Here are four quotes, two on prayer and two on confession, that really spoke to me this past week.

In order to find a person who prays, you have to look for clues: charitableness, good temper, patience, a fair ability to handle stress, resonance, openness to others. What happens to people who pray is that their inward life gradually takes over from their outward life. That is not to say that they are any less active. They may be competent lawyers, doctors, businessmen. But their hearts lie int he inner life and they are moved by that. — Emilie Griffin from Clinging

In Abraham Heschel’s A Passion for Truth, he writes, ‘He who thinks that he has finished is finished.’ How true! Those who think that they have arrived have lost their way. Those who think they have reached their goal, have missed it. Those who think they are saints, are demons. An important part of the spiritual life is to keep longing, waiting, hoping, expecting. In the long run, some voluntary penance becomes necessary to help us remember that we are not yet fulfilled. A good criticism, a frustrating day, an empty stomach, or tired eyes might help to reawaken our expectation and deepen our prayer: Come, Lord Jeses, come. — Henri Nouwen from The Genesse Diary

“Confess your faults one to another” (James 5:16) He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, not withstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final break through to fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners! — Dietrich Bonhoeffer from Life Together

Confession is so difficult a Discipline for us partly because we view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We come to feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We could not bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. . . . But if we know that the people of God are first a fellowship of sinners we are freed to hear the unconditional call of God’s love and to confess our need openly before our brothers and sisters. We know that we are not alone in our sin. The fear and pride which cling to us like barnacles cling to others also. In acts of mutual confession we release the power that heals. Our humanity is no longer denied but transformed. — Richard Foster from Celebration of Discipline

It’s a world of confusion, Lord:
we are muddled in our thinking;
we are mixed in our emotions;
we are inconsistent in our actions.

It’s a world of lies, Lord:
we deceive ourselves about our motives and intentions;
we mislead others with double-speak and spin;
we exploit you as an agent of social control and repression.

It’s a world of greed, Lord:
we worship the idol of the market;
we honour the false prophets of profit;
we reduce people to punters and nations to debt.

It’s a world of violence, Lord:
we deploy the technology of terror to protect our own interests;
we invest our children in the business of bloodshed;
we justify war as first strike, last resort, or final solution.

It’s a world of vengeance, Lord:
we allow the wounds of history to fester;
we refuse the healing of memories;
we betray the living out of mistaken loyalty to the dead.

Oh Lord,
in this world of confusion, make us a people of clarity;
in this world of lies, make us a people of integrity;
in this world of greed, make us a people of generosity;
in this world of violence, make us a people of peace;
in this world of vengeance, make us a people of mercy:
in the name of Christ: Amen.

- Kim Fabricius

“Dear Heavenly Father, while I am on this journey through life, I pray that I may always listen for your voice, whether it is for praise or discipline. Please, please may I always know your presence, especially if I am to journey through life’s valleys. When I am weak fill me with your strength, and help me to love like you love, even when it hurts. May nothing matter to me more than becoming the person you want me to be. Amen.”

– Dianne Parsons (1949 –  )

“Lord God, fill us with your Holy Spirit, baptise us in your love and send us in your strength to minister Christ to those we meet. Give us great confidence in the message of the gospel, open doors of opportunity for us and enable us with courage and sensitivity to speak of Jesus. Heavenly Father, we long that the prayer of Jesus may be answered in our lives; ‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ Send us afresh with his sense of commission and his heart of compassion. Use us, even today, to bring someone to you. Amen.”

– Victor Jack (1937-  )

“O Lord, who has warned us that you will require much of those to whom much is given; grant that we whose lot is cast in so godly a heritage may strive together the more abundantly by prayer, by almsgiving, by fasting, and by every other appointed means, to extend to others what we so richly enjoy; and as we have entered into the labors of other men, so to labor that in their turn other men may enter into ours, to the fulfillment of your holy will, and our own everlasting salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

– Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

“Grant us grace, our Father, to do our work this day as workmen who need not be ashamed. Give us the spirit of diligence and honest enquiry in our quest for the truth, the spirit of charity in all of our dealings with our fellows, and the spirit of gaiety, courage, and a quiet mind in facing all tasks and responsibilities.”

– Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

“Our heavenly Father, we commend to your mercy those for whom life does not spell freedom: prisoners of conscience, the homeless and the handicapped, the sick in body and mind, the elderly who are confined to their homes, those who are enslaved by their passions, and those who are addicted to drugs. Grant that, whatever their outward circumstances, they may find inward freedom, through him who proclaimed release to captives, Jesus Christ our Savior.”

