1. Illus: On our last evening together, I'd like to begin by sharing with you a delightful piece that my friend Mort Juberg has written, entitled, "God and Voice Mail."
   1. Perhaps you can identify with Mort, who recently--according to his personal testimony--went through a 30-minute ordeal through the process of voice mail trying to reach and talk to a live human being!
      1. For those of you who aren't familiar with voice mail, you can just thank God!
      2. It may save somebody some time, but it no doubt goes down as one of the most impersonal inventions in human history!
   2. Totally frustrated after that 30-minute effort to reach a real live human being and only getting recordings on the other end of the phone line, Mort sat down and composed this meditation, "God and Voice Mail":

      "I got to thinking [he writes] what would happen if God instituted voice mail to better route our prayers [to heaven]. Let's say I had gossiped and wanted to confess, so I got ready to pray. Even though it was long distance I didn't have to use a credit card. I was able to dial [God] direct.

      "Immediately, a voice answered, 'You have reached the throne room of Heaven, the Prayer Department. All of our representatives are busy right now. Your call is important to us and we want to help you. Please stay on the line and your request will be answered in the order that it was received." [How many times have we heard that line before!] I continued to be in an attitude of prayer as I listened to a choir of angels singing, Sweet Hour of Prayer.

      "This was interrupted by another voice, 'Our prayer representatives are still busy, please stay on the line.' There is more music and I hear another recorded message.

      "'Listen carefully to the following options and press the appropriate number: Press 1 for prayer for a loved one. Press 2 for prayer for your church. Press 3 for giving thanks. Press 4 for confessing sins. Press 5 for salvation. Press 6 for a physical need. If you would like this menu repeated, Press 9.'

      "Since I had a sin to confess, I pressed 4. Immediately I heard a voice saying, 'We're so glad to help you in your confession of sins. So that we can be more effective help to you in answering your prayers, please select the appropriate option: If your sin one of omission, press 1. If it is a sin of commission, press 2. If you aren't certain, press3.' I wasn't sure where my sin would be classified so I pressed 3 and heard another voice.

      "'If you are confessing sin against some individual in the church, press 1. If your confession is for someone who is not a Christian, press 2. If you have sinned against someone in your family, press 3. If your confession is of a personal nature, press 4. If your confession doesn't fit into any of these categories, press 5. You may listen to these options again by pressing 6.'

      "Since my sin involved gossiping, I wasn't sure, so I pressed 5. The kindly voice, 'You have several choices in confession not listed. Press the appropriate number: For sins involving the physical body, press 1. For sins involving speech, press 2.' I pressed 2.

      "'You have reached the Prayer Speech Department,' the kindly voice said. 'We want to help you. Please select the appropriate option: If you cursed, press 1. If you yelled at your wife or another member of your family, press 2.' The voice droned on, giving the various options.

      "Since my ear was getting tired and my forefinger was developing a callus, I decided to hang up and keep on gossiping.

      "Then I remembered what the Bible says about God and how He attends to our needs. Instead of a voice mail system He says, [show on screen] 'And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. Isaiah 65:24."

   3. Aren't you glad Mort Juberg's nightmare about voice mail in heaven isn't true! (When he was getting down to the part about "If you yelled at your wife" I was ready for the option, "If you've yelled at a voice mail answering system...."
   4. Tonight let's talk about prayer--without the voice mail!
      1. Because on this last evening of our NeXt Millennium Seminar I want to share with you "A New Way Pray."
      2. A fresh new vitalizing way to grow your FOREVER FRIENDSHIP with God!
      3. A new way to pray so simple yet so deep that it has the wherewithal to change your walk with God for the rest of your life.
      4. Whether you're a brand new Christian or a seasoned veteran.
      5. It's the perfect way to come to the end tonight--by not ending at all, but beginning a wonderful new beginning in our FOREVER FRIENDSHIP with God.
2. The key to this "new way to pray" is found in one of the great laws of the universe!
   1. We all know that the universe is governed by divinely ordained laws, unbreakable laws.
      1. Jumping off the Sears Tower in Chicago is one way to test and prove one of these laws, the law of gravity.
      2. The gravity of the situation will be indelibly impressed upon the person who decides to test that law by jumping off the tower!
      3. You can't break this law; it will only break you.
      4. Which, of course, is another law of life.
   2. But one of the laws you must master in your quest to know God more deeply and more intimately is captured in two well-known verses of Scripture:
      1. Proverbs 23:7 (627)--"For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." (By the way that's true for a "she" too!)
      2. Here is a law of life: as you think in your heart, so you are--i.e., our thought patterns invariably shape and control our behaviors.
      3. The second scriptural verification of this law is clear in the familiar words of the King James--II Corinthians 3:18 (we were just here a few evenings ago) [on screen]:

         "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).

