Watching in Prayer

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

I have been posting some of my poetry in the past few weeks. And I think it might be helpful for many to be given some perspective on reading poetry. I wrote something about this in the introduction to my book, I AM, Poetic Reflections Through The Gospel of John. The poems in the book are not nearly as gripping as some others that I have written, but I think the introduction will be helpful. So, for the next few weeks I will post segments of this introduction.

Are you afraid to read or use poetry? You are not alone in these days. I hope I can introduce you to the force of poetry that will make you tremble with Jeremiah and cry out from fire in your bones.

Presenting a book of poems at the end of an era where poetry has been so little known and loved requires special introduction. This relates to a fact that many of you may doubt. Is this dark antipoetic era over? I believe it is suffering its noisome death throws as I pen these words. Elementary school teachers were the Light Brigade that broke in on its artillery coming down upon its battlements with marvelous child-friendly poems by authors like Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky. And now even adults seem to be opening up, if slowly, to the power and pleasure of verse.

I went to school in the 1950s and 60s when the joy of poetry was being expelled. I knew then that I was out of sync with the coming trend by finding an affinity toward something most of my friends thought strange. The first writing I ever published was a poem I wrote my sophomore year in college. I had not thought about trying to publish when I wrote it, but several friends urged me to send it to The Student, a national denominational magazine with a circulation in the tens if not hundreds of thousands.

But magazines like The Student were the last hold-outs in a society that had already banished Homer and Hiawatha from secondary education. I wrote a few poems over the years that I sent unsuccessfully to multiple editors. I wrote one in the early 1970's that I sent dutifully to editors every five or six years. After 20 years of rejection slips, I received a check for the poem. They paid me $12 on acceptance! That year three more of my poems were accepted for publication. I was amazed.

I did use some of my poems in sermons and they were usually well received. But I have to admit that at least 90% of my poems over the years were written for my wife and family, simply because there was no outside market for them. Doors were cracking open for publishing poetry before it occurred to me that I should have been writing poems with God as my audience, whether anyone else would read them or not. Still, poetry like a sermon cannot be written without concern for a human audience. And some of us need to help people know how to read, enjoy and benefit from poetry.

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Thursday, March 3, 2022

WHEN THE FROST IS ON THE HOT TUB

When The Frost Is on The Hot Tub

When the frost is on the hot tub, and it’s freezin’ on the deck,
I step out in the morning an’ feel the shivers down my neck.
O it starts my feet to hoppin’ from the ice between my toes,
An’ I feel the wind astingin’ on my legs and ears and nose.
I lift the cover without stopin’ the chatterin’ of my teeth,
An’ I watch the steam arisin’ as it forms a silver wreath.
Now it’s hard to keep my balance cause there’s ice upon the step,
When the frost is on the hot tub, and it’s freezin’ on the deck.

I start the pool achurnin’ bubbllin’ out from every jet.
An’ I feel the hot tub callin’ from the warmth within its depths.
So I ease into the water that’s at first too hot to stand.
Then I sink below the surface as my longing now demands.
Oh I c’n feel the warmth asinkin’ into my achin’ bones,
As I lie there in the water and let out a happy moan.
But soon my time is over and I’m dreadin’ what comes next,
Cause the frost was on the hot tub, and it's freezin’ on the deck.

I can feel the chilling wind as I close the whole thing down.
It was summer in the hot tub but it's winter all around.

I pick my way with caution lest I be slippin’ on the ice.
The towel I left is frozen, and bare flip flops are hardly nice.
An’ my body’s still atremblin' as I step into the house.
I shake my limbs and rub them dry and call out to my spouse,
“The air outside was stinging cold, and I was soakin’ wet!
There was frost upon the hot tub, and it's freezin’ on the deck.”

This poem was published in the book Take Me To The Garden.

Take Me To The Garden by [Jonna Padgett and David Young]

Friday, February 25, 2022

ARE YOU WATCHING THE NEWS?

Have you been watching the news? Most of us have been. And this is indeed a time for God's people to be aware of what is going on around us. I have been concerned about Ukraine for a long time. And I was tempted to put off my devotional time one morning to hear the details of the Russian invasion. That is the worst thing I could have done.

My confidence and peace depend on my closeness to God. My close friend Thame Fuller, pastor of Meadowdale Community Church in the Seattle area, posted this verse on Facebook that day.

"Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me,

even then I will be confident…

For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His dwelling."

- Psalm 27:3 & 5

I can trust God even for Christian brothers and sisters in a country that I love. And the most important thing I can do for them is pray.

This will still be true when our own neighbors, our own country, our own families and lives are under seige in events prophesied about these last days. The secret of faithfully enduring them will be our consistent nearness to God.

My devotional time today was in Acts 6 and 7. Stephen was dragged before the Sanhedrin by the people who would stone him before he finished his defense. In Acts 6:15 we read,

“And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.”

Earlier in Acts Peter declared to the Sanhedrin that there was no name but Jesus whereby we must be saved. When the council saw the boldness of these ordinary fishermen, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.

Extraordinary bible-focused prayer is the most important thing we can do for our world and for our witness in it. I pray that people around us will see the difference Jesus makes in us. Having said this, let me include two specific requests from people asking prayer for Ukraine.

First, from Sammy Tippit:

I spoke this morning with Vasie Bynzar, who directed STM during the days of the collapse of the Soviet Union. He is from Moldova and his brother is now in Krivoy Rog, Ukraine. Vasile said that his brother could hear fighting at the nearby military base. When I ministered in Ukraine, I preached in Krivoy Rog, Nikolayev, Odessa, Kherson, Zaparhozhia, and Kiev.

