Archive for the 'prayer' Category

Dueling Prayers

Published
by
Mike
on May 10, 2007
in faith and prayer
. 24 Comments

Overheard in the middle school Bible class last night:

Student A: Please pray that it stops raining. I’m tired of all the rain.

Student B: Please pray that it continues to rain. We need all the rain we can get.

Student C: “Dear God, some of us want it to quit raining, and some of us want it to keep raining. You can work it out.”

(Everything I needed to know about theology I learned in a middle school Bible class!)

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“The real question before our death, then, is not, How much can I still accomplish, or how much influence can I still exert? but, How can I live so that I can continue to be fruitful when I am no longer here among my family and friends?” - Henri Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring

“Rachel Weeping for Her Children”

Published
by
Mike
on December 22, 2006
in grief and prayer
. 13 Comments

Please pray for me tomorrow (Saturday). I’ll be leaving early to go to Muleshoe, Texas, to do the funeral for a 19-year-old member of Highland whose family lives there.

The Sheets family is an amazing bunch. Kyle and Bernita had ten children. Tyler, whose funeral I’ll be doing, was the sixth.

Highland has remained something of a home base for the Sheets even after all these years. They left when Kyle was about 40 for him to go to medical school in Galveston. He now is a family physician in Muleshoe.

These are incredible kids — full of a passion for Christ. I know of at least one time the whole family went on a mission trip together to Africa.

It will be a blessing — albeit a painful one — to sit with the parents and the nine children tomorrow morning to listen to them talk about their son and brother. Please pray for me to have the composure to speak words of comfort and hope at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon.

Those of you who have a Facebook account can search for him at ACU and see many touching pictures of their family, including several of Tyler with his younger siblings from Tuesday.

Saturday, March 4

Published
by
Mike
on March 4, 2006
in family, marriage and prayer
. 26 Comments

Here is the picture that was supposed to go out with a Christmas letter. It’s from our trip to Estes Park last summer. So “Merry Christmas from the Copes” (either very belatedly or very early).

I’ve been working with a lot of old pictures, getting a presentation ready for a family gig. Here is my beloved’s high school graduation picture (posted withOUT permission):

And here she is a couple weeks ago in Kauai. (Time has been very kind to her.)

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Someone told me they heard people discussing my blog on an Abilene radio station earlier this week–people speculating as to why I pulled last Saturday’s post. I’ll drop it back on later. But I wanted OUT of that discussion. At least I didn’t want some Abilene residents’ first exposure to my blog to be over that discussion that began in the comments section (while I was out of town doing a very difficult graveside service).

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Tomorrow I’m preaching from Matthew 6 on the Lord’s Prayer, which we have prayed almost every Sunday since 1995.

The buzz over “The Prayer of Jabez” has died down, it seems. But right in the midst of that Buzz, James Mulholland wrote a book which begins by contrasting the prayer of Jabez with the Lord’s Prayer.

Here’s what Eugene Peterson said about Mulholland’s Praying Like Jesus: The Lord’s Prayer in a Culture of Prosperity: “An astonishing number of Americans these days are being taught a prayer that is little more than being selfish on their knees. When they stand up and go about their work, they are more selfish than ever. James Mulholland will have none of it. With urgency and clarity he sends us straight to the Prayer of Jesus, the prayer that clears the air of all illusions so that we can breathe pure Spirit.”

Here is some of what Mulholland wrote:

“Across America, hundreds of pastors are being pulled aside by excited church members who are saying, ‘You have to pray this prayer. It’s changed my life.’ Such a testimony is hard to dispute, especially when it is a prayer that includes the requests ‘bless me, enlarge my territory, keep your hand on me, and keep me from pain.’ In a materialistic, self-centered culture, such a prayer will always be attractive.Many pastors will embrace this prayer wholeheartedly. They will incorporate it into worship and preach a sermon series on each phrase. They will give copies of The Prayer of Jabez to their entire congregation. They will ignore the warnings of the author that his book was not intended to justify selfishness. They will encourage their church members to begin every morning with this prayer.

