The Language Of Prayer

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My friend David has been writing some wonderful stuff lately. He may be a Boomer in the Pew, but he captures a deep truth about the helplessness of prayer.

Many recognize that there are times of great stress and strain when speech fails us as we seek God’s counsel. Our vocabulary is impotent to frame the words to express our love, faith, doubts, pain, and joy.

In like manner, when the sky is blue and the clouds are wispy white, one does not barge into the presence of the Eternal King. Appearing before the throne of Grace is a privilege purchased by the shed blood of our Savior Jesus Christ. It should leave you speechless on occasions.

There are times when words completely fail me in my attempts to communicate with my heavenly Father.

These may be times of great affection and praise, as God’s Holy Spirit stirs within me, or times where I am feeling completely lost, and long for my Father’s loving presence.

When these deep feelings arise, God instructs us to allow the Holy Spirit to speak on our behalf.

Romans 8:26, “…but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.“

Thanks David. This post refreshes my spirit.

A Boomer in the Pew: Prayer and Praise to My Sovereign King.

NOW for Sarah Palin? – the evangelical outpost

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Shelley Mandell, President of the L.A. Chapter of the National Organization for Women, heartily endorsed Sarah Palin at the October 4th rally in Carson, CA. (See the video) Elena, with the California NOW chapter, sent me an email reminding me that NOW has very clearly distanced itself from Ms. Mandell with a strongly worded statement in favor of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnojw62Epr8

In fairness to Elena, she did help me find an article on the NOW website opposing the blatant sexism displayed toward Sarah Palin.

Thanks Elena.

NOW for Sarah Palin? – the evangelical outpost.

Stating The Obvious

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Perhaps the most popluar daytime gabfest for #women is The View.  The LA Times has just realized that they have been talking about #politics. And sometimes they fight.

Well, DUH!

Here’s Your Sign.

How Observant Of The LA Times: “These days, even ‘The View’ is getting political” | Right Voices.

McCain Talks About Personal Faith

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I have read several stories over the years about John McCain’s Christian faith.  He is of a generation of men that were taught to let their actions do the talking. I am pleased he is beginning to verbalize his faith in Jesus Christ and how that faith helped him as a POW.

John McCain has finally begun to talk his walk with Jesus. Until recently, the details about the Republican presidential nominee’s Christian convictions were missing in action. Starting this summer, McCain and some of his closest Vietnam War-era buddies began pulling back the narrative curtain.

These war stories reveal McCain’s stoic, generically Christian spirituality and his honor-driven self-discipline. During his five-plus years as a prisoner in Hanoi, McCain had many defining religious moments.

Talking the Walk | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.

old theology books

Theological Studies For Pastors And Others

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Between Two Worlds has a great post on how pastors can keep current with theological study. After almost 30 years as a pastor, I can attest to the difficulty with moving forward in this area. Staying up with current works on culture and biblical study is challenging. Finding time for personal reflecction is hard when you have read the passage many times before. The press of daily duties always looms large.

1. Build it into the things you’re already doing. (QT, sermon prep, discipling, etc.)

2. Stop wasting so much time on the internet. (pick just 2 or 3 blogs to read, and look at them once a week; stop wasting time updating your Facebook, Linkedin, and MySpcae pages, etc.)

3. Always have a book nearby. (capture the spare moments)

4. Build time for reading and reflection into your schedule. (you’ll be amazed how much time is freed up if you do #2! But beware, a pastor’s schedule abhors a vacuum, so if you don’t block out the time, something else will fill it in.)

5. Have a plan. (if you aim at nothing you’re sure to hit it.)

6. Read primary sources, not commentary. (you don’t have time to waste on the commentators. Read the Bible and the people who have written important theology. You can do it. You don’t need a PhD to read Luther, Calvin, Augustine, Edwards, Grudem, Frame, etc)

7. Don’t do it alone. (cultivate a theological conversation among your leaders. They will correct your idiosyncrasies and keep you accountable. It will also create a culture of theological seriousness in your church, which will benefit everyone.)

8. Let the Scriptures, not our culture, set the agenda. (Trying to keep up with our culture’s agenda is a chasing after the wind. On the other hand, if the Scriptures set the agenda, you’ll be ready for anything the cultures blows at you.)

9. Church History and Historical Theology are the pastors Cliff Notes to theology. (Other people, smarter than me, have already faced the stuff I face and have figured a lot of things out. I can stand on their shoulders and look like a genius! The cultural package may have changed, but there’s nothing new under the sun.)

Between Two Worlds: How Busy Pastors Can Work Theological Development into Their Schedules.

