***This article has been published by Christian Media Magazine and the full text version can be accessed at their web site by clicking here: http://christianmediamagazine.com/5-types-of-prayer-and-how-to-use-them/ For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. 1 Peter 3:12 The illimitable influence of prayer has been part of the human experience since the very beginning of our species. Prayer, so much more than a forum to talk to God for whatever reason, possesses immense underlying societal powers shaping the fate of humanity in ways that most people do not fully comprehend. 4) The Miracle of Prayer The word “miracle” is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as: “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.” Whether it is the individual in the chapel praying for a family member who contracted cancer, or a neighborhood prayer group praying for a refugee family, a nation praying for their leader’s success in negotiating a reduction in weapons or the billions of prayers sent out to the heart of God each day, the interaction from God’s answers is not the only criteria for prayer to be designated as a miracle, though it certainly is enough. Consider, in addition, the feeling of love in one’s heart when they turn to God multiplied by 400 billion times in one year; consider the building of communities and friendships in prayer through places of worship; think about the assistance, answers to prayer received by global and local issues; the example of goodness to the rest of the world expressed through prayer; think of such a huge chunk of humanity turning to their faith in prayer to resolve conflicts. These, and many more examples of prayer too abundant to mention here make the prayer a modern day miracle that happens billions of times a day and intervenes, through God’s ears and hands, divinely, in our human affairs every second of every day. As Christians we have a toolbox in our possession. We use it sparingly, truly, wisely. Forgiveness is in that toolbox. Humility is there, baptism, turning the other cheek – we Christians have been gifted with many tools. The greatest one, perhaps the most powerful, may just be the tool that lets us talk to God one on one: that tool is prayer. Visit Christian Media Magazine to read more. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18 According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, this is the definition of the word, miracle: "an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs." I spent over twenty years in the advertising business, in the creative and marketing areas, so I know a little about branding, iconic symbols, the power of logo recognition and subliminal messaging. In my humble opinion there is nothing that can compete with the cross when it comes to all of those things. The messages it sends out every day, likely hundreds of millions, if not billions of times, is a remarkable hallmark of Christianity. Certainly, the cross meets the definition of "divine intervention in human affairs." The cross, its representation of the event that lead to its status as an icon of the faith, symbolizes an extraordinary event that continues to intervene in our lives on a daily basis. So, I look at the cross as an ongoing, every day miracle first performed by Christ over two thousand years ago that continues to inspire, lead, impact and influence our lives. Here's how. Although I am reasonably knowledgeable about my faith, the bible, Christian history and scripture, I see Christianity as it impacts our world today and do not often look back at how it impacted our world two thousand years ago or over the centuries that followed. I believe that Christ is more involved in our lives now than he has ever been and that his role in human affairs is continuously increasing. Proof of this is all around us. The fact that Christ’s ongoing interaction with our planet is proof of his spiritual resurrection, his presence in our world right now; evidence of his superior and inimitable divinity. The cross is, well, Christ’s logo and it is a sign of his presence among us. Here is something to think about. The cross is the most recognized symbol in history. No other symbol, religious or otherwise, can compete with the instant recognition of the cross. I don't care if you are an atheist, a Buddhist a Muslim a Hindu or a believer or nonbeliever of any other form of religion or worship, you can identify the cross and be knowledgeable of its origin and of its meaning more readily than exposure to any other symbol on the planet and that includes the Nike swoosh and the golden arches. It’s just a cross, you may say. No. It is a constant reminder of the goodness of Christianity; a constant reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice and what it means to the world. What does the cross mean? The cross represents things like peace, sacrifice, charity, hope, love, acceptance, worship, sanctuary, a safe place to run to, brotherhood, community, God, and the list goes on. We may not realize it each time we see a cross but as they say in marketing these images evoke deep conceptual, subliminal meanings at a subconscious level. They trigger a response in our subconscious mind and that finds its way into our conscious daily lives without us even knowing. And the cross is everywhere. On churches, in windows, around necks, on rings, tattoos, painted on store windows, in graffiti, on books, on buildings, in artwork - even the Red Cross logo projects the image of the cross, obviously, and it speaks of hope, disaster rescue and medical assistance, relief, charity, security, love, peace, acceptance – and that list goes on, too. All are Christian concepts. Christians are the most persecuted people on the planet today. In the nations committing such