Unfortunately, they won’t reflect on the dangers of teaching self-centered people to begin each day with the chant, ‘Bless me!’ They won’t worry about the compromises inherent in a marriage of prayer and prosperity. They won’t consider the consequences of making prayer into a device for getting what we want. In the midst of this frenzy of egotism, they will overlook the obvious–the Prayer of Jabez isn’t the prayer Jesus taught us to pray.

Indeed, in significant ways the Prayer of Jabez is counter to the heart of the gospel and the priorities of Jesus. It represents the advancement of self and the resistance to self-denial Jesus confronted in his day and God continues to challenge within Christianity. And, although Mr. Wilkinson has tried to redeem the words of Jabez, he has only succeeded in fanning into flame the embers of a prosperity theology many had hoped was finally dying. He forgot the reason Jesus didn’t teach his disciples the Prayer of Jabez.

Jabez got it wrong.

In fairness to Jabez and to the Bible, neither suggest his prayer should be the model for others. This honor is reserved for another short prayer located in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray. We call this prayer ‘The Lord’s Prayer,’ though I prefer to call it the Prayer of Jesus.”

Well, I won’t be picking on Jabez tomorrow. But I will be trying to help us imagine that counter-cultural world of this prayer–a world where the dominion of God has broken through, where his reign comes crashing through into our lives.

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[Added at noon] - There is an AP article all over the internet today about the work my brother and my sister-in-law are doing to help bring an extremely sick orphan to the States from Vietnam. You can read about it here, for example.

Healing in Perspective

Published
by
Mike
on February 23, 2006
in faith and prayer
. 15 Comments

I weary of the triumphal claims made by some about healing. Here’s the truth: lots of godly people who pray for healing don’t get well–at least not in the way they hoped for. It isn’t because God doesn’t love them or because not enough people had real faith. So much damage is done by supersaints who claim that healing is a done deal to those who believe. Yet on the other hand, we aren’t deists. We believe that God hasn’t retired and that at times there are hints of the future healing even now–thanks not to some super-healer but thanks to the Healer himself.

Typical Ed Fudge balance:

HEALING IN PERSPECTIVE
Edward Fudge
Feb 12, 2006

Someone has said that error is truth out of proportion. Balanced truth takes into account the great biblical doctrines of Creation, the Fall, Redemption, the Holy Spirit, the Church, and the End. In such perspective, biblical revelation resembles a polished diamond which sparkles in all directions. To that end, and after four decades of adult reflection on the topic and praying for the sick, I offer seven biblical perspectives on divine healing — charting a scriptural course, I believe, between some extremes often heard today.

1. We may affirm that God’s will for his creation is health and wholeness. We may deny that God is the author of sin, disease or death. (Gen. 1:27, 31.)

2. We may affirm that sickness, like all the world’s brokenness, is an ultimate result of human sin. We may deny that specific wickness or trouble is necessarily related to any specific sin, or to the sin of any particular individual. (Rom. 5:12; 8:20-22; John 9:1-3; Book of Job.)

3. We may affirm that God, by Christ’s redemptive work, will finally restore to its intended wholeness the creation he has made. This includes our bodies and whole selves. We may deny that God is interested only in our “soul” or “spirit,” or that redemption excludes from its final benefits complete wholeness for the entire person. (Isa. 53:4-5; Phil. 3:20-21.)

4. We may affirm that this full redemption will not come until the resurrection at the End. Until then, even God’s believing people continue to share in elements of the Fall. We may deny that even mature believers can always expect perfect health and wholeness now, or that their sicknesses necessarily reflect any personal fault or lack of faith. (1 Cor 15:42-49; 2 Cor. 4:16-5:4.)

5. We may affirm that, because of Christ’s atonement and resurrection and the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost, we may begin even now to share in God’s victory over sin and its consequences. This victory at times includes the healing of the body, mind and relationships, in ways that exceed human prediction, understanding or ability to produce. We may deny that God has stopped working in the world and in our lives, or that we must wait until the End to see any signs of our redemption. (Eph. 1:18-21; 3:16; 3:20; Heb. 6:4-5.)