      4. Recognize the law in those words? Certainly. "By beholding, we become changed."
   3. Put the two verses together and the law shines in all its simplicity and clarity: What you behold, you become. [on screen]
      1. This simple law is inviolable and invariable; it can't be broken and it won't change.
      2. What we behold, we become
      3. Illus: James Dobson tells the story about a dad who was riding down the street in his car with his little boy on the car seat beside him having one of those warm father-son moments.
         1. As can happen to us (men in particular), the father sensed the need to expectorate a euphemism for spitting out the car window.
         2. So he rolled the window down and spat!
         3. Then rolled it back up and went on driving down the street.
         4. When all of a sudden the dad heard the sound of a throat being cleared right beside him!
         5. And in that split second before the father could turn, the little boy did exactly what he had just beheld his father doing he spit!
         6. Only he was too small to roll the window down, so he spit in the direction of his daddy's window.
         7. Which is why in the second split second the father suddenly felt something warm, drooling and sticky running down his neck his boy had just spit on him!
         8. WHAT THE BOY BEHELD HE BECAME!
         9. Normally the law takes a little longer to work than that!
      4. But we all know the law works WHAT YOU BEHOLD YOU BECOME.
      5. Illus: All you have to do is hang out with a crowd of teenagers and you'll instantly recognize them the full-scale replication of their pop- star, movie-star, sports-star posters that hang in their rooms at home!
      6. Illus: Why, I suppose it's happened to all of us we've looked up to someone we've admired, someone we've been secretly watching and observing from the sidelines of life and sure enough pretty soon we either start trying to look like them or talk like them or dress like them or act like them.
      7. STARE LONG ENOUGH and the law comes true: WHAT YOU BEHOLD YOU BECOME!
   4. Which of course can be both positive as well as negative in its outcome!
   5. What I'd like to suggest is that we begin immediately putting this great law to work in a very, very positive way!
   6. What do you say we put this law into immediate operation in our quest to deepen our FOREVER FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD?
   7. In fact, if you will begin applying this law right now, and you can bring a radically new direction to your prayer life that's what this NEW WAY TO PRAY is all about!
   8. You see, it's a matter of changing your focus.
      1. Too many of us have been praying with a NEGATIVE FOCUS.
      2. Too many of us spend time chronicling to God our weaknesses and our sins over and over and over again: Oh God, I have this problem, and O God, I have that problem, and O God...
      3. Please don't get me wrong: there is nothing wrong with confessing our sins to God.
      4. In fact let's go back and review that most wonderful of promises--I John 1:9 (p 1168) [show on screen, too]
         1. And please note that not only is God quick to promise to forgive our sins, but notice His promise to cleanse us from all the stain of our guilt and unrighteousness.
         2. Good news indeed! Jesus washes us clean.
      5. And by the way, speaking of promises, turn a few pages to Jude 24 for a dynamite promise (p 1173)--if Jude 24 means anything at all, it surely carries with it the promise of divine power to "keep you from falling."
      6. Which is doubly good news.
   9. But the problem is we've allowed ourselves to become sin-centered, rather than Savior-centered.
      1. And so with what do we lace our daily prayers? A daily recital of our besetting sins. Too many of us who struggle with an evil temper, too many of us who struggle with lust, too many of us who struggle with dishonesty, too many of us who struggle with ego and pride, who know well our own weaknesses--too many of us have turned our prayers into a concentrated and negative focus on the failure and weakness of our sinful lives.
      2. Illus: And our minds become like our favorite phonograph albums. Every time we played that record, the stylus or needle wore the record groove a bit deeper. Round and round the record would spin, and deeper and deeper the needle would wear. Oh, hardly a measurable difference in one spinning revolution, to be sure. But anybody who has played a favorite record album over and over knows that it is only a matter of time until the record becomes scratchy and noisy simply because of the repeated journey of that stylus through those record grooves. (That's why the compact disc with its no-scratch laser beam has become our current fad.)
      3. When we keep running our sins through our minds, we run the risk of deepening the very groove we are asking God to free us from!
      4. And in the process, we are negatively fulfilling the law: what we behold, we become.
      5. For the more we behold our own sins, the more difficult it is for us to be set free from those sins! Because the groove keeps getting deeper.
      6. We need a new focus for this law!
      7. Illus: As that little classic Steps to Christ puts it:

