traffic was backed up on I-30 for miles. I was fortunate to have been raised just a block from the State Fair of Texas. I knew back streets and access that got us ahead of the crowd, and Dana had talked her way into a VIP parking pass. By 7:30 PM we were in position, and ready for the 8 AM start. With over 22,000 runners, the staggered starts began closer to 8:10 AM but my heat did not get going until 8:45 AM. Unfortunately the girls were in a different starting group, so I was on my own again. This was fortunate for them, and not so bad for me.

I ran through areas of Dallas that marked the earliest stages of my life. The course took me past Gaston Avenue Baptist Church and Craig's Chapel. This is where I attended the Dallas Pastor's Conference with my father when he was President of that great group of men. He introduced me to the pastors that day, and Dr. W.A. Criswell took the time to give me a personal word of encouragement. I went by Baylor Hospital where I was born, and through Turtle Creek where my father took me to fish. I passed by old churches that I recognized by their names that I had seen on fast pitch softball teams I had competed against as a teenager.

In this day of perpetual and inescapable communication, we were able to find out that Jeff Sadler crossed the finish line in 1 hr and 9 minutes. I was at mile marker #5 when he did it. I was pleased to learn he was a Senior at Baylor University and a member of the Cross Country and Track and Field Team. Since the race, we have become friends on Facebook and reconnected with his college coach, Danny Brabham. He was my roommate at Baylor when we were both on the track team and living in Martin Hall. Danny was an All American at Baylor. My own athletic career reads more like a Greek tragedy.

I was feeling no pain until mile nine, and then I realized that I had been separated from the food supply that Dana had prepared for me. My quads (upper legs) were on fire and threatening to cramp up. When that happens the race is over no matter how much energy and wind I have left. I saw a little bakery up ahead, and ran in and took my place in line. I was a little conspicuous, but I was able buy a banana and apple and get back on the road without too much delay. As soon as I wolfed these down, and swallowed the rest of my liquid B-12, I was good to go.

The pain in my legs went away, but I was soon nagged by a blister on my right foot. This small irritation felt like a hot poker, and was starting to bother me. It played with my mind until I heard, a loud, "Slap!...Slap!...Slap!...Slap!" coming from over my left shoulder. I soon saw a young lady running with a dog on a leash. She had one good leg, and a metal prosthesis on the other. She was running faster than me! She had to stop occasionally to adjust the attachment to her leg, but she was motoring.

That along with plenty of other visible examples of inspirational people overcoming their own challenges pretty much ended any whining I had intended to replay to myself over the blister issue. I decided to focus on getting to the finish line, and enjoying what was left of the race.

I started noticing the signs people were holding, and the songs that the bands were playing.
A few of my favorite signs were...

"Run like you stole it!"
"Run On Complete Stranger!"
"I Love Holding Signs!"
"Pain is just the feeling of weakness escaping!"

I ran over to the guy holding the "Complete Stranger" sign and said, "I have been looking for you the whole race, we need to meet!" He was really surprised, and acted like he was glad to meet me.

The race finally ended, and it did not bother me that I was way behind my awesome daughters. They did so well. I was so proud of them, and not just a little pleased with myself. I didn't finish last, and I was passing people at the end. I was able to recover from my soreness and begin running again by Wednesday. I reached my personal goals, finishing the race, avoiding injury and sharing a great experience with my daughters on a beautiful day. We are already planning to enter another half marathon in March.

What a difference a year makes. A year ago Dana and I were in Fayetteville, Arkansas and she was recovering from her final surgery for breast cancer. 2010 has been a year of recovering our health and repositioning ourselves for ministry. We are grateful to be closer to our daughters, our parents, and our friends who have prayed for us for years. We look forward to 2011 with an expectation that God is up to something great in this world, and we are privileged to play a small part in it.

GMillerLight4U

A Heroine: Part II

2010-12-10T11:11:00.008-06:00

I know some of my more conservative friends may have to leave the room as I write this, but I have to say that I am moved by the passing of Elizabeth Edwards. Her life was cut short by breast cancer, a disease that hit very close to our home in March 2008.

It is amazing how breast cancer can create an affinity and an appreciation for someone that you have never met. I have been aware of this monster for some time, but until Dana was diagnosed with it, it seemed more like a scary ghost story than a raging beast screaming in your face. Watching the daily reminders of her six year struggle with breast cancer is like ice water in the face. It is a wake up call not to take any day we share together for granted.

In April of 2008 my daughters, Ashley and Allyson, invited us to see them run in a Race for the Cure being held in Downtown Fort Worth. Ashley's company, "InProv of Southlake" had volunteered to run as a team in honor of Dana. We were the one's who were honored. We went to the race to thank them for their encouragement. When we arrived we were stunned by the thousands of people who were running or observing this race. It was a huge snapshot of what is happening to people all over the world, but especially in the United States. It is still a revelation to me how invasive this disease has been to so many people, and the fraternity/sorority atmosphere that exists between complete strangers who are connected by only the joint experience of the fight.

Elizabeth Edwards and I probably would not have a great deal in common if it were not for the trauma and the drama of breast cancer. That is just the point of my reference to her today. I was impressed by her courage and calm in the face of the circus that surrounded her contest with cancer. Her life had been marked by great achievement and staggering losses. The death of her son left a hole in her heart, and a scar on the soul of her husband. It is very likely that this was something that neither she or her husband ever fully overcame.

Then in the middle of her battle with breast cancer, her husband fathers a child out of wedlock. This kind of heartless, faithlessness is an anathema to the sanctity of marriage at any time, but it took on an even more brutal callousness when it was done to a woman who needed a husband to stand with her. At one of the most vulnerable times of her life, he chose to focus on his own needs and satisfy his own ego inviting another woman to take the place of his wife.

Crisis reveals character. It does not create character, it just peels away the thin gauze of pretense and exposes what has been there all the time. This is what makes the silo system of leadership analysis so bankrupt. For far too long the mantra has been, "A person's private life should not disqualify them from public service." Apparently we are meant to believe that the silo that is empty of character in one's private life stands alone, and does not impact the conduct of business in one's public life. Are you kidding me? We are who we are when we think no one is watching.

Public men are constantly being exposed for hiding shabby private lives. Preachers, politicians, priests, and pagans all have been outed, but nothing seems to ever change. Revealing them for the cheating scoundrels that they are may scare another man's pants on him for a while, but the question can always be asked, "Who's next?" They are already lining up for their 15 minutes of infamy. I saw another one on TV last night. The script is always the same. I was weak. I'm only human. I blame myself. I accept responsibility, but I still want to keep my job, position, pastorate, TV show, or whatever. My bad. No harm no foul. Consenting adults. Nobody's perfect. Gotta move on. Love ya, see ya, bye ya.

If character and conduct do not matter, then what is the big deal? Why is scandal and infidelity still news? Why does the National Inquirer chase down John Edwards at a hotel as he was trying to meet with the mother of his child. It is closer to the truth to say that lack of character does matter a great deal when there is a news cycle to meet.

Back to the story of "A Heroine." Elizabeth Edwards remains a heroine in my eyes for her six year fight against breast cancer, and the dignified way she tried to keep things as normal as possible for her children in the face of enormous obstacles. Her unfaithful husband showed up at her death bed as she took her last breath on this earth. He doesn't deserve a medal for doing so. He showed up for his wife's surrender, but he was AWOL in the middle of the fight of her life. If he had been a private in the Army, he would have been put in the stockade or military prison for treason. As it stands, he thought of himself as worthy of being the future Commander in Chief of a nation even when he was a genuine coward at home.

Stress is a powerful fuel for cancer cells. Elizabeth Edwards had plenty of it in her last days. Most of it was inflicted by those closest to her. For whatever additional stress this man put on his wife while she was struggling against a powerful enemy, he remains accountable to God. He took vows to honor and to protect his wife in 1977. The calendar and cancer had transformed Elizabeth from a beautiful young lady to a battle scarred warrior. What should have inspired him turned him to the arms of another person who promised to meet his needs. His focus of his life had always been on himself, and when the prolonged battle with cancer took its toll on the one he had pledged to stand by in sickness and in health, he did not rise to meet the challenge. Promises are always harder to keep than they are to make. That is why politicians are better at making them than keeping them. It takes character to do the right thing when there is nothing in it for you.

As Dana and I complete the third year of our fight against breast cancer, I am more appreciative of those who are veterans in this unending war. Elizabeth Edwards deserved better than she received from her husband. She is a heroine who has overcome the worst life brought her way, and faced death with a calm and peace that held no fear for her. I want to make sure that I learn from her husband's failure and take my game to the next level to be the support and the pillar my wife needs. To every husband out there, regardless of the situation you may find yourselves, do you really need a better reason to be a better man. Man up. You promised her you would!

GMillerLight4U

A Hero, A Heroine and a Half Marathon: Part I

2010-12-10T09:38:00.016-06:00

A short time ago, I had a blast from the past posted on my Facebook page. Deanna asked if it would be possible for Dana and I to meet her and her parents for a cup of coffee. I knew this young lady when she was an MK (Missionary Kid) in East Africa. I was privileged to serve with her family on the Tukuyu Station nestled in the rain forest of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Her parents, Eucled and Janelle, were a great encouragement to me, and I shared many meals with them in their home before they moved their family to the Baptist Seminary in Arusha. I jumped at the chance to reconnect with one of my heroes. There is always a Starbucks close enough to meet up with old friends.