6. We may affirm that all health and healing is God’s gift, regardless of the means by which it comes or the speed with which it occurs. For all health and healing we should give God thanks and praise. We may deny that health or healing ever occur apart from God’s sovereign grace, or that so-called “natural” processes are any less the supernatural work of God. (Ps. 103:1-3.)

7. We may affirm that God gives us many means of wellness. These include, but are not limited to, the body’s “natural” processes, healthy physical, mental and emotional habits and lifestyles, the special ministry of those who practice the healing arts, the loving attention of family and friends, and also effective, believing prayer. In times of illness, we should gratefully apply all appropriate means, asking for God’s healing according to our needs and his glory. We may deny that Christians ought to spurn or neglect any appropriate means of good health or healing, since to do so violates both Scripture-revelation and common sense. (Phil. 4:3-7; 1 Tim. 5:23; Col. 4:14; see also Sirach 38.)__________________________________

Copyright 2006 by Edward Fudge. Permission hereby granted to reprint this gracEmail in its entirety without change, with credit given and not for financial profit. Visit our multimedia website at http://www.edwardfudge.com.

The Ants in the Pants of Faith

Published
by
Mike
on October 20, 2005
in faith and prayer
. 30 Comments

Yesterday we talked about doubts in my Bible class at ACU. It always comes as a relief to some students to learn that doubting is not the opposite of belief. That would be unbelief. Doubt is suspended on a continuum between the two and decides whether to lean in the direction of belief or unbelief.

It also relieves some (and probably frightens others who crave certainty) to know that their own teacher has his bouts with doubt.

There are times when it just doesn’t seem that this world works the way it ought to if a loving, all-powerful God is in charge. Even after all the talk about free will, natural disasters, and the effects of sin, sometimes that just doesn’t quite fix the problem. And there are times when you wonder about all the people in the world who will fight wars over their old books–which old book depends on their religion–written by people from long ago.

As I said, for those who need absolute certainty and don’t want anyone to mess with it–and I’m not just talking about college students now–that’s not anything they want to hear. They probably tell themselves that it’s because their faith is so strong. That may be right. Or maybe their faith is so fragile.

But others know the threat of being fully awake in a world that is confusing. It isn’t certainty they have, most of the time, but faith. Struggling, seeking, journeying faith.

As Frederick Buechner put it, “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith.” For some people, those doubts keep the faith fresh, alive, and vibrant–always searching over the next ridge for what lies ahead.

Praying the Lord’s Prayer

Published
by
Mike
on June 7, 2005
in Books, General and prayer
. 14 Comments

Having now prayed the Lord’s Prayer almost every Sunday for a decade with the Highland Church, I’ve experienced the truth of these words from StormFront:

“As a celebration of the gift and call of the new life of trust, a community could not do better than to pray the Lord’s Prayer continually, thoughtfully, and with hearts willing to follow its lead. This prayer refocuses our attention from all efforts to secure our lives and well-being to the central issues of God’s kingdom. Rather than wealth and accomplishment, the Lord’s Prayer lifts up the basics of human life: daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance from temptation. Prayer shapes a people humble in their habits, steadfast in their faith, modest in their words, just in their actions, merciful in their dealings, and disciplined in their conduct. Such a people trust only in the God made present in the life and death of Jesus, ‘for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’”

The Tale of Two Prayer Services

Published
by
Mike
on May 12, 2005
in Church and prayer
. 20 Comments

This article by Ken Ellsworth was in last Sunday’s Abilene Reporter-News. It raises some of the questions many of us will have to ask as we continue to hold to the unique claims of Christ (try revisiting Lewis’s MERE CHRISTIANITY) while living in an increasingly diverse culture. Yes, even in Abilene. Assumptions that were possible fifty years ago in the Bible Belt can’t be made today. It invites us to think about how we can follow the one who said “I am the way, the truth, and the life” while doing so with humility and respect for others. I appreciate ARN’s permission to reprint it here.

Two groups met at noon Thursday in Abilene to celebrate the National Day of Prayer with prayer services.

