In His Chambers: A Ninety-One Day Devotional Experience for Lawyers

By Eric Mounts

Lawyers have souls, and God is pursuing us. In His Chambers is a ninety-one-day devotional reading experience for lawyers. The potential influence of an attorney is great. This book aims to prod lawyers forward to a competent life of helpful influence. The Word of God forms the foundation of each reading, which reflects upon the life of a lawyer, both personal and professional. With stories from life in the law, In His Chambers will probe heart, mind, motive, and hope. This book invites the lawyer to ponder work, life, legacy, and the adventure of knowing God through Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512767773

Eric Mounts

Eric Mounts graduated from Cedarville College (BA) and Dallas Theological Seminary with a ThM. In the midst of thirty years of pastoral ministry in the Midwest, he finished his DMin degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He and his wife Andi have three grown and married children with one granddaughter. Eric’s life was indelibly marked by a remarkable relationship he shared with his father. Eric is pictured with his father in the Wallace-Mounts Cemetery in Majestic, Kentucky. They stand next to Jack’s great grandparents’ gravestones, Andrew Jackson I and Lou Vicy Mounts.

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Copyright © 2017 Eric Mounts.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-6778-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-6779-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-6777-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016920134

WestBow Press rev. date: 1/12/2017

Contents

Foreword by Michael P. Schutt

Introduction

Day 1 In His Chambers

Day 2 All Rise!

Day 3 Access to His Chambers

Day 4 May It Please the Court

Day 5 The Rap Sheet

Day 6 The Honor Is All Ours

Day 7 Impeaching Our Witness

Day 8 But the Glove Does Fit!

Day 9 Legal Fiction

Day 10 Pressure Cooker

Day 11 Be a Counselor

Day 12 A Besetting Habit

Day 13 Candle Burning at Both Ends

Day 14 Smileage

Day 15 Objection! Nonresponsive

Day 16 A Good Name

Day 17 Good FriDay and Capital Punishment

Day 18 Conviction

Day 19 Contempt!

Day 20 Weary Bones

Day 21 The Pressure Is On!

Day 22 Peace at Work

Day 23 What We Learn in Our First Kindergarten Recess

Day 24 Powerful Kindness

Day 25 The Advocate

Day 26 Brief Life

Day 27 Lovable Lawyers

Day 28 The Sum of Our Fears

Day 29 The Devil’s Partner

Day 30 Crying over Spilled Pop

Day 31 The Entourage

Day 32 The Handshake

Day 33 Completely Satisfied!

Day 34 Above the Law

Day 35 The Tool of Life

Day 36 A Good Lawyer

Day 37 Low Anxiety

Day 38 A Federal Case

Day 39 Cook the Books

Day 40 Fitly Chosen Words

Day 41 Our Debt to Each Other

Day 42 Do You Have a Good Lawyer?

Day 43 Throw the Book at Them

Day 44 An Audible in the Midst of a Heavyweight Deposition

Day 45 Control Freak Detox

Day 46 A Directed Verdict

Day 47 Practice Makes Perfect

Day 48 On Being a Witness

Day 49 Moot Life?

Day 50 Elementary School

Day 51 All the Write Stuff

Day 52 Staking a Claim

Day 53 Handwriting on the Wall

Day 54 Questions and Answers

Day 55 Kill All the Lawyers

Day 56 The Oldest Lie

Day 57 A Security Detail

Day 58 Friend of the Court

Day 59 Shared Spoils

Day 60 Appealing to the Judge

Day 61 How Life Works

Day 62 Skillful Living

Day 63 Inexorably Together

Day 64 Leaving a Pleasant Aroma

Day 65 Esquire: Not Our Most Important Title

Day 66 Stewarding Our Body

Day 67 Restitution

Day 68 A Featherweight

Day 69 Just Oversight

Day 70 Generosity as the Path to Blessing

Day 71 Silent before His Presenters

Day 72 Race and Diversity

Day 73 You’ve Gotta Believe, Marv!