Eucled Moore was a great missionary. He applied himself to learn the language, and became one of the premier communicators of the Baptist Mission of East Africa. He served as a field evangelist, a Bible School Principal, and a professor at the Baptist Seminary. His last assignment was that of director of the language school for new missionaries. He was highly respected by his peers and the people of East Africa. These two achievements are not mutually exclusive, but were no easy accomplishment. Missionary relationships are often afflicted with the "too many chiefs and not enough Indians" mind set, and the local people you are serving are expecting you to work yourself out of a job, and leave your nice house to them. It is a challenging work environment to say the least.

I remember Eucled as a crack shot, and I enjoyed hunting with him on the flats outside of Rungwe District. I was with him when he brought down an Eland. I soon discovered that the thrill of the hunt passes very quickly, and that it takes days to carve a carcass the size of a Brahma bull into freezer sized packages of meat. It almost turned me into a vegetarian. I think it took me a week before I could even look at a piece of meat. I recall on another occasion hanging two Zebras from his carport and butchering them with a kitchen knife. I had a whole new respect for the guy behind the meat section of the Piggly Wiggly.

Eucled was a master carpenter and a wizard on a lathe. He would often work with the exotic, unnamed woods the rain forest supplied and turn out beautiful furniture, dominoes and chess pieces. One of my prized possessions is a gavel that came out of his wood shop in Tukuyu.

What I remember best about Eucled is his listening ear. I was new to the journey, and I was finding my way into the Presence of God, as I responded to the calling that He had given me. I had alot of questions, made alot of mistakes, but could always count on Eucled to provide a listening ear, and wise counsel. He had a quick wit, a musical talent, and a great family that he shared with me while I was a single guy fresh out of college. I will never forget the hospitality that he and his family offered to me. I was treated like one of the family. To this day we can pick up where we left off in a conversation, even if years have interrupted the opportunity for continuous communication.

One of the hazards of my work in East Africa was the constant threat of malaria. Working in the high altitudes of the Rungwe and Njombe mountains of Tanzania kept it at bay most of the time. However, when I had to travel to the Lake Nyasa region to check on one of the churches I was building, I became a victim. My first experience with this disease was pretty frightening. I lived alone, and for two days, I was trapped in my bed racked with raging fever, and freezing spasms. The yo-yo effect of the ebb and flow of fever and shakes left me too weak to get up and to go get help. I heard Eucled's voice outside my small living quarters calling my name. At first I thought I was hallucinating, but the sound grew louder and more persistent. Eventually he broke into my house and found me. It was not a pretty sight. He didn't panic. He looked at me with his best "42 Face."

For the uniformed, "42" is a domino game that makes Texas Hold Em poker look like "Go Fish" when it is played by rabid missionaries plowing their way through a tournament. One of the marks of passage in my life was being selected by Eucled to be his partner. This meant he placed great confidence in your ability to play the game, or it meant the person next to you was worse than you were. I always liked to think that I had measured up a little bit in his eyes.

With a matter of fact voice, Eucled said, "You've got it now. Makes you feel like you are going to have to die to get better doesn't it?" His calm in the midst of my storm gave me the courage to believe I was going to be OK. He made sure I had what I needed, and I was taken to his home to recover.

This man is one of my heroes. He served faithfully in one of the most challenging places of the world, and returned to Texas and started a great church in New Braunfels. His effort became such a success that he was asked to write a "How To" booklet to tell men how to start a church the right way. He paused to think about it, but came to the conclusion that God had more to do with it than he did, and all he would say was, "I was just there." That is what I like to remember the most about Eucled. He always worked hard at the task he was given, but gave God the elbow room to get it done and made sure God got all the credit for what happened. Eucled Moore did not strive to make a name for himself, but he has made a difference in my life.

The short time Dana and I were able to spend with the Moores unleashed a flood of memories. I was grateful to Deanna for making this reunion possible. Eucled is fighting a courageous battle against Parkinsons, and recent heart surgery has complicated this, but he is still the man of God that I remember in East Africa. He remains my hero because he is still running the race, and his stamina gives me the courage to continue my journey of service that I began 38 years ago. Eucled, thanks for being my mentor, a listening ear, a hunting partner, and a crisis care giver. I still want to be like you when I grow up. In my eyes you are still, Bwana Mkubwa! The great man!

GMillerLight4U

The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-11-30T13:13:00.012-06:00

What a difference a year makes. In December of 2009 Dana and I were making plans for a trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas. She was scheduled for surgery on the 10th, and we were trying to get everything in order to make the journey north and prepare for the recovery that would follow. Her surgery had been postponed month after month since May, and to say the least we were ready to "Gitter dun."

Thanks to Facebook, I was able to reconnect with hundreds of people and enlist them to P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Something Happened). After months of delays, the stone began to roll up hill. Within 72 hours of contacting people we have not seen in years, God began to answer their prayers. We had a fine surgeon become available to us, Dr. Michael Cross of Fayetteville. We were surprise to discover that his head nurse was a delightful young lady that we had known since she was a teenager. We had a hospital surgical room open up and a date for surgery. We had a place to stay that was five minutes from the doctor's office, and seven minutes from the hospital. Bob and Sharna Arthur made their home and hearts available to us and provided incredible hospitality to us for a week. They remain two very special people in our lives.

A year later I am seated in our new home in Fort Worth, Texas, listening to Christmas music and watching Dana unpack Christmas decorations. She has always been the reigning czarina of Christmas, and watching her turn Thanksgiving into Christmas is a modern marvel. She has a touch that few people have for making this season a special time of year for her family and friends.

December holds so much meaning for us on more than one level. Our first child, Ashley, was born on December 6th while we were serving as Student Pastors at First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Any parent will understand what I mean when I say, Christmas has never been the same since she arrived. Dana always has the tree up and the halls decked by Ashley's birthday. My assignment is hauling Thanksgiving boxes out and trading spaces in the garage with the Christmas decorations that Dana will need to make the transition complete.

I have always enjoyed Christmas, but this year, I am so pleased to be heading into this season with a quick glance in the rear view mirror at the events of a year ago. The oncologist and her surgeon have seen her in recent days and given her a clean bill of health. The reports could not be any more encouraging. As you can imagine, we paused at Thanksgiving to say a heart felt, "Thank you Lord!" We are also grateful to God for giving us a future and a hope.

In the past five months we have resigned from thirty years in the pastorate, sold our home, moved to another city, set up a non-profit ministry, applied for 501c3 status from the IRS, hired a CPA, driven 4,500 miles to seven states to lead prayer conferences that equip people to utilize prayer as the foundation for family worship. We have a few weeks here at home during December to regroup before we head into a very aggressive schedule for January through March. We will soon be on the road to Nebraska, Mississippi, Ohio, Maine, Georgia, and Texas. In between these stateside ministry opportunities will be our first trip to Israel January 30th to February 9th. Our host will be Gov. Mike Huckabee. We are very excited!

These next four weeks remind me of the lull before the storm. I probably should be asking for prayer for my strength to complete a half marathon in Dallas on December 5th. My daughters talked me into this one. Even though I am 71 pounds lighter than I was a year ago, I am not ready to run this race, but I am going to do it anyway. Ready or not here I come. That seems to be our family motto. If I knew how to write it in Latin, I would put it on our family crest. This would be appropriately emblazoned over the face of a calf looking at a new gate.

Don't get me wrong. Dana and I love our lives. After three years of the fight with breast cancer, I am beginning to see why she has called this battle her "Great Adventure." We wouldn't have it any other way. God has proven Himself faithful in so many ways in the past five months of this new journey of faith. We have seen him open doors of service, and provide for our needs in the most unusual ways.

I have found the meaning of the words, "Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am." (Philippians 4:11) The old King James Version used the language, "Whatsoever state" in place of "circumstances." As we have traveled from state to state throughout this great nation, I have been comforted by the old English interpretation of Paul's words. I know he did not mean to say he has learned to be content in the states of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio. However, we have still learned to be content traveling and trusting God to be at work long before we arrive on the scene in a new place of ministry. We have also had the joy of seeing him provide the means to minister even when there is no visible sign of support in front of us.

As we approach this season of Christmas, we are more encouraged than we have been in years. As we have interacted with believers all over the United States, we have been impressed with the length and breadth of the work that God is doing. His Holy Spirit is not confined to the limits of what Southern Baptists will allow Him to do in their lives, churches and denominational machinery. He is touching lives of people and bypassing stagnant pulpits, impotent hierarchies and gridlocked bureaucracies of all kinds of established denominations. God is stirring in the hearts of people across denominational lines and heritages who are hungry for a movement of God. I am thrilled to be a part of something that only He can get credit for. Join with me as we pray for a Spiritual Awakening that will bring about genuine repentance and transformed lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.

"The blessing of Pentecost may be lost, and it is always lost when obedience fails. The Spirit-filled must be Spirit-ruled. We are the ministers of the Spirit through Whom the supply is conveyed. Those who are greatly used of God have no monopoly on the Holy Ghost; they are mighty through God because the Spirit has a monopoly of them." Samuel Chadwick

GMillerLight4U

The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-09-15T03:31:00.006-05:00

"Pray for all the saints, and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel." Ephesians 6:18-19

When Dana began her "Great Adventure" I felt compelled to pray for her. In March of 2008, I was preaching at First Baptist Church, Sylvester, Georgia for a series of meetings on prayer. I received a call from Dana that she had discovered a suspicious lump under her arm. She made an appointment to get it tested, and I made plans to return home to be with her when this took place. I immediately bombarded God with requests to have this lump go away. When the lump remained, I prayed that is would be benign. When tissue taken from her body looked suspicious, I called on God to keep it from spreading to other parts of her body. When it appeared to be in her breast, I prayed that the cancer would be contained, and removed with the simplest procedure possible. When the results indicated that it was in more than one place, I prayed that she would not have to have both breasts removed. When she had both breasts removed, I prayed that she would have some degree of normalcy restored. When reconstructive surgery was delayed for almost a year, I began to realize my prayers were not achieving my desired results. I had a terrible track record. I had my prayers answered. but I did not receive the answers I wanted.

