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Listener Response to: “Tyranny of the Urgent”

You said below, “Apart from my judgmentalism, I’m afraid the number one thing I’m most ashamed of is the degree of my prayerlessness and personal devotion to Jesus Christ. And, what little progress I have witnessed in my own life and ministry is in direct proportion to my prayerfulness and personal devotion to Jesus Christ.”  Ken, those are my words, or, rather, they are the words of confession I should have uttered long before now.  I have allowed the tyranny of the urgent to overcome the truly important (prayer and focused extensive devotion to the Lord Jesus) for more years than I care to enumerate, years that the locusts have eaten.  Yet I know by faith in Him that the Lord of Creation and Master of all can restore the years the locusts have eaten.  Oh, Lord Jesus, please cause me and Ken to repent and reap the blessings of obedience to You our Master, blessings which spring from prayer and devotion to our God and which glorify You and our Father. Amen.

I was talking with Thor Tolo, former host of AM820 KGNW’s “Live From Seattle” last evening, and we agreed how freeing it was for each of us to be off the air for the summer months this year! Being a radio talk show host can easily become all-consuming—with not just the show itself, but all the show prep of phone calls, emails, private meetings, public appearances, etc. It is not at all unlike being a politician, where the tyranny of the urgent can easily encroach upon the important things in life—like family and sanity, to name just two.

This week I was doing some writing about the tyranny of the urgent, as aggravated by the all-pervasive presence of propaganda in our technological society. It has, for example, spiritually, ethically and otherwise rendered most of our politicians ineffective. In so doing, I compared a modern U. S. Senator with a true statesman from the past:

“Those politicians themselves are so propagandized that they are incapable of thinking originally. I was recently listening to a U. S. Senator share what her daily schedule was like: three breakfast speeches (without eating, but with coffee, coffee, coffee) before 9:00 a.m., committee meetings, floor debates, caucuses, correspondence, receptions, banquets, or whatever, on until 10:00 p.m. Pretty typical for a U. S. Senator. We must all applaud them for their Herculean efforts on behalf of their constituencies, but the speed of their lives betrays an imbalance, often causing them to deplete all of their intellectual and spiritual capital, neglect their own families and regurgitate only the propaganda they have absorbed—mistaking it for independent thought.

“In contrast we see the example of British M. P., William Wilberforce, by many accounts the most influential parliamentarian of the 19th Century. By the description of his biographer, Garth Lean, Wilberforce ‘ . . . began his life-long practice of rising early and spending the first hours of the day in meditation.’ Furthermore, we find that Wilberforce isolated himself and his family from politics one day in seven, plus every summer he borrowed a friend’s summer place for two months of isolated meditation, reading and writing. As a consequence of such disciplines, I firmly believe, Wilberforce became a great statesman, accomplishing monumental service that long outlived the servant.

“The case might be made that at least fifty-one percent of our national legislators (you know, the vote percentage needed to direct the political agenda) have lost sight of their own thoughts, their own moral center, and their ability to retain authenticity.”

A.W. Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill’s mentor, commented on the tyranny of propaganda’s urgent call: “The number one way this culture destroys its members is by preventing men from thinking their own thoughts.” E. Stanley Jones elaborated:

“The Apostle Paul said, ‘This one thing I do. . .”
We say, ‘These many things we dabble in.’
Paul’s life made a mark; ours makes a blur.”

Last night Robin and I took a break from the urgent and watched a video of the late Leonard Ravenhill, wherein Ravenhill seeks to communicate what things on this earth are really important, in comparison with the urgent things which so tyrannize us.

So, what’s really the important thing? In summing up his own life’s ministry, Ravenhill said: “All I know is I have stressed as much as possible the life of prayer and personal devotion.”

That’s it! Apart from my judgmentalism, I’m afraid the number one thing I’m most ashamed of is the degree of my prayerlessness and lack of personal devotion to Jesus Christ. And, what little progress I have witnessed in my own life and ministry is in direct proportion to my prayerfulness and personal devotion to Jesus Christ.

