Prayer

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Bible Imitates Life

(Or is it the other way around?)

There’s a lot to be said for a Bible reading plan of some sort. After years of struggling to spend time in Scripture every day, I’ve finally realized that I’m more likely to be successful if I don’t have to pick a place to start reading every day. In years past, I’ve simply started in Genesis and read through to the end of Revelation. That takes me quite a while. Some days I read several chapters, other days one or two verses are plenty. I read until God speaks, then underline, make margin notes, and pray about what He’s shown me.

Thus it is that I find myself at the beginning of Nehemiah. With the blessing of King Artaxerxes, Nehemiah leads a relatively small number of Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall, which had been demolished when the Jews were taken into captivity. At first things go swimmingly, but then the workers begin to run out of steam. Even worse, opposition builds. It seems that some of the pagan officials don’t like the Jews very much. They try to intimidate the builders, threatening their lives.

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Praying for the Persecuted Church

Last week I promised you some specific prayer points as we intercede for the persecuted church. While I will highlight several situations, please remember that persecution is worldwide. The Open Doors website prominently displays their map showing the fifty nations where persecution is the worst.

I’ve elected to share a few facts and stories from different parts of the world, not because these are the most popular or most important, but as a way to relate more personally to our brothers and sisters being tested so severely. I hope these stories galvanize you to seek further information and pray more fervently. The “One With Them” website provides more individual stories, or just Google “persecuted church.”

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Stop Illegal Immigration with the Love of Jesus

What is your opinion on illegal immigration? I’m sure you have one. This is a topic that everyone is passionate about, no matter which view you take. Provide amnesty? Send them home? Seal the border? Open the border? On the one hand, the Bible tells us to obey the law. On the other, we’re to welcome the foreigner and alien in our midst. How do we apply those verses to this political—and very human—quagmire?

Our Global Sunday school class had a guest speaker this past week. Jeff Hines and his family are missionaries to Honduras. He had a perspective that totally rearranged my thoughts on this difficult subject. What he had to say on this topic is important enough that I want to share some of it with you.

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How to Pray for Terrorists

Last Friday I listed four ways we can do something to help the Christians in Iraq—stand in solidarity, write letters, give generously, and, most importantly, pray.  When I mentioned prayer, I gave some guidelines, including the need to pray for the ISIS Muslims who are deceived captives of the enemy.

In spite of my suggestion, I wasn’t sure exactly how to pray for them. Sure, we want them to stop what they’re doing and turn to Jesus. But what does that look like? Is it all right to pray that God clobbers them?I’ll admit, this is one time when I want my big, powerful, angry God to do some serious smiting!

Then I came across this blog post that neatly summarizes just what we should be asking God for, when we pray for our enemies. It’s even specifically aimed at praying for Al-Qaeda and ISIS.  I know I’ve stopped my Tuesday posts for the time being, but this was just too timely and appropriate to pass up. Please read:

3 Ways to Pray for Our Enemies

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Praying for (someone else’s) Faith

The argument is as old as the Bible. Do we really choose to believe in God, in Jesus? Or does God choose us, extending mercy to some, and hardening the hearts of others?

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16-17)

Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. (Romans 9:18)

I prefer to avoid thinking about confusing and contradictory concepts—they make my head hurt!  However, the tension between predestination and free will concerns me a great deal. In fact, it’s a matter of life and death.

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Jairus’ Daughter

As I write this, I’ve been battling the Worst Cold Ever for over a week. I won’t go into the gory details, but this truly is the worst head cold I’ve ever had—and it just won’t go away. The doctors assure me it isn’t strep, so there’s really nothing much I can do except buy Kleenex in bulk, slurp chicken soup, juggle the decongestants with the antihistamines with the expectorants with the cough suppressants, and pray that I get better sooner, while my husband still likes me. (Am I whining? Oops, sorry.) Praying for healing is always a good idea.

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Harvest Workers

TRUE or FALSE: the Bible tells us to pray for people to be saved.

Have your answer? Probably, like me, you read this question and answered, “Of course we should pray for people to be saved!” I thought it was totally obvious, until our pastor said something that challenged my belief.

He told us, “God never said that we should pray for the harvest. We are to pray for workers!”

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Which Way Now, God?

Decorated trees are sprouting in living rooms around the country, carols are playing in the mall, and shoppers eagerly await packages from Amazon. It’s that time of year again—time for my birthday. As usual, we’re so busy with seasonal activities—Christmas parties, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, more parties—that I barely have time to celebrate. That’s all right. In December, I prefer to focus on Someone else’s birthday.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I tend to ignore New Year’s Eve and the start of the calendar year. It seems so arbitrary. Instead, I use my birthday as a time to mull over the year past and the year to come. What did God tell me to do last year? Did I do it? And what about the year to come? Is He directing me in any particular direction?

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Bringing Light into Darkness

Turning off the main highway, our minibus bumped over the rocky gravel road toward Gege, Swaziland. Tree farms, with their orderly rows of pine and eucalyptus, gave way to grassy hillsides, cattle, and the occasional small cinder block building. I tried to snap some photos from the moving bus, with limited success.

About ten minutes into our 40-minute ride, we bounced past a run-down homestead flying a worn, solid black flag. Odd, I thought, and asked our missionary host what the flag signified. He explained that some Swaziland belonged to a cult that worshiped a nasty snake idol/demon, and the flag meant that a snake “church” met at this home. Apparently, Gege was the epicenter of this cult.

Swaziland_LAH_9879-001

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Prayer Works!

I’m back. Or, at least my body is now present in Colorado, United States. The rest of me, I’m not so sure.

CarePoint_Gege-Swaziland_LAH_0187Part of me is here, glad to be home. Part of me is still in Swaziland—with the children and “go-gos”(grandmothers) at the Gege CarePoint and with the missionaries from South Africa, Zambia, and the U.S. who are bringing light into a very dark place. I’m sure some scattered pieces of myself left a trail as we traveled. It will be some time before I can gather all my thoughts into a coherent, organized whole. After all, I only got home yesterday.

For now, what I want to tell you is that prayer works! You know that already, right? After all, why pray if God never answers. That would be pointless. Most of the time, however, we more or less take it on faith that our prayers accomplish something. These last two weeks, I saw answers in action.

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