– John Stott

Gracious and Holy Father,
give us wisdom to perceive You,
intelligence to understand You,
diligence to seek You,
patience to wait for You,
eyes to behold You,
hearts to meditate upon You,
and a life to proclaim You,
through the power of the Holy Spirit of Christ our Lord.

– Benedict of Nursia (480-547)

“Today, O Lord — let me put others before self; let me put things of the Spirit before the things of the body; let me put the attainment of noble ends before the enjoyment of present pleasures; let me put principle above reputation; and let me put you before all else.” 

– John Baillie (1886-1960)

“Father, you know and I know I can’t do anything — so show me what you are doing and draw me into that.”

– John Wimber (1934-1997)

“Grant, O God, that we may never listen to any teaching which would encourage us to think sin less serious, vice more attractive, or virtue less important; grant, O God, that we may never listen to any teaching which would dethrone Jesus Christ from the topmost place.” — William Barclay (1907-1978)

William Barclay on prayer:

“Prayer is not a way of making use of God; prayer is a way of offering ourselves to God in order that He should be able to make use of us. It may be that one of our great faults in prayer is that we talk too much and listen too little. When prayer is at its highest we wait in silence for God’s voice to us; we linger in His presence for His peace and His power to flow over us and around us; we lean back in His everlasting arms and feel the serenity of perfect security in Him.”

“Lord, may my desires change to your desires. Lord, if a desire is good and profitable, give me grace to fulfil it to your glory. But if it be hurtful and injurious to my soul’s health, then remove it from my mind.”
 

– Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471)

“Grant us, Lord, we beseech you, your grace. Pity the poor, encourage those who are sick, enlighten those whose spirits are in darkness, heal the sick, guide the confused, feed the hungry, release those who are unjustly imprisoned, support the weak, comfort the faint-hearted. Let all the nations of the world know that you are God, that Jesus Christ is your child, and that we are your people.

- Clement of Rome (c. 96)

“Most merciful God, order my day so that I may know what you want me to do, and then help me do it. Let me not be elated by success or depressed by failure. I want only to take pleasure in what pleases you, and only to grieve at what displeases you.

For the sake of your love I would willingly forgo all temporal comforts. May all the joys in which you have no part weary me. May all the work which you do not prompt be tedious to me. Let my thoughts frequently turn to you, that I may be obedient to you without complaint, patient without dejection, and serious without solemnity. Let me hold you in awe without feeling terrified of you, and let me be an example to others without any trace of pride.”

- Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)

Do you ever desire to set aside more time for prayer?  Maybe even a whole day dedicated to listening and discovering what God is saying? But perhaps you haven’t been certain on how to best organize such a day. Or maybe you thought it would be helpful to participate with like minded people in such an endeavor.

If this is the case in your spiritual journey, then we hope you can join us for a one day guided prayer retreat on Thursday, June 4th here in Kansas City. We will be meeting from 9:00am to 4:00pm at the Tall Oaks Conference Center. Tall Oaks is located in Linwood, KS half way between Kansas City and Lawrence. For a map and directions to Tall Oaks you can go here. 

Our prayer “guide” for the day will be Dr. Liam Atchison. Liam has been a seminary professor and church planting pastor, and is an historian and teacher. He and his wife Precious co-authored a book called Grief, published by NavPress. Liam is a graduate of Kansas State University, where he received his PhD in the history of hermeneutics, and Dallas Theological Seminary, where he received a Master of Theology. He was founding editor of the Christian cultural journal Mars Hill Review and has written a number of articles on history and on spiritual growth. He is the founder of Emmanuel House, a graduate theological study center in Manhattan, KS and Lincoln, NE that emphasizes knowing God and knowing ourselves as a theological basis for becoming effective readers of the biblical text, people, and culture.

Liam directed the biblical counseling program at Colorado Christian University in the halcyon days of the 1990s, where Dr. Larry Crabb was both a colleague and mentor. Liam went on to be a founder and the academic dean at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary’s Seattle (Now Mars Hill Graduate School) campus, before founding Emmanuel House in 2002. He was the ancient history teacher at K-State from 2005 to 2008, when he was nominated for Professor of the Year by his undergraduate students (he didn’t win, but what was cool was that the national professor of the year won!). A coffee snob from his years in the Pacific Northwest, Liam sees baseball as a spiritual exercise, loves telling stories, and seriously, seriously bleeds purple.

The cost of the one day retreat will be a very reasonable $15 (which even includes lunch!). If you are interested in joining us or have questions please leave a comment or email me at brad.brisco@gmail.com

Hope you can join us on June 4th.

“We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

– President Abraham Lincoln, 1863