When Dana and I had met with her oncologist he told us that he believed the first thing that we needed to bring to this fight was prayer. We both couldn't have agreed more. The problem was not about praying for help. The problem I was having with God is that I was not getting the help I needed. This "Great Adventure" was moving down the wrong road. I was praying for healing for Dana, and my answers were getting us nowhere fast. This adventure was turning into a disaster. My prayers began to more accusatory than intercessory, and I am so glad that I did not write them down for others to read. God heard some things from me that I would not want others to overhear.

By the summer of 2009 I became impressed to study the armor of God as described in Ephesians chapter six. The key word that jumped out at me me was "stand." I began to realize that I was not called to attack the enemy, but to stand in the face of an attack. Three times the soldier is called to stand or to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. There is no armor provided for a safe retreat. If a soldier turns his back, removes his helmet, lowers his shield, or drops his sword, he becomes vulnerable. If he stands next to The Champion, he is invincible.

Interceding for my wife to be healed had left me exhausted. I couldn't tell if I was tired of the fight or tired in it. All I knew was that I was tired. Prayer is hard work even when prayers are being answered the way you want them to be answered. Believing prayer is harder to do when the answers come, but are not delivered in the way that you want. I was ready to quit praying since it didn't seem to matter what I asked. The answer was not what I was looking for.

The Apostle Paul reminds the prayer warrior to always pray for others with perseverance. A quick read led me to be pretty sure that this word left no room for quit in the matter of intercessory prayer. As I studied it, I discovered that it implied steadfastness, patience, and persistence. When put into practice it means to attend constantly, continue unswervingly, adhere firmly, or to hold fast to a cause. When applied to prayer it simply means to continue, regardless. Regardless of what? Regardless of any obstacle, delay, threat, or attack a faithful prayer warrior will patiently, and continually depend on his Champion, Jesus Christ.

I wasn't happy about the answers I was getting, but I continued to pray for Dana to be healed. As I studied the armor of God, I became aware of my own need for people to pray for me. I realized Paul had a higher motive for having people pray for him. He asked that he would have boldness to make known the mystery of the gospel. This mystery is a secret that God has allowed His children to have the privilege to tell the whole world. The good news of the gospel is that God has sent us a Savior, His Son Jesus, to take our place on the cross and pay the penalty for our sin. There is a way back to God, and Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

What a great honor to be able to tell others that God loves them, and has a wonderful plan of salvation that is found only through the person of His Son, Jesus. Dana had been asking God to give her a platform to share the gospel with hurting people. She embraced breast cancer as her "Great Adventure" and allowed God to prepare her to receive a special grace under fire. I was slow to the battle, but I followed her lead. As her husband, I wanted the firing to stop more than I wanted to stand at her side in the fight. When I saw her put her hand in the hand of Jesus, and take her stand by His side, I began to see a whole new purpose in the battle. She was being transformed into a radiant warrior who stood in the face of the worst the enemy could throw at her. Her confidence was in Christ.

Standing next to Jesus always gives a warrior a better view of the battle field. Jesus has taken the high ground, and invites us to stand next to Him where we can see the victory. Men will always become better prayer warriors when they learn how to fight like a girl. Thank you Dana for standing firm, and standing close to Jesus. You are an inspiration to me and to many others.

GMillerlight4U

The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-09-14T04:44:00.008-05:00

"...watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." Ephesian 6:18

The purpose of the armor of God is to prepare the warrior to stand watch and pray for all the saints. All, except one, of the weapons of the spiritual warfare expected of a soldier of Christ are defensive in nature. This is the sword of the Spirit or the Word of God. This should be a gentle reminder that the person who stands next to Christ in the battle line should expect to come under attack. The enemy is not intimidated by their weapons, but they are intimidated by their Champion. He has already defeated the worst they can do to him, and they have no power to conquer Him. As long as His followers stand behind what He has provided, they are invincible.

Christ followers are pictured in Ephesians as warriors, but they are not called upon to retreat or charge, but to stand. They stand watch when they persevere in prayer "for all saints." This is a powerful reminder of a believer's reason for existence. Prayer is the order of the day, not an option or personal preference. Prayerless people are AWOL in the battle against evil. They have either refused to take their stand, or they have retreated under intense enemy attack.

The battle plan that is outlined in this passage of scripture is very simple. Put on the armor of God. Stand against the schemes of the devil. Pray always in the Spirit. Persevere in prayer for the needs of others. This final line of battle is called INTERCESSION. It means standing in the gap for someone else. It is not about personal preferences or petitions, but about perseverance.

Men are driven to take charge of a situation. When Dana was diagnosed with breast cancer, I wanted to do something. Before long it became obvious that this attack was more than I could handle, and there was very little I could do about it. The enemy had bypassed me, and the damage had been done. I had not blocked the incoming missiles from her body, and even the cure left a mark. It gave every appearance of having the capacity to kill her too. I felt impotent, and almost infantile in my efforts to provide support and encouragement to her in the fight of her life.

Praying for her became a positive way for me to bring what she needed to The Intercessor and allow Jesus to meet her needs in ways that I could not. Since Dana's childhood, her favorite verse of Scripture has always been, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19) Praying for Dana was the only way I had to take her petition to Christ, and to see Him to supply what she needed the most, the Presence of Christ in the midst of her crisis. Intercession moves the intercessor from the focus of the prayer. Intercession is another way of reminding the prayer warrior, "THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU!" This kind of praying gets the eyes of the prayer warrior off of their own navel. There is a huge difference between picking lint out of one's navel, and putting on the armor of God. Intercession puts concern for others into action and away from the paralyzing, angst-driven handringing that usually passes for Christian compassion.

Intercession makes it clear that our purpose in life is not to get what we want, but to pray for what others need. When we realize that life is not about us getting what we want, but about consistent companionship with Jesus then our life has new meaning. Asking Jesus to meet the needs of others is how we identify with the mission of the Risen Christ. He sits at the right had of God and intercedes for others continually.

Too many followers of Christ believe intercession is for elite special ops forces to carry out on behalf of the church. They see it as a perilous option, and not a responsibility they should bear. The army of God is made up of run of the mill, reliable recruits, chosen by Christ, in spite of themselves to defeat the enemy with the power of intercession.

Edward McKendree Bounds or E.M. Bounds died in 1913, and is buried in the little town of Washington, GA. He was a great man of prayer of the past century. The final 19 years of his life were spent in prayer, writing, and itinerant ministry. His words live on through the books that he wrote then, and continue to be published today. In one of his classic works on prayer, The Weapon of Prayer, he said, "Praying saints are God's agents for carrying on his saving and providential work on earth."

Men have a natural tendency to want to be large and in charge, and to prove how strong they are to the woman they love. Cancer has a way of evaporating that mirage. Intercession empowers a man to get over himself, and get used to taking Jesus by the hand. Talking to Him about what His wife needs the most makes him an essential part of her fight and her recovery. When he chooses to fight like a man he will end up crying like a little girl. When a man will fight like a girl, he ends up being the kind of man a woman needs. He leads on his knees.

Father, today I am interceding for those who read these words to know the sufficiency of Christ. Grant them their petitions and restore their confidence that Jesus has already showed up in the midst of their crisis to offer them His consistent companionship. Hide them behind your mighty shield, and protect them from the lies of the enemy. Assure them that they are never alone because Jesus will never leave them or forsake them. AMEN!

GMillerlight4U

The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-09-09T07:53:00.016-05:00

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit." Ephesians 6:18

When Dana and I met for the first time with her oncologist, we were already overwhelmed by the endless series of sights, sounds, smells, and the incomprehensible new list vocabulary words we were trying to learn. Hearing them spoken was just the first step to understanding their meaning. Some remain a moving target even to this day. Remission is one of my least favorite words. It doesn't mean much. It does not mean what it sounds like. It is more of an intermission in the fight rather than an end to it. But that is another story.

When the good doctor sat us down to review our options, we were looking for a battle plan to start our fight against the enemy. We had heard well meaning platitudes, received alot of pats on the back, and shed a huge amount of tears. We had felt like victims long enough, now we were ready to hit back, and we needed a way to do it that would end in victory.

As Dr. Olivares spoke, I heard him say that the enemy we faced was a relentless and evil foe. He was a seasoned veteran of the war with cancer, and had just recently walked his own wife through her fight with it. What he shared with us had the ring of authenticity of a person who had been on the front lines of the fight, and was fresh from the battle. His heart as well as his head was in the game, and we could sense that he was interested in giving us help and hope.

As we drove home from our first visit to her oncologist, Dana and I discussed what we each had heard. I described to her my own take on what he had said. The mental image that came to my mind was that of the five fingers of a hand that could be made into a fist to hit back at the enemy with everything we had. When the doctor mentioned prayer, I saw it as the thumb of this hand.