         Many, walking along the path of life, dwell upon their mistakes and failures and disappointments, and their hearts are filled with grief and discouragement. . . . It is not wise to gather together all the unpleasant recollections of a past life,--its iniquities and disappointments,--to talk over them and mourn over them until we are overwhelmed with discouragement. A discouraged soul is filled with darkness, shutting out the light of God from his own soul, and casting a shadow upon the pathway of others. (pp. 116,117)

      8. We need to turn from our sin-centered praying to a Savior-centered method of praying.
3. I chanced upon this new way to pray back in August, 1986, and I've been using it ever since. And so I have no hesitation inviting you on this new journey into prayer.
   1. You can be assured that by the grace of Jesus and the partnership of the Holy Spirit you, too, will discover a new power and intensity in your spiritual walk with God.
   2. This new method, by the way, solves the familiar problems we all have with the 3 D's of devotional praying: discipline, distraction and dialogue.
   3. Take discipline, for example.
      1. Every year around the New Year season we who go to church hear another rousing sermon on the importance of prayer and study in the Christian's life.
      2. And so one of our New Year resolutions becomes the determination this year to really make a difference, to really get serious about Bible study and prayer.
      3. And so what do we do? We do what we all have done.
      4. New Year's Day (after sleeping in late from the night before) you pull your Bible from the shelf with the determination to get to know God this year through the Holy Scriptures.
      5. And where do you turn to begin reading? Why, of course! Genesis, the great Book of Beginnings. What better place to begin to fulfill your resolution! And sure enough, you discover it be one of the most powerfully gripping books in the entire Scriptures, laced as it is with the greatest human epics of all time. You move through Genesis like a wild fire. You love those stories.
      6. Now comes Exodus, and to your relief the epic stories continue! Until you arrive at Exodus 20 and the Ten Commandments. Oh well, you don't mind a little bit of the law. Until you discover that you've just gone wading into the detailed blueprints for the sanctuary construction.
      7. Well, Leviticus will be a change, you assure yourself. But actually it is a book-length series of ritual codes and laws.
      8. And having been faithfully at it since January 1, you're already in February now. But perhaps it would be well to take a brief break from Leviticus.
      9. And so you do.
      10. But you never get back to where you left off.
      11. And before you know it, you hear another rousing sermon on the importance of prayer and Bible study in the Christian's life. And so you make a renewed resolution. This time it will be different, you promise yourself and God.
      12. And when January 1 rolls around again, you grab your trusty Bible and open it to the most logical place in the world to start. Genesis. And guess what? You find yourself flying through those chapters and epics and stories of adventure. All the way to Exodus 20.
      13. And strangely, it all begins to seem familiar again. And downhill again. Until come the middle of Leviticus and February, you're deciding on another short break again. Etc., etc., etc.
      14. No wonder we have raised a generation of authorities on the book of Genesis!
      15. This new method will bring discipline to your devotional prayer life. But it won't do it by beginning in Genesis. In fact, you won't even be reading the entire Bible through in a year. Some of us grew up being taught that if we read three chapters a day and five chapters on weekend days, we could finish the Bible in a year. Which is an admirable goal indeed.
      16. However, if in this critical hour of human history God is wanting to raise up a Jesus Generation of men and women and young adults and youth and children who are filled with the Spirit of Jesus--then doesn't it make all the sense in the world for this generation to be focusing its mind and heart on Jesus Himself?
      17. You hold in your hands a method of focus that will enable you to daily center your devotional praying on Christ. It's a vital discipline whose time has come!
   4. Also Included in the 3 D's of prayer is distraction.
      1. And who isn't familiar with this nagging reality!
      2. You're bleary-eyed when you awaken in the morning; you're weary-eyed when you fall into bed at night.
      3. Be honest. How many times have you caught yourself actually falling asleep in the middle of your prayers?
      4. Illus: I pastor a campus of 3000 university students. And how times has a prayer similar to this been prayed? You remember it, don't you? You're on your knees by your bed, as you begin,