Day 74 Relational Credentials

Day 75 Here I Stand!

Day 76 Thinking Legacy

Day 77 Misplaced Love

Day 78 In Recess

Day 79 Motive: Why We Do What We Do

Day 80 This Is My Body

Day 81 The Law of God

Day 82 The Jury Eventually Comes Back

Day 83 Clearing the Room

Day 84 Falling Down and Getting Up

Day 85 Two Occupational Hazards

Day 86 Taking the Long View

Day 87 Crunching the Numbers

Day 88 Something Is Wrong

Day 89 Man Knows Not His Time

Day 90 A Brother, a Friend, and an Advocate

Day 91 Keep Going!

For the men and women of Sidebar, our initiative to encourage legal professionals in Charleston, West Virginia. You taught me more about the glory of a lawyer’s influence, as I sought to teach you the glory of giving your life away to history’s most influential advocate, Jesus Christ.

Foreword by Michael P. Schutt¹

It’s not easy to love lawyers. We are analytical by training and often critical. We cross-examine people—even people we like. We’re too busy, or we pretend that we are. We’re skeptical and sometimes even cynical, if the skepticism has gone too deep. That makes us tough to love. So it is really fun to meet someone who loves lawyers.

When I met Eric Mounts, he was searching for ways to better love the lawyers in his congregation and in his city. He wanted to give them meat for nourishment and maps with which to navigate the rough waters of the profession. He relished his work with this difficult people group, and he wanted a bigger toolbox of his own from which to minister to the lawyers he was trying to serve.

It made me wish every city had an Eric Mounts.

This little book is both the fruit of Eric’s ministry to us and, at the same time, a gift to help shape us as disciples in the legal profession. I encourage you to enjoy it and apply it as you seek to follow Christ in the midst of the challenges of the law office, the bench, or the legal academy.

We need encouragement and instruction from those outside the profession, such as Eric, who can see the excesses and blind spots we have acquired by training and practice. We should desire that someone call us on our cynicism and our materialism, our pride and our fear, our pragmatism and our skepticism. That’s what good pastors do, and that is what Eric does, very gently, in these pages.

I think you will be challenged by his central theme: approach the bench and meet with the Great Judge. From the first page to the last, Eric challenges us to press in to intimacy with our Creator and Redeemer. Let this word soak in. Don’t resist it. If you are tempted to think that it is too simplistic, resist. The key to discipleship is learning from the Master.

These devotions are filled with stories from the law and law practice, and Eric has written them with a mind toward the specific barriers he has seen in the lawyer’s heart.

So take the time to walk leisurely through these stories, to reflect on the barriers in your own heart, and to apply the simple truths that can change your life and law practice.

Take this book for what it is—a gift to our profession from someone who really loves lawyers.

Introduction

Through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

I love the law and love to encourage those who practice it. That is why I wrote this book. In the last thirty years of pastoral ministry, I have had the privilege of being next to a lot of great folks, but none quite as intriguing to me as those practicing law. Attorneys sit in chairs of enormous potential influence. The impetus behind this book is to leverage that influence for Christ’s sake at home, at church, and in the marketplace.

I value the law for several reasons. First, pragmatically, it promotes justice, order, and civil society. It is a means to a great end. Second, the law is a discipline in pursuit of the truth, and the truth promotes freedom (John 8:32). I love the resolve of those sticking to what the law says. A quote attributed to Sir Thomas More, in Robert Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons, typifies such resolve as I appreciate. He speaks to his future son-in-law, William Roper, about standing up to Henry VIII: Whoever hunts for me, Roper, God or Devil, will find me hiding in the thickets of the law!²

Finally, the law perfectly kept (what is right: righteousness) typifies the Bible’s vision of the consummation of the ages at the return of Jesus Christ (Psalm 85:10, Isaiah 32:17). I join Chief Justice William Howard Taft in both affections and anticipations: I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals that typify on earth what we shall meet thereafter in heaven under a just God.³

I also love the Bible and its instructions for living, indeed, a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105). These three loves, the law, the lawyer, and the Bible, come together in this volume. I write to encourage the lawyer with an invitation to experience God through his Word.