A thumb is essential in making a fist. Without this small, inconspicuous, and seemingly insignificant part of the body, the hand is relatively impotent. It can still wave, gesture, or slap at the enemy, but it does not strike fear or wield instruments of warfare that require a firm grip. Without the thumb a person literally loses their grip on life. I told Dana that I saw prayer as the thumb of the hand that would enable us to get a grip on the weapons of our warfare, and make a fist that could hit back at the enemy.

"With all prayer" is a reminder that fighting the enemy without prayer is a foolish strategy. Standing in the battle line, unwilling or unable to make a fist that can get a grip on the weapons of warfare is not bravery. It is a fool's errand. The enemy knows this. That is why prayerless people do not constitute a threat to the enemy's mission. They are pleased when the ranks of churches are filled with them. They can be turned into a retreating mob that turns on its leaders and tramples everyone around them to escape the slightest threat to their comfort.

"Petition" is an encouragement to bring what we need the most to the only one who can provide it for us. Prayer is not about getting what we want as much as it is calling out to God for what we need. Even Jesus prayed that God would let the cup of his greatest test pass Him by. The longer He prayed in the garden, the less He wanted His own way, and the more God's will for His life took over. That is called being "honest to God." Petitions are not an offense to God. Prayerlessness is. Prayer is the air a warrior breathes, and it gives him a perspective that cannot be obtained in any other climate. God's will may be known, but it is never accepted without prayer. It softens a hardened heart to receive what it needs, even while it asks what it wants.

"Pray at all times" is an invitation to call for reinforcements. Dana and I have been brought to our knees many times since we heard the words, "It's cancer." This has been the way God has brought us to the end of ourselves, and brought us to the sufficiency of Christ. When we were dating, Dana told me that her life verse was, "And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory, in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19) We have had this scripture carved into a beautiful plaque and prominently displayed on the wall of our home,throughout our marriage. That does not impress the enemy at all. Living it is what strikes fear into the heart of the enemy. We have learned to pray at all times in order to get a better grip on the hand of Jesus when the enemy intimidates us. Hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on the truth of God's word is required to get a real grip on it. When God's word says that He will never leave us or forsake us, prayer enables me to put my hand in His at any time the enemy attacks me with doubt. I have learned to pray as David did when the enemy seized hold of him, "In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid." (Psalms 56:11)

"Pray in the Spirit" describes the character of Christ. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control." (Galatians 5:22-23) The character of Christ purifies our motives as we pray. Praying in the Spirit is not an out of body experience that raises us above the flames and the fumes of the fight. It describes a struggle with the flesh that has been won in the life of the warrior before he takes the fight to the enemy. Again, Jesus is our prototype for prayer. He came to the point of yielding His will to God's will. Praying in the Spirit of Christ means coming as quickly as possible to the crossroads of the will, and turning our backs on "MY" and choosing to travel down the road to "THY."

Men have a tendency to believe they are large and in charge, or to at least pose as if they are. They are accustomed to having people lean on them to provide what they need. They get a great deal of their sense of purpose from the work they do, or the title they hold. Breast cancer has a way of emasculating a man. It moves him from the firing line to the sideline. It reveals his impotency to do anything to help the one he loves the most. He cannot take her place, shield her from the pain, or deliver her from the attack of cancer or the consequences of the cure. It is hard for a man to admit he is afraid, and even harder to admit that he needs help. Teaching men how to fight like a girl involves showing them that they will never stand taller in the eyes of his wife than when he is on his knees praying for her. A prayerless man may be able to slap, gesture or wave at the enemy, but he will never be able to make a fist without taking personal, believing prayer seriously. When a child is afraid, they will slip their hand into the hand of their parent for protection and assurance. When men pray they get a grip on the hand of God, and begin to sense the Presence of Jesus. Praying in the Spirit means that Jesus is not limited by time and space. The enemy cannot be everywhere at once, but Jesus can be. He offers Himself to us through means of believing prayer.

Prayer enables a warrior to get a grip on the hand of God n the middle of the battle. When the enemy sees a man praying he knows that he has lost his advantage. Enemy attacks are meant to convince a person that they are a victim. Prayer provides the means for warriors to know their victory is in Christ. When we get a grip on Jesus, there is nothing that the enemy can do to rob us of God's best for us.

GMillerLight4u

The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-09-08T07:15:00.023-05:00

"The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Ephesians 6:17

One of the first things the enemy will do to defeat a believer is to get them to question God's best for them. From the beginning of the fall of man, the forces of evil have perpetuated a spirit of deceit. The old King James Version translated the first words of Satan to Eve as, "Yea, hath God said." (Genesis 3:1) This is a 17th Century way of saying, "You mean to tell me, you are dumb enough to believe everything that God says is true?" Satan has never had to use plan B because his plan A works most of the time.

The sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon provided to the believer. Jesus used the Word of God to resist the temptation to believe the worst about God. When Satan tried to get Him to inflate His own ego by depreciating His value of God, Jesus quoted scripture. The Word of God confirms Satan is a world class liar, and the person who does not know what his Bible says is fighting a losing battle.

When Dana was diagnosed with breast cancer, the temptation to doubt God's best for our lives was unleashed with a vengeance. We both were attacked by the enemy with relentless thoughts, that led to sleepless nights, and hopeless days. Vince Lombardi, legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, told his players, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." He was right.

At the end of every exhausting day, as we prepared for bed I would say to Dana, "This is becoming my favorite time of the day." All we wanted to do was to pull the covers up over our heads and end it. When people would ask me about our plans, I would say in all seriousness, "If the sun comes up, I plan on getting up." That was about as far as I could see.

Whenever I let dust or rust collect on the sword of the Spirit, the lies of Satan are always more tempting to believe. After a little practice, preachers become adept at sword handling and sword play. This makes them much like reenactors, who put on sword fights or gunfights at theme parks. They can shout, shoot, swagger, and swing their sword or twirl their pistols with all the skill of a juggler. They have no intention of doing any real damage with their sword, and the sad truth about all the shooting and shouting is they are really firing blanks.

Never confuse being a wordsmith with being a blacksmith. Sitting in a comfortable study, and putting a few platitudes together is not the same as forging metal over a flaming furnace. Forming a nicely packaged, pious philosophy of life does not compare with standing over a fire, to sweating, and pound a piece of raw metal into a weapon of warfare.

The sword of the Spirit was always close to me. I had to keep up appearances. Swinging it around and waving it at the enemy was part of my role as a pastor. The problem was that I was not always using it wisely. Military officers are often presented a ceremonial sword to be worn on special occasions. It is not meant to be used for combat, but for decorative purposes only. Placing it on the wall, or wearing it with a dress uniform will never strike fear in the heart of an enemy, or strike a decisive blow against them.

The sword of the Spirit is not meant to be used for decoration, but for declaration. When Jesus rebuked His tempter, He accurately quoted the scripture. He shoved the truth of God down the throat of a roaring, lying lion. He is our best picture of how to properly use the sword of the Spirit. When the lion suffers from a perpetual sore throat it is harder for him to intimidate a believer. If you can't shut the enemy's mouth then give him a good case of laryngitis by using the sword of the Spirit as a powerful tongue depressor.

There were many dark nights when I was intimidated by the lies of the enemy. I would find my mind wandering to places filled with strange sounds and unfamiliar voices. Death seemed bigger than life, and the lies of the enemy seemed to make a great deal of sense. Watching my wife struggle with her fight against breast cancer made a total recovery look very remote. Medical bills piled up. Chemo took its toll. Her hair fell out. Her energy faded. She lost her job. Cash flow dried up. Breasts were removed. Bill went unpaid. Collectors called. Things looked bad, and they felt worse. I remember people saying to me, "Well things can't get much worse." My response was, "I don't say that anymore. There is always tomorrow." The very idea of tomorrow was not filled with hope, but with a sense of foreboding that the worst was yet to come. My perspective did not come from the word of God, but it came just the same. Remember Satan is a liar, and every thought that he puts in your mind is meant to cause you to question God's best for you.

The length of the fight against cancer has a way of robbing people of hope. It wearies people who attempt to remain vigilant in prayer or to provide a support group. People get a bit annoyed or exasperated when cancer warriors do not take the advice contained their well-meaning cards... "Get Well Soon!" I had one mouthy guy comment after Dana's breast removal, "You're done with all this now, right? You can get back to work." He spoke as if Dana and i had been on an extended vacation at a health spa. What a sap. I should have punched him in the nose, and told him we would pick up this conversation after he stopped bleeding. Stonewall Jackson told his students, "If war comes then draw your sword, and throw away the scabbard." I have been a student of Civil War history for decades, but it is only in the last year that I have come to understand what he meant.

When breast cancer hits a woman, they are forced to defend themselves with everything they have for as long as it takes. There is no quarter given by the enemy. There are no time outs. There is no half-time, and there is no luxury of a half-time show that provides a breather between battles. It is a total, take no prisoners, fight til the bitter end. There is no second place in this contest. Winner takes all. Death to the loser.

Men are not naturally equipped to fight breast cancer with this level of intensity. They do not understand that it hits a woman at the very core of her femininity, but it also unleashes the warrior within her. I was surprised at the ferocity with which Dana showed up for the fight, and the tenacity she maintained to win it. Men may be tempted to ask in the middle of the fight, "Are we done yet?" Women know instinctively that this conflict is the fight of their life. They know it will change them. It impacts the way they look and the way they live for the rest of their lives. There is no getting back to normal. There is no normal to return to. There is only the "new normal" to get used to.

