No Closing Prayer

One Sunday, someone asked me if I was ready. I responded with something like, “Ready?” They said, “Yeah, today is your busiest day.” With a smile, I came back with, “Today is my favorite day!”

For years, my favorite week of the year has been the week I go to Backwoods Christian Camp. But, now that I have been blessed to spend a week at Polishing the Pulpit (PTP), it’s hard to tell which one encourages me more. Put it this way – I’d hate to have to pick between the two. Both of these events are spiritually edifying and valuable in different ways. But, there are certain, significant things that they share.

First, you are immersed in a Christian atmosphere. I think of it as being in a “safe place.” You are surrounded by Christians – but, not lukewarm Christians – those who take their spiritual growth seriously. It is the family of God, actually acting like a family.

Second, God is the focus. There are lessons about pleasing God, lessons about bringing others to God, lessons about living Godly, lessons about God’s word, lessons about the family of God, etc. Periods of worship and prayer are woven through the days schedule. These events are born out of the truth that the Adversary is after us and that we have the responsibility to snatch the people of the world out of the flames, while remaining unscathed ourselves.

A life of focus on God really puts this world into perspective. The tribulations of this life only end at death. But, both camp and PTP are an “escape,” as if faith had momentarily become sight. They are a snapshot, a glimpse, into the heavenly description of Revelation 7:9-12: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.’”

Paul makes it very clear that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.” (Phil. 2:10) To a Christian, this posture should be the norm, not the new. Being with the people of God, at the feet of God, is what heaven will be. Being with the people of God, at the feet of God, right now, should feel like heaven on earth. Looking at the Sunday assembly, with this perspective, makes it easy to see why it is my favorite day… God designed it that way and expects it to be my favorite. Consider Hebrews 10:24, 25, in this context: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

God isn’t trying to twist our arms, so that we’ll show up and squirm our way through bible class and worship, until the closing prayer ushers in our freedom. He wants us to assemble together, at His feet, so that we can have a little taste of that place for which we long, where there will be no closing prayer.

-Cary Gillis D.Min.

June 5, 2016