Urgent calls in prayer that seem odd

The call to “lay it on the line” is usually reserved for the hardest places in the world. Places hostile to the gospel, or at least “hard” to the gospel. We support many missionaries in areas like this who are answering the call to “live dead.”

But… that doesn’t apply to us, does it? In the United States? In the land of plenty? “Live dead?”

Really?

First of all, how do we hear a call like that in the United States?

Second, how is that lived out in our lives? What does that look like?

These are urgent questions I am sensing in my own prayer life.

4 responses to “Urgent calls in prayer that seem odd”

  1. Good questions, Dan. In some ways I think people of authentic faith in the U.S. need to live dead as well. It’s not in the way that people in the Live Dead project do, but in dying more and more to the suburban American “safe” mentality that can even infiltrate much of our civil “Christian” culture.

    I’ve become more and more comfortable with the idea that even people in the Church (universal) may not always get what I do. Also, as I deal more and more with people cast to the side by our culture, I’m finding the stories will not always have a happy ending by the standards of the here and now culture. Sometimes the deepest prayer requests go to a limited circle because they would make most in our civil religious culture too uncomfortable.

    1. Good thoughts, Leon. Thanks!

  2. Pastor Dan, These are good questions. I strongly believe that we are called to be apostolic in our focus: Every person in every parish doing everything possible to reach every people group. Truly the person in the pew in America is called to sacrifice equally with the missionary serving among Muslims in Africa.

    1. No doubt! What that looks like in our context is the challenge.

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