Into Our Bones – Page 11

Confessional Prayer

There are many practices of prayer in the Christian life: prayers of petition, intercession, praise, worship, and others. One of those prayers that I think is important for the Christian is a regular time of prayer that helps us to confess our sins and receive forgiveness. One such prayer is traditionally called the prayer of examen. Developed in the 15^th century by St. Ignatius of Loyola, it has been used for centuries as a way to reflect on the day’s activities and give it over to God. This might involve ways of seeing God’s movement in the day, or it might be a way to release troubles or challenges we faced that day. Traditionally this prayer begins with acknowledging God’s presence. It continues with gratitude and reviewing the day and ends with asking God to show us how He wants you to respond.

The prayer of examen is not explicitly found in Scripture but the principles are certainly biblical. This practice has made a comeback in recent years as many Christians, especially Evangelicals, have been drawn to a deeper prayer life. Unfortunately, most of the versions I’ve seen omit what I think is critical for Christian formation – and that is regular confession of sin and receiving of forgiveness. One writer talks about the “two doors” to this prayer – the first being an examen of consciousness (being aware of God’s presence with us) and the second an examen of conscience (where we have fallen short).

I have found as well that most of us are probably able to identify sin in our lives but don’t know what to do about it other than feel guilty, so we just tend to ignore it. But our life with Christ is shallow without this practice of confession because this is the heart of the gospel and the very thing our baptisms and the Communion Table speak to – taking our place in Christ’s death and in His resurrection!

Leanne Payne in The Healing Presence quotes William Barclay as he reminds us: “An easy-going attitude to sin is always dangerous. It has been said that our one security against sin lies in our being shocked at it. Carlyle said that men must see the infinite beauty of holiness and the infinite damnability of sin. When we cease to take a serious view of sin we are in a perilous position. It is not a question of being critical and condemnatory; it is a question of being wounded and shocked. It was sin that crucified Jesus Christ. It was to free men from sin that he died. No Christian should take an easy-going view of it”.

This is also why I believe this prayer should always include an intentional receiving of Christ’s work on the Cross for that sin, for that struggle. We need to receive forgiveness! Perhaps it might better be said that we need to walk into the forgiveness of sin that Christ died for. He died once and for all time, but we often fail to hold onto that reality and so regular confession of sin and its resulting forgiveness becomes a way for us to apply His work to our lives.

For that reason, I am calling this regular practice of prayer – Confessional Prayer. It follows the principles of the prayer of examen but allows us to embrace our freedom in Christ through its adherence to dealing with sin.

There are four steps to this prayer. I’m including scriptures that I hope will help you go through each step

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never end; they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness
Lamentations 3:22-23

Begin by centering your heart in God’s presence… “The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.” Psalm 145.8. Give thanks to Him that you do not need to hide anything from him. Affirm that He is faithful and good, and his mercy and grace are “new every morning.”

Ask the Spirit to show you any sin you need to bring to Christ. Bring that to your confession. The list of questions listed below might help.

“Search me O God and know my heart, test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24

As the Holy Spirit is revealing those things you need to bring to Christ, simply confess as specifically as you can the sins that trouble you. Don’t rush through this process. Simply rest in God’s presence as He does this.

Now choose to let this go and receive Christ’s forgiveness for you. Remember:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1Jo 1:9 ESV)

And finally commit this confession to the Lord. As you rest in his forgiveness ask him how to walk this out. Ask for the supernatural power of His Spirit to give you what you need to move forward. Thank him that:

“[you] have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer [you] who live, but Christ lives in [you]” (Gal. 2:20).

I’m including at the end of this explanation a series of questions that you might find helpful in this prayer. At the same time, we are not called to introspect and try and find all those “hidden sins” we think must be there deep in our unconscious minds. I agree with the author of this quote: “The Examen is not primarily concerned with good or bad actions but with the impulses that drive them”. At the same time, making this prayer a regular practice of our prayer life will help us more quickly identify our diseased sins and attitudes.

In some weeks of this guide, I will include ways that this prayer might help us with the themes of that week. At other times, it will simply stand on its own.

“The act of penitence and the reception of pardon are definite acts – a very real transaction with God, and we fail in this when we turn from God to seek feelings or states of our own minds.”
Leanne Payne, Real Presence

I want to return to why guilt and shame can keep us from this practice of confession and pardon. It has to do with the distinction between our feelings about the guilt or shame and the objective act of confession itself. C.S. Lewis struggled much of his life with introspection, the drowning as it were, in the waters of subjectivity. He, like many of us, believed that his feelings about his sins were the most important thing about them. And because of that, he had a hard time trusting the act of receiving forgiveness for his sins. He might confess his sin and try to “receive” pardon, but the guilt would remain in his unconscious mind and pop up at the worst times! When that happens to us I think we believe that if we don’t hold onto the guilt or shame then we are not sufficiently repentant. Lewis would go on to conquer this bad habit and entered joyfully into confession and pardon!

