Me and my buddy
Also, I just wanted to share something I got via email today from my oh so wise daddy. He was responding to an email in which someone had sent a petition to get prayer back into a particular school. My dad has pretty great experience with this subject after dealing with "Prayer-gate" at Wingfield High School about 15 years ago.
I can't tell you enough how proud I am to be this man's daughter. I am what I am today because of him and the things that he had taught me and the way that he has shown me to follow, obey, serve and trust my Lord and Savior.
Here is his response. Think about it.
"I’m sorry, but any time I get anything about putting prayer back in schools I want to question 'Where did prayer go?!' The scriptures tell us to go into the prayer closet. Jesus wants us to realize that it is our hearts and not the volume of our prayers that he hears. We all know that prayer is one of the most powerful things associated with the Christian faith but it is also the most personal. We as members of the faith family should openly share with others our personal concerns as well as those for others ('where two or three are gathered…').
Here is the other side of that coin. If we were to allow 'prayer' in schools as it was when we were young, who would pray??? The Christians of course, right, huh? Of course, we would say the Christians but the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Muslim, Wicker, Satan’s church of what is happening now are asking why not them. We cannot allow the schools to become a platform for religions and cults to infect our children with pretty self-absorbing stories or philosophies. Diversity is a wonderful thing. It broadens our children’s minds but we are talking about a foundational stone of most religions and surely one of the Christian way of life.
Please consider this when you are approached with the 'Prayer in Schools Thing.' If those who claim to push this platform are genuinely that concerned, they should start a 'Campus Life Club', a 'Fellowship of Christian Athletes Club', or a 'Baptist Student Union High School Addition'. Then they can put an genuine emphasis on pray and praying for the changing of negative things in our school and homes of those who attend schools."
Bobby Walden
“The Assistant Principal Of Prayer”
Wingfield High School 1992-1994
I'm currently doing two bible studies (church and work) that just happen to be going through James. Maybe God really wants me to learn something from James, huh? I encourage you to read it. It's only five short chapters, and last night we compared it to a well written essay, but it's chock full of God's truth that is forever applicable. It's an easy read, time-wise, but a hard one. Very convicting but also very encouraging.
Last night in my church bible study, we finished up the book and talked about chapter five. The last seven verses talk about prayer and the power of prayer. I don't think that I've seen the power of prayer played out in my life more than this past year. It's amazing and it's overwhelming to look back and see how God has worked in my life and the lives of those around me. I'm currently trying to memorize this book because there is so much truth and so much wisdom that I just want to have it in my brain all of the time. I encourage you to do the same. Think of it as 109 verses, not a five chapters of the Bible. Doesn't sound as daunting of a task now, does it?
Here are the last seven verses. Meditate on them and really see how James explains the simpleness, yet complexity, and the power of God through prayer.
13 Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. 14 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.
16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! 18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.
19 My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, 20 you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.
See also James Chapter one. This is like the thesis statement of the well-written essay. This is good stuff people!
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