But they did not pray together. They prayed apart, sadly separated, it seemed to me.

The separation caused me to wonder.

If it is true that a ”family that prays together stays together,” could it be applied to a community? ”The community that prays together stays together.”

Probably not, and it’s probably not necessary. That may be why Abilene has hundreds of churches. People like to pray with kith, kin and kind.

I attended some of each service Thursday.

One group met at Everman Park, drawing about 200 people. It was exclusively Christian, in fact, evangelical Christian. The service was organized by Pray Big Country, a group of local pastors.

The other group met in front of City Hall. About 80 attended. Its participants included people of the following faiths: Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Unitarianism. This service was organized by the Abilene Interfaith Council.

The Christian service began with praise songs. Many participants raised their arms in the air, palms up as if they were receiving love radiating down from the heavens. This was not the kind of worship service that I grew up with. The music was unfamiliar and accompanied by guitars and percussion.

I grew up with J.S. Bach fugues played on church organs. It was inspiring. I’m not sure praise service music is as good. For me, trading in Bach for praise music might be something akin to trading in Shakespeare for comic books. Maybe I’m an old fuddy-duddy. Well, there’s no ”maybe” about it.

There were some speakers. Most emphasized their belief that the only path to salvation is through Jesus and that other faiths are in error.

I see how people can think that way, but I am usually thinking more like this: ”In matters of religion, the only absolute wrong is to believe without doubt that you are absolutely right.” But that sort of thinking could be wrong.

One pastor recalled the visit to Abilene several years ago of a Buddhist monk. The monk blessed the city during a ritual. The pastor on Thursday hinted that the Buddhist blessing might have brought bad things to Abilene, including the drought.

I don’t know how the pastor can believe that. I’m quite sure it rains in Buddhist countries.

At City Hall, the atmosphere was much different. People of different faiths and denominations offered prayers. For me, there was warmth to it.

It was lovely to watch people of obviously different faiths hugging each other, sharing each other’s humanity and the need of most to believe.

At the end of the ceremony, loaves of bread were passed out to symbolize that we all can sit down and break bread together regardless of our differences. Almost everybody had a bite.

At the back of the crowd 10 or 12 young people wore shirts that said ”Jesus Crew.” I had seen the same shirts earlier at Everman Park.

For some reason, those young people refused to participate in the breaking of the bread. They weren’t obnoxious about it. In fact, they were polite. They just quietly turned away.

I don’t know, but I think Jesus would have had a bite.

BlogPrayers@aol.com

Published
by
Mike
on February 10, 2005
in prayer and the wreck
. 31 Comments

Dear Friends -

Six months ago today, with the help of a couple people much younger, I dropped a clicker on this blog. Since then, it has received 127,688 “hits.” Thank you for visiting here some and for considering my rantings and ravings.

Twenty-five days ago I left a desperate message as I ran out the door to head to Cook’s Children’s Hospital in Ft. Worth. Right now, most of that evening is a fog. I remember, as in a dream, hearing about the wreck, finding out that Chris was in it, later hearing that one of the children had died, gathering with the other families in a waiting room at Hendrick, being called by our friend who is an ER doc, looking at my boy and not recognizing his face, whispering in his ear, hearing that the preliminary CT scan was better than expected (given the trauma to his face), learning that he would be flown to Children’s with one parent, and running home to pack a few things before Dickie and Becky drove me over there. It’s just a dream . . . or a nightmare. I’ve forgotten most details. But I remember a desperate sense that I didn’t have much prayer in me, so I stopped at my computer long enough to type out those few sentences.

Within hours, there were responses from six continents (hey, what’s with you people in Antarctica?) and from all over the States. Even now, I can’t come up with words to describe what those prayers mean to Diane, Matt, Jenna, Chris, and me — and to the other seven families.

Some have commented that a sort of cyber-community has developed through the months. There are limits to what such a “community” can do, of course. But there are some things we can do. And prayer is clearly one of them.

For the most part, I’ve been the recipient of your prayers. This morning I’m wondering — are there things we can pray for you? I’d like to invite you today to leave a note here if you’d like other readers to be praying for you.

