A Time to Speak; A Time to Be Silent

(Grandson Levi's hand)

There is a time for silence, and a time for sound. 

In a musical score, there are rests, and there are notes. Without rests the notes would lose their individuality. Without rests, the notes would bleed together.

Rests abstain. Notes obtain.

In a rest there is the absence of notes. There may be the sounds of overtones and echoes of notes recently played. But in a rest there is the celebration of quietness. 

Without rests, there will be no drama. No anticipation. No hope. The emptiness of a musical pause sets the stage for the fullness of notes to shine forth.

Surely one of the greatest musical rests ever written is at the end of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus." An article on the BBC says, "the Hallelujah Chorus at the end of part 2 is in D major and concludes with a plagal cadence." After a series of choral hallelujahs, the sounds come to an abrupt stop. This prepares us for a full-force IV chord, which will resolve into the I chord. (If the key is D, the IV chord is G, the I chord is D.) The "plagal cadence" is the IV chord returning home to the I chord. For those of us who love Handel's "Messiah," this is what we have been waiting for.

The absolute silence is just as needed as the plagal cadence.

The muteness is as important as the wordness. 

Both muteness and wordness are needed for witness.

Henri Nouwen writes:

"Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure. Somewhere we know that without a lonely place our actions quickly become empty gestures." (Nouwen, You are the Beloved.) 

At Redeemer we are still preaching through the book of Revelation. Revelation is, among other things, a feast of literary and linguistic fireworks. An overflowing goblet of falling-to-the-ground worship. A never-ending, repetitive holy-holy-holy-ness. But in the midst of it all, the universe and all that is in it is reduced to ear-deafening, absolute, auditory vacuity. 

We read...

When he opened the seventh seal, 

there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Revelation 8:1

As I begin to try and think about what this will feel like, I feel I am to emulate the silence and keep my mouth shut and resist trying to give words to the quiet.

Before us lies a world, awaiting Something, and Someone, to be heralded by seven supernatural trumpets, Who will, out of the Great Pause, resolve all anticipatory IV chords into the everlasting I-chord.

And that my little life must make silence and stillness essential parts of the composition God wants to orchestrate through me.

Day 4 - Jesus Had a Praying Life

 

 Dear Praying Church, 

Because Jesus prayed, so also are you to pray. 

 When I was a boy, Elvis was my hero. I wanted to be like him. I remember a day when I took an Elvis album cover into the bathroom and propped it against the mirror so I could see it. There I was, with my face in the mirror, next to the King’s. Then, I attempted to curl my lip like Elvis did when he sang. I took some hair gel and tried to recreate Elvis’s hair. I began to speak like Elvis did, in that low, smoky, bluesy baritone voice. All this and more was hard work, but worth it if people would see the resemblance. 

 Finally, I was ready to walk into the real world. I left my house and Elvised into my friend John’s backyard. I was hoping he would see that I looked like you-know-who. When he saw “Elvis,” namely moi, John said words that shattered me. “So, you’re trying to look like Elvis again.” 

 Trying? I want to be him! 

 We want to be like those we worship. In many ways, we become what we worship. When I began to follow and worship Jesus, I wanted to be like him. I wrote a worship song that was recorded by some Christian artists. It was called “More Like You.” I recorded it myself, and Linda and I had it played at our wedding. To be like Jesus. To be formed into greater and greater Christlikeness. (Galatians 4:19) 

 John 3:2 says, 

 Dear friends, now we are children of God , 

 and what we will be has not yet been made known. 

 But we know that when Christ appears, 

 we shall be like him, 

 for we shall see him as he is. 

 What was Jesus like? Well, he prayed. Here’s my reasoning. 

 1. Jesus is my Great Shepherd. 

 2. My Great Shepherd spent much time praying.  

3. Therefore, I spend much time praying. 

 We read these words in Luke 5:16: 

 Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. 

 Jesus prayed. 

Often. 

 For decades it has been my habit, weekly, to go to a lonely place, and pray. I do this for several reasons. But mainly, I do it because this Jesus that I worship did it, and I want to be like him. 

 As do you. 

 When you look into the mirror, see the face of Jesus next to yours. He’s calling you to meet with him and talk with him and listen to him, often. 

 Love, 

 PJ 

 CHALLENGE 

 Imitate Jesus’s praying life.

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

It's Linda's Birthday!

 

 

Sunday, August 3.

It's Linda's birthday!

I met Linda in 1970 at Northern Illinois University. We were part of the same campus ministry.

I was attracted, not only to her physical beauty, but to her heart, to her spirit. And, most importantly, to her unwavering love for Jesus.  

