JANUARY, 2009
REFLECTION
This seems like a great time of year to
revisit the account of the Magi in
Scripture and draw some conclusions
for the UP Team. First, let’s
prayerfully reflect on the Word of
God in Matthew, Chapter 2: “After
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea,
during the time of King Herod, Magi
from the east came to Jerusalem and
asked, ‘Where is the one who has been
born King of the Jews? We saw his
star in the east and have come to
worship him.’ When King Herod
heard this he was disturbed, and all
Jerusalem with him. When he had
called together all the people’s chief
priests and teachers of the law, he
asked them where the Christ was to be
born. ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they
replied, ‘for this is what the prophet
has written: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in
the land of Judah, are by no means
least among the rulers of Judah; for
out of you will come a ruler who will be
the shepherd of my people Israel.’
Then Herod called the Magi secretly
and found out from them the exact time
the star had appeared. He sent them to
Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and make a
careful search for the child. As soon as
you find him, report to me, so that I too
may go and worship him.’ After they
had heard the king, they went on their
way, and the star they had seen in the
east went ahead of them until it stopped
over the place where the child was.
When they saw the star, they were
overjoyed. On coming to the house,
they saw the child with his mother
Mary, and they bowed down and
worshiped him. Then they opened their
treasures and presented him with gifts
of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream
not to go back to Herod, they returned
to their country by another route.”
Let’s draw some spiritual treasure
from this account. I have several
thoughts; I encourage you to allow the
Holy Spirit to speak to you directly
and give you other insights. 1) It was
three pagans from the east who
recognized the importance of the star,
heralding the coming of a great king,
the King of the Jews. Perhaps, as
educated men, they knew the Jewish
prophecies about the coming of a
Messiah, and the Holy Spirit touched
them with an insight that the time had
indeed come. Though they were not
Jews, they wanted to celebrate the
arrival of the Jewish Messiah – and I
suspect that they were astounded that
they were the only ones who knew!
God indeed works in mysterious ways
and touches hearts of all people of all
faiths – a statement that really makes
religious people uneasy and puts them
quickly in a state of denial. 2) Once
they recognized the importance of the
star, the Magi left their native land –
perhaps Persia – and followed the star
with a sense of purpose and
determination. In doing this, these
pagan wise men are actually role
models of what we as Christians
should be and do: Listen to the Holy
Spirit, follow His guidance, fix our
eyes and faith on Jesus and worship
Him as loyal servants. 3) The Holy
Spirit continued to be with them when
they sought out King Herod. He told
them to be sure and tell him where the
newborn King was, so that he, too,
could go and worship. But Herod’s
heart was evil; he wanted no usurper
to his throne, and he determined to
kill the Babe. 4) The Magi followed
the star to its destination, a fixed place
above the temporary dwelling of
Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus.
The Scriptural account deliberately
uses the word “place,” or “house” in
some translations, so the visit of the
Magi was most likely not to the
stable/cave, but to a home that the
Holy Family was using for awhile
until Mary was ready to make the trip
back to Nazareth. The Magi were
probably also astounded that a King
would be born and live in such
humble and poor circumstances and
surroundings, but they accepted it as
part of a divine plan. Clearly, though
they were undoubtedly wealthy and
respected leaders or ancient scientists,
they had humble hearts and did not
believe or demand that royalty be
surrounded with pomp and
circumstance. (Why cannot all
Christians today recognize this
pattern of simplicity and a non-
focus on material wealth
that God began with
Jesus and that carried on
throughout Jesus’ life?)
