By Paul Koch – To ask something of someone else ought to be the most natural and easy […]
Prayer
By Paul Koch – Holy sh*t! Did you hear Paula White’s opening prayer for the official launch of […]
By Cindy Koch – As a Christian, it should be a natural thing to know how to pray. […]
By Paul Koch –
My arrival at her home was announced long before I rang the doorbell. Two little dogs proclaimed the approach a visitor by the time I started down the driveway. I was going to visit a dear old member of my congregation. I had been to her home many times before, and each time began the same way: with the hushing of yapping dogs and clearing off a place to sit.
By Graham Glover –
Another gun tragedy. Another debate.
This time though the debate isn’t about whether we need more or better guns laws. This time it’s about prayer. That’s right, prayer. 26 people were innocently slaughtered while worshiping God and now we’re having a debate on whether Christians offering prayers of condolence and support are enough.
By Graham Glover –
“We will pray for peace every day, but at the same time, the U.S. Army will prepare for war.”
(Army Chief of Staff, General Mark A. Milley, 9 October 2017)
These words, spoken by the most senior uniformed Army officer, could have been spoken by a theologian. They might even make for a good introduction to a sermon.
By Cindy Koch –
It was only 6:15 in the morning when the radio clicked on in the dark, cold car. “49 confirmed dead, but that number will surely rise…” It took my breath away to hear the first audible voice of the day speaking about such horrific events that had passed as our night broke into daylight. Suddenly radio screams and tap-tap-tap gunshots pierced our sickly curious silence. Right in the middle of our daily drive to the gym, tragedy stretched it’s sting across the airwaves – and without parental permission, it touched my family car.
By Scott Keith –
When the disciples of Christ Jesus asked him how to pray, he gave a somewhat uncharacteristically forthright answer. He uttered the words for them to repeat in what has come to be known as the Lord’s Prayer. From that time forward, the Lord’s Prayer has been a staple of catechetical instruction when one Christian attempts to teach another Christian the “basics” of the Christian faith. Accordingly, Martin Luther included this surprisingly simple prayer in his Small Catechism, along with a few questions and answers for the young to memorize, contemplate, and hopefully, one day, make an organic part of who they are in their Christian faith. Thus, Luther begins his section on the Lord’s Prayer by giving an exhortation to the “Head of the House,” and simply listing the text of the prayer.
By Ross Engel –
Few things are quite as frustrating as waiting for a response. Whether you’re waiting for a response to an email, a returned phone call, an answer to a question, or a million other things, time sure seems to drag on and on while you wait. And the longer one waits, the more frustrated they get. It’s easy to get impatient.
By Ross Engel –
When tragedy strikes, the thing to do these days is to start a hash tag campaign. It is short, easy to do, and takes no effort or action on the part of the individual. By posting with the right hash tag, everyone else who is using the same hash tag knows that you stand in solidarity with them. Some events even come with their own background pictures that you can use to change your social media profile picture to really show your support. One of the best things about a hash tag campaign is that the folks that don’t know about it or don’t use the hash tag, are an opportunity for the hash tag user to tout some moral superiority, even if they aren’t actually doing what has been hash tagged. Seriously, how many people actually are praying for whatever it is they’ve hash tagged?
By Joyce L. C. Keith –
My courageous wife, Joy (husband to Pappy, mom of three, and grandmother of one), has decided to join in the fray and weigh in with her own blog post this week. I love her little post. She originally entitled it “Wish, Hope, or Pray?” But, her post makes me think of that M. C. Hammer song, so I renamed it “That’s Why We Pray”! I hope you enjoy Joy’s contribution to The Jagged Word!
I am one of those people… I can walk up to anyone, anytime and start a conversation. One of my old bosses said that I have the “Gift of Gab,” but in a right way.
By Bob Hiller – Well, dear readers, I come to you this lovely Friday confessing my shame. I […]
By Paul Koch – Mark 9:14-29 finds our Lord along with Peter, James, and John being reunited with […]
By Graham Glover – Pray for our president. Pray for him by name. Pray that God would watch […]
By Paul Koch – A little framed picture hangs to the right of the door exiting my study […]
By Ross Engel – I came across this piece of art. It was painted in 1872 by a […]
By Graham Glover – That is not a misprint. We should pray for ISIS. We should pray that […]
“The most contrary of experiences in prayer is to learn to defy one’s own death. Death, like sin, […]