So, may I ask you to do yourself a favor? Please make a divine appointment (perhaps with a friend or your spouse?) to view Leonard Ravenhill’s commentary on the church in our society and what’s really important versus what’s not. Then go to this link and view some of the final words from this true saint of God whose life made not a blur, but a mark:

An Interview with Leonard Ravenhill (video) by Leonard Ravenhill
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/visit.php?lid=1702

Let’s all help each other discover the important . . . together.

In my experience, when it comes time for a major life’s decision—perhaps a career change, geographic relocation, strategic alliance, etc.—I have found that God often operates by what Robin and I like to call a “push-pull” method of guidance. First, He pulls us toward the decision by creating what feels like a vacuum of some sort in our lives. . . Sorta like when God told Abraham to go to a land he knew nothing about (Genesis 12). Then, it would seem he complements that “pull” with a “push” in our life’s circumstances—often feeling like ye olde’ kick in de pants! I would suppose that the children of Israel felt this kind of “push” when they were being chased to the edge of the Red Sea by the Egyptian Pharaoh and his army (Exodus 14).

A quick case in point: living in Port Angeles, Washington, while our son, Sterling, was taking a year off of high school to get his Microsoft Certified Systems Engineering training at Peninsula College, right around the year 2000 unexpectedly a vacuum started building that drew Robin and me to consider moving back to the Seattle area. The pull was in our spirits. Somehow we sensed our time was up in P. A. and that it was time to move East once again. The push came when someone in our household needed major surgery in a Seattle hospital, and the lease ran out on our house and the landlord decided to sell the house, refusing to renew it again as he had twice before. Yet, in our spirits the final kick in the pants came when our kids blew off some fireworks on July 4th, causing the family dog to take off in terror and run the three blocks to the major highway, where Bubba met with is final destiny: a Mack Truck! The strange part of that finale was that Robin and I heard separately about the dog’s demise, but the first thought that came to mind for each of us was identical: “It’s time to move now!”

Passing through the Weakness Threshold

Once the guidance is confirmed via a Spirit-directed push-pull process, then often comes a test. In the example above, the test came when I discovered that literally everyone in our six-person household had their own ideas of where we should move to in the greater Seattle area. The suggestions came flooding in to me—each with a salesperson’s push behind them: “Dad, you’ve just GOT to get this house (even if it’s over your budget)!”. . . “Dad, why not get this place (even if it’s not close to your business hub)!” etc. Finally, at the point of total exasperation, I gave up! Sitting at my home-office desk I passed through what I have come to term, “the weakness threshold.” I ceased striving and came to the place of quiet before the Lord, resigned to His will even before I received it fully. In the stillness, after awhile I heard this word: “The answer will come through Crystal.”

Now, Crystal is the most vociferous of our five children. We alternately call her “Spark Plug,” “Dynamite,” and “The Politicker!” She had already presented to me a half-dozen outrageous ideas of housing for us in the greater Seattle area. I did not wish to hear one more thing from her! In fact, it was because of her that I had closed my office door! But, after I had sat there for a few minutes in the silence pondering this incongruous “guidance,” Crystal quietly tapped on the door, walked in, and with an uncharacteristically soft voice, simply said, “Dad, here’s our new house.” Laying down a newspaper ad on my desk in front of me, she quietly left the room. 

Crystal had found the perfect house for us. It fit us in every way—including ways we were not fully to discover until we actually lived in it for the year and a half while we located our future home in Auburn. Why, the place wasn’t even set up for a dog!

