A Special Invitation

Today marks such a somber anniversary for our country—September 11 has become an important day for remembrance and reflection. Seven years ago when this blog was launched, I chose the name One Generation to Another because I’ve always found it so valuable and encouraging to draw from the understanding and experience of the generations before me, and recognize that as I age, I would love to be that same kind of a resource for others.

On this day of remembrance, I am reminded of a day perhaps fifteen years ago when the news was plastered with stories of yet another awful, senseless, terroristic shooting. Though it was several years post-9/11, each of these occurrences still felt so jarring and shocking to me. I was lamenting the fact that people would do such a heinous thing, and that another terrible instance had come so soon after the last one, when my little daughter who was not even ten at the time said consolingly, “Mama, these things happen all the time.”

That was the first time that I realized I am from a very different generation than my children. September 11, 2001 was an absolutely atrocious day when all of the things we knew and were familiar to us were turned up upon their head. My heart is so grieved that this current generation has been marked by so much terrorism of so many kinds, against a backdrop of a generation who rejects God. There have certainly been violent and unhinged people throughout the ages, but there are 8 billion of us now and we have 24 hour media coverage, meaning it is in our faces all the time. And it is especially on days like today that we can feel the tragic, horrific brokenness and separation of a generation that has turned away from Him.

And every single new atrocious event that happens—and since I began thinking of and writing this just over a week ago there have been three more—sends the different camps into overdrive and a fresh orgy of arguing with each other. Everyone wants to blame someone, and everyone has a very different idea of who that might be. The arguing of what to do about each problem is endless and exhausting, and threatens to suck all of the life and joy out of a day. (Please allow an important side note here...anytime I see online venting, though I certainly have my own opinions, I am reminded of what Elisabeth Elliot said so often; Satan is the accuser of men, and we certainly do not want to join him in his work. Besides, he laughs viciously when we lose sight of who our true enemy actually is, himself. We want to be on God‘s team, and He is always FOR people to be made whole, even the worst of creeps.) 

Thankfully, there is a glimmer of good news buried under the rubble of all of the shouting—when you boil everything down, though we cannot agree on the solution, we can all agree that we have a problem: the world is broken and so are the people in it.

This is why I am so intrigued by and attracted to an incredible invitation that is found in the book of Second Chronicles, chapter 7. It was a grand occasion in history, as this was the day of the dedication of the marvelous temple constructed during King Solomon's reign. This was the beautiful edifice that his father David has so desired to build for God, but the time just hadn't come yet. Now the time had come, and it was a huge, days-long celebration attended by vast numbers of people. They rejoiced and partied and lived it up, celebrating together at how wonderful life was as they dedicated the temple and their hearts to God. 

​And God accepted their invitation to Him! This is what the chronicle says...

When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying,

“He is good;  His love endures forever.”

​I encourage you to read all of this chapter, as it is a beautiful picture into the heart of our good Father in Heaven. Once all of the celebrating and dedicating was complete, and all of the people had returned home, God appeared to King Solomon in the night, and He said something I'd love to recall to our attention today... 

I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

This is so comforting and encouraging! Right on the heels of such a grand celebration, where everyone saw God's power fill the temple and remembered that He is real and near, God came to gently remind Solomon of a few things: the world is broken, the people in it are broken, and we all share the common dangers of wandering and amnesia.  The generation in which we all live has largely rejected God, but we the Church are moving that way right along with the current. We, the people of God, continually wander towards other things that promise to take care of us: money, our own intelligence, education, institutions, politics, even lawyers! And we continually walk the dangerous line of forgetting both who we are and who God is. Truly, there is a lot of turning away and forsaking that happens all the time, every day--but it is never God who does the leaving or forsaking. He promised again and again that He would never do such a thing. We are the ones who wander away and forget. We are the ones who turn our backs on HIm. 

​But we are not hopeless or without help!

God is still there, waiting and watching for His children to turn back to Himself, and He graciously invites us to join him in His great work of and reconciliation of all men and women and the restoration of all things. And now we are on this side of the cross, which is even more amazing. No longer is the temple far away, it is right here inside of us—GOD IS WITH US!

Yet still, as is evidenced by what this day stands for, and by what we read in the news every day, there is so much yet to be done. And this is the beauty of God's invitation. 

-If my people​, who are called by my name - that's us! All of us who love God and trust Him that Jesus is His Son. We remember who we are and that He is faithful and true to keep HIs promises. 

-Will humble themselves - we will stop setting ourselves in God's place as ruler and judge—He is God and we are not. We will remember to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. 

-and pray and seek my face -  we will pray! Not just think we ought to, or listen to sermons about it, or even just think about it—but we will actually turn our faces and hearts back towards God and let Him speak to us. We will set aside the time and prioritize true and frequent conversation with God. 

-and turn away from their wicked ways -  each of us has to do this on our own, and God is so faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Search us and know us, God! Once we have done this individually, we can turn away from wickedness collectively. This too requires a serious conversation with God, who  is quite able and willing to show us the way forward Himself, once we finally ask Him and listen and obey Him. 



This leads me to my proposition for all of us today: let's take God's invitation seriously, and let's pray. The youngest generation among us, my precious grandchildren and yours, are inheriting a chaotic world, which will only get worse if we continue on this current road. The time has come for a fresh dedication of the temple—our hearts. We don't need to wait for someone else to organize it or to invite the big name speakers and worship leaders to come lead us. We don't need a fancy building or a huge sound system or smoke machine. We just need to make the time and keep the date with God, not once, but regularly.

Just for example's sake, the link below gives some ideas on what a grassroots prayer movement could look like. God's special invitation is for all of us, no matter what denomination or practice, no matter what anything, to get a private audience with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And best of all, our special invitation to such a meeting comes from God Himself. 

The idea is that wherever you are, at home or traveling, you take some time each Friday to get right into the middle of things and pray. Why Friday? Just because you have to start somewhere, and Fridays are a great day to do something special. Why the city center? Our local business owners and neighbors would love it if all the Christians came for a meal or a coffee, and strolled the downtown as we prayed. So few of us take time to be a part of the places we are from—we don't see or know each other or know what's happening in the heart of our communities. Let's change that, and get into the middle of it all, accepting God's invitation to turn back to Him. 

Imagine if every believer in every town did this on a regular basis? We all spend so much time and energy worrying and fretting and tweeting that things are not going well in our hearts, homes, schools, cities, churches, governments—but none of that time and energy put into worrying and fretting and tweeting about it does anything at all. Instead of worrying and arguing, let's pray, and let's see what our faithful God will do in our hearts, homes, and communities.

Remember what He said—If my people...then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ​Yes and amen! 

Prayer on the Square