Pastor's Corner: Prayer Resources

At Cornerstone, we have been talking about prayer the last couple of weeks. Prayer as the foundation of our active relationship with God, and also some things that make it difficult to have the kind of prayer life we really want to have. I wish I could spend more time talking about prayer. It seems like I need the reminder myself about what prayer means in our daily lives.

In lieu of an extra series on prayer, I thought I would share some of the resources that I have read on prayer. This is by no means an exhaustive list; there are countless books or sermons on prayer. These are just a few that I have in my personal library or have read in the past. Hope you enjoy as much as I have!

Listening Prayer by Leanne Payne. Payne is one of the greatest women of prayer that I know. I had the opportunity to go to one of her conferences a few years back, and it was an incredible experience. She has the ability to pray so authentically, and help others to experience God in the same way. She focuses especially on the healing power of prayer. Her books are a little bit dense, but well worth the effort to understand what she is saying. She has also written others: The Healing Presence (her foundational teaching on the healing presence of Christ), Restoring the Christian Soul (a further study in healing of the self), The Broken Image (on healing from homosexuality), Crisis in Masculinity (on what it means to be truly masculine or feminine in today’s world) and many others.

Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels. As the title suggests, Hybels deals in this book with one of the most common hinderances to consistent prayer: busy-ness. It is a very easy read, and very insightful for those who (like me) often find their day running away with them. Hybels shows how prayer can actually help us accomplish those tasks we are struggling to find time for.

Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference by Philip Yancey. This is one of the most honest approaches to prayer I have read in a long time. Yancey asks some tough questions about prayer. Does it make a difference? If God knows everything already, why pray? What do we do with unanswered prayer. Yancey is a clear and effective author who doesn’t shy away from topics that others may find difficult. Prayer is an accessible, thorough treatment of this topic. One of my recent favorites.

When God Prays by Skip Heitzig. In this work, Heitzig examines God’s heart for his people as seen in the prayers of Jesus especially in John 17, right before Jesus goes to the cross. It is a powerful prayer, and a good treatment of it.

Praying Through the Tough Times by Lloyd John Ogilvie. This is more of a devotional book as well, organized by topic. Ogilvie looks at times of depression or doubt, or persecution, or loneliness, etc and has prayers and Scriptures to go with each section. A great book if you or someone you know is going through a specific type of trouble, and you are looking for verses to help.

Finally, these last two books are specifically organized around the Psalms. If you ever feel like Scripture doesn’t really speak to our current human condition, try reading through the Psalms. David and the other psalmists dealt with just about every feeling that a person can go through, and they put it down in poetry and song form. It is a treasure trove of prayer. Out of the Depths (Bernhard W. Anderson) is a more textbook approach to the Psalms, looking at the different types and categories, what they mean, and some interpretive approaches to them. God’s Prayer Book (Ben Patterson) is more devotional in nature, but not merely that. He looks at each Psalm, and talks about how God reaches down into our everyday lives with songs like these. This book was given to me as a devotional, and I just love it.

I hope these will be a full of grace and truth for you as they have for me. I’d also love to hear if you have any other suggestions.

Pastor's Corner: Online Integrity

The world is a very different place these days. Everything is going digital, global, social. I heard a radio talk show host this morning talking about how he hasn't had a landline, a newspaper subscription or watched broadcast TV in 15 years, that everything is cell phones and internet and cable. [Side Note: I did have to laugh at his discussion of the New Media on talk radio station. Do people still listen to the radio (I mean, people besides me)?]

But his point was that there continues to be a push toward living life within the global connections of the internet. More and more people are living half of their life on the internet, and half in real life. People are putting their lives online, and as it turns out, that can be a dangerous place. The internet can easily give the impression of anonymity and safety. The temptation exists to indulge our "darker side" because no one will ever know.

I recently read an article by Alexandra Samuel in the Harvard Business Review entitled The Three Ps of Online Indulgence. She attempts to instruct the general public on protecting yourself online. Her idea of protection is a good one, but I believe her assumption is faulty. She says at one point:

Be clear about the secret parts of yourself that you want to encourage, and find room for them to grow online, while avoiding sites or people whose legitimate behaviors you know are unhealthy or wrong. You can take a principled approach to even the murkiest parts of your online life....

