FOCUS Day Thirty-Seven | Psalm 27:1-8
DAY THIRTY-SEVEN | Psalm 27:1-8
The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked came against me To eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, They stumbled and fell.
Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident.
One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.
For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
When I think about what it means to fix my eyes on Jesus, and focus the whole of my being on who He is, I find myself thinking about Psalm 27. It is a part of my spiritual inheritance passed on to me by an amazing mentor that has become a crucial part of my own journey. My mentor’s name was Jim Erb, and I am so thankful that the Holy Spirit brought him and his wife into our lives.
As I thought and prayed about how to communicate my heart on this important Scripture, I decided that I would share a short excerpt from one of the final chapters of Culture of the Few that focuses on Psalm 27:4. This story details some of the best advice that I have ever received and speaks to the importance of intentionally seeking the face of God as a part of living a One Thing lifestyle. It is my prayer that these words would fuel your heart to hunger for a deeper relationship with Jesus all the days of your life.
It’s All About Jesus
Shortly after moving to Western Pennsylvania in 2002, I was introduced to Jim and Jan Erb. They had been pioneers in the Jesus movement back in the 70’s and had provided ministry oversight to many leaders around our region. While I was more than happy to meet them, I had no way of knowing that Jim and Jan would become mentors and spiritual parents for my wife and me.
I have learned many things from this wonderful couple, but it was a lesson that I learned back in those early years of our relationship that has made the biggest impact in my life. Jim had already been in ministry for nearly fifty years when I met him, and his resumé’ included pastoring small rural churches, being a missionary to the Philippines, pioneering new church plants, and overseeing an international network of ministries and missionaries through an organization he had founded to support other leaders. It seemed like everywhere I went throughout Western Pennsylvania or Eastern Ohio, I met someone who knew Jim Erb.
Shortly before I had met him, he had gone through what he describes as “the dark night of the soul.” He had been traveling a lot, speaking and teaching throughout the US and internationally. Because of the extensive travels, he had stepped away as the senior pastor from the church that he had led for two decades. This transition was difficult for Jim as he struggled to understand exactly what his purpose would be.
As Jim sat at his house, he wrestled with what was next for him in terms of his life and ministry. He and Jan had been on the go for decades, raising their children and giving their lives to following Jesus in ministering to others. Now that that season was ending, Jim did not have a clear sense of what was next. In the midst of this time he also developed some health issues that added to his wonderings.
In the midst of this uncertainty, God met Jim in his favorite chair as he would cry out and wait on the Lord. It was not a short wait, but over time Jim began to sense that his greatest ministry was before him. But for a man who had led Jesus festivals that drew tens of thousands of young hippies to a rural Pennsylvanian farm, what greater ministry could there be?
As Jim sat and waited, he began to gain understanding about just how precious the sitting and waiting was. Quite different from his life on the go, now he would sit alone with the Lord for hours at a time. He would often awaken in the middle of the night to go worship and spend time with God. As he would sit in his chair or pace back and forth in his living room, Psalm 27:4 became the cry of his heart.
One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.
As Jim began to build his life around living for this One Thing, he became newly aware that his greatest ministry on this earth would be unto the Lord Himself. It is not that Jim stopped ministering to people, but he did begin to prioritize spending time with the Father above all else. He likes to say that during this time, he resigned his position as “governor of the universe” and gave control back to God. As he did this, Jim found that he was consistently being drawn into greater depths of intimacy with Jesus and new levels of co-operation with the Holy Spirit. In this way, as Jim’s focus shifted to ministering more to the Lord, he became more effective in ministry to people.
This is when I met Jim. I was in my late twenties and had just started “my own ministry.” I was full of vision and ambition to change the world. While Jim encouraged my passion, as our relationship grew, he consistently, lovingly sowed into me an important lesson that has so impacted my life:
“It’s all about Jesus now,” he would say. “It’s not about your ministry or what you can accomplish for Him.”
Of course, this sounded like one of those things that an older person is supposed to say when speaking to someone who is young and full of ambition. The first few times that he said it, I think I subconsciously dismissed the instruction. But the more that I got to know him, the more I heard the conviction in his voice. Jim went through all of his stories and shared with me the good things that he had seen God do throughout his life. But then he went on to say that the older he got, the more he realized that more than the accomplishments, more than all of the messages or miracles, that this life was all about Jesus.
I found this quite offensive to my “world-changer” mindset. Of course it’s all about Jesus, but it must also be about how I can make a difference. As Jim repeated this truth to me over and over again, my heart began to understand that even more than accomplishing my calling, reaching my potential, or fulfilling my destiny, the ultimate purpose of the Father in my life is actually to make me more like Jesus.
MY PRAYER FOR YOU – I pray that you would be liberated from any pressure that you have felt to live up to your potential or fulfill your destiny, as you see the high calling of God’s great plan for you to know Him and become like Jesus. (It’s all about Jesus now.) I pray that you would remember that it was God’s idea for you to seek His face, and that you would be confident that He wants to be found by you. And finally, I pray that you would have the courage to develop a One Thing cry from your own heart to God’s – daily longing to dwell with Him and behold His beauty.
A couple of years after Culture of the Few was released, Jim was promoted to heaven. He left a stunning and clear example for those of us who knew him of what it means to make seeking the face of God the priority in our lives.
Here is a prayer that I learned from Jim. It is one that he prayed with Jan each day.
Lord, make me hungrier for you today then I was yesterday. And when I wake up tomorrow, give me the courage to pray this prayer again.