Once again, we had discovered God’s push-pull method of guidance, passing through the weakness threshold into God’s perfect provision for our lives:

“The question is not therefore, ‘Are our needs small or great?’
or, ‘Are they known or unknown?’
but simply this, ‘Are we in the will of God?’ 
Our faith may be tested, and our patience, too,
but if we are willing to leave things in God’s hands and quietly wait for Him,
then we shall not fail to see a careful timing of events
and an exquisite dove tailing of circumstances,
and emerging from a meaningless maze,
we shall behold a perfect correspondence between our need and the supply.”
                                                                                                                                 
– Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Church Life
International Students Press, 1962, page 110 

Pullin’ (and sometimes pushin’) for you,

Ken

 

 LFS - July 14th, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

THE FIRST HOUR
“Todd Bentley’s Tatooed, Body-Pierced, Sometimes-Violent Brand of ‘Healing Revival’ Currently Going on in Lakeland, Florida — Is it for Real, a Hoax or a Wierd Mixture?” Hear the Interview that is sweeping the globe on the Internet media — featuring Ken Talbott guest hosting “Live From Seattle” on AM820 KGNW. Ken and Robin’s guests are Rob Ricciardelli, TheWalkShow.com’s investigative reporter, who had just returned from Lakeland; Dr. Stephen Crosby, author of “Revising Revival,” “Silent Killers of Faith: Overcoming Legalism and Performance Based Religion” and “Wealth Transfer and Marketplace Ministry”; and Pastor Doug Bursch, frequent guest- or co-host on The Walk Show.

THE SECOND HOUR
“The Radio Talk Show of the Future” — The second hour of our July 14th “Live From Seattle” audition takes a penetrating look at the need for a whole new genre of radio talk shows for AM/FM radio and the worldwide web. It’s one where, instead of featuring the host’s slick monologues and sterile, “question-and-answer interviews,” we attempt to feature a “slice of life” by putting microphones in the midst of a team—a microcosm, as it were, of the body of Christ living life together, laughing, interrupting, arguing, making up, and generally expressing Christ’s strength through our weaknesses. Listen as Ken & Robin and The Walk Show family explore what that new paradigm might look like in Christian broadcasting. Their guests are Dr. Stephen Crosby, author of “Revising Revival,” “Silent Killers of Faith: Overcoming Legalism and Performance Based Religion,” and “Wealth Transfer and Marketplace Ministry”; and Pastor Doug Bursch, frequent guest- or co-host on The Walk Show.

Sometimes when I read an article or book I have something jump out at me that the Holy Spirit illumines. It is an epiphany-a spiritual flash that changes something in my thinking that will eventually change something in my lifestyle and ministry. It may be something small, or something that the author did not emphasize at all . . . perhaps only a phrase or clause. I have read whole books for which I am deeply grateful for that one small deposit upon which I can build my life in Jesus Christ. I remember one book-I believe it was “The New Man for Our Time” by D. Elton Trueblood.” The only thing I remember from that book is an aside Elton threw into one of his paragraphs. It read something like this: “As I look out the window of my writing cabin in the mountains . . . ” Bam! That hit my spirit in a forceful way, depositing a seed in the soil of my consciousness that helped me focus in on my desire to write a book someday in a “writing cabin in the mountains.” Do you know what? Some thirty years later that seed germinated, and I found myself writing a book in a writing cabin in the mountains! I’m not certain the book would have materialized had I not been instructed by the epiphany of thirty years earlier.

After years of close contact with The Walk Show audience in these wellness and financial areas, I have come to the conclusion that the resistance to healthy change is at the core a spiritual phenomenon. As any departure from God’s created order is empowered, progressive, addictive and leads to death–it never remains static–the deliverance your heart desires in these realms can only be attained through divinely powerful weapons. Accordingly, TheWalkShow.com team and I are praying for you that you will see that TheWalkShow.com team is not just “doing business”; they are pouring themselves out for you in prayer and service, so that we might all help one another “set the captives free.” To connect with the team, call 1-877-WALK SHOW [1-877-925-5746] any time and we’ll face with you any spiritual obstacles you are encountering to your being set free financially and/or physically. Further, we are willing to stay late at any Walk Show workshop or seminar. We call it “inter-cellular communication,” which we would hope promotes the development of healthy cells in the body of Christ, our physical bodies and our finances!