PeteTackett.com

I keep a stack of books going all the time. People that know me ask me often what I am currently reading. The dilemma is this. What do I want to read badly enough that I will carry it in my backpack half way around the world for the next two months? So, in no particular order, here is what I am taking with me.

1. My Bible. (duh!)
2. Experiencing LeaderShift by Don Cousins
3. Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard J. Foster
4. Life’s Healing Choices by John Baker
5. Forgotten God by Francis Chan (audio book)

I am not sure how much reading time I will have but I would feel naked without some books, plus our first flight leaves on Sunday night and we will not arrive at our first destination until Tuesday afternoon so I can probably knock out a couple of these enroute and give them away there.

I would love to know what you are reading these days so I can restock when I return.

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For the past year, I have been routinely asked the same two questions followed by the same statement.  Because I went “off grid” as they say in spy world, people ask me, “How are you doing?” and quickly follow it up with “What are you doing?” After a few minutes of conversation around those questions, they almost inevitably say, “I am praying for you.”  The good news for me is that they mean it and I have spent the last difficult year being carried on the wings of prayers of hundreds of friends. I am fortunate to have that many friends who care deeply enough to pray for me.  It set me to thinking.  Who is praying for me? For that matter, who is really praying for any one of us?

In addition to friends and family, we are also prayed for by the “great cloud of witnesses” spoken of in Hebrews 12:1. What do you think those witnesses are doing?  They are cheering you on and I believe they are interceding for you.  We know from Revelation 8 that the prayers of all saints (which I assume means all, both the saints on earth and the saints in heaven) waft upward into the presence of God. So if the saints that have gone on pray and they are surrounding us, it only makes sense that they are interceding for us.

Secondly, it appears that there are specifically assigned angels who according to Matthew 18:10, “continually behold the face of my father” in heaven. The recipients of this prayer are the same little ones whom Jesus used to illustrate the proper posture for a believer, but I think you can make a case that each of us have an angel assigned to us who draws near to God on our behalf. For what other reason would that angel make eye contact with the Father than to pray for the saint to whom the angel is assigned?

As important as the prayers of the cloud of witnesses and the angels are, they pale in comparison to the rest of your prayer team. Did you know that our Savior, Jesus Christ, who Scripture says is sitting at the right hand of the Father as ruling, reigning Monarch of the Universe, has the specific assignment of praying for you? According to Hebrews 7:25, he ever lives to intercede for you.  His primary job for now is to ask the Father for all your needs to be met.  Since He and the Father are one and share the same will, how sweet is it to know that He is asking on your behalf for all that you need?

And if that were not enough, according to Romans 8:26, the Holy Spirit is praying for us.  It tells us that even when we are so beaten, discouraged, and confused that we don’t know how or what to pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf.  This is in the same writing that tells us the Holy Spirit knows the mind of the Father and knows your mind.  I can only assume that if the Spirit knows everything the Father knows and everything I know, He can adequately intercede for just what I need.

There you have it.  Besides the friends and family that lift your needs into the heavenly places, you have quite a team praying for you.  The great cloud of witnesses, angels, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit join together to cry out to God the Father on your behalf. Take comfort in that today!

Have you ever sensed the heavenly prayers on your behalf at a critical time?  I am sure others would be encouraged to hear about it in a comment.

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My wife and I are getting ready to go on a two-month mission trip to Malawi and Kenya. I am excited to have her with me for a million reasons but at the end of the trip, we are going down to the Serengeti to take a photo safari.  While I have been there before, she never has. All the preparation reminded me of a conversation I had with our guide the last time I was there.

I wanted to get some late afternoon, early evening photographs around the lodge and game range and asked if he would help me do this.  He quickly agreed, since he worked for tips, but said only as long “as we get back before dark.” Assuming I already knew the answer, I asked anyway. “Why?” His answer was simple and direct.  “The night belongs to the predators.”

That phrase has never left me.  When pressed, he said the predators were such things as lions, leopards, and other animals, but that they also included bandits, robbers, and marauders. There is a spiritual truth in his statement as well as some good advice for the white man traveling in Africa.

For years in youth ministry, I would encourage students to have specific plans and specific times to be home at night. Even though I did not put it in those words, I was saying that the night belonged to the predators, or in this case, the predator.  I often would ask students who did not want a curfew what good thing was available for them after midnight in the small town in which we lived. Scripture says in I Peter 5:8 that Satan paces back and forth like a lion looking for someone to devour. The later it gets, the less likely a person of any age is going to be able to protect himself.

I experienced that in my own life in July of 2009, when I was an hour from home late one night and the enemy of our soul set me up for failure and I walked into the trap. (Disclaimer: That is not to say I have no part in this and that I am a victim. If you want to know the whole story, go to www.petetackett.com and watch the video or read the story of this journey.) It was a classic case of needing to practice what I preach.  I am thankful for God’s provision and protection and the incredible mercy and grace I have tasted since then, but make no mistake about it.  That night belongs to the predator. Be careful out there!

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Don’t be so self-righteous. If you are honest, you recall a younger time when you just thought you knew everything about everything. Hopefully, it has abated some over the years, but life was so much easier then. It required no thought. The most convenient part was that you never had to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. You could just pigeonhole people into slots. They were “good” guys or they were “bad” guys. It was especially useful in social debates and politics.

That is on my mind today as I listen to all the talking heads regarding President Obama and General McChrystal. Talk radio is filled with conservative hosts decrying the treatment of the general. After all, Obama has to be wrong because he is the bad guy. He is just bad. He is always bad. Right?

I married into a military family. Chain of command is big. I mean, really BIG! For that matter, it is big in ministry. No pastor can serve long with an associate publicly attacking him. Though I haven’t worked in the corporate world, I suspect there is little tolerance for undercutting your boss there either. To summarize, on a practical level, there was nothing else President Obama could do. The General gave him no choice. But we are conservative and He is bad so he has to be the bad guy.

I think it started when talk radio treated every day of President Clinton’s tenure like election day, attacking mercilessly. (My first pastor used to say that people who love you will defend you when you are wrong and those who hate you will attack you when you are right.) Liberal talk show hosts continued the trend every day President Bush was in office. Now, it is the conservatives turn again.

There are two big problems with all this. The voting public is SICK of it. We believe strongly what we believe but we are getting really cynical. How about a little common courtesy? How about Fox reporting and letting us decide? (Hey, that should be a slogan!) How about CNN just letting us know what is going on around the world, even if it is just a flood in Nashville?

Secondly, a lot of the voting public is forgetting that they have a right to think and even forgetting how to think. The whole world has been reduced to themes and sound bytes. Unfortunately, the world’s problems are getting bigger by the moment and continue to be unsolved and largely unaddressed because when anything newsworthy happens, both sides have to solidify their viewer base by reminding us who is bad and why they are bad and since they are bad, why they can never be right. God help us.

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