Yesterday at work I went to lunch with some friends from work. The conversation turned toward spiritual matters (one colleague is a Christian, the other a Hindu).

It was one of those conversations . . . one in which I could have steered things way, way more toward the necessity and exclusivity of Jesus and farther away from the ecumenical "all religions are at their core the same" direction the talk went. Long story on that. But I got tongue-tied, and I could not figure out a way to get the right word in.

I didn't add anything of value to the conversation. This is ridiculous. What on earth is wrong with me?

I would appreciate prayer in this area, plus would love to hear about more positive experiences if you have some to share. I admit that I struggle a lot with personal evangelism.

Thanks.

This little boy's name is Aidan. He was born with a congenital heart defect last week and he's having open heart surgery today in Fort Worth. Please pray for him.

The following is from Spurgeon's Morning and Evening devotional for July 7th. In reading it I was reminded how much our pastors need prayer.

Please pray for the pastors in the Thinklings (Jared and Phil) and for your own pastor this morning.

“Brethren, pray for us.”
1 Thessalonians 5:25

This one morning in the year we reserved to refresh the reader’s memory upon the subject of prayer for ministers, and we do most earnestly implore every Christian household to grant the fervent request of the text first uttered by an apostle and now repeated by us. Brethren, our work is solemnly momentous, involving weal or woe to thousands; we treat with souls for God on eternal business, and our word is either a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. A very heavy responsibility rests upon us, and it will be no small mercy if at the last we be found clear of the blood of all men. As officers in Christ’s army, we are the especial mark of the enmity of men and devils; they watch for our halting, and labour to take us by the heels. Our sacred calling involves us in temptations from which you are exempt, above all it too often draws us away from our personal enjoyment of truth into a ministerial and official consideration of it. We meet with many knotty cases, and our wits are at a non plus; we observe very sad backslidings, and our hearts are wounded; we see millions perishing, and our spirits sink. We wish to profit you by our preaching; we desire to be blest to your children; we long to be useful both to saints and sinners; therefore, dear friends, intercede for us with our God. Miserable men are we if we miss the aid of your prayers, but happy are we if we live in your supplications. You do not look to us but to our Master for spiritual blessings, and yet how many times has He given those blessings through His ministers; ask then, again and again, that we may be the earthen vessels into which the Lord may put the treasure of the gospel. We, the whole company of missionaries, ministers, city missionaries, and students, do in the name of Jesus beseech you

“Brethren, pray for us .”

From a dear friend in Nashville:

Asking for prayers for our area of the country. Just in case you went to the bathroom during the 45 short seconds that national news covered this (OK, that may be a slight exaggeration but the oil spill and crazy would be bomber is getting more publicity than we are!) Nashille is completely flooded out. It's unbelievable.

Me and my family are thankfully OK, but I have a lot of friends who have lost much, or everything... Just asking for your prayers for our forgotten city... It's surreal and crazy. Words can't describe it. It's as bad, or worse than hurricane hit places. Love you guys!

I realize that vague prayer requests make it hard to know what to pray for, but if you have the time and inclination, please say a prayer one very dear to me who is hurting, and for the healing of those hurts and for hope. Your prayers are much appreciated!

Saw this over at Jared's blog:

Please continue to pray for Michael Spencer. If you are able, I know he and his wife would appreciate your donation (click on the PayPal Donate link at his site). He has lost his job now, having exceeded approved FMLA leave, and it's not like he was bankin' anyway. His medical bills will be killer.

This MLK day please take some time to pray for LIFE!



Prayer makes a difference.

Major Earthquake Hits Haiti

An olive branch. And a cry for help?



In the top 5 best hard rock bands ever? Discuss. :-)

Please pray for Matt Chandler, Pastor of the Village Church outside Dallas, and for his wife and kids and church. After suffering a seizure and falling last week, he was rushed to the hospital where an MRI disclosed a mass in his frontal lobe. He is undergoing surgery to remove the tumor on Friday. The neurosurgeons are not sure of its malignancy but will perform a biopsy.

Matt's preaching and ministry have impacted thousands and thousands, including me.

His statements reveal his rock solid faith in the sovereign goodness of God and a peace that passes understanding.

Let's pray this is all some huge mistake. Or that God heals him.

He's having surgery this morning. From his blog:

I saw the surgeon yesterday and the news wasn't good. My CT scan revealed not only a large tumor on the colon but a tumor on my liver and 2 nodules on my lungs. Needless to say this was a pretty big blow.

The treatment plan as of now is this. I have surgery scheduled for tomorrow - December 24th at 11:00am at Harbor Hospital in Baltimore. After that I am to immediately begin receiving chemotherapy.

The Reformissionary has posted his family's 2008 Christmas picture. I think this is a hoot, and heartwarming too, considering the serious health issues the family has been dealing with this year (his wife Molly is suffering from a neurological disease called Chiari I Malformation). This is a neat picture of joy and perseverance in trials.



Their 2007 picture is also awesome.

Please pray for the McCoys this Christmas.