         [translators, this prayer obviously works in English--by connecting words that sound alike--you may need to adapt the prayer to illustrate it in your language]

         "Dear God, thank you for this day." There's a rather long pause. Then you remember someone in your family who needs your intercession. "Oh, Lord, I want You to please be with Aunt Mary. You know what she needs, Lord. Would you please come close to her. Thank you for Aunt Mary....Aunt Mary....Aunt Mary." You catch your mind drifting. "...Aunt Mary....and oh yes, Lord, You know I need to get married, that's right. Lord, I need to get married. So, Lord, I don't know what You are going to do, but I need a date. A date. I'll take anyone, Lord! Just a date, please. I can't get married unless You give me a date. So, Father, if You would please do something about a date....a date....a date." You catch your mind drifting. "...A date....Oh yes, and speaking about dates, Lord, I just remembered the date of an exam I have coming up. I forgot. The date of the exam is coming much sooner than I thought. Oh, Lord, I didn't realize that it is tomorrow. Please help me with that exam. I need help on that exam....exam....exam." You catch yourself drifting. "...Exam....Oh yes, speaking of an exam, God, I have been having a pain in my side here that needs examining. I think I will have to go to a doctor and have it examined. You are going to have to do something to get this pain taken care of in my side. I need an exam for my pain....pain....pain." Drifting again. "...Pain....Oh yes, speaking of pain in the side, I want to talk about my roommate for a moment. I don't know if you understand my roommate, but it has been a real trial living with my roommate, God. A real pain in the side. Please do something for my roommate....mate....mate." There you go again. "...Mate....That's right, God, I need a mate, I forgot. Please help me! If you could just help me get married, that would solve the problem. Married. Oh, yes, Lord, please help Aunt Mary. Amen."

      5. Sound familiar? All too familiar for most of us, because distraction seems to be an ever-present deterrent, doesn't it?
      6. We need a disciplined method of praying that will deal with the problem of distraction, so that we can intensify our focus on Jesus.
      7. This method you're embarking on will help you there, too.
      8. It's impossible to eliminate all distractions from the creative thinking process of humans. But this prayer method will greatly reduce those distractions and free up your prayer life by focused clarity.
   5. The third element in the familiar 3 D's of prayer is dialogue.
      1. Illus: I like the way Steps to Christ puts it, "Prayer is talking to God as to a friend" (p. 93).
      2. But that's the problem, isn't it? How often do our prayers end up sounding like repetitious monologues? Why does my prayer life seem so one-way?
      3. This new way to pray will answer that by bringing into your prayer life a new dialogue dimension, the actual communion back and forth between your heart and the heart of God.
4. So what is this "new" method of praying? It's called journaling.
   1. But it is a devotional type of journaling you may never have read or heard about before.
   2. And it is very simple.
      1. The prop's to this method are few: all you need are your Bible, a red marking pen, a writing pen (you choose the color), and a journal (try and get a "hard" covered one like this at a stationery or book store--they're quite inexpensive--but last longer than a loose-leaf or spiral-bound notebook).
      2. One other prop is essential: and that is your "prayer closet," as Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount:

         "'When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place.'" (Matthew 6:6)

