October, 2004
up-team.org
ELECTION EVE
M onday, November 1 is the day
before the election. Hopefully,
you received an invitation to attend a
Gathering of People Who Pray on that
evening at 7:00. Please try to be there,
as we come together as God’s people.
There will be prayer events at two
places, at the same time: The Old
Stone Church in Branson and St.
Andrew Presbyterian Church in
Kimberling City. Pastor Jim Cariker
of the Branson Nazarene Church will
serve as facilitator at the Old Stone
Church, with special music provided
by Doug Gabriel. Pastor Kimberly
Cunningham will serve as facilitator,
and I will co-facilitate, at St. Andrew
in Kimberling City. Marlyce
Stockinger will provide special music.
Please keep in mind that when we
come together on that evening,
regardless of personal feelings and
opinions, we will be worshiping God
and seeking that
the Holy Spirit
sweep through
this nation in
order that God’s
perfect will be done. And, of course,
please be praying now. If you are
unable to be at one of the churches,
please devote some prayer time
wherever you are.
“THE POWER OF CRYING OUT”
T his book, by Bill Gothard, has
been the source of previous
quotes for this Newsletter. Here are
two more: “By crying out to God and
asking Him to overcome evil’s power,
we seek the victory only He can
provide, because He is over all the
dark forces and powers which
represent our true enemy. ‘For we do
not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this age, against spiritual
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly
places.’ (from Ephesians 6) ‘When I
cry out to You, David says, ‘then my
enemies will turn back; this I know,
because God is for me.’ (Psalm 56:9)
Even the archangel Michael used his
voice to invoke God’s help against
Satan. (see Jude 9)…David could say
to the Lord, ‘Attend to my cry; give
ear to my prayer which is not from
deceitful lips. (see Psalm 17: 1) What
does such a cry represent? A sincere
cry to God, particularly during a time
of great need or crisis, often
represents many qualities and
attitudes that God has promised to
honor. HUMILITY: To cry out with
a loud voice for help – with the
unleashing of emotion that often
comes with it – can be a humbling
experience. That’s why we often resist
it. We tend to be proud; we want
people to think we’re competent and
that we’ve ‘got it all together.’ We
don’t like to admit we have a problem,
much less publicly acknowledge our
need for outside help to resolve it…
Pride is building our life around
ourselves; with the cry
of humility, we turn
that right over to
God with no strings
attached…The first
quality Jesus taught
His followers to cultivate was humility
– to be ‘poor in spirit.’…God ‘does
not forget the cry of the humble.’
(Psalm 9:12)…ACKNOWLEDGED
WEAKNESS: A sincere cry to God is
an open declaration that we’re
incapable of dealing with a particular
situation, and that we’re in desperate
need of His help. To cry out is to
expressly acknowledge that the
problem I’m facing is greater than the
wisdom, ability or strength I possess.
God delights to show His strength
when we acknowledge such
weakness…The more things look
hopeless, the greater the possibility of
God’s intervention in answer to our
cry, because He gets greater glory.
Again and again in Scripture, the
miracles of God occur in
circumstances of human
hopelessness…UNCONDITIONAL
SURRENDER: The deepest, most
sincere cry is one of unconditional
surrender to God and His will. By
crying out, we give voice and greater
power to our God-given commitments
and convictions, and we allow them to
triumph over any idols and secret
indulgences in our lives…Our true,
absolute surrender will include
obedience to God’s command to be
His loving ambassadors in humble
service to those around us, especially
to those in great need…In one of the
many psalms that emphasize crying
out to God, an important lesson is
taught to those ‘who fear God. The
psalmist testifies: ‘Come and hear, all
you who fear God, and I will declare
what He has done for my soul. I cried
to Him with my mouth, and He was
extolled with my tongue.’…’But
certainly God has heard me; He has
attended to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God, who has not turned
away my prayer, nor His mercy from
me!’ (see Psalm 66) The iniquity
represented by our pride, our self-
sufficiency, and our selfishness will
keep us from crying out to God in
sincerity so that He will hear. But as
we rest and rejoice in the forgiveness
and righteousness we have through
Christ, we can confidently cry out and
know that God will respond.
MORE ON SPIRITUAL WARFARE
T he section from Bill Gothard’s
book referred to spiritual
warfare as described in Ephesians 6.