The assumption is that you can maintain two separate personalities, one in real life, and one online. That even the "murkiest parts" have a place. This is not exactly what Christ has in mind for us. We cannot be two different people. We were created to be one whole person.

Colossians 3.1-5 says this:

¹ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. ⁵ Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,which is idolatry.

Paul goes on to talk about putting on the New Self, and getting rid of those things that pul us away from Christ. To me, an online "shadow persona" falls directly into that category of "earthly things". Ask yourself this question: is this alternate life satisfying? Or does it consist of things you are potentially ashamed of?

Are you living the full and abundant life Christ has promised? So often, that online persona is a search for something other than what your "normal" life offers. Invest in something that lasts, not in the shadows that an alternate life offers. As Jim Elliot said, "He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep to gain something he cannot lose."

Pastor's Corner: Top 5 Toys of All Time

I ran into this article on the top toys of all time recently, and perhaps because I have been writing and thinking about children and parents, it seemed appropriate. Go ahead and read it; I'll still be here when you get back...

It was almost a relief to read something like this, subtly acknowledging our tendency to gravitate toward the new and grandiose. I can be a great offender when it comes to this. I like things that are new and cool. I like keeping up with technology, and I appreciate the joy of discovery and exploration. Recently I finally got a new phone, with the fancy camera and the apps and such, and for those first few days, that phone took up a lot of my time. I had to get all my settings just so. And there were a lot of things I couldn't do on my old phone simply because it was old. It was exciting. Now, of course, it's just my phone. My normal, everyday, nothing-wrong-with-it phone.

But when it comes to God, I don't think God always feels new and exciting. God can feel like the old comfortable blanket that's easy to go back to. I also think that's a misperception. We often tuck God in the "old" box, because he's always been there.

The reality is, of course, that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, but that doesn't mean he's out of style. God knows the challenges of today. He knows what we are going through right now. In a day and age where we can be so easily distracted by the flashy and the new, God is our rock. There's a reason the psalm says "Be Still, and know that I am God." We need to refocus away from the distractions and back to our first love.

Pastor's Corner: The Joys of Parenthood

Being a parent is incredible. I have two amazing boys, Elijah and Noah; some of you know them. And I believe that they are two of the smartest, sweetest, most enthusiastic boys I have ever known. (And I'm not biased at all!) They constantly ask insightful questions, they say hilarious things which leave me smiling for hours, and they love unequivocally. They probably get most of those things from their mom.

However, as most parents know, there are times when being a parent is a difficult, frustrating job. I had one of those times last night. Noah is battling illness, and woke up inconsolable around midnight. He screamed off and on for the better part of three and a half hours. He didn't want a bottle, didn't want to be held, didn't want to be put down, and certainly didn't want to sleep. He finally exhausted himself around 3:30 in the morning.

As I reflect on this now (since at the time my thoughts were limited to "please go to sleep... Dear Lord, please help him go to sleep"), it connects to where we're going in Colossians this week. Col 3.20-21 says this: Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.²¹Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. Just like we spoke about marriage, where the emphasis was on how marriage modeled the relationship between Christ and the church, this relationship between parents and children also shows how we relate to our Heavenly Father.

Even as our own kids are told to obey, we are also expected to obey our Father. The difference is that God doesn't need to be told not to provoke us. To the contrary, God is ready to encourage and to support us in ways that earthly parents can never match. As much as I love my sons, I cannot hope to love like God loves.

That is my goal as a parent, to love so much that they don't want to do anything but obey, because they know I have nothing but the best in mind for them, and want them to succeed. Just like God wants for us. So why are we consistently (metaphorically) awake and screaming at 3 am? I believe that just like Noah got caught up in his present circumstances of illness, we get caught up in whatever is going on in our own lives as well. We are too easily distracted.

Or is it something else? I welcome your thoughts and comments, and you are welcome to join us as we explore this idea further on Sunday at Cornerstone.