      3. We are all creatures of habit, and so it is important that you establish a habitual place of prayer. Being in those familiar surroundings (versus changing the location frequently) will facilitate your prayer experience.
      4. If you are a university student and you have a roommate, your prayer closet can be a corner of your room, or it may be an early morning corner in one of the dormitory lobbies.
      5. Spouses need their own prayer closets, too.
      6. But married or not, your prayer closet probably ought not to be propped up in bed with your partner asleep beside you--or all alone--because a bed tends to reinforce what it's there for: sleep!
      7. The prayer closet needs to be some place you go to in order to be alone with Jesus. Without distractions. A corner of the living room, a kitchen counter, a basement study (that's where mine is), or some other private spot in your trailer or apartment or house.
      8. Find a place where you and your Lord can be without interruptions.
      9. That's why there needs to be some sort of devotional agreement with whomever you share your residence. This is to be time alone with God. And so phone calls and "Where did you put the tooth paste?" queries need to be kept to a minimum.
      10. Of course, there is a way to keep those interruptions at a minimum. And that is to plan your prayer time when the place is quiet, i.e. early in the morning or late at night.
      11. Harried mothers need all the sleep they can get, and so for them their prayer closet time may turn out to be in the middle of the afternoon when the kids are napping.
      12. Obviously, there is no set or decreed time for this communion with God. Clearly the less of resident noises and distractions the better.
   3. Which leads me to a question I always get asked: How much time should I spend in prayer with God, in my prayer closet?
      1. Illus: I like the way someone once put it: Prayer isn't about mind over matter--it's about mind over mattress!
      2. Which means we'll go on facing the perennial morning struggle of getting out of bed and getting to our prayer closet.
      3. It really becomes a matter of programming our schedules around our renewed quest to intensify our faith and prayer lives.
      4. Illus: When both our children were born, I had in place some deeply ingrained habits that included sleeping peacefully through the night.
         1. And what that baby came home and I heard wailing in the middle of the night and in the middle of my dreams, I knew what to do--every gallant man knows what to do--you have to roll over, and shake your wife--"Honey, the baby wants you!"
         2. But of course not! Are you kidding? You may have been used to sleeping like a baby through the night before--but no more-- BECAUSE YOU HAVE A BRAND NEW PRIORITY--and that priority rearranges what used to be life as usual.
         3. A FOREVER FRIENDSHIP with God does the very same thing--you may have been used to sleeping in to the last desperate moment--and then racing out of the house.
         4. But no more--you have the God the universe who has become your PERSONAL FRIEND, and now early mornings are about having some time alone with Him!
         5. You really can live without "The Tonight Show" before bed and "Good Morning, America" when you arise!
      5. But how much time should you spend?
      6. For college kids who come to my office and are trying to barely hang on spiritually, I often recommend journaling five to ten minutes every morning.
      7. Seven days a week. (Which includes your day off. Can you imagine putting a friendship on hold one day a week?)
      8. What you'll discover is that journaling is a method that will grow on you, and soon you'll find that time will not be what you're watching any longer.
      9. Remember that God won't be meeting you with a stop watch. He comes instead with a heart that longs for your friendship. And everybody knows that you don't hurry through a friendship.
   4. There are four books in the entire sixty-six book collection in the Holy Scriptures that are to be the heart and soul of this FOREVER FRIENDSHIP KIND OF PRAYING.
      1. Paul, the greatest Christian who ever lived, exclaimed in the book of Philippians, "I want to know Christ" (Philippians 3:10).
      2. And the four perfect books to fulfill that longing are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
      3. The gospel story of Jesus provides the high-concentrate soul-food and heart-focus that God's FOREVER FRIENDS need.
   5. So everything is in readiness now. You're "in" your prayer closet. Your tools are there beside you. You take a deep breath.
      1. But what next? (#1) A quiet prayer can start your experience: "Jesus, you and I are here together. I've been looking forward to this. I need this moment with You. Please come and speak to me. I'm going to open your Book right now, and I'll be looking for a picture of You and listening for a word from You. So, please come and talk with me."
      2. Next, you open to the gospel you've chosen to read through. And you (#2) begin by reading only one story. Whether the story of a miracle or a parable or a teaching or an incident, it is vital that you confine your reading for the day to that one story.
      3. Why? Because you want to be saturated with what the Holy Spirit will bring to you out of that single story. When you read more than one story or incident, you will have two or three different messages or points being made. And then you'll wonder which is the one for you today.
      4. So it is important that you intentionally limit yourself each morning to a single incident. The modern translations have conveniently divided the passages into paragraphs, so it will not be difficult for you to spot the logical breaks in Jesus' teachings or His journeys. Usually you'll be focusing on five to eight verses.
      5. And that means you'll be finished with your reading in less than sixty seconds!
