Sounding the Shofar

I happen to have two shofars in my home. A shofar, if you are not familiar with it, is a ram's horn.  It is a natural trumpet used especially by the Jews to commence biblical holidays or feast days. 

The first shofar I picked up on my trip to Israel, right from one of the shops in the old walled city of Jerusalem. I thought I was very clever to have bargained my way down from $125 to $75...only to find out upon my return home that I could have gotten the same item for $25 on the internet! I comforted myself that it would mean more to me having hand-carried it (practically) all the way from Jerusalem to the U.S.

And what an ordeal that was!

Getting it on the plane in Israel where EVERYONE knows what a shofar is, was no problem.  It was simply a horn and it could go easily into the overhead bin above my seat.

The folks checking us onto the second plane leaving Amsterdam had to be convinced it was just an animal's horn and decided it should not go on the overhead bin, but could be put up front in the steward's closet.  (It seemed that the further from Israel we traveled, the more suspicious the thing became!)

Until finally the ticket attendant checking us onto the third plane leaving Chicago, I think it was, saw only a potentially lethal weapon.  It could not even go inside the cabin of the plane...it had to go underneath the plane for "safety" reasons.  This particular shofar came from Yemen and is about 4 feet long and I had no suitcase that could fit it.  But a very helpful ticket agent scrambled to find a box to place it in, providing some protection as it was about to be tossed into the baggage area of the plane.  Thankfully, my shofar and I arrived home safe and sound!

It will always be my most treasured shofar, even though I have since purchased a smaller shofar, a ram's horn that is only about 1 foot long (from the internet, of course).  I have tried both horns and I prefer the longer Yemen type horn.  It makes a beautiful sound, when I can get up enough air for it!  And blowing it always reminds me that one day we believers in Jesus Christ will hear the sound of a trumpet and will be caught up into the air in the twinkling of an eye to be with our LORD forever!

"Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

"For the LORD Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the LORD in the air: and so shall we ever be with the LORD. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

How wonderful it will be!  Paul thought it would happen in his day, but it didn't...because the LORD is merciful and wants us all to have time to receive Jesus as their Savior...and so He lingers:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.  He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:16-18)

But that trumpet could sound this year, couldn't it?  If so, it might be helpful for you to know what a shofar sounds like, so you will recognize the 'trump' when it comes! (Although I think being caught up into the air might sufficiently confirm that it is indeed the "trump of God" that you hear!)

Still, somewhere I have a video that I took in Jerusalem of a Hassidic Jew who offered to show me how my shofar was played.  I will try to dig it up for the next posting.  If you have never heard a shofar blown, you are in for a treat.  There is no sound quite like it, I think.

Turns out that Jewish folks will be sounding the shofar in their synagogues soon on their holiday called Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Jewish New Year, or "The Day of the Shofar Blast."

Therefore, I would like to dedicate the next few postings to the shofar and its biblical usage.

And we might look once more, as we have done before, at the next biblical Feast that Jesus will be prophetically fulfilling Himself, during which we will hear that shofar sound! 

Still Water Sabbath Rest Moments

You have heard me say this before, and I apologize for forcing you to hear it again.

I am a firm believer that the Sabbath (Friday evening to Saturday evening) was intended to be a day of everlasting observance to those who belong to the LORD (not just Israelites, not just Jews) and that those who belong to the LORD were to "keep" the Sabbath "holy."  I find few who agree with me on the observance of the Sabbath (the seventh day), yet the same commandments that tell me not to lie, steal, kill contain that "unobserved" commandment to "observe" the Sabbath.  Modern-day Christians, for the most part, have modified "Sabbath" to mean Sunday which is actually the first day and not the seventh; and they will tell me that this is now the new "Sabbath" day because it is the day Jesus rose from the grave and that we are to keep it holy by attending church services.

I find no such "modifier" in the word of God.  Yes, I believe Jesus rose on a Sunday. Yes, I believe His resurrection is something to be remembered and be grateful for not just one day a week but on every single day that we live and have breath on this earth.  But Sunday (the first day) is not and never will be the Sabbath (the seventh day).  I think the LORD had an excellent purpose in providing us with that "lost" commandment; "lost" in that we Christians have relegated it to the orthodox Jews alone for reasons that I will never understand.

