PLUS

Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish:  but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”

A few weeks ago, I spent a couple of hours in the pilot torture chamber known as the centrifuge – a large spinning machine that simulates the forces of maneuvering flight. After being out of the business of flying fighter aircraft for several years, going through the centrifuge was a prerequisite before hopping back in a high-performance aircraft.

The centrifuge is the tool used by the military to teach and refresh aircrew members on the necessary strain and breathing technique to withstand the high-G environment that draws blood away from your brain and causes it to pool in your lower body.  If you don’t properly execute this technique during heavy maneuvering, you can deprive your brain from necessary oxygen-rich blood causing you to pass out from a condition called G-lock.  If this happens in an airborne aircraft, you will likely perish, crashing before you regain your senses.

There is a precursor to the passed out condition of G-lock – you start to lose your vision.  It starts as a narrowing tunnel vision, and if not corrected, will lead to a complete loss of vision slightly before you go unconscious.  The loss of vision slightly precedes the loss of consciousness unless corrected.  The loss of vision is a sign that you are about to perish and you must recover immediately before it is too late.

In our lives as Christians, we need a vision to guide our lives.  We need vision to steer our families and our churches.  The loss of vision is a sign that we are about to perish – becoming irrelevant and useless to the cause of Christ.

PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD BE GUIDED BY A GODLY VISION THAT SHAPES AND MOTIVATES OUR WAY. Whenever we recognize an impending loss of vision, we must recover immediately before it is too late.

Matthew 7:3-5 “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?  Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?  Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

As described in the previous post (see https://prayatlunch.us/every-part-matters/), June 1980 saw a near nuclear catastrophe because of the failure of a small, simple, single 46-cent part in the American early warning missile detection system.  The billion dollar advanced capabilities of the United States were rendered useless and actually counterproductive because of this malfunctioning miniscule computer chip.  The tiniest of deviations corrupted the entire system.

We are very quick to lament the state of the world around us.  We rapidly recognize the flaws of others and dismiss those flaws in our own lives.  We see the subtly placed mote in the eyes of our neighbors and neglect the glaring beam that is grossly protruding from our own eye.  We forget that even if our own faults are mote-sized, they have a significant impact on our effectiveness.  We forget that the tiniest of deviations can corrupt the entire system.

Both the mote and the beam are harmful to the cause of Christ in America.  Our complacency about our own faults (even if they appear to be 46-cent faults), the hypocrisy in our skewed perspective and our judgmental attitude about the faults of others (even if they appear to be billion dollar faults) diminish the ability of our body to truly impact our world in the way intended by our Savior.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO FIRST WORK ON RESOLVING OUR OWN FAULTS BEFORE ENGAGING IN THE FAULTS OF OTHERS.  May we never forget that deviations in our own lives (small or large) can corrupt the entire system.

I Corinthians 12:20-27 “But now are they many members, yet but one body.  And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.  Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.  For our comely parts have no need:  but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:  That there should be no schism in the body;  but that the members should have the same care one for another.  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.”

On June 3^rd, 1980, unbeknownst to the majority of humanity, the world faced a nuclear catastrophe that nearly ended humanity as we know it.  In the midst of especially high tensions with the Soviet Union, the military screens at NORAD detected 2 inbound Soviet missiles.  A few moments later, 220 missiles were detected, and that number increased to over 2,000 shortly thereafter.  As split second decisions were passed up the chain of command in how to respond, as nuclear alert crews were scrambling to their bombers, and as launch messages were being prepared for the missile fields and the submarine captains, the missiles on the screens disappeared without a trace and no missiles struck our nation.  The same scenario happened three days later.

Maintenance troubleshooting crews scrambled to determine the cause of the false alarm.  They quickly converged upon the culprit – the failure of a single, 46-cent computer chip.  When that chip failed, it transmitted a 2 instead of a 0.  In the computer code, that numerical value was translated into the number of inbound missiles, increasing in order of magnitude each time the signal was sent through the complicated early warning system. The engineers as the Pentagon recognized after that incident that every part mattered and nothing in the system could be discounted, minimalized, or marginalized.

