My friend Mike prays as follows to begin his time with his Bible each morning. (An original.)

Grant by your mercy, heavenly Father, to focus my mind and soften my heart that these thy words may be written therein, to inform and guide me that I, better the man that you created me to be, might walk henceforth in your ways reflecting the light of your love to the greater glory of your name. Amen.

(Also read his books FATHERS (autobiographical) and What If….)

Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 9f1e2241449ed2bfe4b4823be61280d8b47f6ee50b507b90d03f961fb36b0b6b923f017aa0d2b0316cb991ac36f7508ea29758e8ff77f71a9b138c10392a7678

In context. Luke 17:20–37 ESV via tbc0.com/archives/162

Syndicating my first “real” content from my “Minifeed” — a project of the Knowledge Standards Foundation. My post is about #prayer.

I know my Father hears my groans
I want to honor Him with words
A framework of memorized poetic / prose prayers forms a firm foundation; my groans are like incense rising up to Him; above memorized are extemporaneous prayers; above that and below groans may be tongues
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I don’t have a micro.blog tag for prayer. It’s categorized as theology, cosmology, and culture, which I find to be a harmonious combination.

And for anyone who’s seen my sha256sum tweets, here is my style:

$ cat tbc0.com/archives/135;sha256sum tbc0.com/archives/135
On prayer

I know my Father hears my groans
I want to honor Him with words
A framework of memorized poetic / prose prayers forms a firm foundation; my groans are like incense rising up to Him; above memorized are extemporaneous prayers; above that and below groans may be tongues, but He has not seen fit to give me that gift
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$

Image credit: svgsilh.com/image/2025655.html

This prophet lived about 2700 years ago. How much longer must we wait for this to come to pass? I’m especially thinking of the new law in Texas that protects unborn children after their heartbeat is detected. Clever design of the law. But this prophecy is protection for those who accuse, not the accusers. The ESV puts it a little differently than Prof. Peterson’s paraphrase. “You shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.” The other parts of the prophecy sound good, too. Lord Jesus come quickly.

“Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied: I’m about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise, Lay your foundations with sapphires, construct your towers with rubies, Your gates with jewels, and all your walls with precious stones. All your children will have God for their teacher— what a mentor for your children! You’ll be built solid, grounded in righteousness, far from any trouble—nothing to fear! far from terror—it won’t even come close! If anyone attacks you, don’t for a moment suppose that I sent them, And if any should attack, nothing will come of it. I create the blacksmith who fires up his forge and makes a weapon designed to kill. I also create the destroyer— but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged. Any accuser who takes you to court will be dismissed as a liar. This is what God ’s servants can expect. I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.” God ’s Decree. — Isaiah 54:11–17 (MSG)

Good politics begin with good theology. Prayers are essential. I was struck by Listener prayers for our nation, podcasted this morning.

I love that the first prayer offered is #24 For an Election, from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide the people of the United States (or of this community) in the election of officials and representatives; that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I should have prayed that before now. Never too late in tight races, though.

I wondered about one of the other prayers and found an English translation. It’s a prayer by Calvin.

Here is my own lightly edited version of that one for good measure:

Father, the depravity of our nature is so great that we cannot bear prosperity without some wantonness of the flesh immediately raging in us and without becoming arrogant against you. Grant that we may profit under the trials of the cross; and when you have blessed us, may we, with lowly hearts, renouncing our perverseness, submit ourselves to you, bearing your yoke submissively. And may we proceed in this obedience all our lives, and so contend against all temptations as never to glory in ourselves, and feel also convinced that all true and real glory is laid up for us in you, until we shall enjoy it in your celestial kingdom, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

How providential is it that Notre Dame burned during Holy Week? Then how providential that in the first week after Resurrection Sunday this is a headline? “Crystal Cathedral, home to the ‘Hour of Power,’ transforms into Catholic seat”

Oh. My. God. And I mean that with all reverence. This is amazing. Crystal Cathedral, founded by televangelist Rev. Robert Schuller, is on the verge of being dedicated as Christ Cathedral! (christcathedralcalifornia.org)

“We’re buying a used cathedral. That’s never happened before.” Doesn’t God work in mysterious ways?

Rev. Schuller says this a lot: “God loves you, and so do I.” I have found myself using that more and more lately. Somehow, between high school and college, I was mostly added to Rev. Schuller’s bulk mailing list. Mostly. One letter off. He (not he but the computer printing the letters) called me Rimothy Chambers. I can’t remember whether he had my college address or my family forwarded my mail. I distinctly remember, though, that I was a freshman at MIT, living on the first floor of the west building of East Campus. (That’s an odd name for a dormitory, I know. But I just double-checked to see if I only remember it as a nickname. Nope. It’s official, in its constitution). I can say I lived in Hayden House, though nobody calls it that. (But if you’re reading this and go to the trouble of telling me the names from your memory of the other 5 EC houses, I’ll put something in your crypto wallet.) Anyway, while living in the dorm I wrote Rev. Shuller a letter asking how he could love me when he didn’t even know my name. I kinda gloated when the Crystal Cathedral went bankrupt nine years ago. How forgiving God is of my self-righteousness. Who am I to judge Rev. Schuller?

I am so encouraged by this turn of events. I hope to worship at Christ Cathedral the next time I’m in the area.

Image credit christcathedralcalifornia.org/explore/architecture/

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I don’t believe in luck. Studying quantum mechanics ruined it for me. (Not that I understand the math. Yet.) Well, QM and coming to believe the core doctrines of Christianity. No room for luck. God is Love.

That’s as I said today in a “just for fun” discussion; TechWell Hub. (Slack account required but requests are promptly accepted).

Milestone: my first post after upgrading to the paid micro.blog service.

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