The sword of the Spirit is meant to cut the enemy. It does this best when it is taken up and used as an attack weapon. When the believer comes under the attack of the lies of the enemy, they need to be ready to respond with the truth of the Word of God. However, the sword can used in another way. It is not made solely for defense, but it can be an attack weapon. Rather than waiting for a sneak attack to occur, the believer can wield it on offense.

When we use it on offense, it is best used to cut the unbelief and disobedience out of our own lives. Before we try to use it on the enemy, the sword of the Spirit needs to do its work on us. We need to use it to cut out the cancer of sin, and remove any attitude of disobedience in us. When the enemy sees the blood on our sword, that is when they fear what it will do to them. When we come to them with cold, lifeless, religious platitudes hidden away in a calloused heart, then the sword of the Spirit as not been used to cut to the heart of the matter in our own lives. The enemy can smell a phony a mile away. Our adversary and his forces laugh at ceremonial swords. They know they are used by us to keep up appearance, but they know we have given up the fight. They have no fear that the sword will hurt them, when we have not let it cut us.

"For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edge sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12) Don't be surprised when you read the Word of God if your heart does not experience a stinging sensation. I often say when I read the truth found in the Bible, "Ouch, that's going to leave a mark."

Take the lies of the enemy and let God's word judge them to see if they are true or not. Let His word give you His judgment as the final authority on God's love and wonderful plan for your life. When the enemy threatened us with deceit, destruction, and death, Dana taught me how to take up the sword of the Spirit, and cut out the doubt and despair to remember God's best is yet to come. "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

GMillerlight4U

The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-09-05T09:33:00.008-05:00

"And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION." Ephesians 6:17

A helmet protects the head when a soldier comes in contact with the enemy. It's primary purpose is to defend the wearer from the blows that an enemy intends to use to crush their skull, or rattle their brain. Having experienced several concussions over the years from car wrecks and football injuries, I am a firm believer in providing the brain with all the help it can get.

One of the side effects of a conscussion is the "deja vus" feeling. This is a strange, and yet intense belief that what is going on has somehow been dreamed about or experienced before. When a person's head has been hit, the concussion creates a climate of confusion in their mind. It is very disconcerting. Although there may be no life-threatening injury, it is still incapacitating. If the enemy cannot defeat you, the enemy will settle for disorienting you.

When the words, "HELMET OF SALVATION" are used, they are a direct quote from Isaiah 50:17. They describe the Redeemer's wardrobe as He prepares to take the field against His adversaries. The soldier of Christ is given a choice to put on the "Helmet of Salvation" or to face the enemy in his own strength. When people try to fight without the proper protection, it should come as no surprise that their inviting an invasion of their mind by the lies of the enemy.

The helmet that a believer puts on his head is a protection from the lies of the enemy. Perverted propaganda permeates the mind of believers when they forget to put on their protection. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes unto the Father, except by Me." The world says, "It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you are sincere." God's word says. "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:13 The world says, "We all believe in the same God."

It is not politically correct to say that Jesus is the only hope of salvation. The truth remains. The enemy is fighting against Him, and the position He holds as the way of salvation. When a person invites Jesus into their lives as their Lord and Savior, they receive the victory, but they also join the fight. It may surprise them that their life does not become a bed of ease, but that they become a target for the same enemy that thought it could defeat Jesus. Staying close to Jesus will keep a person from being hit in the head by any idea or concept that sets up another system that overshadows the Savior.

Half a century ago, it was not unusual to see neon signs on prominent, traditional churches flashing the words, "Jesus Saves!" Today, the signs have been taken down and replaced with glossy brochures meant to camouflage the church as a hip, pop culture alternative to the dogmatic bigots who demanded that it was God's way or the highway. When I have attended these churches, I have been struck by their intense effort to make no offense, and to cull out of their vocabulary words that would make people uncomfortable with their separation from God. They offer a well ordered hour of coffee, connection, choruses, and communication designed to be relevant to the prevailing culture.

This seems strange to me. When I go to a mall, they do everything they can to make me feel out of touch with what they have, and create in me a hunger to shed my filthy rags and put on something new. Mirrors and huge glass windows are everywhere. What I wore looked fine when I left the house, but when it put alongside of what is in the window, it looks like trash. When I visit a car dealership, they fill their show room with what I do not have. I am made to feel very uncomfortable with what I drove on to their car lot. The pristine models on their show room floor make it very hard for me leave feeling satisfied driving home in my oil leaking, brake squealing clunker.

When Dana and I heard the word's, "It's cancer!" It was a huge hit to the head. I could not think clearly. I was rattled. She was somehow able to take hold of God's hand, and gain a perspective that I could not grasp. She immediately said, "I knew it. I am just going to have to beat it." I was reeling. She was rallying. Dana's capacity to take hold of the Savior's hand in the middle of her crisis is one of the greatest lessons a man can learn. To fight like a girl means we must let go of our confidence in our capacity to cope with a crisis, and take hold of God's hand to walk us through it.

As a rule, in Western culture, men do not like to hold hands with each other, unless it is limited to a brief, yet firm handshake. When I lived in East Africa, I experienced a different level of appreciation for this act of companionship. Every encounter with another man would involve a series of handshakes and grips. You would be invited to shake, grip, release, shake, grip, release, all the while exchanging various pleasantries. If this exercise was one of genuine friendship or intended to show honor, and respect the hands of the two men would remain clasped as they walked side by side down the road. I never got comfortable with this. Holding hands with another man has never been high on my list of things to do.

Fortunately, women are more accustomed to holding hands with men. They enjoy it. They look forward to it. They see it as a sign of affection, a symbol of identification, and a promise of protection. When Dana took the hand of Jesus, she was taking hold of the Savior's hand to prove Himself faithful to love, to stand and to protect her as she entered the fight of her life. I guess I thought I was going to have to do something. She showed me that she had things well in hands. She kept the main thing the main thing for the entire battle. She knew her salvation came from Jesus. Her eternal security came from Him, and her time on this earth was in His hands. She had a quiet confidence that she was invincible and indestructible, until her work on earth was finished. As I watched Dana walk with Jesus through her "Great Adventure" I began to take baby steps that allowed me to sense His Presence standing next to me. Thank you Jesus for standing firm and taking the hits that were meant for me, and sharing the protection of Your HELMET OF SALVATION.

When men fight like a girl, they let go of their pride and take hold of Jesus. When you are in a head on collision with life, don't be afraid to squeal like a girl and scream, "Jesus take the wheel!" It might become one of your life's greatest hits. Thanks Carrie Underwood, and thank you Dana Miller for teaching me how to fight like a girl.

GMillerlight4U

The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-09-04T08:37:00.015-05:00

"In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." Ephesians 6:16

The shield of faith is a powerful weapon in the battle against evil. It is defensive in nature, and requires a spirit of submission for it to be effective protection in the middle of a firefight with the enemy. When Dana and I heard the news of her cancer, it shook my faith in God to the core. We had experienced the faithfulness of God for years, but nothing had prepared me for Dana's "Great Adventure." She amazed me with her capacity to see the hand of God in this new challenge. She stepped up to the battle line with a quiet confidence, and calm to begin the fight of her life. What I felt was a great disaster, she received as a great adventure. She got behind the shield faith. She had picked up that shield as a young girl, and found it was no longer child-sized, but had grown to be just what she needed for what she faced.

The shield of faith has the capacity to be what we need it to be when the enemy starts firing at us. The real test of faith is making the right choice between fighting back in our own strength, or to getting behind the shield of faith. Trusting Jesus for our salvation is just the first baby step we take in submitting our will to God's plan for our lives. Learning to live in His will for our lives will take a life time of hiding behind the shield of faith. The enemy lives to intimidate, and irritate the children of God. Their arrows are meant to shake our faith, and cause us to react and retaliate in the flesh. At first glance, our shield always looks too small to protect us from what the enemy is sending our way. It also looks very insignificant to the enemy. That is why the forces of evil are stunned with their attacks do not have the desired effect. They cannot comprehend how such a small shield can give such great protection. Anyone receiving enemy fire will discover that their shield of faith has the capacity to grow to meet the circumstances that come their way. The person who chooses to fight in his own strength, and show his flesh rather than get behind the shield of faith is going to get burned.

The flaming arrows used by the ancient warriors were dripped in tar and then set aflame before they were launched. They were terrifying instruments of death and destruction. If the metal arrowhead did not penetrate the shield and reach the skin of the soldier on the receiving end of the attack, then the melted tar was still a danger. It could still drip down and scald the hands, and feet or blind the eyes when it splattered against the wooden and rawhide surface of the shield. The tar would insure that the fire would remain on the surface and would consume the protective layers if it was not extinguished. The flaming tar could not be wiped off without burning a hand. Any attempt to remove it or rake it off with the sword would mean lowering the shield. This would expose the attacked soldier, and leave him more vulnerable to more damage.
Wherever the tar landed it would burn all the way until it cooled off. It would leave a terribly painful wound and a deep scar if it ever made contact with the skin. The smoke of the burning tar would bring tears to the eyes, and choke the lungs of those who had to breathe it. The aroma would trigger memories in the minds of those who had experienced the scorching impact of fiery, tar drenched arrows. Often soldiers who were untouched themselves by the arrows would be terrified by the screams of the men in the line who had been victimized by them. This would often lead to panic in the ranks. Fear is one of the enemy's greatest weapons.