Jesus brings the full meaning of the commandments to light when he says "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.." (Matthew 5: 21-22)  Without a doubt, He makes the commandments not just that which is to be observed physically, but also to be observed spiritually, or at the heart of our being, as well. So, we know from the Old Testament that we cannot murder; but from the New Testament we learn that our hearts must not even contain the anger towards another that could bring about the act of murder.  We don't now say then, that it's ok to murder, as long as it isn't in our hearts.  We say that both are necessary...that the heart is tied into the act and that our hearts must change so that we remain in obedience to the commandment (thus the need for our Savior!) In other words, because of Jesus, we always take the commandments to mean more than what they did in the Old Testament, but we never take them to mean less.

Except, it seems, when it comes to the third commandment.  There we spiritualize the commandment only rather than keep it physically as well, opting to modify it to Sunday instead of the seventh or Sabbath Day, and thus we no longer keep it at all physically.  I know the scriptures that are used in defense of changing the Sabbath observance to Sunday, but I do not read them in the same light that years of church tradition read them. And so I choose to both physically (and with all of my heart) observe the Sabbath (beginning on Friday evening) and I consider Sunday to be a working day for me, during which I do all "as unto the LORD," just as I do every other day in order to honor the Lord, which on Sunday includes attending church services and visiting the jail and such. I am actually quite happy about this as I get to actually "rest" on Friday evenings and Saturday days, spending uninterrupted valuable time with the Lord and often with family.

On the seventh day, the LORD rested. And the Word says He "created the Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath." So what are we missing in our lives when we neglect the true Sabbath?  What is it that we are missing, that the LORD intended for us to have, since He created the Sabbath "for man" (odd that the scripture doesn't say that He created the Sabbath "for Jews")?  How many years did it take for the LORD to teach His rebellious children to truly "observe" the Sabbath?  What is it He wants to teach US, His children, about Sabbath rest?  If only we would stop and hear Him; but we just cannot do that which goes so contrary to our "working" natures.

We seldom rest, or if we do "rest" it is done in front of a television set or a computer screen. I don't think that was what the LORD intended for us by Sabbath rest.  But it is what we have made "rest" to be because we find it most difficult to just BE.

It is difficult for us to BE still.  It is difficult for us to BE quiet.  It is difficult for us to BE very "in the moment."  And thus it is difficult for us to spend time in BEING with God, being actually in His felt presence.  We spend time "asking" Him for what we need, but not in "waiting to hear" His small quiet replies; not waiting for His love, found in His presence, to overcome us and heal us from all that ails us. We have never learned Sabbath rest, because we have never been taught how to observe the Sabbath.

We are creatures of "work" - created, we believe, to achieve and acquire.  We are to be incessantly busy "redeeming the time," or otherwise put, spending every available moment (especially those moments "seen" by others around us) keeping busy, preferably in something that is directly related to the LORD's work.

And so our lives continue until something drastic happens that chases all thoughts of "work" and "achievements" and "acquisition" out of our thoughts.

Perhaps it is a severe illness (it would have to be severe enough for us not to still be able to watch television in our hospital room, of course).  Perhaps it is a death in the family. Perhaps it is the loss of everything that is dear and familiar, due to hurricane, or flood, or earthquake....

....or divorce.

It is when we are stopped dead in our very busy tracks through the the loss of health, or loved ones, or possessions, or dreams...when we find that there is no comfort available to us through any other source, no matter how hard we work even at finding that comfort...that we finally come to the end of ourselves and we sit, quietly, alone, in early mornings, or very late evening hours when all whom we know are asleep, and we experience just BEING.  And we do it ONLY because we are too tired or too ill or too mournful to do anything else.

It is then that we take time to look at all that has passed by us, those past moments that we didn't take the time to observe (because we were just so busy!) and we wonder what brought us here...to this place...to this moment of aloneness.