I thank God regularly for giving me Linda, my beautiful wife and life partner. 

She has a vast personal ministry to many people. 

She is a source of wisdom for constant callers. 

She is a compassionate God-seeker and prayer warrior. 

Linda has a fierce, loyal, unswerving faith in Jesus. 

She is a piano/vocal teacher, imparting more to her students than musical abilities.

She is a knowledgeable and skilled educator.

She is a clear and compelling teacher and speaker.

She has many gifts, and uses them for the glory of God. 

She is a phenomenal mother.

And now, a loving and creative grandmother!

She is a great support and strength to me. I could not do what God has called me to do without her. 

Her sense of humor really gets to me.

She is my travel companion.

And, Linda is the perfect Wordle partner!

On August 11 we will celebrate fifty-two years of marriage! 

Thank you, God, for giving Linda to me, and to so many others.

Happy birthday!

Praying - Day 2: Prayer, Defined

 

 Dear Church, 

 I want you to be certain of what prayer is. 

 Linda and I were married in August of 1973. In 2025 we will have been married fifty-two years! 

 When I met Linda, I was twenty-one years old, a college student, and a new follower of Jesus. I began attending a campus ministry. I joined one of the small groups, which met weekly. I attended large group Bible studies and worship meetings. I began forming new friendships. In that context, one of them was with Linda. 

 I lived with my parents, thirty miles from campus. I commuted to classes three days a week. I was freed from alcohol and drug abuse. To my parents’ amazement, I was reading my Bible. To my astonishment, I became the youth leader in the Lutheran church we attended. My life was changing. I would never be the same again! 

 One evening, I found myself struggling with some issues in my life. I had questions I was praying about. I was in the beginning stages of learning how to listen to the voice of the Lord. I remember thinking, “Who could I call that would listen to me?” A few names of new friends came into my mind. Linda’s was one of them. 

Intuitively, I felt she would understand what was happening in me. I called her. She listened, while I talked. She talked, and I listened. I felt she was grasping what I was trying to say. I was being helped by her responses. 

 Prayer is like this. Dallas Willard defined praying as talking with God about what God and I are thinking and doing together. Martin Luther King defined praying as “conversation with God.” Prayer is a dialogical give-and-take, between me and God. 

Prayer is listening as well as speaking. In prayer, discernment precedes decision making. One of the things that happens in praying is finding out what the Father wants us to do. We see this in verses like Jeremiah 42:2-4. 2 Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, 

 “Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God 

for this entire remnant. 

 For as you now see, though we were once many, 

now only a few are left. 

 3 Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go 

and what we should do.” 

 4 “I have heard you,” replied Jeremiah the prophet. 

 “I will certainly pray to the Lord your God as you have requested; 

 I will tell you everything the Lord says 

 and will keep nothing back from you.” 

 Brothers and sisters, as you enter into the great conversation with God, God will tell you where you should go, and what you should do. 

 Love, PJ 

 QUESTIONS 

 What is God saying to you, about you? 

 What does God want you to do, today? 

 Where is God leading you? 

 How are you collaborating with God?

(From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.)

31 Days of Praying - Day 1 - Praying for a Great Awakening

 

Dear Church, 

 I want you to pray towards a move of God in your church, and in other churches. 

 My friend Brian Johnson is the Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches of Michigan. He oversees 130+ churches in our state. Quite a responsibility! Recently, Brian contacted me, along with some other leaders, and shared a vision God had given him. 

God told Brian to launch a prayer movement and begin by mobilizing our churches to pray for a move of God, in every one of our ABC churches. When I heard this, I knew two things. First, this was a from-God vision. I cannot imagine not desiring God to move in my church family, and beyond. Second, because of its scope and challenges, we must be led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Divine wisdom and power that far surpasses human abilities will be needed. 

Pray for a move of God in our churches. This is the kind of thing the apostle Paul longed for. We see it in 1 Thessalonians 1:11. 

With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. 

Paul prays for a move of God in Colossians 1:9. 

 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives... 

 Paul was always praying for the churches that were under his watchful care. Let's agree that praying for God to mightily move, in other churches, is a God-thing, a good thing. It is a big thing. So big, that when I heard from Brian, I found myself thinking, “This is not going to happen.” But, if it did happen, it would be another Awakening. It would be different. It would be grass roots, subversive as regards the kingdom of darkness, and have revolutionary impact. 

I witnessed such things in the Jesus Revolution of the late sixties and early seventies. A great Move of God would be powerful, and influential., compelling and attractive. 