atrocities, one of the first acts of oppression against the faith is to remove Christian icons from their culture and that means outlawing the cross and destroying any physical presence of the symbol of the Christian God. They do this because the cross has a power over humanity that they cannot compete with and by removing it they hope to silence its great voice. I call the cross one of the great miracles of Christ. And whether we are aware of it or not, it impacts our lives each and every day and brings us joy we probably don’t appreciate nearly enough. The cross is definitely an extraordinary manifestation of divine intervention in human affairs. Or, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the cross meets the criteria of a miracle. As 2017 approaches its end, and as the summer holidays wind down and make way for another Christmas season of faith and family traditions and commerce, also reaching its end is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s inimitable contribution to the perpetually evolving Christian religion. Since the day he affixed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, Christianity began an era of unprecedented change that continues to this day and as the anniversary of the Reformation concludes with the arrival of the New Year the faith is confronted by a multitude of challenges within the organized arms of the various denominations and from the world and humanity itself. Humans, God, and all creatures face global issues never dreamed of and the reality of potential destruction to our faith, to humankind, to the earth, is quite real, quite quite possible, quite probable. We approach a world with climate change, the rise of Islam, artificial intelligence, robotics, medical breakthroughs extending the human lifespan, rapidly advancing technology, exponential growth of the human population, and great extinctions of animals and plants. These will all contribute to monumental shifts in our societies and cultures. How will humans and our constantly expanding intelligence grapple with deepening skepticism about God and religion and continue to adapt to approaching challenges and simultaneously maintain a solid foundation of faith? How will the church evolve over the next 500 years? Will there be a Christian church by 2517? What’s next? Beginning in January, 2018, the culture of the Christian God faces many ongoing and new global challenges. Among those mentioned, the rise of women in the church as priests and ministers and their desire for positions of leadership and power are here to stay. It is safe to assume that in the coming years the face of the church’s hierarchy will be both masculine and feminine. Women are on the rise in every sector of life; the church is not immune to their demands for equality. The Roman Catholic church, for women the untouchable wing of God, is also not immune to the advancement of women and though Catholics say never when it comes to female priests or bishops or cardinals, heaven forbid a woman pope, we can all attest to the iron perseverance and ability to accomplish the inconceivable by women with a goal for all things equal. Saying never in this case is sort of like saying a man would never land on the moon. The concept of married male priests is also on the table and in the near future, as more and more priests are captured in compromising sexual situations, the call for the removal of celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church will make increasing sense. Even Pope Francis does not rule out the possibility and claims, instead, the idea requires more “study.” Which is just another way of saying, "Not on my watch," but over the next 500 years there will be plenty of, "watches." How will the implementation of a policy to allow priests to marry, perhaps have families, impact the growth of the Catholic Church? Will such a new direction impeded the stability of other denominations? Declining church attendance, falling numbers in active, registered members of all denominations and the empty seats in schools of divinity is a serious wave of concern for a religion boasting to be the largest and most influential faith organization on the planet. If predictions of Muslim population growth are accurate, for the first time in its history, Christianity faces the possibility of forfeiting its claim as the world’s greatest, most populated religion. By the year 2060 it is expected that Islam will have replaced Christianity as the dominant global faith and that would present a vast array of contentious issues for society to resolve: the adoption of Sharia Law is just one of them. Don’t even mention the threats to equal rights gains by women in the west. What would happen if the position of supremacy enjoyed by Christianity for over two thousand years were to change? More importantly, what would happen to humanity if that position of influence and leadership were to be reduced or replaced? The world is in the early stages of what could be, perhaps, an apocalyptic clash of civilizations as the so called radical world of Islam continues its reign of terror and its determination to eradicate or reduce the influence of Christians on earth. At the very least, earth faces many more decades of senseless terrorism and violence and war. Add to this thought the acquisition of nuclear weapons by the state of Iran and other rogue neighboring states, Christian holy lands would exist under constant threat of destruction; the state of Israel most definitely would be attacked, perhaps annihilated; an unprecedented expansion of Middle Eastern chaos and anarchy would consume the world’s attention and resources in an already very dangerous place for Christians to live or to visit. That brings us to the horrendous reality of global Christian