I recently read* that it is believed that only 10% of what happens in our life, happens because of outside circumstances.  The remaining 90% of our lives is determined by our own thoughts and thus our own choices and actions.  Thus, when we suffer (anything other than natural forces - that would be the 10%) it is mostly of our own doing.

When we are sitting in the ash heap of our lives, with no one left to blame, it is neither easy nor pleasant to reflect on how we arrived there.  But if we allow ourselves time to be honest, we will see that it is mostly of our own doing: our own choices; our own desires to acquire and achieve that which we are certain will make us happy; our own lack of waiting to hear from the LORD.

And it is here, at the end of ourselves, when there is nothing left to lose, that we can finally experience "rest."  Real Sabbath "rest."  They are but moments...Sabbath rest moments...or better yet: "still water" Sabbath rest moments.

Still water as described in the 23rd Psalm: "HE maketh me to lie down in green pastures, HE leadeth me beside the still waters; HE restoreth my soul."  HE does that, MY LORD, MY JESUS, right now, right here, right in this moment, if I will allow it.

It is when I am done with MY own thoughts, when there can't possibly be any more tears to shed, that HE comes and HE leads me to the still waters.  And I lie down there, in a place of complete safety, and I rest for a bit...even though my heart is still heavy with grief and pain...and I am comforted...for a moment, or for two, or for just a few more...

And in those moments, I rest as completely, I believe, as GOD rested on that seventh day. And I find that this moment, this moment right here, is actually GOOD.  I experience the "tidings of great joy" that run deep, just under the pain, but not quite visible on the surface...not yet.  But I won't hurry the process. I have been in too much of a hurry for all of my 62 years.  I have time now...all the time that aloneness brings...and it is the first absolute aloneness I have ever experienced.

But when I am by the still waters, I don't "feel" alone. And though I sometimes find it difficult to swim up-stream regarding Sabbath Day observance, I fully cherish these Sabbath rest moments, observing them as often as I can now, allowing the holiness of His presence to restore my soul with comfort and deep joy.

I learn from HIM in these times of Sabbath rest, how to just BE in all the moments of my future, facing them all with HIM, whatever may come.

* The Survivors Club by Ben Sherwood, 2009.





 

Of Comfort and Hope

During my recent move, I came across some photos taken on a trip to Israel in 2004.

The first is a shot of the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee where it is thought that Jesus stood (after His resurrection) and called out to the probably depressed disciples drifting aimlessly in their boat, having caught no fish all night, saying to them: "Come and eat with me."  (John 21:12)

I stood where perhaps Jesus once stood and I imagined the broken and discouraged hearts of the disciples seated together in that boat, not really fishing, their thoughts on all that they had experienced in their three years or so following Jesus...only to have it end like this?  How could their Jesus, their Lord and Savior, Son of Heaven come to earth, have been so brutally tortured and crucified?  Where was He now?  They knew He had been resurrected for He appeared to them in the room where they were all huddled together  in "fear of the Jews" (John 20:19) shortly after His death, and then again eight days later (John 20:26).  But what now?  He wasn't with them now.  They were alone.  What were they to do with all that they had experienced and witnessed? What had it all meant?

Then there came the voice calling to them from shore: "Come and eat with me."

Though His immortal body was unrecognizable to the disciples (perhaps it still retains the great scarring of his torture and death), Peter recognized the sudden miraculous filling of their net with fish as being possible only through Jesus, and was compelled by a surge of great hope to dive into the waters of the Sea of Galillee knowing that the boat couldn't possible get him to his Lord, the hope of his salvation, soon enough! (John 21)

And there, on that shore, so early in the morning perhaps that no others were around, Jesus not only dined with those who loved Him, but He even cooked the meal and served them (John 21:9, 13), a simple breakfast of bread with fresh fish cooked over a small fire (perhaps the fish was the red-bellied tilapia, known as St. Peter's fish, that is found in the waters of the lake-sized Sea of Galillee).

Yet Jesus provided them with so much more than just food; for they were once again in His presence, and for these men devoted to Him, there was no better place to be on earth.