 I’ve been in pastoral ministry since 1971. I have seen God do things that were beyond my faith, beyond my meager abilities. To be part of a group of 130+ churches, all committed to interceding for each other, gets my attention. So, little old me, who believes in great big God, has signed up. I am recruiting you to be part of this prayer movement. 

I want you to join me, and Brian, our visionary leader, and get behind this. If you are in a different denomination, or are independent, will you join us, in praying towards this vision? 

 Let the praying movement begin. 

Now. 

 Love, PJ 

 (That’s what I’m called in my church family – “Pastor John.”) 

 johnpiippo@msn.com 

 EXERCISE 

 Pray for another Jesus Revolution. 

 Pray for another Great Awakening.

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

31 Letters to the Church on Praying: Introduction

 

Introduction 

 I am praying for a Next Great Awakening to fall upon our churches. 

 Will you join me? 

 Dear Church, 

 On April 8, 1966, the cover of Time magazine had the words, in red, against a solid black background, “Is God Dead?” Five years later, on June 21, 1971, the cover of Time was red, with a drawing of the face of Jesus, and the words “The Jesus Revolution.” In the spring of 1970 I was saved, caught up in this movement that was moving across our nation. 

So much for the death of God, in America! I joined a campus ministry. The leaders placed a book in my hands, written by a man with an optimistic name, Bill Bright. The book was called Revolution Now. Pause with me here, for a moment. 

I was twenty-one. I was emerging from alcohol abuse and drug use. Mine was a life of poor choices and many failures. I had flunked out of college and joined the Army National Guard. My life was devoid of meaning and purpose. And then… … it all changed. I was part of a great Revolution. 

I saw many of my friends give their lives to Jesus. I became a Bible reader. And I began to pray. 

 During that season of life, my prayers tended towards bigness. They transcended my previous secular, reductive mentality. I had come to believe in a great big God, the kind who merely speaks and launches universes into existence. This God knew everything that can be known (omniscience) and was able to do anything that can be done (omnipotence). 

This was not theoretical for me. I saw God in action. I witnessed many miraculous answers to my prayers. I was discovering that, where prayer focuses, power falls. Fifty-three years later, this has not changed. 

 Today, in this strange world we live in, I am praying for the same God that raised Jesus from the dead to do great things in my church, and in churches across our land. I have hope and expectation, because I have seen this happen before. Out of a dark spiritual malaise (the cultural “death” of God), came the bright light of the Jesus Movement. You had to be in it to understand it. 

 When I pray out of my experience in that Movement, I ask God things like this. God, raise my experience to the level of your kingdom realities. Show me your glory. Enable me to see the things of earth, through the lens of heaven. Let your manifest presence fill this temple that is your Church. Move among us in mighty ways that transcend human abilities. Awaken your people. Awaken me. 

 I also find myself praying such things, in reverse. God, protect me from reducing you to the level of my finite experience. Anoint me with a holy dissatisfaction in mere human accomplishments. Transform my doubt into belief, my fears into faith, my pessimism into optimism, my cynicism into hope, my hypocrisy into authenticity, my secularism into supernaturalism, my low self-worth into confidence, my doubt into assurance, my tentativeness into boldness, my sin into holiness, and my laziness into discipline. 

 God, give us another Great Awakening, another Welsh Revival, another Azusa Street, another Jesus Movement! 

 I am praying for God to do something great, in our churches, across our country. How will this happen? The answer is: by prayer. In history, moves of God are always preceded, and undergirded, by praying people. 

 As I dream big, I remember to think small. Most, if not all, revivals in history began with a handful of people who were praying. They rarely, if ever, happened in mega situations. 

Acts chapter two gives us the prototype. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. How many were “they all?” If all the believers at the time were in the Upper Room, that would be a hundred and twenty. (Acts 1:15) This is not a megachurch. It is a gathering of praying people, situated in a small outpost on the edge of the Roman empire, who believe in our mega-God. 

That’s what this devotional book is about. 

That’s where you come in. 

I am calling you to a prayer movement. 

There’s no need to wait for others to join. 

Remember the quote from William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army? He said, “I’m not waiting for a move of God; I AM a move of God.” 

Consider this 31-day devotional a refueling station. You, a Move of God, are stopping to gas up. So you can stay ignited. So you would be encouraged, and on fire, in your praying life. 

I present to you thirty-one entries on thirty-one aspects of a praying life. This comes out of my fifty-three years of praying experience. So much more could be said. You and me – we form a great, praying Move of God. That will not be contained. 

John Piippo 

(From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying)

How to Keep a Spiritual Journal

(C. S. Lewis, "The Trouble with X." Also in Lewis, God In the Dock.)

