Luke’s Gospel has a frequent focus on prayer. I have been restudying the prayer life of Jesus as part of my preparation for a series of presentations designed for Latin American leadership training. Jesus’ life reveals a cycle of prayer and power, mountainplace and marketplace. This oscillation hardly seems accidental. Jesus prayed at his baptism …
Category Archives: Prayer
Reading the news gives one perspective
I may be a “news junkie.” I spend a lot of time checking out the news–television, online, newspapers. Reading the news provides orientation and increased awareness of what is going on around us. On this day, many in the U.S. and around the world are concerned about the economic future. Such concerns are valid and …
An Idea: Day of Prayerful Gratitude
I awoke this morning with thanksgiving in my heart. My early morning prayer quickly turned to a lengthy list of blessings for which I am grateful. I knew the list was incomplete–there was no way to enumerate all I have received from the God who blesses his people. I determined that I would go through …
Patience
My prayer for today is that God teach me more patience. Please be patient with me as I muse about several things at least remotely related to this challenge of patience. Leaning patience is no easy thing as one journeys the spiritual pathway, wanting to run ahead, to investigate new beauties, to see what lies …
It’s Sunday Again: Reflections on Life
It’s Sunday again–typical, atypical. I will teach my Bible class this morning, but no other “official” duties. My mind overflowed on my early morning walk today–thinking, praying, dreaming…. Life is about beginnings and endings. Today’s reality includes things unthinkable last week–the death of a young lady just beginning life, married within the last year, just …
Say an “Extra” Prayer Today
Today is National Day of Prayer. You perhaps know that the concept of designating a special day of prayer which is recognized by the government is under assault. News reports indicate that this could be the last Day of Prayer which is recognized by the U.S. government. I remember when prayer was removed from the …
Pray for our Nation
[Early this morning, I got an email from my friend, H.M. Motsinger, with the following information and request. I want to share it as broadly as I can this day, beginning on this page.] 2 Chronicles 7:14. I remember reading about the children of Israel who turned from God time and time again, only to …
It’s Sunday Again: Praying for Honduras
The events of the past week in Honduras have been tumultuous–those of us who love Honduras and the people of Honduras have watched with sadness and hope. We have prayed for our beloved brothers and sisters in Honduras, thousands of fellow-Christians in hundreds of churches established over the past 30 years. We can hardly understand the …
God’s Unlikely Ways of Working
The way God works in this world often makes no sense from a human vantage point. He works in the little, out-of-the-way places and through little-known people to bring others into kingdom awareness and blessings. The work of God is not by human power but by his Spirit. To share in the work of God …
Missional: Christianity on the Fringes
We have been observing for at least two decades that Christianity is being pushed to the fringes of our society and culture. Beginning as early as the publication of Newbigin’s Foolishness to the Greeks, the removal of Christianity from the public sphere to the private has been observed and documented. One result of the privatization …