Confession and pardon are acts of the will and are not to be swallowed up by our feelings or subjective beliefs. Quoting Leanne Payne here – “The act of penitence and the reception of pardon are definite acts – a very real transaction with God, and we fail in this when we turn from God to seek feelings or states of our own minds.” (I highly recommend reading Real Presence by Leanne Payne, chapter 6 and or looking up what Lewis wrote about this subject). When we find that we can be honestly objective about both the sin and the pardon- it lifts a weight off our souls that is incredibly freeing.

Helpful Questions for Examining your Heart

Where have I been drawn into the mindset of the world?
Where were/are my thoughts and desires not ordered toward God?
Where have I resisted the voice of God in this season of my life?
Is there a part of my heart/life that I keep back from God? a place I am unwilling to surrender?
Do I compare myself to others? Either in ways that convince me I will never measure up? or in ways that make me feel superior?
Where did I consciously sin today?
What patterns of sin do I struggle with these days?
How have I failed in love?
How have I failed in obedience to Christ?

Into Our Bones: Diving into 2023-24

During each week of our time together, there will be 5, sometimes 6 practives to the week. I’ve explained these in the Before We Begin post, but I will give you a brief explanation here and how to move from one practice to the next. Along with this I will explain how I’ve managed to stick to some manner of order, in terms of the Church calendar.

Before We Begin: This section includes an introduction to the Guide. That’s followed by an explanation of Lectio Divina, Confessional Prayer, Lectio Quote, and the Lord’s Prayer. This will be posted the week prior to Advent.

Advent 1: This is the first week of Advent which begins on December 3, 2023. The theme of this week is: Prepare. The reflection will post on Sunday afternoon. While I’m not sure how I will work the timing of the practices connected to Advent 1 I will upload Lectio Divina, Confessional Prayer, the Lord’s Prayer and a Lectio Quote based on that week’s theme, probably on Monday. You are welcome to do any of it or none of it!

Advent 2: This is the second week of Advent and it begins on December 10, 2023. The theme of this week will be waiting. This will begin with a devotional uploaded Sunday afternoon and then through the week the different practices will be posted.

Advent 3: This is the third week of Advent which begins on December 17, 2023. The theme of this week is: Watch. Like the first two weeks it will begin with a devotional posted that Sunday night, followed by the other elements. If this is starting to get confusing go to the spiritual practices section and read what’s written about these different practices!

Advent 4: This is where it gets tricky! This is the fourth week of Advent, and it begins on Christmas Eve. This theme is Immanuel and this section has all the same practices as the preceding weeks. But it’s tricky because usually there would be a full week before Christmas Day, but there is only one day! When I post the devotional, I will post all the different practices as well.

Christmas 1: This begins on December 25, 2023, and it too has a whole week of reflections and exercises. The theme for this week is: Incarnation. You can double up for the week or do it at your leisure. The devotional will be posted on Monday, the 25, and then the exercises will be posted throughout the week.

Christmas 2: This begins on December 31, 2023, and the theme for this week is “Incarnational Reality.”

Epiphany 1: The devotional will be posted on January 6, 2024, as this is the official date for Epiphany. This is a Saturday, so it too will have the devotional and all the exercises posted for this day.

Epiphany 2: The devotional will be posted on January 7, 2024 (a Sunday). The theme will be on The Magi. The exercises will follow throughout the week.

Epiphany 3: The devotional will be posted on January 14, 2024. The theme is Christ’s baptism. How exciting! The format will follow the other weeks of the guide.

Epiphany 4: The devotional will be posted on January 21, 2024. The theme is The Trinity. This format will follow as the previous weeks have.

This ends this half of Into Our Bones, and we will pick it up probably the two Sundays before Ash Wednesday.

*Note here on Epiphany – Many traditions end Epiphany the Sunday after January 6. And then enter into a period of time called Ordinary Time. (This does not mean it’s common or mundane – it means it is ordered, numbered time.) I’ve elected to post 4 times with the theme of Epiphany because there is so much richness in this season!

The Lord’s Prayer

Notes from The Forgotten Father, by Thomas Smail

If any of what I’ve written inspires you to read more, please, please read The Forgotten Father by Tom Smail. I’m just including some of my highlighted text for this section on the Lord’s Prayer. I can’t do it justice but perhaps you’ll be inspired to pick this book up!