persecution, the largest sector of persecuted individuals on earth. In effect for many years now, reaching back into the middle of the last century, the extirpation of the Christian faith is of paramount importance to the future of the religion. Oppression, murder, beatings, rape, torture and imprisonment, destruction of Christian symbols, icons and churches - all of these things are committed on a daily basis by over 60 nations around the world, over 80% of which happen to be Muslim states. Surprisingly, little is ever mentioned about Christian persecution in the mainstream media. Soon, however, this 800 pound gorilla in the room will triple its weight and demand global attention and force mitigating actions by world powers. The potential consequences of clashing with so many nations guilty of persecution are frightening. Will society react and help save oppressed Christians worldwide? What action is required - war? How would this impact global peace? Resolved or not, what effect would either end result have on the short and long term future of Christianity and humanity in general? Moving On to 2517 In January 2018, after five hundred years post reformation and many, many systemic alterations to the organization of the religion from the parishioners in the pews to the Pope in the Vatican, the Christian faith stands before challenges that pale, by comparison, the obstacles met over the last five hundred years. Perhaps even the last one thousand years. Society forgets sometimes that up till the beginning of the last century the world was still on horseback as it had been since man first discovered horses. The changes in this one century are mind boggling. Over the next 500 years they will be, even to our great big 21st century brains, unimaginable. As we evolve, the efficacy of the religion of the Christian God is in serious jeopardy. Christian dominance and subsequent ability to perform the great goodness it is renowned for may become neutralized or perhaps taken over by technology which has no links to faith. What would the world look like without the dominant presence of Jesus Christ? The reassuring element of all this negativity is that we follow a God who is loving, forgiving, peaceful, omniscient and a deity who has faced all of earth’s and humanity’s challenges and, he will continue on that path. He is also a pretty powerful God. To us, the future may seem fearsome; to God, these are bumps in the road. That is not to say, however, that over the next five hundred years we won’t feel the bumps and that our faith will not experience some very major changes. Things are about to heat up; maintaining faith has always been our greatest defense and so far, our greatest strength. There can be no doubt that Christians will continue to endure in the face of any adversity. To quote the great Nobel laureate, Bob Dylan, “It's a hard rain's a’gonna fall.” And so, let it fall. God has a way of creating rainbows. NUTTY PASTOR TALK 4.0 To all acts and thoughts and feelings and words there are consequences and consequences of consequences. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32 I upgrade this series of blog postings now and then because every now and then I am amazed by some of the nutty things said by pastors, priests, ministers, Buddhist or Hindu spiritual guru guides – during sermons to the flock of wide eyed church goers and cross legged grinning mantra moaners. Recently, a new resource for nutty pastor talk reached out to me from the TV set as I watched Joel Osteen on Sunday morning preach from Lakewood Church at The former Compaq Centre in Houston, Texas. Normally, for years, I have ignored television evangelists but Joel Osteen, I thought, was different. This past Sunday he proved to me just how typical, radical and fallible he truly can be. I was so disappointed for I hold Mr. Osteen in such high esteem. The sermon was all about protecting your peace, coveting your resting time, making sure that you structure your life by surrounding yourself with people who do not interfere with the serenity you have constructed. He spoke about the “peace stealers” in our lives, those who call to us for help, those who consider us a “go to” person, those who seem to have an abundance of misfortune in their lives and are frequently in need of help; those who are in need of an ear, in need of advice, in need of physical assistance of some kind. Your basic needy type. Mr. Osteen went on to advise his listening audience to let these people go from their worlds. He spoke about structuring our lives with positive things and positive people and family time and down time and peace time and alone time; he spoke about living that life and cautioned the viewer to avoid events and people who threaten to destabilize our “resting time.” He talked about people in our lives who will steal that time from us with their need for help with life’s events and issues and problems and catastrophes that they cannot resolve on their own. He claimed that these “peace stealers” have a negative impact on our lives and suggested that when we help them they end up sleeping well at night while we are awake worrying about their problems. He called such helpful people enablers and turned a positive into a negative and lumped everyone who has a needy friend into that category. How irresponsible. How insulting and defaming and debilitating to a huge chunk of society who suffer the misfortune of poverty. How ignorantly supportive of the stigma of mental health. How dispassionate of those born with issues such as health concerns, bad parenting, lack of opportunity. How deviously misleading to a flock of Christian believers gathered to hear the words of a spiritual leader they admire and revere and consider a destined translator and promulgator of God’s