      6. For that reason you must read it, and then reread it and reread it again. (#3) Remember the rule: Reread to relive.
      7. Because it will be from your rereadings of that story that the Spirit's message for you that day will emerge. You'll be surprised how much you'll catch the second and third and fourth time through your passage.
      8. And as you reread it, (#4) let it be a full-sensory experience.
         1. We have become a sensory-saturated and -bombarded age today, thanks to the television in your home that is color and gives you life in graphic, explicit detail. We are sensory craved; we have become people who now live, move and think this kind of visual encounter.
         2. So a full-sensory reliving of the gospel stories of Jesus will allow our minds to be impressed in a manner they are very much used to today.
         3. Go over and over that story. And to bring fresh variety into each rereading, why don't you add one of the five senses to the story--seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting--with each reading. By your fifth rereading, you should have a full-color portrayal of that gospel incident with Jesus in your mind!
         4. Smell the crowds around you if it's a hot Palestine day. Feel the waves of Galilee cool and lapping against your ankles. Hear the sounds of children laughing in the distance, birds soaring overhead. See the dew-kissed grassy knoll where Jesus meets alone with His Father. Taste the fresh grapes that Jesus points to and the broken bread He hands to you. Smell it, see it, sense it, taste it, touch it. Reread to relive.
      9. What's the big deal about this rereading to relive concept? Simple. Remember the law we shared a few pages back? What you behold, you become.
         1. This full-sensory experiences will activate that law in your life. It will prevent you from hurrying across the landscape of that gospel story and missing the opportunity to take a long and lingering look at Jesus.
         2. If we behold Jesus, the law is unequivocal--we will become more and more like Him. What we behold, we will become.
         3. That's why the three-minute devotional quickie is hardly ever effective. No, it is imperative that you stay there with Jesus for a while. Let His story become a part of you.
      10. And by the way, who are you looking for in these stories? Of course, you're always looking for Jesus. To help keep that focus, ask yourself this question each morning: (#5) What does this story tell me about Jesus?
          1. "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (I Corinthians 2:2).
          2. You come to your prayer closet in search of Jesus. The quest of GOD'S FOREVER FRIEND is to know Jesus. Ask yourself, "What does this tell me about Jesus?"
   6. As you ask the question and seek its answer, let me assure you that you will begin to sense within you the particular focus the Spirit is bringing to your heart through that day's story.
      1. Something about Jesus from within that gospel incident will be impressed upon your mind.
      2. And while it is hardly a psychic experience, nevertheless there will be a spiritual impression you'll sense, "Wait a minute--this is today's Word for me."
      3. Maybe you're reading about Peter walking on the water and God speaks to you about your own pride and fear, maybe it's about Mary Magdalene and you sense your own impurity and failure, maybe it's about Pilate and you realize how easy it is for you to yield to the clamor and pressure of the crowd, maybe it's about the Pharisees and you sense your own tendency to be judgmental and critical and self- righteous, it could be you're reading about John the Baptist who was beheaded for his faith and you realize that the decisions you've made here in this seminar have alienated you from your family and friends and you feel cut off for human support....
      4. I don't know what God will whisper to you when you and He meet together in the life of Jesus--I only know that He will speak to your mind and heart and you will commune with Him!
      5. Illus: There will be times, not few, when you will exclaim the Easter words of Cleopas and his wife on their walk to Emmaus with the just-resurrected Jesus, "Didn't our hearts burn within us!"
      6. Illus: And yet there will be other days when the reading seems mechanical and nothing happens at all.
         1. I have days like that with breakfast--when I eat my bowl of Wheaties and there is no sparkle at all.
         2. Do I give up on breakfasts and quit eating in the morning?
         3. Nope--tomorrow morning I'll be back at the same breakfast table, and I'll have toast and peanut butter and raspberry jam--and wow! What a breakfast!
      7. The point is--as in any friendship--you never give up--you keep talking and dialoguing and sharing with each other on a daily basis.
   7. So what does this have to do with the journal? Everything.
      1. Because as soon as you've sensed from your REREADING a message or impression that applies to your own life or day, you want to focus on that message.
      2. And so I (#6) grab my pen, open my journal, write down the date (and place if I'm traveling--the journal becomes a spiritual diary that way), and then in RED I pen the words from the story that spoke especially to me.
      3. And then taking my BLUE (or other color) pen, I do one of two things: I either write a letter to Jesus, or I have Him write a letter to me.
      4. It's that simple.
      5. "Dear Lord, I realize now how very much like Peter I really am. What a boastful braggart on the outside--but what a weak and faithless man on the inside. Forgive me, Jesus. Just like you forgave Peter when he denied you in front of everyone. Let me see your gaze all this day as I live for you. Amen."
      6. Or you could have Jesus write you--now look, nobody's hearing voices-- but you know that if Jesus were sitting in that empty chair across from you, you know exactly what He'd say to you:

