During this Monday’s 6am prayer meeting for marketplace believers, I prayed for a man who was going out to work. I made it my resolve to pray with Biblical language and, as the Scriptures command, with my hope completely fixed on that Day, “on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:13). I was also curious just to see how hope in THAT Day relates with hope for TODAY, observations that I will briefly mention after I lay out the prayer.

I prayed (to which you can pray with me),

“Lord, I ask that You would:

• Prepare his mind for action, keep him sober in spirit, fix his hope completely on the grace to be brought to him at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:13). That the hope of Day of the Lord and the coming Kingdom would become his foremost meditation and motivation today.
• That he would not love the world, love money, or be greedy for gain, but would be ready to share (1 Tim. 6:17-19), meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure, peaceful (Mt. 5:ff), conducting himself in fear along the narrow road of righteousness (1 Pet. 1:17, 2 Cor. 5:9-11, Mt. 7:13-14).
• Let men see his good works and glorify God because of them (Mt. 5:16). Let it be demonstrated by his excellent conduct among Gentiles at work (1 Pet. 2:12) that his hope is truly and fully fixed upon another age and that everything in his life is driven and explained by this Great Day when You will expose and judge the secrets of men through the Messiah and render to each person according to their deeds (Rom. 2:5-16), when the wicked will be cut off and the righteous will be lifted up to inherit the earth (Pss. 37, 75-76).
• In light of the great reversal of that day, give him grace to walk in loving meekness and goodness toward the wicked (Rom. 12:14-21), submitting to unloving government while, like Jesus, entrusting himself to Him who judges righteously (1 Pet. 2:13-23).
• Let his hope burn brightly and be contagious, that men would ask him to give an account for the hope that is in him and he would always be ready to warn men in light of that Day. That as he works in the marketplace, Messiah, not money or lust, would be set apart as Lord in his heart (1 Pet. 3:15) (A heart overflowing with the fairness of Jesus and the righteousness of His kingdom will adequately communicate this good theme to others –Ps. 45).

I then left him as someone else began praying for him.

Here is emphatic, biblical hope for the marketplace TODAY: Citizens of another age, sealed and chosen for the Kingdom of Messiah, who eagerly hope in Messiah, not themselves, and walk in such an excellence that points to His excellent Kingdom; a conduct of righteousness that points to that future “home of righteousness” (2 Pet. 3:13 NIV). While still sojourning in this present evil age (Gal. 1:4, Titus 2:12), knowing “the day is near”, we behave “as in the day” (Rom. 13:11-14), learning to walk in a way pleasing to the Lord (Eph. 5:8-10). The marketplace is a unique sphere of society wherein believers proclaim, not just a verbal witness to the Day of the Lord but also a living one.

A voice crying out in the marketplace, “Prepare the way of the Lord! Order your lives in light of His coming. Bear fruits in keeping with a repentant heart. Here’s how: Share with the one in need. Don’t be dishonest in your taxes, don’t steal money, don’t accuse falsely. Be content with your wages, because He’s coming to judge the world in righteousness and He will reward the righteous, but will throw the wicked into an unquenchable lake of fire!” (taken from Luke 3:3-18)

Randy Alcorn tweeted just after I prayed this on Monday, “To many of us, ‘hope’ sounds wishful and tentative, but biblical hope means to anticipate with trust, to expect a sure thing. Romans 8:34-35.”

The hope of the marketplace believer is no different than the hope of the clergy. There is “one hope of your calling” (Eph. 1:18, 4:4), bound up in the Day of His appearing. May we seek out that true, sure, blessed, biblical hope and may it become what it should be: the supreme object of fixation to which our hearts’ demanding search for hope finds its fulfillment as we walk in the marketplace, the home, or the cathedral.

I love how kids are unafraid to ask the simplest questions of life that adults are sometimes too proud or too “smart” to ask. In the CEC (Children’s Equipping Center), as I was teaching a class on the Apostolic prayers in the New Testament, a seven-year-old boy named Spencer raised his hand and asked the question, “Uh, why do we pray?” I sought to answer that question in the class this Friday morning. I started by drawing a simple diagram on the board.