As Dana took her place behind her shield of faith, I began to see her shield and her faith grow. No matter what the enemy fired at her, she placed her trust in God. I would ask her what God was saying to her, and her answer was often these two words, "Trust Me!" This is a great lesson for self-made men to learn. There are some things in life that a man just can't fix. Breast cancer has a way of emasculating a man. It reveals his limitations. This should not bring resentment, but relief. When a man comes face to face with something only God can fix, it is time to give God the elbow room to get the job done. The safest place to be when the attacks of the enemy come are behind the shield of faith. Anyone who wants to be large and in charge is going to get burned because their flesh will be a perfect target for the enemy. Learning how to fight like a girl will require a man to trust in God more than he trusts in himself. Shields up!

GMillerlight4U

The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-09-03T07:56:00.020-05:00

"Stand firm...having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE;" Ephesians 6:15

One of the ways Dana and I handled the trauma and drama of chemo was turning it into an excuse to go shopping to buy her a new pair of shoes. Chemo was never something she looked forward to having, but every step she took towards it meant that the finish line was a little bit closer. When I suggested we buy her a pair of shoes after every treatment, her eyes lit up like a little girl. Who knew that warfare had anything to do with footwear? God did, and Dana couldn't have agreed with Him more. We are still great friends with the ladies at Brighton in Southlake. This became our next stop after every chemo treatment. Men need to be reminded what women seem to know instinctively; shoes are extremely important in warfare.

Putting on armor and standing firm are two very different things indeed. It is not difficult to learn how to put on armor. It takes much training, testing, trial, terror, and tears to learn how to effectively use weapons for their proper use...warfare. They are not meant to be studied in the class room or put in museums as memorials to victories won long ago. These weapons are meant to be put on and put to use in the battle against evil that is raging today.

George Barna said, "Until the church utilizes prayer as the world class weapon in the battle against evil, there is not much hope of a turnaround." I couldn't agree more. For good or for ill, the church in America is a product of the prayers of God's people.

John Wooden, legendary basketball coach at UCLA, used to walk his players through a simple exercise before he let them touch a basketball. He had them sit barefoot on a court side bench and he taught them how to put on their socks. He had a regimen that he expected his players to follow so that they had all the wrinkles out of the sock, and the seams were straight. This process would assure that no blisters developed that would slow down the tempo of the game or take their mind off the real purpose of basketball...winning the game. He knew the greatest athlete in the world could be sidelined by the simplest and smallest thing. To this day Hall of Fame athletes who played for Coach Wooden can recite his lecture and instructions on how to put on a pair of socks. Putting on socks was not the goal of the game of basketball. They do not give trophies for excellence in putting on socks, but there would not be much winning if his players were whining about how much their feet hurt. This great coach knew that there was certain precise preparation that was necessary so that the real goal could be attained.

Ancient Roman soldiers were outfitted with shoes that could withstand what the enemy threw against them. They gave the feet support for long marches, and were equipped with studs on the soles to keep the feet of the soldiers firmly planted on the ground when being pushed by the enemy. Proper footwear was essential to standing firm on the ground that was being attacked by the enemy. It was also imperative to have protection when chasing the enemy from the battlefield. The flotsam and jetsam of war clutters a field with sharp objects that can injure the feet of those who are forced to march across fields of battle. In first century warfare, it was not unusual for a retreating army to litter their path of retreat with glass, nails, discarded armor, and any other debris to impede or injure the feet of those who were trying to finish them off. With proper footwear, the Roman soldiers could finish off the enemy because they not only could stand firm, but they could walk over the attempts of the enemy to delay their inevitable defeat.

The Gospel is good news. It is the greatest news that has ever been told. The news is PEACE.
God provided a way for the hostilities to end between Him and His rebellious children. He cannot make peace with people who remain in rebellion. His character will not allow Him to have a relationship or fellowship with those who have fallen short of what He requires of them. Sin separates, and it requires a solution. God sent His Son, Jesus, to be the bridge between the rebellion of man and His holiness. God provided a way for the war to end, and wrong to be made right. The death of Jesus on the cross paid the penalty of sin. He resurrection from the dead provides the power for new life.

My father often tells the story of when he was in California when he heard that Japan had surrendered, and World War II came to an end. He was still in the U.S. Army, and had been headed to become part of an invasion force that was being assembled to invade the Japanese home island when word came that Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally to the Allied forces. Eventually peace documents were signed on the U.S.S. Missouri that officially ended the war, and my father was discharged from the service. This was good news on so many levels. He was not on his way to invade Japan. He would not become a casualty on an enemy's beach. He was out of the army. He could return to his new wife. He could begin his college education. They could start a new life together. Peace meant so much more than the end of hostilities. It meant life.

When Dana and I heard the news that she had stage II breast cancer, there was a rush of fear and anxiety that flushed away any peace we had in our hearts. The Schemer began to flood our minds with questions about our right standing with God. He tried his best to get us to declare war on God, and develop a rebellious heart towards the only one who could bring us peace. We both heard a perverted voice raise the silent, but deadly doubts, "Was this punishment for something we had done?" "Was this punishment for something we didn't do?" "Is life over for us?" On and on the attacks came as the forces of evil used intimidating images of an angry God making cancer seem became bigger, and thereby robbing us of peace with God.

Peace with God, and peace of God are two sides to the same coin. Unfortunately we have done a better job of taking hold of peace with God than cashing in on the priceless value of the peace of God. Peace with God is based on the promises of God. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1) The peace of God comes when any accusation that comes from the enemy is taken to God in prayer. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7 )

Dana and I began to learn how to TALK LESS AND PRAY MORE! When we took our anxious doubts about God's love for us back to the One who purchased our salvation, we gained a new perspective on life. Talking about our crisis often led us to devalue what God has done for us. Praying helped us regain a true sense of our net worth. Peace comes from praying to a loving Father who has already provided us with what money can't buy and death can't take away.

Cancer can hit anyone, anytime, and anywhere. It is no respecter of persons. It is not a punishment from God, but it is often used by the enemy with an evil intent. The forces of evil that are arrayed against the child of God cannot steal away the eternal security of a true believer. God is love, and saving His children from the consequences of their sin was His idea. When we put our faith or trust in God's Son, we personally identify with the plan that and the Person who releases God to declare us right in His eyes. When we begin to doubt God's love for us, we fall prey to the schemes of the forces who cannot take away the gift of God's love that is secured by the blood of His Son. The danger comes when we begin devaluing that which is priceless...His love for us.

During your greatest moments of doubt, do not be ashamed to gain comfort from the song of your childhood. "Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so."

GMillerlight4U

The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-09-02T07:27:00.016-05:00

"Stand firm...HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS." Ephesians 6:14

Great men of God have come to the same conclusion about His purpose for their lives, but they always seem to have unique ways of expressing it. This kind of variety is fascinating to me. God speaks through the different personalities and the life experiences of people, but maintains the clarity of His purpose. Bill Stafford says, "God's plan for you life is to knock you out of you so that He can fill you with Himself." Thanks, "Wild" Bill, I needed that. If you have difficulty swallowing what is served up by this fine Tennessee revival preacher, then take a look at what Oswald Chambers, urbane, English, and a professor of psychology turned chaplain had to say. "His purpose is not the development of a man. His purpose is to make a man exactly like Himself, and the characteristic of the Son of Man was self-expenditure. If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain, but what He pours through us that counts." Chuck Swindoll said, "Those who have endured the stinging experiences are the choicest counselors God can every use." See what I mean? The weapons of our warfare are meant to enable us to reveal more about Jesus than to receive honor for ourselves.

So what is this breastplate of righteousness all about, and what does it have to do with standing firm in the face of an attack from the evil one. Proverbs gives us a clue. "He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and He preserves the way of His godly ones. Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course for wisdom will enter your heart...to deliver you from the way of evil." Prov. 2:12

The most important element in this passage is not the breastplate, but the righteousness. Notice the portion of the reference that is in caps..."THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS." This refers to an Old Testament prophecy about the coming Messiah in Isaiah 11:5. Jesus is the one that is prophesied about, and it is His righteousness that is the focus. The breastplate protected the vital organs of the body from destructive penetration of the weapons of the enemy. There was no hope for survival without this kind of barrier, and there is no hope of salvation without a Savior. Jesus is our righteousness. It is His substitutionary death on the cross that provided the righteousness for believers that only His blood could purchase. He paid the price for our sin. When a person comes to the end of themselves, realizes their need for a Savior, and identifies with His death as the substitution for their sin, then they are declared right in the eyes of a Holy God. The blood of Jesus was a flood of love from His Father that washed away the ultimate weapon in enemy's arsenal, death. It would no longer have the power to inflict frantic fear and ultimate, eternal separation between God and His children.

The forces of evil will always try to get the followers of God to doubt the love of God for His children. They will accuse the soldiers in the line of being posers, and weaklings that cannot withstand exposure of their lives to the light of day. The enemy will accuse the faithful of being hypocrites, failures, and losers in the eyes of the God they follow. Their accusations become laughable when the well armored soldier can pound on the breastplate of righteousness and drown out the the voice of their accusers. The follower of Christ knows that what stands between them and the enemy has been provided to him by the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Followers who stand firm will always place the breastplate of righteousness between themselves and the enemy's arrows. When the flaming missiles of deceit, discouragement, delusion, and disillusionment start flying towards them they refuse to turn their backs, but thrust out their chests and let their blood bought breastplate do their fighting for them. They can stand firm because they do not stand alone. They stand right in the eyes of God and in the name of His Son, Jesus.