5) And now we come to the essence of
the visit of the Magi: The
presentation of gifts. There have been
many interpretations of the meaning
of the three gifts over the centuries,
and there are indeed many beautiful
symbols that the gifts represent. With
my passion for prayer and the UP
Team, please humor me and permit
me to give a spiritual interpretation
based on the meaning of prayer. One
gift was gold, symbolic and
representative from very ancient times
of wealth. From the perspective of
prayer, when we give “gold” to the
Lord, we are worshiping, adoring,
magnifying and glorifying God the
Father, God the Son and God the
Holy Spirit. This also includes another
key prayer element: Thanksgiving to
God for our many blessings (and we
all have many, regardless of what we
may be going through.) By the way,
as an interesting footnote on gold, are
you aware that, with all the
importance placed on gold in
thousands of nations and societies
stretching back to antiquity, all of the
gold mined from planet earth over
these thousands of years is only
161,000 tons, enough just to fill two
Olympic-size swimming pools! Gold
is thus relatively rare – and, sadly, so
are ongoing praise, worship and
adoration of God as integral elements
of daily prayer. Another gift was
frankincense, a precious type of
incense. Incense in the Bible almost
always symbolizes prayer (read the
Book of Revelation!), and so, for our
purposes, the frankincense represents
intercession, another key element of
genuine prayer. In last month’s
Newsletter, I wrote about “intensified
prayer as a way of life.” The true
Christian is passionate about
interceding for others – not just family
and friends, but the lost, the suffering,
the persecuted, our nation and all
nations, the dying – and on and on.
The third gift was myrrh, an
expensive ointment normally used in
preparation for burial. For me, the
myrrh represents the other integral
aspect of comprehensive prayer:
Repentance. We all have much to
repent for, every day of our lives.
Every time I focus on myself and lose
focus on God I have a need to repent.
Sin is, after all, the choosing of myself
– my desires, my esteem, me and me
and me instead of totally surrendering
joyfully to the will of God. So, there
we have it: Gold is a gift we can give
by our praise and adoration and
thanksgiving; frankincense is a gift we
can give by our impassioned
intercession for others and for the
world; and myrrh is a gift we can give
by having a genuine spirit of
repentance in our prayer life. It is
really something glorious and a true
privilege – to be able to pray, and to
make prayer, communion with God
(which includes listening to Him) the
most important element of daily life,
and to indeed make prayer
comprehensive in all of life – to “pray
without ceasing.”
AN OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY
The visit of the Magi – the event we
call the Epiphany – was not something
unheard of or unthought-of of, as
remarkable as it was. Listen to
portions of Chapter 60 of the Book of
Isaiah: “Rise up in splendor, O
Jerusalem! Your light has come, the
glory of the Lord shines upon you. See,
darkness covers the earth, and thick
clouds cover the peoples; but upon you
the Lord shines, and over you appears
his glory. Nations shall walk by your
light, and kings by your shining
radiance. Raise your eyes and look
about; they all gather and come to you.
Your sons come from afar, and your
daughters in the arms of their nurses.
Then you shall be radiant at what you
see, your heart shall throb and
overflow, for the riches of the sea shall
be emptied out before you, the wealth
of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come bearing gold
and frankincense, and proclaiming the
praises of the Lord…No longer shall
the sun be your light by day, nor the
brightness of the moon shine upon you
at night; the Lord shall be your light
forever, your God shall be your glory…
The Lord will be your light forever, and
the days of your mourning shall be at
an end…The smallest shall become a
thousand, the youngest, a mighty
nation; I, the Lord, will swiftly
accomplish these things when their
time comes.”
EPIPHANY HYMN
The music from the following hymn
was composed in the 18th century and
modified in the 19th; the words are
from the 19th century: “As with
gladness men of old did the guiding
star behold, as with joy they hailed its
light, leading onwards, beaming
bright, so, most gracious God, may we
evermore be led to thee. As with
joyful steps they sped to that lowly
manger-bed, there to bend the knee
before Him whom
heaven and earth
adore, so may we with
willing feet ever seek thy mercy-seat.
As they offered gifts most rare at that
manger rude and bare, so may we
with holy joy, pure, and free from
sin’s alloy, all our costliest treasures
bring, Christ, to thee our heavenly
king. Holy Jesus, every day keep us in
the narrow way; and, when earthly
things are past, bring our ransomed
souls at last where they need no star to
guide, where no clouds thy glory hide.
In the heavenly country bright, need
they no created light; thou its light, its
joy, its crown, thou its sun which goes
not down; there forever may we sing,
Alleluias to our king.”
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
The Magi were carefully unwrapping
their precious gifts for the King of the
Jews, when two of them suddenly stopped
and looked unbelievingly at the third.
They shook their heads and shouted, “No,
no, no! We agreed you would bring
frankincense, not Frankenstein!”…Three
donkeys were traveling side by side, and
each had a bumper sticker on it’s behind.
