Prayer is Ridiculous | The Responsible Puppet

I say it again, prayer is ridiculous.

What is prayer? Prayer – especially the supplication kind, requires the belief that
(1) You, a finite, short-lived, self-focused, fallible, mortal being with little knowledge,
(2) by uttering (or even just thinking!) some request out into the expanse of the universe
(3) somehow might be heard and comprehended
(4) by a more-knowing, less-imperfect and more-powerful Being (to whom you are directing the request), and that this
(5) may cause the Being to take some action that will

MORE:   Prayer is Ridiculous | The Responsible Puppet

9 Things You Should Know About Persecution of Christians in 2013 – The Gospel Coalition Blog

Christians are the single most widely persecuted religious group in the world today. As we pray for the persecuted church, here are nine things you should know about the plight of believers around the globe:

1. Christian churches around the world have set apart the month of November to remember and pray for the persecuted church, through the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP).

2. According to the U.S. Department of State, Christians in more than 60 countries face persecution from their governments or surrounding neighbors simply because of their belief in Christ.

9 Things You Should Know About Persecution of Christians in 2013 – The Gospel Coalition Blog

The Main Ingredient in Effective Prayer - Desiring God

It’s tragic how easily we can miss the main ingredient in effective prayer.
In our sin, we’ve been rewired to focus on us — on the steps we should take for our prayers to be heard. We have this bent toward believing that every result is born from method. If something works for somebody we want to know what that somebody is doing. MORE: The Main Ingredient in Effective Prayer - Desiring God

We still cry out to God when tragedy strikes: Column

When tragedies strike, deep and abiding religious convictions, shared by so many in our country, rise to the surface and reveal what was thought to be discarded.
Much has been written about the secularization of America, and in some ways that is the case. Pew Research found that one in five adults in our nation have no religious affiliation, a group identified as the "Nones."
Often times, research like this and other anecdotes about the waning influence of Christianity on the public square are presented as proof that America is no longer a religious nation. This supposedly demonstrates that we have left our religious traditions in history's dustbin. Then, a tragedy strikes. More -
We still cry out to God when tragedy strikes: Column

The Family | Challies Dot Com

s you know, I often post favorite Puritan prayers on Sundays. Here is one entitled “The Family.” It is drawn from The Valley of Vision. I think any Christian family member can pray this prayer with sincerity!
O Sovereign Lord,
Thou art the Creator-Father of all men, for thou hast made and dost support them;
Thou art the special Father of those who know, love and honour thee,
who find thy yoke easy, and thy burden light,
thy work honourable,
thy commandments glorious.
MORE: The Family | Challies Dot Com

Review of Jesus Calling - White Horse Inn Blog

As far back as you can recall, you’ve started or ended the day with a time of personal meditation on God’s Word and prayer. Only this time, you try something different. You want to hear Jesus speak to you personally. So you take out pen and paper and record the results. As she tells us in her introduction, this is what happened when Sarah Young sought a deeper sense of the presence of Jesus. The result is the daily devotional, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence (Thomas Nelson, 2004). The book has taken off since it was first published. It now includes a variety of supplements and has even been turned into a NKJV study Bible. MORE: Review of Jesus Calling - White Horse Inn Blog

Three ways to pray for missionaries | the Cripplegate

Missionaries need your prayers. Right now, there are people laboring for the Lord in difficult parts of the world, trying to advance their gospel. The outcome of their effort is connected to the work of prayer on their behalf, by those left behind. God is of course sovereign over the advance of the gospel; but God plans the ends as well as the means, and he has chosen to see the gospel advance through the power of prayer.  MORE: Three ways to pray for missionaries | the Cripplegate 

Pray for the Johns Day

(Breakpoint)
Quick: What’s the big event that’s happening this Sunday?
Chances are extremely good that the answer that popped into your head, without even having to think about it, was “the Super Bowl.” Whether you watch football or not, you probably know that America’s biggest and best-loved game takes place this weekend. There’s always so much hype surrounding the Super Bowl, it’s almost impossible not to know about it.
But here’s something that you might not know: Major sporting events like the Super Bowl tend to cause an increase in sex trafficking. It’s tragic, but true. As WANE.com in Indiana reported last year, “Girls as young as 12 to 14 are being shipped to Super Bowl host cities and sold as prostitutes to meet the demand for sex at the event. And it’s getting worse.”  MORE

Evangelical Pastor Pulled from Inaugural Program

Pastor Louie Giglio was a graduate student at Baylor when he launched a Bible study group that became the predecessor to his Passion movement.

 

UPDATE, 11 a.m., Jan. 10: Think Progress is reporting that Giglio removed himself from the program.

“Due to a message of mine that has surfaced from 15-20 years ago, it is likely that my participation, and the prayer I would offer, will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration,” Giglio said in a statement to Think Progress. “Clearly, speaking on this issue has not been in the range of my priorities in the past fifteen years. Instead, my aim has been to call people to ultimate significance as we make much of Jesus Christ.”

Read Giglio’s full statement here.