If you just can’t get the comments button to work (or are a bit technologically challenged and can’t figure out how to get registered), I’ve created a temporary e-mail address, BlogPrayers@aol.com. If you’ll send your prayer request there, I’ll type it into the comments here.

May the love of God encompass you, my friends, as he continues forming you in the Way of Christ.

Like a Rabbit Loves to Run

Published
by
Mike
on January 27, 2005
in family, grief, prayer and the wreck
. 30 Comments

“I’m tired of this.” “I wish this didn’t happen.” Very simple statements from my son this morning, but I understand. To borrow Seder language, “If only he had cracked a couple ribs, dayenu [that would have been enough].” “If only he had cracked a couple ribs and a thumb, dayenu.” “If only he had cracked a couple ribs, a thumb, and a vertebrae, dayenu.” “If only he had cracked a couple ribs, a thumb, a vertebrae, and a skull (slight fracture at base of skull), dayenu.”

But to go with all that is a sore butt and a headache.

The “bone guy” (translation: pediatric orthopedic surgeon) said that after three months, he ought to be brand new. But three months to a twelve year old boy in the middle of his basketball season and right before baseball begins is like a decade to me.

When we first saw him in the E. R. at Hendrick here in Abilene (before he was flown to Cook’s), he was hardly recognizable. He had been beaten horribly. When he heard our voices, he began crying uncontrollably. I leaned over and whispered in his ear the words I’ve said to him at bedtime a thousand times:

Love that boy.
Like a rabbit loves to run,
I said I love that boy.
Like a rabbit loves to run.
Love to see him in the morning.
Love to say, “Good mornin’, son.”

Then, for the moment, he calmed down.

My prayers for the previous hour had been fairly simple: “Please, God. Please, God. Please, God. Please, God.” I think you’d expect more from a 48-year-old minister. But that’s about all that would come.

As I leaned over him, not knowing yet how serious his internal injuries were, nothing profound came. So I prayed the same words I say over every baby born at Highland: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be on you always.”

Sometimes familiar words fit the best.

Los Tres Amigos

Published
by
Mike
on January 23, 2005
in family, friends, music, prayer and the wreck
. 8 Comments

Yesterday morning two of Los Tres Amigos got to go home. Hurrah! We watched Jon Weston and (a few minutes later) Austin leave their rooms to head back to Abilene. It was kind of a lonely feeling for Chris, but he was glad his friends were doing that well.

And we had a good day, too. From the outside it would probably seem like baby steps. But from the inside it was gigantic leaps. Chris is now doing some simple exercises and is able to get into a wheelchair for brief periods. He had a couple buddies come up yesterday (plus his two very attentive female cousins who are hovering around him when he’s up to it) and they watched ballgames together.

Today he has his brother and sister-in-law to watch NFL playoff games with.

There was a moment late last night when just the five of us were in the room and prayed that I thought, “Life might one day be ‘normal’ again.”

During one of those early dark nights when we were waiting on word about head and lungs, I kept searching in my Ipod for something that would comfort. It came down to one thing: Zoe music. Probably because I could hear the familiar voices and know that those very people were praying for us. The two songs that ministered the most to me were “Come, Ye Sinners” (I know the words “bruised and broken by the fall” are referring to sin . . . but for the moment that spoke to our situation) and “Be Still My Soul.”

Last night and this morning I was supposed to have been speaking at a Zoe Conference in Fresno. I know it’s going well.

Well, that’s the report from Cook’s Children’s Hospital this morning. I think my mom and I are going to slip away to early service at Richland Hills. There are so many places I’d like to go this morning: to Burleson to say thanks for all the food; to Grapevine to say thanks for the banner signed by middle schoolers; to . . . . You understand.

Thank you all so very much for your prayers. We had one note sent up by someone saying that she is a member of this blog community though we’ve never met. She just wanted us to know she’s thinking about us, praying for us, and would do anything to help if we’d call her.

Are there words in the English language to say what that means to a family in crisis?