Aka, the Jollyblogger. He has colon cancer.

Saturday morning I told my girls that I would take them to see Bolt at the theater that afternoon.
They played sweetly together most of the morning, but midway through the day they just kept getting on each other's nerves, and after several warnings to stop didn't prevent them from aggravating each other, I finally employed the nuclear option. "Never mind on the movie," I said and explained why.

An hour or so later, I was giving them a bath in preparation for errands. I had decided that I would spring the movie on them as a surprise and use my changed mind as a way to explain grace to them (which Becky and I do a lot).

During the bath, Grace said, "I've gotta get my neck clean because I can't take dirt on my neck into the movie theater."

"Why do you think you're going to a movie?" I asked. "I told you we weren't."

She looked at me unfazed and said, "Yeah, but I prayed to God and said I'd be sweet and I know he'll give me a second chance."

Turns out after I left the room after taking the movie plan away, both girls decided to pray to God to apologize for not being sweet and to ask for another chance.

Isn't it awesome that we worship the God of second (and third and fourth and fifth . . .) chances?

It was also weird and fun to have been the unwitting answer to my daughters' prayer!

(We're still working on the concept of being sweet not to avoid consequences or to have consequences rescinded but because it's the right thing to do. :-)

I don't know if you've ever read much P.J. O'Rourke, but he's one of my favorite humorists and writers. His is an interesting story of a hard-drinking, cutting edge journalist and satirist with a leftist hippy past who is now, of all things, a Republican.

Well, P.J. has cancer. Please pray for him. Thankfully, it's of a kind that is usually curable, and he has even written a very funny article about it. A snippet (note: contains some slightly off-color language):

I have, of all the inglorious things, a malignant hemorrhoid. What color bracelet does one wear for that? And where does one wear it? And what slogan is apropos? Perhaps that slogan can be sewn in needlepoint around the ruffle on a cover for my embarrassing little doughnut buttocks pillow.

Furthermore, I am a logical, sensible, pragmatic Republican, and my diagnosis came just weeks after Teddy Kennedy's. That he should have cancer of the brain, and I should have cancer of the ass ... well, I'll say a rosary for him and hope he has a laugh at me. After all, what would I do, ask God for a more dignified cancer? Pancreatic? Liver? Lung?

Which brings me to the nature of my prayers. They are, like most prayers from most people, abject self-pleadings. However, I can't be the only person who feels like a jerk saying, "Please cure me, God. I'm underinsured. I have three little children. And I have three dogs, two of which will miss me. And my wife will cry and mourn and be inconsolable and have to get a job. P.S. Our mortgage is subprime."

God knows this stuff. He's God. He's all-knowing. What am I telling him, really? "Gosh, you sure are a good God. Good -- you own it. Plus you're infinitely wise, infinitely merciful, but ... look, everybody makes mistakes. A little cancer of the behind, it's not a big mistake. Not something that's going on your personal record. There's no reason it can't be, well ... reversed, is there?"

No doubt death is one of those mysterious ways in which God famously works. Except, on consideration, death isn't mysterious. Do we really want everyone to be around forever? I'm thinking about my own family, specifically a certain stepfather I had as a kid. Sayonara, you s.o.b.

Napoleon was doubtless a great man in his time -- at least the French think so. But do we want even Napoleon extant in perpetuity? Do we want him always escaping from island exiles, raising fanatically loyal troops of soldiers, invading Russia and burning Moscow?

Well, at the moment, considering Putin et al, maybe we do want that. But, century after century, it would get old. And what with Genghis Khan coming from the other direction all the time and Alexander the Great clashing with a Persia that is developing nuclear weapons and Roman legions destabilizing already precarious Israeli-Palestinian relations -- things would be a mess.

Here's the Situation:

My mom has a friend in the UK who recently came to Christ. She has NO Christian community and is hungry for it. All the churches in her area are old beautiful buildings with dead congregations.

Is there some sort of directory of Bible-believing evangelical fellowships?

Is there a person or ministry over there that she can contact?

I know that they have had some dynamite Bible conferences over there before, is there a website that lists such things?

Do you have any suggestions so I can try and get this lady in touch with a genuine Bible-teaching, spiritually-growing Christian community?

Please pray for long-time Thinklings friend Songstress.

Saw this post on Francis Chan's video blog yesterday and it really challenged me.



I don't know if I'm totally sold on the logic as a mandate (Chan himself does not save for emergencies or retirement), but I am totally sold on the spirit behind it.

I'm dying inside, it feels like. Despair over a situation, over a slow-motion heartbreak, is taking over right now and I'm having trouble hanging on to hope.

Your prayers would be wonderful.

In a short while I'll feel better, and I'll post normal stuff and it will be like nothing is wrong. Who knows, I might even delete this post.

But I could sure use prayer right now.

Thanks.

Fox News Nashville reports:

According to state troopers one of [Steven Curtis] Chapman's teenage sons was pulling into their Williamson county home tonight when he hit his five year old sister.

The little girl was pronounced dead at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.