During times of grief, pain or suffering of any kind, what better picture could we have than to know that Jesus is calling to us to "come" to Him?  The photo is now on the bulletin board hung on the wall above the desk where I write this blog; it provides comfort to me during this period in my life when I find there is no other place of solace to be found except in His presence.

And there is one other photo above my desk as well.  It is the second of my most treasured photos of Israel, and it also speaks to me of comfort and of hope...in the soon coming of the Lord to take me home with Him.

It is a photo of the eastern gate that leads in and out of the walled city of Jerusalem.  It is named the "Golden Gate."

This gate leads to the Temple Mount, being the closest one to the area that once was occupied by Solomon's Temple and by the second temple built after the first temple's destruction.  But even the second temple was destroyed, as Jesus prophesied, in 70 A.D.

The photo was taken from the Mount of Olives.  Between the eastern gate of the Temple Mount and the further eastern Garden of Gethsemane (the Garden being located at the base of the hill known as the Mount of Olives) is a somewhat deep ravine known as the Kidron Valley.  A walk of perhaps half an hour is needed to traverse the valley between the Gate and the Garden ("a Sabbath day's journey" according to Acts 1:12...a mere 2,000 cubits; or 2,000 times the length of your forearm). It is through this valley that Jesus walked after the Last Supper on His way to the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:1).  It is the same valley that David crossed as he fled Jerusalem to escape from Absalom (2 Samuel 15:23).

I recall thinking, as I stood taking that photo shot from the Mount of Olives, that one day the feet of Jesus would touch this very same ground again.  And He might perhaps take that short walk once more entering Jerusalem through that very gate, no longer riding on a lowly donkey as He did once before, but this time as the Prince of Peace that He always was and always will be; perhaps still riding that "white horse" of Revelation 6:2.

This eastern gate is the only one of the exterior gates into Jerusalem that is closed.  Here is an excerpt by Wikipedia that explains how it came to be so;

"The Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, sealed off the Golden Gate in 1541. While this may have been purely for defensive reasons, in Jewish tradition, this is the gate through which the Messiah will enter Jerusalem and it is suggested that Suleiman the Magnificent sealed off the Golden Gate to prevent the Messiah's entrance. The Ottomans also built a cemetery in front of the gate, in the belief that the precursor to the Messiah, Elijah, would not be able to pass through the Golden Gate and thus the Messiah would not come. This belief was based upon two premises. First, according to Islamic teaching Elijah is a descendant of Aaron making him a priest or kohen. Secondly, that Jewish priests are not permitted to enter a cemetery. This second premise is not wholly correct because a kohen is permitted to enter a cemetery in which primarily non-Jews are buried such as the one outside the Golden Gate.^"

But walls made by the hands of mere men will not keep the Holy One of God from passing through that eastern gate in the future. 

It wasn't until I returned home from that trip to Israel and was reading scripture, that I happened upon these passages in Ezekiel and then I understood that the gate had to be sealed, God even using the Muslim Sultan to help fulfill biblical prophecy, in order that it could be opened once more by the only One who could ever open it again according to God's own words:

"Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.  Then said the LORD unto me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.  It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.  Then brought he me to the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upon my face." (Ezekiel 44:1-4)

If I understand this first passage well, it points to what will take place in future.  But the second passage, that follows here, points to what took place over 2,000 years ago when Jesus voluntarily died on the cross to become the peace offering to God for our own sins:

"Now when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily unto the LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the east, and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offeriings, as he did on the sabbath day: then shall he go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate." (Ezekiel 46:12)

There are two arches on the eastern gate, one arch is named Repentence, the other is named Mercy. The One whose vast and great sacrificial love brings us to fall on our faces before Him in sorrowful repentance, the One who personifies and is Himself Mercy beyond all measure, showing mercy to all of us who deserve it not at all, is the One whom I long to be with, and to whom I pray as did the beloved disciple John: "Even so, come Lord Jesus."  (Revelation 22:20)

How I long for His soon coming...