Men come into this world looking out for themselves. They are convinced they have alot to live for, and from the moment they are born they are screaming for what they want from a woman. They have to learn how to give themselves away, but have never had to take a course in how to get what they want. From the time they are born they know how to let a woman know their needs are not being met. They just scream. The shame of it all is that some men never grow out of this. It doesn't matter if they go to church or not. It makes no difference if they have prayed a prayer to ask Jesus into their heart or have just developed a pattern of going through the liturgy set before them. They simply never get over being selfish. You can stand on the porches of most churches and see this behavior worked out in the flesh. You will observe men getting in their cars, and not one in ten will open the car door for their wives or children. They are hungry, the preacher talked too much, the ball game is about to start, and the Methodists have a head start on them at the cafeteria. People in the parking lot who get in their way are potential speed bumps, and anyone who slows them down from being conformed to the image of the couch is going to get an earful of honking horn and "Why I oughta!"

Dana and I were married on January 1, 1977. Before that time, I made an intensive personal study of what made up a Christian marriage. There were times that I was even called on to lead marriage enrichment retreats as a single guy. Now that I reflect on that part of my ministry, those poor people must have been in real trouble to come to one of those events. One of the things that I discovered was an observation made in one of the countless numbers of books I read on the subject was, "You will never know how selfish you really are until you get married." I don't know why that has stuck with such tenacity over the years, but God has never let me forget it. This short statement carries a huge lesson for me that I am still trying to learn.

Breast cancer is an invasion of privacy and personal space like no other. It attacks a lady at the very core of her femininity, and has the capacity to rob her of what makes her uniquely a woman. One of the things that I have admired most about Dana in her fight against breast cancer is her determination to maintain her sense of style and fashion. She was not going to let breast cancer stop her from being a girl. This may be why she would always refer to this journey as her "Great Adventure." As I watched her fight this battle, I was taken to a new level of appreciation for the woman I had married. I fell in love with someone that I thought I knew, but this level of conflict in our lives gave me a front row seat to a wrestling match between Dana and the enemy. I was limited in what I could do to help her. This was emasculating. Still, I was empowered by observing her capacity to pound on her chest and roar back at the enemy in the middle of the fight. When the enemy dished out its worst, she cinched up her breastplate another notch and stood firm in her resolve to see this through and trust God in the middle of it.

"Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl" involves learning that what God has in store for me is not about my comfort in life, but my contribution in life. Women seem to have an instinctive ability to care for others more than themselves. For most men this is a learning curve that will take a life time. I am not talking about morphing into an insipid metrosexual who denies his manhood and fops his way through life getting in touch with his femine side. I am referring to the courage to admit that you do not have the capacity to take on what scares you the most, and being willing to submit your will to God's plan for your life. This plan includes turning your eyes from your own navel, and focusing on a greater purpose in life than weaving your own lint. This starts with spending time with God in prayer and leads to investing your life in others. Wean yourself away from the mother's milk of self-gratification and follow a path of self-expenditure. Plan for the day. Get out of the cotton pickin' car and hold a door open for your wife. She will be shocked and you will have taken a mansized step to learning how to fight like a girl.

GMillerlight4U

The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-09-01T07:05:00.015-05:00

"Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm..." Ephesians 6:11

Putting on armor and standing firm are two parts of the same order. Orders are meant to be obeyed. They are not suggestions, advice or counsel. They carry the clout of authority from above expecting compliance from soldiers down the line. To ignore orders is to invite disaster. Disobedience to orders is treated as treasonous behavior. In the case of spiritual warfare, it is crucial for the soldier to put on the armor and to stand firm in the face of the enemy. To obey one or the other is not sufficient. When a soldier in the army of God does neither they are an agent of sabotage. They become a weak link in the line, inviting criticism of their commitment and creating conflict, chaos and confusion in the lives of others.

Those who put on the full armor of God need to take a good look at what they are getting into. The weapons of this warfare are defensive in nature, and serve the wearer best when they are facing the enemy. They provide no protection for those who cut and run and turn their exposed backs to the missiles fired by their attackers. Three times the words "stand firm" are inseparably connected with the armor of God.

"Stand firm against the schemes of the devil." Eph. 6:11
"Resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm." Eph. 6:13
"Stand firm, therefore..." Eph. 6:14

When the armor is put on, but the soldier does not stand firm, then the armor offers no protection. Roman soldiers were Paul's prototype for the weapons he mentions in this passage of scripture. The individual soldier could be defeated one on one. They were merely men, and held no personal superiority over their enemies. Their legions became invincible when these ordinary individuals conformed themselves into an extraordinary fighting unit. Roman commanders gave the order for soldiers to stand their ground. Seasoned veterans knew that their best chance of survival came from facing the enemy. Their armor was not made for retreats. When they put on their full armor it protected them only for a stand against the enemy. It gave cover to their flanks and the back of the other soldier next to them in their ranks. The Romans were known for their armor, but their armor prepared them to to take a stand. One without the other was not going to lead them to victory over the enemy.

"Stand firm, therefore, "HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH." (V. 14) The enemy hits below the belt. It will sucker punch or strike without warning at any time of the day or night. The enemy is a great stalker and owns the night. The person who wants to stand firm will have to strap themselves up good and tight, especially when they are in the dark. A special warning to men here. Don't ever go into battle with cancer without your cup on. Don't think it is a sign of strength to take on this enemy all by yourself. To have dust on your Bible and give yourself a pass on prayer invites the enemy to kick you a swift kick in the groin. Any man who has ever experienced this has already instinctively winced at the remembrance.

Jesus knew the enemy very well. His take on the devil should give a pause to anyone who doubts that there is a person who lives to inflict harm on those who take their stand with the Son of God. He often encountered religious people who had sold out to the lies of the enemy camp, and were no friends of His. "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie he speaks from his own nature. for he is a liar and the truth is not in him." (John 8:44)

When Dana was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer the first scene of battle was in the mind. The forces of evil began to flood my mind night and day with lies that would come right out of the pit of hell. As her fight with cancer required lengthy series of chemo treatments, it began to impact her body in ways that caused me to wonder if we were doing the right thing. Her energy was sapped. Her hair fell out, and her sleep patters were turned upside down. I thought I was handling all these expected consequences of chemo pretty well. It was the unexpected that caught me off guard.

Throughout the six months of chemo, and the additional six months of herceptin treatments Dana's sleep schedule was radically altered. We were like two ships passing in the night. I would try to stay up with her, but could not hang on. I would head to bed around midnight, but she would be wired with restless energy until about five in the morning, and then she would call it a day. I would get up shortly after she went to bed, and get hit with a missile from the enemy. I would be shocked at what I saw. In the pale moonlight that filtered into our bedroom she looked like a corpse. He face was drawn, her head was bald, and her skin was cold to the touch. I could not tell if she was breathing. I would stand over her bed side in a state of fear and break out in a cold sweat. I started hearing a voice in my head shouting, "She's dead!" I would start down a road that only took seconds to take, but would leave me exhausted from the journey. I found myself thinking, "So this is how it happens." "I didn't even get a chance to tell her goodbye." "So this is how I find out!" "How am I going to tell the girls." "What am I going to do now?" On and on the missiles of the enemy would come flying into my mind and leave their mark. Eventually I would get on my knees by her side and pray. I don't know what I prayed. I just fell on my knees and asked God for help. As I look over my journal notes for that period of time, I can see that I often scrawled across the page the words, "Help me!" It is a safe bet that I was probably repeating that phrase when I realized that Dana was alive, and that the fight was still on. Once again, I had been lied to by the father of lies. I had allowed him to intimidate me with the way things looked.

One of the enemy's most reliable strategies is the use of the intimidation of the immediate. This swift kick from out of the dark knocks the breath and the fight out of a solider who has forgotten to put on a very vital piece of protection...the Truth. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." (John 14:6) He was not playing name association games, but giving His followers insight into His character. Jesus personifies the truth. The devil personifies the lie.

Prayer provided me the courage to face things the way things looked with a confidence that God would give me the strength to deal with things the way they really are. F.E.A.R. has been defined as False Expectations Appearing Real. Dana only looked dead. She was very much alive, and was filled with the fight she needed to win this battle. I was taken to my knees by the way things looked. God invites us to come to Him in prayer so His Son can show us the Truth...the way things really are. Fear, when it arrives, should be in and of itself a signal that it is not of God. You don't have to take my word for it.

King Solomon would say, "Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor the onslaught of the wicked when it comes, For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your fought from being caught." Prov. 3:25

Paul would tell his readers, "For God has not given us a spirit fear, but of power and love and discipline." 2 Timothy 1:17

GMillerLight4U

The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-08-31T08:24:00.019-05:00

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood..." Ephesians 6:12

The biggest mistake any person makes is to try to fight cancer in their own strength. Cancer patients and their family need to know they are up against an enemy that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Cancer has the capacity to disguise and camouflage itself from being located even by the most sophisticated imaging systems. As I have stated before, it does not fight fair. The unseen enemy I refer to is not microscopic cancer cells. This enemy is real, and yet invisible. These forces of darkness are organized into a massive army of evil and guided by a person whose mission in life is to steal, kill and destroy. Just when the fight seems to be going well, or life begins to settle down, the enemy emerges from hiding and hits with the fury, and the fear of a sneak attack. Prayers for healing that appeared to be answered can evaporate in the midst of an unexpected firestorm of spiritual doubt and depression.