Here is reality according to the Bible (see diagram I put together based off a diagram from my friend, John Harrigan):

Because the Church (those people circled in the diagram: sealed with Holy Spirit, or “HS” [Eph. 1:13-14, 2 Cor. 1:22], and chosen to inherit the Kingdom [Mt. 25:34, 1 Cor. 6:9-11, Gal. 5:21, James 2:5, Rev. 21:7]) lives in this present evil age, “saved in hope” for the Messianic age (Gal. 1:3-5, Titus 2:12-13, Rom. 8:24-25), as wheat among the tares (Mt. 13:36-43, 1 Pet. 2:12ff), it conducts itself as a sojourning nation (1 Pet. 2:9-12), waiting, praying for, and preparing for the coming of the Messiah and His Kingdom (Mt. 6:10, Luke 18:1-8, 1 Pet. 1:13, 1 Cor. 1:7,  Phil. 3:20-21, 1 Thess. 1:9-10, Titus 2:13, James 5:7-10, Jude 20-21, Rev. 19:7). The tool that keeps us in this posture of repentant faith, so that we may inherit the promises of the age to come (Heb. 10:36-11:6), is the power, or grace, of God. As 1 Pet. 1:4-5 says, “to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power (grace) of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

The grace of God through the Holy Spirit is given to the Church to strengthen us not only in our sojourning, but also in our witness (Acts 1:8) of God’s absolute sovereignty over the Heavens and the Earth. His absolute sovereignty is expressed presently in amnestic patience toward the wicked (Luke 6:35-36, Rom. 2:4ff) and subsequently in recompense when the Day of the Lord is executed at the hands of the Messiah (Mt. 16:27, Rom. 2:4ff, 2 Thess. 1:4-10, Rev. 22:12). The Holy Spirit is given as a “gift” (Acts 1:4) and a “helper” (Jn. 14:16), that the Church might remain faithful and perseverant in her calling.

I then gave two mental pictures of our relationship to the Lord according to the Bible:

1. A Betrothed Bride

“…for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin” -2 Cor. 11:2

As I was teaching the kids the basic contours of this age and the age to come and how we need the power of God to prepare us for that Day, the picture of an engagement ring came to mind. I’ve seen three of my sisters get engaged and then married. Watching the daily emotions and preparations that go into that transition is truly exciting. For a betrothed bride, or fiancée, her role is simply to keep herself in love (see Jude 21). The ring says it’s going to happen, but she just has to wait and get ready. What a tragedy it would be for a bride to get to her wedding day ill-acquainted with and indifferent to her groom as everyone realizes that she had spent her whole engagement period flirting with other men, totally unconcerned with this most important day of her life. As a betrothed bride, we should get up everyday, look at our finger, and concern ourselves with the most important day of our lives. The Holy Spirit is our pledge (2 Cor. 1:22, Eph. 1:14), our “ring”, so to speak, who daily reminds us of our Bridegroom’s faithfulness as He pours out His love within our hearts (Rom. 5:5-11), glorifying Jesus by reminding us of His words (Jn. 14:26, 16:13-14), so that on that day, “His bride has made herself ready” (Rev. 19:7). The metaphor of “bride” is chosen in Rev. 22:17 to describe the Spirit’s preparative work in producing longing love for the Bridegroom in the Church—”The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come’ “. In this engagement period, “when the Bridegroom is taken away” (Mt. 9:15), perseverant longing is required (“Maranatha” of 1 Cor. 16:22-23). If we don’t order our life in this way, everything, even legitimate things, will choke out the remembrance of the words of our Beloved (his “love letters”) and distract us from the simplicity of devotion to Him (Mt. 13:18-23, 2 Cor. 11:2-3).

2. A Placed Orphan

“You have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God… having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved…” -Rom. 8:15-24

According to Romans 8:23, “we wait for our adoption, the redemption (or resurrection) of our bodies”. Though the Bible emphatically declares, “Beloved, NOW we are children of God” (1 Jn. 3:1-2) and the Spirit testifies to this (Rom. 8:16), there seems to be at times an ambiguous distinction between our present calling and its future realization. Like the picture of an engagement unto a wedding, there is a process in adoption. I gave this analogy to the kids to help solidify the often-etherealized function of “the Spirit of Adoption”. My sister and brother-in-law, Rachel and Marcus Meier, are in the process adopting eight-year-old twin girls from Ethiopia. On March 31st, the girls will legally be theirs. They would have had to fly out to Ethiopia to do that legal transaction, but thankfully they don’t have to anymore (Regardless, what a picture that is of the First Coming of Jesus! I’m getting ahead of myself…). Even though they will legally have the girls on the 31st, they won’t be able to fly over to Ethiopia (Second Coming in the clouds!) to get the girls and actually “have them” for another four to six weeks because of legal processing. So, there is this period of waiting and preparing (“already/not yet”).