The Variables of Unanswered Prayer

If you read the comments from the last posting, you will find an excellent link to an article by Robert Velarde about the reasons we are to pray.  It adds quite a bit of scriptural insight to this posting and the one before it.

I gathered a better understanding concerning unanswered prayer from the book mentioned in the last posting, that of Satan and the Problem of Evil by Gregory A. Boyd.

For example, we Christians, in our attempts to resolve difficult issues with easy answers, oversimplify when we state, as Job and his friends did, that suffering is either caused by God (His wrathful punishment for unrepentant sin) or allowed by God (His sovereignty) or caused by our own erroneous and sinful actions in which case we often believe we deserve the consequences of the suffering we are experiencing, which in an indirect way can still be blamed on a less-than-gracious-and-merciful God IF that is how we view Him. (It is an erroneous view by the way.)

We apply a similar simplistic rationale to prayer as well, specifically unanswered prayer, and state that when prayers are not answered it must be because it is not God's will for the problem to be resolved for which we petitioned His help seeking divine intervention.  We too quickly "default" to this "pat" answer of "not God's will" rather than allowing Scripture to improve our knowledge of why some prayers are answered and others are not. Scriptural knowledge again will enable us to provide scriptural answers rather than "pat" and "easy" ones that are seldom encouraging to our brethren.

Boyd provides us with several scriptural references concerning possible reasons for unanswered prayer besides the possibility that it is not God's will:

- The Quality of a Person's Faith (Matthew 17:20; 21:21; Mark 6:5-6; 1 John 5:14)

- The Persistence and Fervency of Prayer (Luke 11:5-13; 18:1-8)

- The Number and Agreement of People Praying (Matthew 18:19-20; Acts 2:1; Acts 4:24)

- Hostile Angelic Interference (Daniel 10). Here is another excerpt from Satan and the Problem of Evil (page 235):

"We must also consider the possibility that things "behind the scenes" affect the when, where and how of a payer getting answered.  As neglected as it is in conservative evangelical circles - owing, I believe, to the ongoing influence of the blueprint worldview* - the importance of the above noted variables of persistence and numbers in prayer only begins to make sense when we understand that prayer is fundamentally a warfare activity. To pray that the Father's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10) is to pray against all wills that want their own will done against the Father's will, and these opposing wills are significant.  As Wink notes, again in relation to Daniel 10, "The angel of Persia actively attempts to frustrate God's will, and for twenty-one days succeeds.  The Principalities and Powers are able to hold Yahweh at bay!" (Wink, Engaging the Powers, p.310)

If we really think about Daniel 10 and the fact that the angel of Persia succeeds against God Himself for twenty-one days...what does that tell us about God's need for prayer from us (because He chose to need it) and how it must influence the angelic battle that is at times taking place unknown to us (Ephesians 3:8-12 and 6:12)?

It tells us that God designed us to be free agents influencing all that is in our world (which by the way is also being influenced "behind the scenes" by free angelic agents working against God's will.) And  that He has chosen prayer as the method by which we submit to HIS will and influence HIS will on this earth even as we surrender OUR will to HIS.  Or better yet, as mirror images of Him, allowing our will to become ONE with HIS and thus bringing God's kingdom to earth.

And what about those free agents who choose to go their own way against God? How are we affected by them? Be assured that we will be affected by them at times, of that there is no doubt. And how does our prayer affect their influence? Do we truly live in an attitude of the reality of ongoing spiritual warfare? Or do we set aside or neglect that thing which is so intangible and difficult to comprehend rather than operate within the reality of it?