When Dr. Olivares shared with us that he believed cancer was generated by an evil source, this struck a common chord in our hearts. We left his office, and discussed what he had told us, and shared it with our two daughters. We decided that this was the man we could trust us to walk with us down this long road through the maze of new vocabulary words, powerful drugs, endless paperwork, and possible surgery. Dana and I both felt relieved that this highly skilled medical professional had sized up our opposition with pin point accuracy. He would not be the last person in the field of medicine that would point us to prayer as our only hope of defeating the enemy.

Jesus says a great deal about prayer, but He makes a clear distinction between meaningless repetition and believing prayer. "When you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do for they suppose they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." Matthew 7:7-8

Our hope in prayer is not based on how well we pray or how much we pray. Those who knew Jesus best remind us in God's Word that our confidence is in Who we pray to, not what we pray for. "And whatever we ask we receive from Him." I John 3:22

The Apostle John went on to clarify the call to prayer as a process of placing confidence in the Father's best for our lives. "This is the confidence which we have before Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." I John 5: 14-15

As I write these words the summer is ending, and September will soon be here. I met Dana on September 9, 1974. It was love at first sight for me. I was convinced of God's will for my life in an instant. For her it would be a more prolonged process of clarification. This delay often seemed like a denial of God's plan for my life. It caused me a great deal of concern. I would ask Him often, "Did I misunderstand?" Through that two year waiting period, God taught me to focus my prayers on what was best for Dana, and not on what I wanted for myself. It was hard to do, but I began to pray, "Father, I want what is best for Dana, and if I am not that person that will be a part of Your best for her, please bring that person into her life, and give me the grace to accept Your will for both of our lives." This was a very hard prayer to pray at first. As I was faithful to pray it, I could begin to hear God's response, "Trust Me." The process of praying this prayer began to purify my motives. I began to understand that the kind of love God intended for me to express to my wife would always need to be focused on what was best for her, and not what I wanted from her.

Praying for Dana's healing from cancer seemed to me at first glance to be an unselfish prayer. The more I prayed for her healing, God began to reveal to me that my motives for praying for her were not altogether unselfish. The fear of losing the woman I love with all my heart was a great motivator to pray. It confused God's best for me with God's best for Dana. I am still learning how to process what God taught me through this.

Birth and death are two extremes of the human experience. People all over the world respond with great joy at the news of the birth of a child. Announcements are sent out, gifts are given, parties are hosted, and a general feeling of good will is generated in the hearts of people who witness the occasion. When death comes it receives a different kind of reception. It is held at arms length, and fought off to the bitter end as people hold on with a white-knuckled grip and clinched teeth to the last breath they or a loved one can take. It is not pretty, and it is not a party. Tears flow, grief remains, and a hole in the heart is left behind where a loved one once lived.

I am well grounded in the scriptural teaching of life after death. I believe in the promise that to be absent from this world is to be present with the Lord. I know heaven is my home. I am aware that I am just passing through on a pilgrimage to my final destination. Still, I am not in a hurry to go, and I want those I love the most to stay with me here as long as possible. If I could get my mind and heart around this, I would rejoice as much as when a saint goes to heaven as when a baby is born. As a matter of fact, if I had a proper perspective on life, I should probably weep when a baby is born knowing that they are facing the prospect of middle school. This world can be a tough place to live and it is often a fight for survival in a very hostile environment.

As I began to pray for Dana's healing, and for her to receive relief from the attack of an unseen enemy, God began to take me back to my first prayers I ever prayed for her. I had to face that I wanted her here with me, more than I wanted her to be with God in heaven. I knew God would eventually provide Dana with healing; giving her a new body in a new home with Him. I just didn't want Him to do it now. I was praying for what I wanted, and not interested in conforming my will to His. If His best for her involved taking her from me, then God and I had a real disagreement about His will for my life.

This was not an easy road to walk down, but I would be less than honest if I did not admit that it took me a good long while to release Dana into His hands for whatever His best for her would bring. I did not write my prayers to God down in black and white. I did not have the courage of King David to leave a recorded legacy of this struggle between God's will and mine. I did draw comfort from what I read in the Psalms. It helped me to know that I was not the first man to question whether God knew what He was doing.

There is a long way between MY and THY. When Jesus prayed in the Garden before His crucifixion, "NOT MY, BUT THY WILL BE DONE." It was a template for every prayer that we will ever pray in a crisis. Jesus was honest to God. He asked to be relieved from drinking from the cup coming his way. Through personal, prolonged, private prayer He yielded His will to that of the Father. A greater good came from what God had in mind for the life and death of His Son. Thank you Jesus for taking my place on the cross. You had a choice and You chose God's best for me rather than demanding personal preference for Yourself.

Scripture makes it clear that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but this fight will reveal to us that there is still a huge part of our own flesh, and personal preferences that must be yielded to God's will. Praying for the crisis to pass or for the healing to come are not signs of weakness. Neither are they flags of rebellion. Prayer is an honest response to an overwhelming attack from the enemy. As a person prays they seek marching orders from their commander in chief. The order of the day comes from God's word, "Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, stand firm." Ephesians 6: 13

"It is amazing what God can do with a broken heart, if you give Him all the pieces." Samuel Chadwick

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The Power of Pink: Teaching Men How to Fight Like a Girl

2010-08-30T06:24:00.012-05:00

"Put on the full armor of God , so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." Ephesians 6:11

The word of God describes the personal arsenal of state of the art weaponry that is provided to all believers. They are encouraged to put them on and to stand firm in the battle line. The fact that all but one of the weapons is defensive in nature should lead a stand up person to expect relentless attacks from the devil. The plurality of the word "schemes" should be a hint to the persistent nature of the attacks that will come their way. The word "devil" is a clue that the accuser will throw anything and everything at those who will stand against him. His schemes are not based on truth, but on the most absurd, and unbelievable lies. He is not aiming for accuracy, just confusion. He knows that if he can cloud the field of battle with the fog of war, then he will seem much larger than he really is. This is when the most valiant soldier will sometimes weaken in the knees, refuse to stand and run from the battle.

Strength for the battle comes from the hand of God. When Dana and I met with her oncologist for the first time, we were very impressed with his understanding of the conflict we were facing. He had been recommended to us by dear friends, Lowell and Shirley Thomas. Dana and I had met for the first time in their home in September of 1974. On Monday nights they hosted an outreach night for Single Adults of Sagamore Hill Baptist Church. I had joined the church the day before, and I showed up at their home at their invitation to get better acquainted with the singles of the church. I was not in great shape. I had worked all day running a jack hammer. I was working on a combination demo and construction site at the seminary. We did not have classes on Monday so I had put in a long day tearing out a reinforced steel stairwell in one of the buildings we were renovating. The work had left me with ringing ears and shaking hands. I couldn't hear real well, and my hands shook so much that it made me look like a drunk with the delirium tremors. When I tried to drink coffee from a Styrofoam cup I was a caffeine sprinkler system. It was all over the map and rarely in my mouth. When I placed my hands on one of the fold up card tables, I made it wobble like an earthquake had just hit the house. The night was not going well until Dana walked in. She was fashionably late, and made a spectacular entrance. When I saw her for the first time I was stunned. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She still is. I somehow managed to maneuver the seating arrangements so I could sit across from her at the small card table that night. I was in love, and in a great deal of conflict. I had never believed in love at first sight, but I was having my core beliefs shaken as badly as my hands. I was convinced that this lady was to be my wife. It would take me over two years to convince her of God's plan for her life, but I was certain of his plan for mine. That is another story.

When Lowell and Shirley Thomas recommenced Dr. Olivares to us, we made an appointment and drove to his office in Garland, Texas. It was 90 miles from our home. This 180 mile round trip would be the first of 12,000 miles we would drive for various medical procedures over the next two years. When we met with this fine man, we were impressed that he seemed to take what we were going through at a more personal level than other medical professionals we had met. He shared with us that his own wife had just gone through the same battle with breast cancer, and he was fresh from the fight. When he told us that he thought cancer was evil, and that it had to be fought with prayer, I was convinced this was the man who could help us. As he began to share with Dana about what she faced, I heard him describe five elements of the battle plan that he had in mind for her. Over the next two years, we would see God's hand at work in each of these five areas.

He told us that we must hit cancer hard with everything we had available to us. This meant that first of all we must attack it with prayer. Because it is an evil scheme, then it must have a spiritual response to it. He went on to mention a positive attitude, good nutrition, regular exercise, and medical science. As we drove home and reflected on this first interview with the oncologist, we both believed that God brought him into our lives. Over the next two years, as we began to implement and then learned to coordinate these five powerful elements into our fight against breast cancer, we would see the hand of God at work in a powerful way.

The power of prayer was not new to us, and the practice of praying together was already a vital part of our married life. However, we had never walked through this kind of valley before, and the shadow death seemed particularly intimidating. We would find out that we had alot to learn about the power of prayer, and the role it can play in giving us the strength to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. What we had learned before the fight with breast cancer was like basic training. We were going to find out that the path to victory we would expose our inexperience in real warfare, but would begin the process of turning two green recruits into seasoned veterans. It would lead us to surrender to the will of God for our lives, but to never give in to the lies of the enemy. Prayer was how we first began to learn how to hit back. We would not wallow in being victims, but find our first taste of victory in striking fear in the heart of the enemy. We would gain comfort and strength in the middle of the battle because prayer allowed us to hear the screams of the enemy being on the receiving end of the strong hand of God. All we had to do was stand. God would do the rest.

"The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless study, prayerless work, or prayerless religion. He mocks at our wisdom, laughs at our toil, but he trembles when we pray." Samuel Chadwick

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