If Christians in 21^stCentury America are to have the impact that God intends for us, then we need to embrace the idea that every part matters and nothing in the system can be discounted, minimized, or marginalized.  God has tempered our body together, and we are to never divide it asunder.  The schisms within our churches are footholds for Satan to exploit and for our secular society to mock.  We are to work together, suffer together, and rejoice together.  We are to embrace others around us.

PLEASE PRAY FOR CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA TO SUCCESSFULLY WORK TOGETHER AS THE BODY OF CHRIST.  Every part matters!

ADMIN NOTE:  The story above is from the book Raven Rock

Haggai 1:6 “Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.”

II Corinthians 10:12 “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves:  but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”

Matthew 6:19-21 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

We live in a society consumed by consumption.  We worship wealth and thirst after treasure.  We measure ourselves by our material output.  Yet, we never find the happiness that we think will come at the other end of the cash register or the checkout stand.  Our shopping bag leaks like a sieve as our wages seep out and are swept away.

American Christians often get caught up in this societal obsession.  We sometimes mimic the consumption addiction we see around us, forgetting that our earthly treasures are corrupted by moth and rust and our competition with others provides an unwise and unreliable standard.

Instead, we are to invest our lives in non-material items with eternal significance.  After all, laying up heavenly treasure provides a permanence to our efforts as compared to the fleeting folly of the race on the earthly treadmill.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO AVOID THE EARTHLY AND AFFIX TO THE HEAVENLY.  May our hearts follow the permanent treasure of heavenly significance.

James 5:13-16 “Is any among you afflicted?  Let him pray. Is any merry?  Let him sing psalms.  Is any sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:  And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

In August 1982, President Reagan wrote a passionate letter to his seriously ill father-in-law, Loyal Davis, including the following:

“I want to tell you of a personal experience I’ve kept to myself for a long time.  During my first year as Governor you’ll recall the situation I found in Calif. was almost as bad as the one in Wash. today.  It seemed as if the problems were endless and insolvable.

Then I found myself with an ulcer.  In all those years at Warner Bros., no one had been able to give me an ulcer and I felt ashamed as if it were a sign of weakness on my part.  John Sharpe had me on Maalox and I lived with a constant pain that ranged from discomfort to extremely sharp attacks.

This went on for months. I had a bottle of Maalox in my desk, my briefcase and of course at home.  Then one morning I got up, went to the bathroom, reached for the bottle as always and something happened.  I knew I didn’t need it.  I had gone to bed with the usual pain the night before but I knew that morning I was healed.  The Maalox when back on the shelf.

That morning when I arrived at the office Helene brought me my mail.  The first letter I opened was from a lady – a stranger – in the Southern part of the state.  She had written to tell me she was one of a group who met every day to pray for me. Believe it or not, the second letter was from a man, again a stranger, in the other end of the state telling me he was part of a group that met weekly to pray for me.

Within the hour a young fellow from the legal staff came into my office on some routine matter. On the way out he paused in the door and said:  ‘Gov. I think maybe you’d like to know – some of us on the staff come in early every morning and get together to pray for you.’

Coincidence?  I don’t think so  A couple of weeks later Nancy and I went down to L.A. and had our annual checkup.  John Sharpe, a little puzzled, told me I no longer had an ulcer but added there was no indication I’d ever had one.”

President Reagan went on to share the gospel with Loyal who died 12 days later.

Today’s problems in government seem endless and insolvable.  Our leaders on both sides of the political aisle need miraculous physical, moral, and relational healing.  They need us to faithfully and fervently pray for them.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE HEALING OF OUR LEADERS IN THIS LAND.  No problem is endless and insolvable when we give the Lord control. According to Reagan, “we only have to trust and have faith in His infinite goodness and mercy.”