I found an extremely interesting sermon given by Greg Boyd and have provided the link to it.  His video sermon is at the bottom of the linked page that is actually a blog posting by a mother who recently lost her four-year old son to a brain tumor.  My church happens to be praying for a small child named Stella who is facing something very similar. You will find the story sad but the parents' faith inspiring; and you will find in Greg's sermon a somewhat "different" view of the "why" questions that we all ask deep within our souls during times such as this family faced.

http://jessicakelley.com/henrys-story/

I hope you will take the time to hear the sermon in its entirety.  If you listen with a discerning ear you will find it very thought provoking!  One very important quote from that sermon I believe to be very true: "Everything depends upon our view of God."  Do we approach God from a fear viewpoint or a love viewpoint?  I think I tend to vacillate back and forth myself, which is not correct.  And I think that is because of my extensive reading of the Old Testament.  I don't believe the New Testament any less than I do the Old, but I have questions about the Old that have not yet been satisfactorily answered for me which I believe influences my thinking about God as someone to be feared, even though I have absolutely no doubt that He is GOOD and LOVES me! (Perhaps that is not actually a contradiction.)

And I suspect that if I can correctly adjust my thinking (to what exactly I am not yet sure...if I knew I would already be very faithful in prayer) then my prayer life will change dramatically.

Why God Chose Prayer

Gregory A. Boyd is pastor of Woodland Hills Church near St. Paul, Minnesota and is one of my favorite authors, having written several of the books that are currently on my bookshelf: God at War, The Bible and Spiritual Conflict, 1997; Is God to Blame? Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Suffering, 2003; The Myth of a Christian Nation, How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church, 2006; The Myth of a Christian Religion, Losing Your Religion for the Beauty of a Revolution, 2009).

The following are various excerpts from pages 232-234 of one other of his books - a very large and immensely helpful book entitled Satan and the Problem of Evil, Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy, written in 2001 and published by InterVarsity Press:

“Furthermore, just as our freedom to effect things physically is irrevocable, so we may conclude that the power to effect things in prayer is also irrevocable.  Prayer is part of the general covenant of freedom that the Lord grants us, and He genuinely binds himself to it.  Scripture does not shy away from speaking of God sometimes needing humans to accomplish certain feats (Judges 5:23). Hence, we may understand that, by his own choice, God genuinely needs us to pray for certain things if they are to be accomplished, just as we may understand that God needs us to cooperate with him on a physical level for certain things to be accomplished….

…Wink captures the genuine urgency of prayer well as he comments on the fascinating narrative of prayer and spiritual conflict found in Daniel 10:

The point here seems to be that Daniel’s intercessions have made possible the intervention of God.  Prayer changes us, but it also changes what is possible for God.  Daniel’s cry was heard on the first day; it opened an aperture for God to act in concert with human freedom.  It inaugurated war in heaven.³⁴

…Wink also writes, “If we are to take the biblical understanding seriously at all, intercession….changes the world and it changes what is possible to God.”³⁵

…In my estimation, this empowering understanding of prayer makes the best sense out of the urgency with which Scripture commands us to pray.  God could have created the world differently, of course.  He could have created a world in which he did not need prayer, or any creaturely free decisions, to carry out his will.  If God needs anything, it is because he chooses to.  In my view, this is what God has done.  He chose to create a somewhat risky world in which some things genuinely hinge on what free agents do, both physically and through the power of prayer.”

Mr. Boyd goes on to give three reasons why God chose prayer to carry out his will here on earth: 

The first he labels “Personal Relationships and Empowerment” by which God empowers us to have “say-so” as a necessary tool for “morally responsible personhood” in which Boyd states that “every true interpersonal relationship requires that the parties involved be genuinely empowered over and against one another.  Where one party is wholly divested of power in relationship to the other, the dominated person becomes depersonalized. By definition, the relationship becomes impersonal rather than interpersonal. This is true of our personal relationship with God as it is with any other human.  Though we are to be unequivocally under God’s lordship, this lordship is a lordship of love that seeks to strengthen, not destroy, the personhood of the other. God thus seeks not only to influence us but also to empower us to the extent that we can influence him. Prayer is a central aspect of this realm of influence.  It preserves our personhood over and against our omnipotent Creator.”

The second reason that God chose prayer to carry out his will, according to Boyd, is for “Communication and Personal Relationships” encouraging us to “maintain consistently and even pursue more passionately our personal relationship with our Creator, and this constitutes a second possible reason why God ordained that he be significantly influenced by prayer.  The essence of any interpersonal relationship is mutually influential communication, and thus…by genuinely making things depend on whether or not we pray, God builds the necessity of a God-human communication relationship into the very structure of creation.”