Abba is vocative; it is prayer before it is theology. There is a right theology of God’s fatherhood, but the data for it are discoverable only as we actually draw near in prayer to the Father.
The Forgotten Father

When God is called Father in Paul and the synoptics the context is most often prayer and worship, which is not surprising when we remember that the word Abba itself goes back to Gethsemane and the prayer life of Jesus that reached its climax there. And of course, this address to the Father is central and definitive in the prayer Jesus gives to his disciples. (p. 175)

The hallowed name – The first petition, Your Name be hallowed is obviously specially relevant to our subject. God’s name has been uniquely revealed to be Father and in our worship the character of his fatherhood is to be glorified and proclaimed. (p. 178)

A man-centered religion will begin and end with confession and petition, with our own sins and need in the center. But when the center ceases to be “Lord, bless me,” and has become “Bless the Lord”, when we begin to praise God for his grace, power, and love as Father… then the name of the Father is being hallowed by being made first and central. (p. 179)

The coming kingdom – That the kingdom has come gives the Christian prayer, over against the similar Jewish one, its peculiar confidence, that it keeps on coming give is its distinctive expectation; that it will come completely as and when God decides, gives it its unique hope (p. 180)

The provided bread – “The food which God provides is food for body and soul; he gives men what they need, and he gives them a foretaste of the rich provision available in the kingdom of God.” (p. 181)

The available pardon – It is in the power of the cross that we pray this prayer for pardon, knowing that the account can be squared because the debt has been pain… Forgiveness received manifests its reality in forgiveness shared. The forgiven community is also a forgiving community among its own membership and towards its enemies outside. (p. 182)

Freedom from temptation – “Cause us not to succumb to temptation,” which gives a good and natural sense. It is in fact a prayer for sanctification for those who are on their way to holiness and find it strewn with many traps and allurements. (p. 183)

The setting of the Lord’s prayer within Luke 11:1-13 has reminded us once more that even in the synoptic teaching Christian prayer is seen as at least implicitly trinitarian. It is addressed to the Father, the way to whom is through Christ the Son who teaches his disciples to pray, and the possibility of that praying is the gift of the Holy Spirit. (p. 184)

Aghh – I have to stop here – but please find this treasure and read it devotionally!

Where We Begin: Into Our Bones

This phrase – “Into our bones” came from an article I read by James K.A. Smith., about worship. He said, “This is why God enjoins us to sing (Col. 3:16). Song seeps into our bones in ways that didactic information never will. To sing the story of God’s gracious acts is not just to recite them. In the embodied, affective rhythm of song, the Spirit plants the story in the epicenter of our being: in our desire, in our imagination. Singing the story is the way it gets into our bones and under our skin, shaping the very way we perceive our world.” (Singing the Story into our Bones, www.reformedworship.org/article/june-2013/singing-story-our-bones). This image of “singing the story” pictures how we enter into the story of God and His people. We all desire to inhabit this story of ours, and that it would go so deep into us that we would feel it in our bones.

I cannot answer the question, ‘What ought I do?’ unless I first answer the question, ‘Of which story am I a part?’
Alasdair Macintyre

Following the liturgical year, or the church calendar is a vital part of our Christian formation. We have the opportunity to enter the whole story of Salvation as we walk with Christ through his birth, passion, death, resurrection, and the final day of the Lord. From Advent to second Advent, we are confronted season after season with the foundational principles of our faith. Even more than that though, we enter the story, and we follow the story, and we internalize the story of who we are and what God has done for us. I love what Alastair Macintyre says: “I cannot answer the question, ‘What ought I to do?’ unless I first answer the question, ‘Of which story am I a part?’” )Alasdair MacIntyre (2013). “After Virtue”, p.250, A&C Black)

This always makes me think of the movie “City Slickers” and how Billy Crystal’s character is awakened ever year at 5:00 a.m. on his birthday! His mother calls and goes through the whole story of his birth. He of course acts like he hates it, but I bet that deep inside him, just as I would bet that in each of us is the cry to hear our story told repeatedly.

Memory is such a critical part of how we are formed, and the Christian story captures this perfectly. We are told to remember – remember who we are, remember what Christ has done for us, remember Him in the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup. One vivid picture of this is when Joshua is told by God right before crossing the Jordan to enter the promised land – to take 12 men and give them 12 stones and they were to carry those stones out to the camp and leave them as a memorial to future generations of the miraculous river crossing. (Joshua 4:2-3). This happens often in the Old Testament and was a sign of God’s actions on their behalf. These stones may have looked like a pile of rocks, but to the people of Israel they were a constant reminder who their God was and how He acted on their behalf.

A word about story. When I write about the church calendar as the opportunity to enter God’s story over and over – I hope you don’t hear me say – it’s “just a story” as if it might or might not be an accurate recording of the “real important events”. As moderns, we have a history of preferring facts over “story”, statements over experiences. But Jesus himself did not come with a list of propositions – how did he engage people? He told stories, He was present to real people with real needs. He healed more than he preached – and even then, he tended to preach to the Pharisees and other “intellectuals”.

