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    The Capsule
    The Capsule
    The Capsule
    Ebook110 pages1 hour

    The Capsule

    By Walter Hampel

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    About this ebook

    Christ calls His followers to encounter Him in prayer as if in an isolated inner room of your house. Over nineteen centuries later, manned Apollo spacecraft, orbiting the Moon became the ultimate "inner rooms" of human isolation. What can we learn today from this and other aspects of those missions of lunar exploration? 

     

    "The Capsule" explores six of these aspects to show how they can be applied to your daily devotional life.

     

    "The Capsule" is not itself a devotional. It is a companion guide which can help you think through how to be more intentional and focused in your devotional life. Its six recommendations can help you deepen your times of solitude in Christ. Additionally, these times of "re-set" for you can be of  benefit of others in a world of anxiety, distraction and never-ending online connectedness.

     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWalter Hampel
    Release dateOct 18, 2024
    ISBN9798227155726
    The Capsule
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    Author

    Walter Hampel

      Walter Hampel is a Christ follower of over forty years. He has taught Sunday School, Bible studies and college classes. He contributed to the Ashland Theological Journal and Evangelical Review of Theology. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Christian Theology from Ashland (Ohio) Theological Seminary. Married to the love of his life, Julie, they have two sons, a daughter-in-law and two delightful grandsons.

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      Book preview

      The Capsule - Walter Hampel

      Introduction

      When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.  Matthew 6:5-6 NASB

      In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States embarked on Project Apollo. It was created in response to President John Kennedy’s challenge to land men on the Moon and return them safely to Earth before the end of the decade of the 1960s. [1] By the end of 1969, two Apollo missions had successfully landed on the Moon and brought their crews safely back to Earth. Four other landing missions followed in 1971 and 1972.

      Each Apollo mission had a three-man crew. For the lunar-landing missions, several days after leaving Earth, two tandem spacecraft entered into an orbit around the Moon. Two of the astronauts would descend to the surface of the Moon in their Lunar Excursion Module. The third astronaut would remain in the mother ship (known as the Command Module). The third astronaut’s mission was to keep that spacecraft in lunar orbit until his fellow astronauts returned.

      What happened with the lone astronaut in the orbiting Apollo capsule has intrigued me. At the time of this writing, seven men in history have had the opportunity to experience isolation on a scale that can be hard for us to imagine. Their experience is the basis for a pattern and mindset that can be adapted as an approach to your devotional time with Christ.

      Each Apollo mission involved numerous Command Module orbits of the Moon. For about half of each orbit around the Moon (47 minutes on average for Apollo 11)[2] , the Apollo Command Module was behind the Moon in relation to Earth. When that happened, the Moon blocked any radio signals sent between the Command Module and Mission Control on Earth. Even the astronauts on the surface of the Moon would not be able to contact their fellow astronaut in the Command Module during that part of the orbit. The lone astronaut, during that time of the orbit on the far side of the Moon, was the most isolated human being in existence.

      As of the early 21st century, the holder of the Guinness World record for the most isolated human ever was Al Worden, the Command Module pilot on the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. The orbit of the Command Module put Worden at the furthest distance that one human has ever been from another. The two closest humans (his fellow astronauts on the surface of the Moon) were, at points, several thousand miles away from Worden. The rest of humanity was over 238,000 miles away back on Earth.

      Once the Command Module’s orbit took it from behind the Moon, the loss-of-signal ended and communication with Mission Control on Earth was restored. On every orbit, the Command Module pilot experienced what author Cal Newport refers to in his book Digital Minimalism as a "cycle of solitude and connection.[3]" I believe this cycle offers you a pattern for living your life in the presence of Christ for there are times when you not only should, but must, be away from others.

      Why do we do what we do?

      The Bible repeatedly shows us that our outward actions may be in conflict with our inner motivations. Proverbs 16:2 reminds us that "all the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the Lord weighs the motives."

      In His time on Earth, the Lord Jesus called out those whose inner motivations and outward actions did not line up. He called them hypocrites. In classical Greek theater, a hypocrite was an actor portraying a role. That actor pretended to be one person but was really someone else. This description fits many of the religious practitioners of first-century Israel.

      One example of this can be found in their prayer practices. What was intended to be a time of private prayer became a display of prayer performed in the midst of a crowd. Such a zealous person would ensure that they would be in a crowd during the time of prayer. Albert Barnes, in his commentary on Matthew 6, further explains the matter. Public prayer was not the issue.

      The Jews were much in the habit of praying in public places. At certain times of the day they always offered their prayers. Wherever they were, they suspended their employment and paid their devotions . . . It seems, also, that they [the hypocrites] sought publicity, and regarded it as proof of great piety. [4]

      The Inner Room

      The ultimate goal of public prayer for these hypocrites was to be seen by the crowd as a zealous follower of God. Yet, the Lord Jesus called for His followers to do the exact opposite. Rather than being seen by others, Christ’s followers were to offer their prayers privately, not for an open and public display. They were to be seen and heard by only one, namely God Himself. What was intended to be private communication with the Lord should be practiced in an inner room, away from the eyes and ears of all but God.

      The word which the New American Standard Bible translates as inner room is taken from the Greek ταμεῖόν (tameion). A tameion was the innermost room in a house in Israel during the time that Jesus walked the Earth in the first century.  It acted as a storeroom for grain, which is consistent in how this same Greek word is translated in Luke 12:24. It was also a windowless room which could also be considered a first-century equivalent of a modern-day panic room for protection from hostile intruders. 

      There is an interesting irony in the Lord Jesus’ pointing to the use of the innermost room of a house as a place for prayer. The innermost room of the House of God, the Jerusalem Temple, was the Holy of Holies. Access was granted to that room only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, and to only one man, the High Priest (see Leviticus 16). As I mentioned above, the inner room of a typical house in Israel of that time would act as a storeroom. It was the equivalent of a food pantry in homes today. Yet, a room intended for everyday use could serve as a type of Holy of Holies which would allow anyone in the house to have access to God. Such is the confidence we are granted by God to enter that inner room to meet with Christ.

      There are modern equivalents to the inner room of the first century that can serve as a type of Holy of Holies for you. Perhaps it is a nearby park. It might be an empty conference room at work or an empty classroom at school. Perhaps, it is inside our cars as we drive.  The 20th century pastor and author A.W. Tozer, in his early years in the faith, cleared out a corner of the basement of his family’s house in Akron, Ohio as a place to meet with Christ.[5] In fulfilling the Lord Jesus’ call and pattern to have times of prayer away from the eyes and ears of others, you must seek your own contemporary inner room to commune with the Lord.

      The Value of Solitude

      The Command Module (i.e., Capsule) example offers you a pattern to follow. It recognizes the value of solitude. As you will see, the value of that time away will benefit more than you. By adopting this pattern, you will learn to isolate yourself for the purpose of growing in your life in Christ.

      Such times of solitude can provide you with opportunities for prayer, the reading of Scripture, reflection, and a variety of other activities. It can be the opportunity to simply think through who God is calling you to be. Perhaps, it

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