Transforming Prayer, by Daniel Henderson, offers a fresh look at an old practice. The subtitle says it all “How everything changes when you seek God’s face”. I’m probably like most believers in that I pray daily, still feel that I don’t pray enough, but am not motivated enough to make the life changes necessary to have time to pray more. Henderson takes a different approach. Rather than making us feel guilty for not praying more, he declares that prayer can be interesting and enjoyable and transforming. It’s not a question of trudging through dry, obligatory prayer sessions, it is a matter of actually connecting with the Lord. As I read the first few chapters, I found myself eager to learn more, and to experience this transforming prayer myself.
His descriptions of how to improve our standard prayer methods were thought provoking. “We pray about personal problems, while most of the biblical prayers focus on Christ’s purposes.”(p.87) I checked this myself and found that he is right. My own prayers (and most of the prayers I hear around me) tend to be disproportionately about my own needs and the concerns of people around me. He explaines that it is not bad to pray for these things, but that our prayer lists risk superseding the Holy Spirit.
My main complaint was that I would have liked him to give an extended example of what worship based prayer would sound like. While the book contained a lot of instructions, and model sentences, and suggestions for how to begin, I would have liked to see a sample that put it all together. Of course, the risk of publishing such a sample is that the freshness would be lost, but even a historic snapshot would be helpful.
[Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Bethany House Publishers as part of their Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ]
Monday, March 14, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Cuba
Many of you know that I visited Cuba last year, and were disappointed that I didn't blog about it. Unfortunately, I just couldn't figure out how to say anything that was really meaningful without endangering the people we went to visit.
But I thought I could at least give some generalities. First of all, it is actually possible to travel legally, as long as you obtain a license from the U.S. Department of treasury. A church or religious organization can obtain such a license.
The answer to many questions about Cuba is "it's complicated." People have asked me if Christianity is legal. It is legal to be a Christian, and to go to church, but it is not legal to build a church. We wanted to support and encourage the pastors without calling attention to them.
The faith of the pastors was astounding and humbling. Meeting them made me understand how circumstantial our faith is in the American church. What I mean by this is that we may hope for something, or pray about something, but if circumstances throw up obstacles, we say that God closed the door, and we give up. And we think that is faith. The pastors in Cuba handle things totally differently. They pray about things, and hear from the Lord, and they are not dissuaded even if circumstances look totally impossible.
Please don't comment and ask about the politics. My visit was not for the sake of politics, and I don't want to get distracted by issues that are outside of our control.