I have known several great storytellers in my life. My father was a great storyteller. We would sit around the dining room table long after we had finished eating while he told stories of his childhood, mostly about his younger brother, whom he pictured as a scapegoat for all the scrapes they got in. Later, after learning how to play the guitar he would sing (well, it was more talking than singing) folk songs that told the stories of coal miners, or railroad vagabonds. Did I learn anything? About history or even his family? Probably not. But I learned how to be with him, to sit and let the stories wash over me. I learned that my family was more than what it felt like in the darker years.

One of my favorite children’s books, which I read to my children, is called Father Fox’s Penny Rhymes. It starts out – “The night is cold, the fire is warm, Old Father Fox, will you sing us a song”. Stories change our lives. A very close friend and mentor of mine was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. She held weeklong schools about healing prayer and discipleship. Before she lost the energy to do much of the teaching, some of her best teachings came through her stories about Uncle Gus and Aunt Rhoda, or Peety the parakeet and Dr. Kilby. One year, we were in Denmark for a school, and I was walking with Leanne down the hall back into the meeting room. A young woman behind us, didn’t realize Leanne was there and muttered, loudly enough for me to hear it, “why doesn’t she stop telling stories and just get to the teachings that matter!” I understood totally where she was coming from but so wanted to let her know that much of her healing would come through the stories told during the week. Most of us who were a part of the ministry team were there to tell our “stories”, our testimonies. Rev. 12:10 -11, “And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

Whether we are conscious of this or not, stories are a part of formation, yet that formation might very well be the wrong kind of formation. We inhabit the stories of our brokenness, of generational sin, or even our own sins or mistakes. We all need a greater story to replace or at the very least mitigate our stories of shame or guilt. And that’s what we have in the Scriptures! – a holy story from beginning to end that in an unrelenting manner gives us the story of God and His love for His people, His creation!

And that’s where we find Christ – in the story of the Bible. We find the story of His incarnation, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His final return. And smuggled right along in there is the story of the Holy Spirit, and the Father’s deep love for us, and the story of the Church. We have such great storytellers in the Scriptures. Take a moment and think about the writers of the four gospels. Why did we need 4? Why not just one oracle that spelled it all out? And think about Paul and the story of his persecution of the church, and his conversion and his love for the church and for Christ!

I believe that one of the ways we can be immersed in our story in the faith is by a regular immersion in the story God has given us in Christ. It’s a steady ramble from beginning to end – as we begin in Advent with His incarnation and we end in Advent with His return! And there is so much in between!

In that sense, we live in perpetual Advent – the place between two apocalyptic events – the birth of a baby, and the return of a King. Following the liturgical year helps us intersect with every part of God’s story, in season and sometimes out of season. For example, we may have an incredible insight and experience of the Cross, but not really understand His Ascension, until we approach it through a regular practice of observing the church year.

“Christian formation is the work of God’s Holy Spirit in the lives of his people, slowly growing then, into the image and character of Jesus. God does this by renewing our minds, re-ordering our loves, and redirecting our lives toward the end of glorifying God.” (www. cornerstonepresfranklin.org)

And it is liturgy that helps us do that. “The liturgical year, is the process of slow, sure immersion in the life of Christ that, in the end, claims us too, as heralds of that life ourselves.” (The Liturgical Year) What I am trying to do with the guide, Into our Bones, is to help us do that. The scope of this work (at this point anyway) will take us from Advent through Pentecost. I’ve planned this guide to help with our formation in Christ by approaching the Story through different formats. The week preceding the first week of Advent 2023 I will post an explanation of how we will approach this, and then I will include an introduction to each of the different formats I will include each week. Then on December 3rd, I will post a devotional/reflection and for the next five days I will post the different ways that devotional will take us!

I also will include a guide on each of these elements which will be uploaded to my blog before December 3, 2023 (which is the first Sunday in Advent).

My prayer is that you all would be inspired by the different avenues to formation in Christ that I’ve written to help us enter into the Biblical narrative. Our first half of the guide will cover Advent, Christmastide, and Epiphany. This will take us to January 21, 2024. It will then be followed by a guide that will cover Lent through to Pentecost.

I pray, Father, that You would so inspire us through Your Word, and Your Spirit, that we would know this love displayed by Your Son, and that it would go deep into our bones. Amen.

“Christian worship should tell a story that makes us want to set sail for the immense sea that is the Triune God, birthing in us a longing for a ‘better country – a heavenly one’ that is kingdom come.” (James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love.)

“The liturgical year, is the process of slow, sure immersion in the life of Christ that, in the end, claims us too, as heralds of that life ourselves.”
The Liturgical Year