Rage On The Front Page

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Just when I was gaining some confidence that the MSM was exercing a bit of fairness.

faith and factsAlert Paul Krugman and Frank Rich! There’s another outbreak of campaign-induced rage to report. Dissent has been stifled. Free speech is under assault.

By Democrats.

Oh, never mind.

If it were a Republican mob, you know this would be front page on the NYT and echoed on MSNBC, Jon Stewart, David Letterman, etc., etc., etc….

Michelle Malkin » More Democratic rage not on the front page.

The Right To Vote

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My last post sparked quite bit of discussion on an oblique topic; does a Right to vote exist? The email traffic was also filled with statements that essentially said, “I don’t want any more Conservatives to vote,” and “I don’t want any more Liberals to vote.”

Is there a Right to vote? To fully answer such a question requires the definition of almost every term in the debate. Is their a legal right to vote? While not enumerated as such in the Constitution, I believe the answer is yes. Is there a philosophical right to vote? Again, I think yes. This is a much deeper discussion involving the legal, social and philosophical background of the founding of America as well as the French Revolution. In this tiny space I merely offer my opinion that a right to vote exists in the fabric of the American soul.

The best dissent came from my friend and fellow blogger Eric at Self-Composed. We met through StumbleUpon, the social blogging network, and quickly enjoyed exchanging information and personal insights. Besides, Eric lives in Hawaii which has vaulted him to epic status in my pantheon of blogger friends.

He has has touched a nerve where I confess I do not have a simple answer. His post, Voting Is Not A Right, is a must read in my opinion. What about the lazy, uninformed, uneducated, nearly senseless voters of our day? Often, these voters are labeled the Undecided. Here is a particularly pithy section:

“Voting is serious business and it should be left to serious people who are already invested and engaged. If someone needs to be bribed, cajoled, begged, or pleaded with before they’ll get off their dead ass and go register, they shouldn’t be involved in the political process. If someone needs to track them down and stick a registration form in their face and give them a pep talk, they shouldn’t be voting.”

As always, there are bigger issues in our country than the candidates for the two major parties and Eric has raised one. Questions of vision and what we want out country to be like abound. While the election is, in some sense, about which candidate can best deliver those things, Eric is correct in pointing out that voters should be educated and informed.

Laziness in Democracy eventually leads to tyranny.

Online Voter Registration

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I am praying that over 150,000,000 people will register and vote in this election season. The opportunity to vote is both a right and a privilege. With the advent of the Internet, online voter registration is easier than ever. While concerns over voter fraud have attorneys piling up the fees, it should not keep anyone away from the polls. You should register online and vote.

Several sites are listed below that show how to register online to vote. Voter registration websites can be just as partisan as our political parties. I have tried to be fair and balanced by including Republicans, Democrats and Others.

Remember to register online for early or absentee voting.

Just Vote
Rock the Vote
Democrat registration form
Republican registration form

Abortion And Obama

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The National Right to Life Committee continues to challenge Barack Obama for his stance on abortion and his roll in the Illinois, Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. One should reasonably ask, “What did the BAIPA do?”

It established in black-letter law that for all legal purposes, any baby who was entirely expelled from his or her mother, and who showed any of the specified signs of life (breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles), was to be regarded as a legal person for however long he or she lived, and that this applied whether or not the birth was the result of an abortion or of spontaneous premature labor.

Barack Obama voted against this bill.

When David Brody confronted Obama about it, he called the NRLC liars and repeated his claim that the NRLC was lying during his interview with Pastor Rick Warren.  Later, Obama had to admit they were correct.  Fact Check confirmed this in August, stating,

… Obama’s claim is wrong. In fact, by the time the HHS Committee voted on the bill, it did contain language identical to the federal act.

Obama then claimed it was because the bill lacked certain language he thought it needed. Again, he lied.

The NRLC uncovered documentation that refuted Obama’s contention that he voted against SB1082 because it didn’t have the same “neutrality clause” of the federal BAIPA that protected abortionists.

Barack Obama owes the NRLC an apology for calling them liars, and he owes the American people an explanation of why he really opposed this bill.  It would have prevented no abortions, but would have required doctors to provide normal care for infants born alive after surviving an abortion.

Obama pretends that existing law already required this, but he knows that’s a lie as well.  The Attorney General told the legislature that the law didn’t prevent this from happening, and that the legislature needed to make the law more clear.  That’s why the legislature considered this bill on three separate occasions.  Obama voted against it all three times, and killed it in his committee in 2003.

The National Right to Life Committee video ad

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h80mSgsQ6CU

While conservative bloggers have criticized Barack Obama for his views on abortion and what amounts to infanticide, it is significant that even the NY Times looks askance at Obama’s opposition to this bill. The Chicago Tribune has articles here and here that are lengthy and, to me, stunning.