Last month, there was a reflection in
the Newsletter on the weapons that
Satan uses against
us. I recently had
breakfast with
Gregory
Thompson, the
former
Superintendent of
Humansville Schools – and a victim of
spiritual warfare, but one who will be
victorious because of God’s
faithfulness to those who stand up for
Him. He had taken the reflection and
developed a list of demonic weapons;
with his permission, I provide it for
your further prayerful reflection:
“Satan will attack and lay roadblocks
to anyone working for our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ…We must ask
Jesus for His strength and power
daily, for Satan will be attacking. 1)
He will try to have you put
anything and everything
ahead of your work for
Jesus. 2) He will try to blind you
to the power you have when you yield
to and obey God’s call. 3) He will try
to have you look for faults in others as
a reason not to be a part. 4) He will
try to convince you to focus on
yourselves and your own use of time,
versus what is needed for eternity. 5)
He will try to oppress you to the point
of just giving up and saying ‘What’s
the use!!’ 6) He will continue to have
Christians fight and squabble with
one another over unimportant issues;
to blind them to the fact
that they believe so much
in common; and to blind
them to the fact that
when they work
together they are much
more powerful. 7) He
will try to convince
individual Christians
that they are tiny and
alone and
powerless and
cannot impact
the world. 8) He
will tempt Christians to complacency,
to not taking stands on vital world,
national and local issues, blinding
them to the fact that when they rely on
God they can make a huge difference.
9) He will try to blind Christians to
their blessings so that they don’t give
thanksgiving and praise to God.
10) He will attempt to limit the
strength they receive when they accept
God’s graces and blessings. 11) He
will try to blind them to the battles
that are raging around them and
within them and in the Church and
world. 12) He will try to do all he can
to distract Christians from praying in
all ways together and individually.”
Then he adds: “You will probably be
able to add to the ways that Satan will
bring his evil and ugliness to others,
sometimes in a false beauty.”
REFLECTION
T o carry on with this combined
theme of prayer and spiritual
warfare, consider the following
guidance from the Word of God:
Exodus 17 has a fascinating story, an
event that took place during the
wandering of the Jewish people in the
desert following their liberation from
Egypt. First, consider the passage in
Exodus 17: 8-13: “The Amelekites
came and attacked the Israelites at
Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua,
‘Choose some of our men and go out to
fight the Amelekites. Tomorrow I will
stand on top of the hill with the staff of
God in my hands. So Joshua fought
the Amelekites as Moses had ordered,
and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the
top of the hill. As long as Moses held
up his hands, the Israelites were
winning, but whenever he lowered his
hands, the Amelekites were winning.
When Moses’ hands grew tired, they
took a stone and put it under him and
he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his
hands up – one on one side, one on the
other – so that his hands remained
steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame
the Amelekite army with the sword.”
This is one of those accounts – so
frequent in the Old Testament – that
not only describes an historical event
but is also full of foreshadowings for
the future. What is most remarkable
is that Moses here is a foreshadowing
of the relationship between Christ and
the Church. Now wait just a minute,
you might say: How can Moses here
be a figure pointing to Jesus? Yes, he
was the leader of the Israelites; yes, he
was chosen by God; yes, he was deeply
loved by God. But he was, after all,
purely human and he needed people to
hold up his arms. Jesus Christ, the
great High Priest, certainly does not
need that! OH, YES, HE DOES!!
I am not being irreverent here; I am
simply agreeing with God’s chosen
plan of salvation, His plan for
reaching the world through His
Church.
Jesus,
having
died
for us
and
risen
from the dead, is now at the right
hand of the Father, as the great
Intercessor and Mediator. He is God,
and as such He is all powerful and all
knowing and the Ruler and Judge of
the universe. But, in obedience to His
Father’s will and as the Head of the
Church, He has chosen to need us and
our faithfulness to the prompting of
the Holy Spirit. Please, please do not
see this as some kind of spiritual
exaggeration. I am being literal here.
This is why prayer is so critical,
especially in desperate times. Prayer
is God’s chosen way to “hold up the
arms” of the Great High Priest, Jesus,
to be God’s chosen way to have the
Church partner with its Head and to
actually and truly be vessels through
whom His grace reaches and
transforms individuals, communities
and the world. Please, let’s not ever
fall into Satan’s trap of thinking we
are unimportant. Please, let’s not
think we are alone. When
we pray, alone or with
others, we are spiritually
united with other praying
members of the Church,
and THIS IS OUR
MOMENT IN TIME to
make a difference. Please remain
faithful to your hour or hours, please
reach out and encourage others to join
the UP Team, please encourage other
prayer groups to remain faithful to
their commitment and to pray for one
another. We are truly “holding up the
arms” of the Lord by our obedience to
the prompting of the Holy Spirit to be
people of prayer.
CONGRATULATIONS
O ne of the true warriors of our
area and our State is Joey Davis
– and the other people who make up
the Concerned Women for America.