One said, “Our son is in medical school.”
Another said, “Our son is on the honor
role.” The third said, “Our Son is
God!”…The Magi had presented their
gifts and departed. Joseph looked at
Mary and said, “I didn’t know you had
these things on the registry at Target and
Wal-Mart!”…Three camels were on the
caravan trail in the desert from Persia to
the Land of Israel. They were discussing
their life and generally agreeing that they
had it pretty good; nothing but the best
for them from their wealthy masters.
But they were a little embarrassed as
camels passed them going the other way
and snickered. Why are they laughing at
us, asked one of the three camels?
“Because,” one of the other ones
responded, “we are professional camels
and know the way from place to place – it
is our job, after all. But our masters just
keep staring at the sky instead of the
road. They look kind of weird, you
know.”
MORE ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
Since Christmas has just recently passed
(and, of course, it is always Christmas in
spirit!), here is a story written by a lady.
She entitled it simply, “My Christmas
Story.” “My husband and I had been
happily married (most of the time) for
five years but hadn’t been blessed with a
baby. I decided to do some serious
praying and promised God that if he
would give us a child I would be a perfect
mother, loving it with all my heart and
raising it with His Word as my guide.
God answered my prayers and blessed us
with a son. The next year God blessed us
with another son. The following year, He
blessed us with yet another son. The year
after that, we were blessed with a
daughter. My husband thought we’d
been blessed right into poverty. We now
had four children, and the oldest was only
four years old. I learned never to ask
God for anything unless I meant it. I was
off to a good start. God had entrusted me
with four children and I didn’t want to
disappoint Him. I tried to be patient the
day the children smashed two dozen eggs
on the kitchen floor, searching for baby
chicks. I tried to be understanding when
they started a hotel for homeless frogs in
the spare bedroom, though it took me
nearly two hours to catch all 23 frogs.
When my daughter poured ketchup all
over her and rolled up in a blanket to see
how it felt to be a hot dog, I tried to see
the humor rather than the mess. In spite
of changing over 25,000 diapers and
rarely sleeping for more than 30 minutes
at a time, I still thank God daily for my
children. I knew I was missing the mark
just a little when I told my daughter we
were going to church to worship God, and
she wanted to bring a bar of soap along to
‘wash up’ Jesus, too. Something was lost
in the translation when I explained that
God gave us everlasting life, and my son
thought it was generous of God to give us
his ‘last wife.’ My proudest moment
came during the children’s Christmas
pageant. My daughter was playing Mary,
two of my sons were shepherds, and my
youngest son was a wise man. This was
their moment to shine. My five-year-old
shepherd had practiced his line, ‘We
found the babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes.’ But he was nervous and said,
‘The baby was wrapped in wrinkled
clothes.’ My four-year-old ‘Mary’ said,
‘That’s not wrinkled clothes, silly. That’s
dirty, rotten clothes.’ A wrestling match
broke out between Mary and the
shepherd and was stopped by an angel,
who bent her halo and lost her left wing.
I slouched down a little lower in my seat
when Mary dropped the doll representing
Baby Jesus, and it bounced down the aisle
crying, ‘Mama-mama!’ Mary grabbed
the doll, wrapped it back up and held it
tightly as the wise men arrived. My other
son stepped forward wearing a bathrobe
and a paper crown, knelt at the manger
and announced, ‘We are the three wise
men, and we are bringing gifts of gold,
common sense, and fur.’ The
congregations dissolved into laughter, and
the pageant got a standing ovation. ‘I’ve
never enjoyed a Christmas program as
much as this one,’ laughed the pastor,
wiping tears from his eyes. ‘For the rest
of my life, I’ll never hear the Christmas
story without thinking of gold, common
sense, and fur.’ ‘My children are my
pride and my joy and my greatest
blessing,’ I said as I dug through my
purse for an aspirin.”
TORCHBEARER FOUNDATION
Dr. Martin Niboh and I
have had some
conversations about
the UP Team and
intercessors in
Cameroon, Africa joining
forces as partners and praying
regularly for one another. I am sure
there will be more on this later.