I tried to contact my friends in Kiev. However, it appears that the Internet has been knocked out by Cyber warfare. We need to pray for our brothers and sisters there. Please ask all the prayer warriors to lift up the people of Ukraine. There are followers of Jesus who came to Christ in all the cities that I mentioned. In the photo below, I have circled the cities where there are people who came to Christ through our ministry. I have also circled Moldova to see the location of Moldova to Ukraine. Many Christians in Moldova are concerned that the Russian military will also try to take Moldova.

Thanks.

And Kathleen Cliver posted something from a Missionary on the field in Ukraine:

“For us this is no surprise. We all knew it was coming.

Still, to officially announce you are in a full-scale war with a delusional dictator in 2022 is a horrific thing. So many people are going to die. And for what?

Please don't forget us, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Don't despair and don't grieve like those who

have no hope. Instead stand firm on the promises of the Lord.

Reading and praying over Psalms is really getting me through right now. It's good to remember that God

always gets justice in the end. Eternity is waiting.

Fellow believers, I beg of you, cry out to God to save the Ukrainian people! Open a map of Ukraine on

Google and pray over it. Ask the Lord to put His hand

of protection on Mariupol, on Kharkiv, on Sumy, on

Dnipro, on Kherson, and on and on and on. If you hear a news report please pray for the city mentioned.

There is no greater weapon you have to help us than your prayers.

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not

the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds."

Cry out to God for a spiritual awakening among the Russian and Belarussian people. Pray that God would do a miracle in the Slavic nations who call themselves our brothers and that they would cast off their chains. Pray that evil will be defeated.

May God bless and keep Ukraine!”

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Wednesday, February 23, 2022

A POEM PENNED BY GOD

Ephesians 2:10 N.I.V.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

The word translated “handiwork” here is “ποίημα” (POEMA) which is also the Greek word for poem.

A POEM PENNED BY GOD

Are you no more than molecules?

Protein cells with mitochondria?

Impulse glands sending chemicals

With merely random respondia?

A hundred million coded plans

Writ in chromosomal couplets,

Determine eyes and hair and hands,

And the chance to bear quintuplets.

Your genes are not an accident.

Detailed instructions never are.

These all demonstrate intent

By the Creator of the stars.

Now yielding to the Spirit's plans,

While upon the earth we trod,

Heaven and Earth will understand,

You are a poem penned by God.

This poem was published in the book Take Me To The Garden.

Take Me To The Garden by [Jonna Padgett and David Young]

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

CONSIDERING

What sort of things do you contemplate? Do you think seriously about anything? An interesting word is used in Acts 7:31-32. The word is κατανοέω (kataneo). Literally the word would be “according to the mind.” The common meaning is to consider or contemplate. The ESV and most other translations render the word “look” or “behold”' in these verses. I have highlighted the English translation of kataneo in the ESV.

“When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look.”

However, the NASB, like a handful of other translations, render the word more literally, to look more closely, or to consider. I agree that Moses went to look at the burning bush and when he realized it was God, he was afraid to look anymore. But by using the word for consider or contemplate here, Stephen, and Luke who recorded it, were leading us to deeper insight. Have you taken the trouble to contemplate the reality of God all around you?

THE CLOUD OF UNTHINKING

His ways at last are beyond our grasp,

The breadth of His Being beyond all showing.

His truth so vast from our reach is past,

Hiding Himself in the cloud of unknowing.

But must He bind Himself from the minds

Of those who would not seek His inkling?

His truth could they find with hearts so blind

Who hide from Him in the cloud of unthinking?

If our hearts are filled with selfish will

Can we ever know His presence within,

Souls compelled by lust unfulfilled

Until we die in unbelief and sin?

Yet the gospel's grace can be embraced

To open the hearts of the sons of men.

He died in the place of Adam’s race

To redeem His own from the fate of sin.

Meditating on the word of God opens our hearts and minds to understand things we would never have grasped had we not exposed ourselves to Him.

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Thursday, February 10, 2022

OUR WORDS MATTER

This week on Facebook I read a couple of things that many of us have come to ignore. One word came from someone whom I do not not know, but I suspect we agree on some things because of the page where he posted it. He called liberal supreme court nominees, “marxists.” The other was written by a friend for whom I have great respect. He called Democrats, “fascists.” These are serious mistakes, however much we disagree with others.

First, this is intellectually wrong. Calling most American politicians Marxists or Fascists ignores the seriousness of those ungodly doctrines. It also fails to explain why we do not agree with what our political opponents do believe. Some of those who hear us say such things will listen to what they say and conclude that whatever we say comes out of ignorance.

This is also a strategic mistake. If we would approach people with whom we disagree with intellectual consideration, we would persuade them on many issues. We are still a democracy where we can talk and persuade others. If we do not respectfully seek to persuade one another, we will lose our country.

And this is morally wrong. I am most concerned about this behavior among those I agree with, but I recognize that it is two sided. I regularly heard Republicans defend their actions by saying, “The Democrats did it when they were in power.” It baffles me when I hear people defend mimicking the behavior of those who hold political position they believe to be evil. Wouldn't it be better in the long run to say, “Our integrity keeps us from doing that.” Even if hateful speech increases our political power, it displeases God. In Matthew 12:34 Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” When we use vile language about our enemies we cultivate the evil in our hearts. When evil is allowed to grow in our hearts it will inevitably turn into violent action. Eventually we will cease to object to violence against those we hate.

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