word. How abusive of the bond of trust between pastor and parishioner. If there are needy people in our lives they usually have reason for such behavior. It can be simple misfortune, bad karma as some would say. It can be many things and it can be mental illness, depression, anxiety, afflictions that effect twenty percent of the population. Mr. Osteen’s recommendations to remove such people from our lives because they will steal our resting periods is outrageously selfish. His words proliferate a stigma around mental health that should enrage us all for society is on the cusp of change toward mental health and is slowly creeping toward daylight when it comes to alternative perspectives on individuals who suffer from the very physical illness of brain chemistry disorders. Mr. Osteen encourages us to rid ourselves of these peace thieves. To remove from our lives people who ask us for help because he interprets such behavior as enabling. To toss away those who would call us during our Saturday afternoon hammock time in the back yard with issues that are serious to them, issues that compel them to reach out to us for love, support, calm, level headed brotherly assistance; true and raw Christian outreach. His advice was contradictory to basic Christian concepts of love, hope and assistance to those in need. So, Mr. Osteen, that’s some nutty pastor talk you released to the airwaves on Sunday. In thirty minutes you managed to insult a huge sector of the population, passive aggressively condemn brain disorders, discourage the Christian directive to help those in need and to suggest that we selfishly set up our lives with only those who will bring positive energy into our world declaring, en masse, that anyone else is useless to our life experience. How dangerously, foolishly, ignorantly, apathetically irresponsible for a pastor with such deep community bonds and power to bring to his church on Sunday. See ya next Sunday, maybe. To be fair, you can listen to this sermon at Mr. Osteen’s web site. Here is the link: https://www.joelosteen.com/Pages/WatchOnline.aspx Click on message #685 Living At Rest 1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Money, money, money. It seems that money these days is paramount on the church’s agenda. Congregations are hit in every direction for cash from the collection plate to tithing by cheque, to pre-authorized remittances to fees for programs and groups and get always and bible studies and concert nights and facility repairs and equipment improvements and local and international charities and refugee sponsorships - the list just keeps growing! And the threads of our pockets are fraying from all the friction. At my beautiful and historic United Church the reach for money is unabashedly common. It seems every time we turn around the shovel is thrust into our pockets digging for cash and this last Sunday something new happened: a group completely removed from our church, an international organization, gave a lengthy speech to our congregation and at the end of their pontification about the perils of autism, they passed around the church collection plates asking for our money to support the good work of their charity. Now, I have no hard feelings for people struggling with autism and I have in fact known a couple of autistic children in my lifetime so I can empathize through direct experience. And of course, any organization working to support research and support is worthy of charitable donations. I completely get it; giving to the cause of autism is a good Christian thing to do. So, to be clear, that is not my issue. My issue is the invasion of my worship privacy to shake change out of my pocket for something that has nothing to do with my time spent with God and my fellow worshippers. During the Sunday service a representative of a respected and well known autism society gave a PowerPoint, video, heart wrenching presentation expressing the concerns about autism and the society’s need for, yes, money. Not once in their entire performance did they speak about God, church, the bible – nothing. This clearly was a jiggle of heart strings to clear out some pockets on a Sunday morning before a captive audience. When the speaker completed her presentation she announced her appreciation for the donations about to be made as ushers rose to their feet and began passing around the collection plates. A bit of a rebel, I walked out in protest. It’s bad enough that our church keeps finding ways to take from our pay checks but now we are bringing in other cash grabbers? Renting out not just our church but our actual Sunday worship service? And let’s not overlook the obvious cash grab by the church here. They didn't sign away prime Sunday sermon time for nothing. Of course there was a fee paid by the speaking organization to have the privileged access to our captivated audience, and, to our brass collection plates, ushers…. You get the picture. Money, money, money. Didn't Jesus get upset about money grabbing like this? If your church is involved in this practice do the concept of church and worship a favor and walk out in visible protest and speak your mind when confronted about your objections. Otherwise, church venue fundraising, renting out the church, is the church’s future and our worship facilities will evolve into gospel based banquet halls or theme parks in an evangelical hotel complex with blaring gospel music and slot machines in the rectory and a breakfast buffet and cool rides for the kids . . . You get the picture. Church is a place for worshiping God and we give what we can to support the costs of running a church. It is not a place of perpetual fundraising and also happens to be a place to worship God. You get the picture. |
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