Pray… even when it’s hard

I have been challenged in my prayer time and Bible reading time to engage on a journey of intercession for the American Church. I would like to think I’m just getting prepped to challenge others to pray for the American Church so I can just pass it off.

I just finished Nancy French’s new book, Ghosted, and believe me, I would rather call down the wrath of God on the American Church.

Continue reading “Pray… even when it’s hard”

What we miss in “praying for our nation”

So he said he would destroy them—
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him
to keep his wrath from destroying them. Psalm 106:23 (NIV)

Last week was the National Day of Prayer. It is a designated time to pray for our nation. More times than can be counted, prayers were offered for America to repent of something.

Here is what I find lacking in many prayers: the American Church to repent.

Continue reading “What we miss in “praying for our nation””

To know Christ fully

God wishes to be known, and is pleased that we should rest in him; for all that is beneath him is not enough for us; and this is the reason why no soul is at rest until it counts as nothing all that is created. When a soul has made itself as nothing for love, in order to have him who is all that is good, then he is able to receive spiritual rest. — Julian of Norwich

I want to walk carefully in the ways of God

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (NIV): Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

There is a saying I’ve heard repeated: I listen twice as much as I speak for I have two ears and one mouth.

Another I’ve heard, probably credited to a Jewish rabbi: When I pray, I do so quickly because it is me speaking to God. When I read Scripture, I do so slowly because it is God speaking to me.

I want to be intentional in my walk with God. To slow my pace. To listen. To learn.

The dangers of chants and quick slogans

The activism and chants of antisemitism and anti-Muslim are dangerous. We need to pay attention.

Christians, though, ought to be especially attentive to what’s happening to a society that increasingly seems, on the horseshoe extremes of the populist right and the activist left, to be driven toward the pull of the channeled rage of the mob. — Russell Moore

More HERE.

Worth your time

“My job is to give myself to Jesus. His job is to transform me.” John Mark Comer in THIS INTERVIEW .

When what you thought was “conservative” and “evangelical” turns dark, where do you go and what do you do? Nancy French shares her powerful story HERE.

Some thoughts on Beyonce’s new album from some Christian artists and thinkers is included in THIS EPISODE (among other great topics).

Keep stretching. Keep learning.

The under-utilized ministry of a deacon

One alternate text for the 5th Sunday of Easter this year is Acts 8:26-40, the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. 

Having grown up in a Pentecostal tradition, we didn’t have any true category for “deacon.” We saw “deacon” in 1 Timothy but in most churches that was translated to “board member.” It wasn’t an ordained ministry. 

Continue reading “The under-utilized ministry of a deacon”