Following is a portion of the end-of-
the-year report, written by Dr. Niboh:
“Will Islam, Christianity, socialism,
capitalism, African traditional
religions, or some other worldview
determine the future of Africa? I
believe that Torchbearer Foundation
will succeed in determining the
answer to be…Christianity! Why do I
believe this? First, Torchbearer
Foundation is unique, because it seeks
to glorify God by building a
grassroots movement of men, women
and children, who have God’s law
written on their hearts. The glory of
God is manifested in great measure
when Africa is great; Africa is great
when Africa is good; Africa is good
when Africans experience the
transforming power of the gospel of
Jesus Christ to change lives and
culture for good!…Torchbearer
Foundation was established to build a
grassroots movement of people who
have a long-term commitment to the
future of Africa. Far too long the
people at the grassroots have been
ignored or taken advantage of by
business, ecclesiastical and political
leaders…Secondly, TBF is unique
because it sees the community as an
integrated system, an organism, not as
a collection of isolated individuals, nor
a collection of isolated systems.
Diverse thinkers have noted that a
society is governed by at least three
interrelated systems: the political
system, the economic system, and the
moral-cultural system. The moral-
cultural system is the collection of
ideas, beliefs, values and attitudes of a
society…TBF is unique in its holistic
approach to development – an
approach that is both Bible-based,
Christ-centered, Holy Spirit
empowered, and comprehensive in its
scope!” Spiritual transformation in
our regions, spiritual transformation
in Cameroon; spiritual
transformation in America, spiritual
transformation in Africa; let’s pray
for one another.
PRAYER MOBILIZATION
Please pray for: The Torchbearer
Foundation…all UP sectors, which
represent the essence of our
communities…Teresa, salvation…
Chance, emotional health…Mr. B.,
cancer…Catherine Evers and all her
intentions…Glen’s brother-in-law,
cancer…a lady with lung cancer…
Jim, health…Tim, health and a huge
medical bill…International Renewal
Ministries…all suffering from the
economic downturn, here and
throughout the nation…all the
starving and those who are ill and
have no adequate health care,
especially children…the Freedom of
Choice Act, that it not pass and that
the sanctity of life be upheld nation…
President Bush and Laura, and all his
staff and cabinet, for direction in their
lives…all military everywhere…all
churches and ministries, in our areas
and everywhere, and for unity in the
Body of Christ…all other intentions,
spoken and unspoken.
CLOSING THOUGHTS AND
APPEAL
We are now in a new year, 2009. In
May we will have the seventh
anniversary of the Uninterrupted
Prayer Team. God has blessed us,
and I believe that our commitment to
prayer is highly pleasing to Him and is
having a very positive impact on the
people of our regions, even though we
may not always see it. The goal all
along has been to have every hour of
every day of every week of every
month filled with at least one
committed intercessor and ideally
with several in each slot. May I please
recommend a couple of UP-related
“new year resolutions?” 1)
Reevaluate your commitment, and
renew your commitment to your hour
or hours. If you are unable or
unwilling to continue with that
commitment, please let me know; but
ideally this is the time to renew
commitments. 2) See yourself as an
active recruiter – the most influential
of all recruiters; by sharing with other
people who believe in prayer your
passion for the UP Team and the
blessings you have received, the
membership will grow exponentially.
We simply must not look to others to
do this. 3) If you receive this
newsletter and are not an UP member,
please seriously consider committing
to an hour. It will mean a lot to
others, but also to you, as committed
extended prayer unleashes God’s
blessings in marvelous ways.
Remember, the Star we follow is the Light
of the World. The Baby we see is now the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When
we pray with gold – worship, praise,
thanksgiving – and with frankincense –
intercession for the world as members of
the Body of Christ – and with myrrh – a
spirit of repentance and dependence upon
God, we are spiritually joined with
Christians everywhere, and our prayer
becomes immensely powerful and
pleasing to God. And that is what the UP
Team, and prayer overall, are all about.
God bless you all. Thank you for your
love and prayers. I welcome your
insights, stories and testimonies to
include in future issues of the UP
Newsletter. My e-mail is
bburt98@aol.com; my cell phone is
(417) 331-1028; my address is 1582
Talking Rocks Road, Branson West,
MO 65737. Peace to you and yours!
Bob Burton