There are ninety-one readings in this volume. That is enough to establish a new habit of reflecting upon God’s Word over a quarter-of-a-year. Each reading begins with a title designed to capture the theme of one passage of scripture and challenge for life. The body of each reading then reflects upon the text of the Bible passage. Each reading finally closes with a section entitled, Action Plan. This brief section prompts the reader to respond to the experience of sharing God’s company and listening to his Word by applying it to life.

The book title stems from an image of meeting with God in his office. We come to God on his terms, not our own. But here we find one most gracious and interested in our highest good and our flourishing. Enjoy the journey through these ninety-one readings. Read, think, talk, and share God’s company. In Christ, he reached for us all, and invited us to a life and a hope we could not share apart from him.

DAY 1

In His Chambers

Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. (Exodus 33:11)

Have you ever been intimidated by someone? President Nixon’s aide, Chuck Colson, maintained that everyone’s spit dried up when they hit the plush carpet of the Oval Office. He declared that only labor union leaders could remember what they wanted to say. But what about meeting with the God of the Bible—one on one?

The Latin phrase in camera (in chambers) refers to legal proceedings held away from the public and the press. It can be a more intimate arrangement that may even take place in the judge’s chambers or in a closed courtroom, where only the judge, attorneys, a recorder, and a select few are present. The judge can even relax more formal etiquette during an in camera proceeding. He or she oversees the conversation and the action. The intriguing term disambiguation (to make clear) is associated with the concept of in camera. Nothing takes the ambiguity out of life like meeting in private with God—the perfect and righteous judge. We are going to explore together such encounters in this book.

Exodus 19 chronicles a meeting, facilitated by Moses, between the children of Israel and God. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain (Exodus 19:17). The call of Moses at the burning bush inexorably led to his mission of introducing God and the law of God (the expression of God’s character and holiness) to the people of God. The dramatic encounter at Mount Sinai had all the special effects of a sound and light production—clouds of smoke erupted, thunder rumbled, lightning zigzagged across the sky, and the earth trembled. Moses was face to face with the God of the universe! The people were terrified as they identified the locus of real authority and the ground of their own existence. Ambiguity fades as understanding and clarity break out in person-to-person meetings. Through these devotionals, let me help you meet God in his chambers. Bring in your hopes and dreams and deepest heartaches and fears. There is nothing like knowing God as a continual and personal presence in your life. Discover what it is to join God in his chambers.

Action Plan: Schedule specific times to meet with God in private. Shut the door on the clamor outside and be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10). Over the next ninety-one days, let us cultivate time with him. As we do, you will learn how to speak to him as Moses did, as if speaking to your dearest friend. He will go heart to heart with you as you spend time together in his chambers.

DAY 2

All Rise!

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is right? (Genesis 18:25)

Our titles are a measure of what we recognize in others. They can betray or celebrate what we think of them. The court desires that the judge be addressed as Your Honor. Embedded in that title is the recognition of what is due the person seated on the bench. Similarly, consider that the judges of the U.S. Supreme Court are referred to as justices (e.g., Justice Sonia Sotomayor). Their very title suggests that their actions are just—indeed, that their actions are consistent with supreme justice in the federal court system.

Genesis 18 finds Abraham in an earnest discussion with the Living God, who is on the cusp of levying judgment. The people were taking disadvantage of each other in a multitude of ways, including sexually. God was moving to judge the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. But Abraham was concerned for his nephew Lot, who had chosen to live in the community of Sodom. Any sense of community in Sodom had been ravaged by the indulgent choices of its inhabitants. Abraham, with growing experience in discourse with God, now plies his best arguments and shapes the conversation with