Tag: Prayer

  • Lent: trust the long walk

    Lent isn’t a cure all. Growing up as a Pentecostal, the prayer time around the altar was treated as a cure all. Youth camp was treated as a cure all. One time events were treated as cure alls. You pray, God visits you, the Holy Spirit does his work… you move on.

  • There is so much more to this life than this life

    “The reason I can continue watching and waiting, even as the world is shrouded in darkness, is because the things I long for are not rooted in wishful thinking or religious ritual but are as solid as a stone rolled away.” — Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night

  • The problem of pain

    Tish Harrison Warren’s new book, Prayer in the Night is out and you should absolutely get this book. As I think through spiritual rhythms for the last parts of my “Living in Babylon” series on my podcast, her book fits in wonderfully with the need for patterns in our lives.

  • Mourning loss for the saints not known

    As an ordained deacon one of my responsibilities each Sunday is to have “the prayers of the people.” There are certain areas to be covered with reminders and I can add as I need. It’s such a privilege. But today I failed.

  • The grief I still feel

    7 You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived;    you overpowered me and prevailed.I am ridiculed all day long;    everyone mocks me.8 Whenever I speak, I cry out    proclaiming violence and destruction.So the word of the Lord has brought me    insult and reproach all day long.9 But if I say, “I will not mention his word    or speak anymore in his name,”his word is in my heart like…

  • A prayer for the nation

    Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure conduct. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil…

  • Words I wrestle with in prayer

    My daily reading has me walking through Jeremiah, which is frightening on a whole new level since January 6. In Jeremiah 14, Israel tries to get things back together. They have failed God miserably and rebelled horribly for hundreds of years. And like an addict that just needs another fix, they come home “repentant” swearing they’ll make it right this…

  • To Glimpse Heaven and All Its Power

    Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves…

  • The Feast of St. Stephen

    In my journey from being ordained as a pastor in another tradition to the decision to be ordained as a vocational deacon in the Anglican Church, I have drawn more from the example of Stephen in the Book of Acts. Today is the Feast of St. Stephen. O Glorious Lord, your servant Stephen looked up to heaven and prayed for…

  • Third Sunday of Advent

    O Lord Jesus Christ, you sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise make ready your way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient toward the wisdom of the just, that at your second coming to judge the world, we may be…