Joey recently joined the UP Team
(both ours and the one in Polk and
Cedar Counties) in addition to her
many other – voluntary – duties as the
State of Missouri Director of CWA. I
just found out from someone – it is
just like Joey not to tell me herself –
that at the recent national CWA
Convention in Washington, DC., Joey
was named the State Director of the
Year. Way to go, Joey! By the way, if
any of you would like to follow Joey’s
example and add Polk and Cedar
Counties to your hour, please let me
know. I do that, too, and it does not in
any way take away focus. It helps
build both Teams and creates spiritual
synergy. Also, it helps us realize how
important the entire State of Missouri
is in God’s plan for our nation.
MORE CONTRATULATIONS
An UP Team member, Don Gabriel,
who is a true
spiritual leader
in Branson,
celebrated two
milestones within the past few months.
He turned 70 years of age, and he and
his wonderful wife, Dorothy,
celebrated their 50th wedding
anniversary. And Don is battling
cancer through all of this. I encourage
any men who read this to consider
becoming part of CBMC (Christian
Businessmen’s Committee), which has
three separate groups of men who
meet for prayer: Tuesdays, 6:30 to
7:30 a.m., in the lower level of
Peppercorn Restaurant in Branson;
Wednesdays, same
time, in the lower
level of Fall
Creek Steak
House in Branson;
and Thursdays,
12:30 –1:30 at Whippersnapper’s in
Branson. This is a national
organization – it is not necessary to
“join”; just come and pray. By the
way, it would be great to have other
groups form in other communities –
Kimberling City, Rockaway Beach,
etc. Please call Don at 336-1388……
Also, on October 31 (no
relationship with
Halloween!) Pastor Howard
and Kathy Boyd are
celebrating 20 years at
Branson Hills Assembly. There
is an open reception at 2:00 on
that Sunday
afternoon….Larry Wilhite, the
prayer leader of the Entertainment
sector, and his wife Julia are proudly
smiling: Their daughter, Amy,
recently became a bride….Yet another
UP Team member, Chuck Pennel, the
Presiding Commissioner of Taney
County, and his super wife, Renee,
recently returned from Russia with an
8 year old girl who will become their
adopted daughter: Irina
(“Rina”)…If you know of
other events for us to
mention in the Newsletter, please let
me know.
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
H a! I bet you thought you were
going to escape this!
Nope; and what’s
worse, I have some
puns to share, real
groaners
(compliments of
Sandee Rice, one of
our UP Team members – so blame
her): A vulture boards an airplane,
carrying two dead
raccoons. The
stewardess looks at
him and says, “I’m
sorry, sir, only one
carrion allowed per
passenger.”…Two fish swim into a
concrete wall. The one turns to the
other and says, “Dam!”…Two
Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly,
so they lit a fire in their craft. Not
surprisingly, it sank, proving once
again that you can’t have your kayak
and heat it, too…Two hydrogen atoms
meet. One says, “I’ve lost my
electron.” The other says, “Are you
sure?” The first replies, “I’m
positive.”…Did you hear about the
Hindu who refused Novocain during a
root canal? His goal: Transcend
dental medication…A group of chess
enthusiasts checked into a hotel and
were standing in the lobby discussing
their recent tournament victories.
After about an hour, the manger came
out of the office and asked them to
disperse. “But, why?” they asked, as
they moved off. “Because,” he said, “I
can’t stand chess-nuts boasting in
open foyer.”…A woman has twins and
gives them up for adoption. One of
them goes to Egypt and is named
“Ahmal.” The other goes to a family
in Spain; they name him “Juan.”
Years later, Juan sends a picture of
himself to his birth mother. Upon
receiving the picture, she tells her
husband that she wishes she also had
a picture of Ahmal. Her
husband responds,
“They’re twins! If you’ve
seen Juan, you’ve seen
Ahmal.”…Mahatma
Gandhi, as you may know,
walked barefoot most of the
time, which produced an impressive
set of calluses on his feet. He also ate
very little, which made him rather
frail, and with his odd diet, he
suffered from bad breath. This made
him (oh, this is so bad, it’s good!): A
super callused fragile mystic hexed by
halitosis.
I love you all and I deeply appreciate
your faithfulness. There are now 132
hourly time slots filled and 198 weekly
hours of prayer! I welcome your
thoughts, input, suggestions,
recommendations. Remember, if we
each bring one more Team member,
we will double in size – for the glory of
God and the transformation of our
area, our State and our nation.
Peace, and God bless you and yours.
Bob Burton