         "Dear Dwight--Did you notice how patient and loving I was with the kind of people you are so impatient and curt with much of the time. Watch Me as I move among those who live on the edges of society. You don't see me hurrying on My way--and I wish so much that you would live as I lived. I have the power you need to love that way. Why don't you ask Me more than you do? What are you afraid of? I want you to live My friendship all over your village today. Will you follow Me?"

      7. What does the story tell me about my Best Friend Jesus?
      8. You see, your heart will tell you--and you can write down what you're sensing.
      9. WHY WRITE? Because now you won't be falling asleep as you pray-- from finger to hand to arm to mind--you'll be caught up in the writing and in the remembering of that prayer all day long!
   8. Finally, (#7) have a kneel down prayer to commit your day and the people you want to pray for to this same God with whom you've already been in dialogue.
      1. The kneel-down prayer reminds me I am a friend of the KING AND LORD OF THE UNIVERSE.
      2. And when I get off my knees, I leave my prayer closet knowing I have just had "an audience with the Eternal."
      3. WOW! WHAT A GOD! WHAT A GIFT--THIS GIFT OF PRAYER!
5. And what difference will it make?
   1. Let me conclude tonight with a story, something rather embarrassing that happened when we were pastoring in Salem, Oregon.
      1. I don't know how it happened, but one day I picked up our parsonage phone to hear the heavy metal rock station in town blasting away in the background.
      2. It was there when one of our parishioners called. In the background I could hear the music's thundering, roaring boom, Boom, BOOM. I knew that it wasn't that dear elderly parishioner's radio in the background.
      3. And I immediately surmised that she was thinking that she had caught her pastor listening to the wrong kind of music!
      4. But I figured that if I ignored the rumble, she would, too.
      5. So I raised my voice a few decibels and continued to speak, endeavoring not to allow any pauses in which that rumbling heavy metal beat could intrude into our conversation.
      6. But when I hung up, I could only imagine the conclusions of the shocked parishioner on the other end.
      7. And when the next call came to our home and the same raucous music could be heard in the background, I knew we were in trouble!
      8. And so I hurriedly called the phone company to inquire why this young pastor should have the misfortune of having the heavy metal station's music in town playing on his parsonage phone. They promised to have it fixed.
      9. But to no avail. More rocking rumble on the preacher's phone line. More calls to the phone company.
      10. Several days later a technician from the company stopped by the house. He'd found the problem, and sure enough--no more heavy metal on our phone line.
      11. Then I learned what had happened. In putting up a new wiring system, the phone company had inadvertently gotten the telephone wires too close to the power lines of the radio station. The wires got so close, that the power from the station spilled over into our telephone line. So that when people dialed our number, they go the radio station, too!
      12. Isn't that something? The lines got so close together, that the power of the one spilled over into other. And when they dialed the one, they got the other, too.
   2. Acts 4:13 describes the friends of Jesus in the beginning, and it seems the right verse for us to share here at the ending (p 1055).
      1. As one translation puts it: "And they took note that these men [and women] had been with Jesus" (NIV).
      2. What happened? Simple.
      3. The Christians at the beginning got their wires so close to the Source of Power that the power spilled over. And when the world dialed their number, they got Jesus!
      4. As it was with the friends of Jesus in the beginning, so it must be with the friends of Jesus at the ending.
      5. "Here is a call for . . . those who . . . hold fast to the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12 NRSV).
      6. What we behold, we become.
      7. Then at this ending moment tonight, let us choose to begin a new life of beholding Jesus.
      8. For by beholding, we shall become changed.
      9. Changed by our FOREVER FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD.
      10. So that when they dial your number and mine, they get Jesus, too.
      11. After all, my dear friends, ISN'T THAT WHAT THIS FOREVER FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD IS ALL ABOUT?

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