And finally, God chose prayer to be “The Power of God’s Vice-regents….the very purpose for which we exist on this earth. God wants us to participate in his unending, unsurpassable triune love and to mediate this love to the segment of the cosmos under our jurisdiction….in a word, he wants his bride to reign with him on the earth (2 Timothy 2:12; Rev. 5:10; 20:6). This was his goal from the start (Genesis 1:26-27), and it will finally be accomplished in the eschaton.  In this light we may say that prayer is an essential aspect of our coreigning with God.  God wants his will carried out on earth, but he wants it carried out in cooperation with us.  Consequently, he orchestrates things such that his will is not carried out unless we are in communication with him on it.  To use an illustration from Paul Billheimer, God’s will is like a business check that must be cosigned in order to be validated.  We the church are the cosigning party, and prayer is our signing. Hence the essence of prayer is, as Jesus taught, to align our will with the Father’s will – to cosign his will, as it were – so that his rule is established “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). In prayer we begin our eternal job of mediating the Father’s will and reigning with Christ on the earth.”

³⁴ Walter Wink, Unmasking the Powers; The invisible Forces That Determine Human Existence (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986) , p. 91.

³⁵Wink, Engaging the Powers, p. 302.

I found the above texts to be some of the most helpful in moving me towards a more powerful understanding of why we pray.  I study often, I read the Word often, I pray often…but I never do any of these things as much, or even as effectively, as I believe I could.  I have always, I believe, regarded prayer as something I ought to do, and that I sometimes find difficult to do, partly by reason of not yet having sufficient knowledge or understanding of the mechanics of it. 

I relate it to a doctor telling me I need to stop (or start) a certain activity for the betterment of my health. If he just leaves it at that, without any explanation of what effect that activity might be having on my health, I most likely will not give it the importance that he, with his knowledge, understands it to be.  Knowledge is vital to us. The Bible tells us that knowledge (scriptural knowledge) is essential.

There is so much more to Boyd’s book than just these passages on prayer; subjects such as the Warfare Worldview of the Bile and the Early Church; Free Will and the Origin of Evil; Divine Foreknowledge and the Trinitarian Warfare Worldview; Issues Surrounding the Foreknowledge of God and the Openness of the Future; Risk and the Sovereignty of God; The Irrevocability and the Finitude of Freedom; Miracles, Prayer and the Arbitrariness of Life; Eternal Suffering; Hell; The Victory of God.

But these passages on prayer, in particular, have given me a new and better understanding of why I should pray. All three of the reasons stated were refreshing to me in my prayer life, yet, specifically, the third reason given above had the most impact on me as I have recently been very compelled to understand in greater depth what it means to be “the bride of Christ” having recently become “husbandless” after 23 years of marriage and having spent a few months grieving over the loss of not only my relationship and all it entailed, but also grieving over the loss of my identity as “wife.”  Thankfully the Lord helped me find my identity again, in Christ where it was all along, as He reminded me that I was HIS bride and that this divine relationship would never be at risk of ending, on that I was guaranteed with an eternal promise.

It is very clear to me that Paul greatly understood the significance of prayer and why he often said he was praying “always” and “unceasingly” for the church.  The disciples understood it as well, when they gathered together in prayer, knowing that just as a large group of people is sometimes needed to remove large physical obstacles that just one person alone could not move, so can a large group of pray-ers more effectively and more quickly move large spiritual obstacles. [This analogy was provided in this book as well.]

In both cases, Paul and the disciples truly understood that they had been made co-heirs with Christ and co-regents over that domain which Christ had returned to them by his death and resurrection: earth and all who are on it.

Without a doubt, they understood clearly both the purpose and the power of prayer and why God chose to use it to effect His will here on earth…through us…the bride of Christ…a most personal and intimate relationship where there need never be a lack of communication with each other, and where, truly, each can know what the other is thinking at all times.  What a wonderful and perfect marriage it has the potential of being…if only we, the church, would pray!  Always and unceasingly…