HRC President Chad Griffin said in a statement: “It was the right decision. Participants in the Inaugural festivities should unite rather than divide. Choosing an affirming and fair-minded voice as his replacement would be in keeping with the tone the president wants to set for his Inaugural.”
UPDATE, 10 a.m. Central time on Jan. 10: ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl reports on Twitter that Giglio has been removed from the inauguration program. MORE

Response to Newsweek’s Cover Story on the Global War against Christians by The Muslims

(Michael Horton) 
Newsweek‘s current cover-story is “The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World,” by Ayann Hirsi Ali, who fled her native Somalia and served in the Dutch Parliament before taking a position at the American Enterprise Institute. As the article points out, widespread anti-Christian violence is exploding even in countries with Muslim minorities. How do we respond wisely as Christians to this growing threat?

1. Prayer

First, the crisis calls for concerted prayer on behalf of our brothers and sisters under the cross. More Christians have been martyred in the last several decades than in all of the centuries combined—including the early Roman ....
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Does God really decide, and care who wins a football game?

(RC Sproul Jr.) I began asking this question myself long before Tim Tebow was even born. I was a little boy, deeply committed to the Pittsburgh Steelers. I remember praying that they would beat the Oakland Raiders in an upcoming playoff game. When my prayer ended fear set in- what if there were a little boy just like me, somewhere in Oakland, praying that the Raiders would beat the Steelers? My father comforted me by explaining that no real Christian would ever pray for the Raiders. ...

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A Prayer for Gospel Pharisees and Scribes (Scotty Smith)
Dear Jesus, we tremble at the thought of you speaking these words to us. What could be more sobering and tragic than to hear you say, “You talk about me a whole lot, using plenty of spiritual language and Bible quotes. You’re very quick to recognize and correct false teaching. You’re even quite zealous to apply what you know to others. But your heart is very far from me.”

31 Ways to Pray for Your Children (Bob Hostetler) "For years, like any responsible Christian parent, I prayed daily for my two children, Aubrey and Aaron. I prayed for God's blessing and protection throughout their days. I prayed for them to be happy. I asked God to help them through difficult times and to help them make wise choices. My prayers were regular, heartfelt, and--for the most part--pedestrian and repetitive.
I wanted more than that, however. I wanted so much for my children, but when I knelt in prayer, I invariably found the same tired words rolling from my lips, like an adult whose table grace never progressed beyond "God is great, God is good, now we thank him for this food..."

Seven Principles of Prayer (Matthias Briefing) "Prayer is a universal phenomenon amongst mankind. Men and women have always prayed everywhere. It is a natural consequence of believing in God. Humanity, by nature, believes in the existence of deity, that is, in a super-human, powerful, eternal being or beings with whom we are related and on whom, in some way, we depend. It is a concept congruous with our knowledge of ourselves and of the world. And so prayer is a natural activity. It springs out of our sense of need and of God's relationship to us and his ability to help..."

Lashing Out at God in Prayer: Is it OK? (RC Sproul) "Some of the people in the biblical narratives seem to bargain with God. For instance, Hezekiah reminds God of what a good king he has been. Is it proper to pray in this fashion?
Scripture is brutally honest with us, revealing the faults and vices of the saints, as well as their virtues. We see inappropriate conduct even from great men such as Abraham, Moses, and David. Thus, the fact that the Bible tells us that various men tried to bargain or negotiate with God should not communicate to us that this is the appropriate way to deal with Him. Scripture is simply revealing this common human tendency, not sanctioning it. The fact is, people do this all the time..."

The World’s Prayer Guide (CT) "Operation World might just be one of the most popular and influential evangelical books you've never read. Since 1974, the daily, country-by-country prayer guide has sold 2.5 million copies in six editions, including about 400,000 for the 2001 (most recent) edition. Canadian Jason Mandryk, a missionary researcher with Worldwide Evangelization for Christ International, has taken the reins as author of the newest edition, which will be published next month..."

Prayer is Always Subversive (Jared Wilson) "Last fall a student of Fair Haven Union High School received permission from the principal to hold a "National Day of Prayer at the Flag Pole" event, which was attended by a number of students, staff and adults.
The students were very enthused with the results and asked the principal if they could continue once a week with these meetings. They have been meeting every Wednesday morning all through the winter, rain or shine, and have been faithfully praying for God's presence in the school and in the lives of the students, for the nation and children in Sudan, etc..."

 

The Three Stands of Biblical Prayer: Praying Beyond the Sick List (David Powlison). "It sounds so simple. Pastors could so easily pray for the sick—pointedly and intelligently—couldn’t they? But so often these prayers from the pulpit sound like a nursing report at shift change in your local hospital: "The colon cancer in room 103 with uncertain prognosis … the lady in 110 with a gall bladder that’s not yielding to treatment … the broken leg that’s mending well … the heart patient going into surgery on Tuesday under Dr. Jones’s skilled hands … .”

Finding God’s Direction in your life (David Jeremiah). "God loves to do astounding things. Most of the time, they are in response to the prayers of His people. Throughout my years as a pastor, a number of people have come to me for counsel on how to find the direction God has set forward for their life. I have to admit, my straightforwardness is not lacking in my response to them: "Have you prayed about it?" More often than not, the reply affirms my suspicions..."

A Puritan Prayer (from the Valley of Vision)  "Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou has brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;.."