I've been keeping a spiritual journal for fifty-two years. I have read and responded to over 3000 spiritual journals that pastors and Christian leaders have sent me, as part of seminary classes, retreats, and conferences I have taught. Here are my thoughts on keeping a spiritual journal.

A spiritual journal is a record of the voice and activity of God, to you. When God speaks to you, write it down. To do that is to keep a spiritual journal.

People write differently. Some include lots of detail, such as the place where they are praying, prayer concerns, and biblical exegesis. But the core of the journal is: God's words, spoken to you. When I read the journals of others, that's what I am looking for. What is God saying to you? What is God doing with you?

When your mind wanders, I suggest writing where it wanders to. The mind does not wander arbitrarily, but always to something like a burden. The wandering mind is a barometer of your spiritual condition. Then, following 1 Peter 5:7, "cast your burdens on God, for he cares for you." I find it helpful to get the burdens on paper. To see them on paper makes it feel like they are not inside me any longer. Now, it's at a distance from me. De-burdening is an important part of entering into God's presence more fully. We have a greater focus on God because we are not so distracted by our burdens.

If keeping a spiritual journal is writing down what God says to me, how can I know it's really the voice of God? I have found that one better hears God's voice when they:

1) Saturate themselves with Scripture.
2) Spend MUCH time alone in God's presence.
3) Hang around people who do 1 and 2. 

There are some good books about this, such as Dallas Willard's Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship With God.

Because the spiritual journal is a record of God's voice to you, it is fruitful to occasionally re-read and re-meditate on your journal. A number of the things God tells you will become thematic in your life. It is important to remember them. "Remembering" is huge in a person's spiritual life. When we have a written record of God's words for us, it can be easier to recall them as we re-ponder them anew. The maxim here is: "I will not forget God's words to me."

A spiritual journal, because it is a record of God's voice to you, is about you. Not others. Yes, I sometimes write about others in my journal. For example, I pray for others. Or, If I'm upset with someone, I use letters such as 'X' to refer to those persons. I don't want my journal to be found or read by someone with whom I'm angry with. When I write down such things before God I'm primarily asking God to help, not 'X,' but me, and with anger inside me.

What can you expect God to say to you? My experience tells me that God will say things like: his love for you, things he wants to heal inside you, things you need to repent of in your life, that he forgives you, things about his essence (the glory of who he is), giving you deeper insights on Scripture, giving direction, and so on. And, God impart things to you. When this happens to me I write down things like grace, mercy, peace, joy, love, hope, and power.

I don't believe journaling is for everybody. But remembering is. So is entering deeply into God's presence and hearing his voice.

***
On prayer and hearing God, see my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

Dr. John Piippo - How God Changes the Human Heart

I'm re-posting this for my Payne Theological Seminary students.

Teaching for Payne Theological Seminary for the Next 10 Weeks

Beginning tomorrow (7/28), and for ten consecutive Monday evenings on Zoom, I will again teach my Spiritual Formation class to Payne Theological Seminary (A.M.E.) M.Div. students this week. Here are some photos of Payne and my former students.

God Is Wrathful Because God Is Love

 

                                                                   (Monroe County)

Yale theologian Miroslav Volf personally witnessed the horrors of the Bosnian war. Out of this context he wrote,

I used to think that wrath was unworthy of God. Isn’t God love? Shouldn’t divine love be beyond wrath? God is love, and God loves every person and every creature. That’s exactly why God is wrathful against some of them. My last resistance to the idea of God’s wrath was a casualty of the war in former Yugoslavia, the region from which I come. According to some estimates, 200,000 people were killed and over 3,000,000 were displaced. My villages and cities were destroyed, mypeople shelled day in and day out, some of them brutalized beyond imagination, and I could not imagine God not being angry. Or think of Rwanda in the last decade of the past century, where 800,000 people were hacked to death in one hundred days!

​How did God react to the carnage? By doting on the perpetrators in a grandparently fashion? By refusing to condemn the bloodbath but instead affirming the perpetrators basic goodness? Wasn’t God fiercely angry with them? Though I used to complain about the indecency of the idea of God’s wrath, I came to think that I would have to rebel against a God who wasn’t wrathful at the sight of the world’s evil. God isn’t wrathful in spite of being love. God is wrathful because God is love.

 Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, (Zondervan 2005) pp. 138-139

As I read this, I thought of H. Richard Niebuhr's famous quote, as he critiqued a soft and shallow theological liberalism.

"A God without wrath

brought men without sin

into a kingdom without judgment

through the ministrations of

a Christ without a cross."

(For more on the love and wrath of God, see Kevin Kinghorn and Stephen Travis, But What About God's Wrath? The Compelling Love Story of Divine Anger.)