For a moment, imagine the excitement of these two girls. They are getting adopted! They found out someone wants them, and they have a new family. They may be thinking things like, “Wow, they are Americans, so I will become an American. I want to live like an American now. I wonder what my new parents like to do, what food they like to eat, what their house looks like. What will my bedroom look like?” Now imagine this: upon Marcus and Rachel’s first visit for the legal transfer, they give these twins a telephone so that the girls can talk to them during the waiting period. The girls are tired of the loneliness of orphanhood. They want to live in the family now. They like their new parents and they want to talk to their new family everyday.

Marcus and Rachel then call the girls on the phone and tell them, “We are so excited to welcome you into our home! We have your room ready. You are going to have a sweet bunk bed. We painted it for you. We’re going to give you this and this and this…” The girls express their gratitude and even call Rachel “Mom” and Marcus “Dad”. Then they ask questions about the family. Marcus replies, “Well, Isaiah, Zion, Rees, Hudson, they are all so excited too. Now, in our home, the family loves each other and shares with each other. Love and sharing in the home is something that’s rewarded. You can get ready by practicing sharing with each other, because those are the laws of this home. I know you may not be rewarded for those things in the Ethiopian orphanage, but you will here. You can get ready now so that it will be a smooth transition and entrance into our home. And if you show long-suffering love towards one another now, we will give you special privileges in the home, just like Isaiah has.” The girls resolve to share with each other right there on the phone and then end the conversation asking their new parents to come to Ethiopia soon. They repeat the conversation each day as anxious expectation grows for their new home and new family.

According to Romans 8:13-25, The Holy Spirit (“of Adoption”) presently works four things in us. He:

1. Orders our life to imitate our new Father; we are now under obligation to live according to Him [vs. 13] and follow His lead [vs. 14].

2. Testifies with our spirits to the acceptance of our new Father by crying out, “Abba! Father!” [vs. 15-16] He pours out the love of the God in our hearts, testifying to the present peace and reconciliation we have with the Father [5:1-11].

3. Testifies to the implications of our sonship, the future glory of being revealed as a co-heir with Christ on a restored earth [vs. 17-22].

4. Produces a groaning longing for that day of our adoption [vs. 23-25], when we get to be with Him, see Him, and freely receive all the things [looking to vs. 32] He’s prepared for us in our “new home”, that is, the restored home of the earth [see climax of Rev. 21:1-7].

Like the imagery of a telephone, the Holy Spirit is dialogical. He is a person. As He fellowships with me and I talk to Him in prayer and worship, I receive grace and strength in my inner man (Eph. 3:16) to persevere in the present age unto the day of my adoption and wedding. The grace that is imparted through the Holy Spirit (“Spirit of grace” Heb. 10:29) is what preserves me unto the Day of Christ (1 Cor. 1:3-9). Therefore, talking with Him and receiving grace from Him is my primary function in this age. This is why I pray.

A few weekends ago I took a trip with my sister, Grace Kim, to Roseville, CA. We made a great team as we led worship at the Rock of Roseville Church (Well, Grace led and I played backup keyboards and helped direct the church band in following Grace). It was a wonderful time of leading a congregation into the presence of the Lord. But I must say that the highlights of the trip were principally just getting closer to my stunning, 7th-month-expectant sister, and secondly, the plane rides. As to the latter, I love the absolute vulnerability of flying. There’s still something strange to me about a 45 ton piece of metal hurling through the atmosphere at 530 mph. On our first flight I opened my bible and flipped to one of my defaults (i.e. favorites), Psalm 36. After describing the posture of the wicked man in verses 1-4, David turns to look at the heavens, the clouds, the mountains, and the seas (all of which were clearly evident outside my own plane window) in verses 5-6 and how they envision the faithful mercies of God in preserving a humanity so bent on rebellion. In verse 7, David contrasts the response of the righteous toward God’s precious mercy compared with that of those who reject it: they “take refuge in the shadow of Your wings”. Every time the plane takes off or lands I feel that “taking refuge” most manifestly (especially on those rickety American Airlines landings!). But for a moment, ponder how precious this must be to God. For many, if the plane goes down, men curse God and die. But few thank Him for a lifetime of preserving mercy. How many men look out the window to see the clouds and admire “Mother Nature” (which in itself is such a statement of Evolutionist Naturalism… your mother is not Nature…) or see a great lake below and forget that God once flooded the earth with water and is hence preserving it from ever such a deluge (2 Peter 3:5-7)? Men look at Creation and volitionally suppress the truth of a Creator (Rom. 1:20); each stubborn denial “storing up wrath for the day of wrath” (Rom. 2:5). But then the plane safely lands again and again. And then it rains again. And again. And again. And again. God continues loving and preserving ungrateful and evil men (Luke 6:35-36). And it is mercy that preaches (Rom. 2:4). Indeed God is not leaving Himself without a witness (Acts 14:17) as every drop of rain silently preaches to the race of men, “God sent me! Don’t you see how kind He is? God sent me to refresh you, but you hate Him and refuse His right to rule over you! Know this now: I may come again as a Tsunami! But all I can do is testify of my Creator, He is both Power and Love (cf. Ps. 62:11-12). Repent of your rebellion and Believe in God!” But this witness will only last for a short while, and then comes the final judgment (Heb. 9:27). Do we not comprehend the fragility of our lives? It will not always be a safe landing. You will not always come home to a warm bed. Death is the great equalizer of us all and it fearfully coerces us to hope in Someone who is Living, who is Self-Existent. Our lives are in the hand of God (Ecc. 9). Take refuge there! He promises life and resurrection and pleasures forevermore.

“Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like a great deep. O LORD, You preserve man and beast. How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.” (Psalm 36:5-7)

“Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.” Acts 19:4-6

See Mt. 24:9-14 and Rev. 6:9-11

I am especially provoked by the other 2 of “the three”, Daniel Staddon and Ellen Lawrence. That was the funnest tie breaker of my life. They are crazy awesome and so humble! What kind of competitors root for you to win, even though knowing that your loss is their gain?! Thank you all for supporting me. I am abundantly blessed and have absolutely no reason of remorse for even getting 2nd. In the end we are all headed for a wedding feast (Rev. 19) and we will rejoice that we won the greatest competition, the competition that begins today, when after you walk out of J.W. Marriott, whether win or lose, and you press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3). It is the prize of being pleasing to Jesus, of being seen by Him when no one else sees you. It won’t matter if you’re really smart or get F’s, if you’re young or old, male or female, if you embrace today that narrow way of love, of keeping and teaching (live it and speak it) His commandments, you will be GREAT (Mt. 5:19). I tell you what, our hearts are desperate to be seen, to be noticed, to be great. And yet mystery of mysteries, the greatest glory is found in serving your brother/sister/mother/father (Mt. 22:36-40, Gal. 5:13-14). Then God is going to CROWN YOU (2 Tim. 4:7-8, Rev. 2:10)! God is going to HONOR YOU (1 Pet. 1:7)! Your resurrected body will shine because of the love you displayed in the secret place (Mt. 6:1-18, Dan. 12:3). Know that, as I said in the final round, “Jesus is interceding for us right now” (Rom. 8:34), He is praying that in this race of faith (1 Tim. 6:11-12, Heb. 12:1-2, Phil. 3:11-16, 1 Cor. 9:24-27), your faith would not fail (Luke 22:34-31)! So, as Paul did not cease to pray, may we also pray (even if it be in constant 15 second prayers) that we would be “strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience (endurance) with joy” -Col. 1:11 Whether you are a full-time mother, a pastor, a student, a kid, a full-time businessman, do not be deceived! If you faithfully sow to the Spirit (by talking with Him, yielding to, and obeying Him as He teaches you to love and serve), you will reap eternal life and greatness in the age to come (Mt. 20:26-28). Do not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not loose heart (Gal. 6:7-10)!

Good News!  The Final Challenge of the 2009 National Bible Bee Contest will be available for you to view via a live webcast on the National Bible Bee website – www.biblebee.org  Be sure to mark your calendars and invite your family, friends and neighbors to watch as our children proclaim the Word of God in our Nation’s capital!

The webcast can be viewed live on Friday, November 6, 2009, from 1:30pm – 5:15pm. (EST).  (That’s 12:30pm – 4:15pm in Kansas City)

Please continue to pray for God’s protection and blessing on this inaugural event!

Proclaiming God’s Word and Exalting our Savior!

–Bible Bee Headquarters

I am writing this now because I need to raise around $2,000 for a trip with my Dad to Washington D.C. this upcoming November to compete in the final round of the National Bible Bee! It costs so much because we are staying at the prestigious J.W. Marriott and it’s a lot. Over the past 5 months I have been working hard and steady on memorizing and reviewing the Bible passages for this competition and now I am in need of your support. So many of you have already shown it in encouragement and prayer, but now I need it in finances too. As always, this is optional and I only want you to do this if your heart moves you. You can just enter any amount after you click on the button below. Thank you so much!