Recently, I witnessed the power of prayer up close when my wife was undergoing some scary medical tests. This wasn’t the first time prayer has played a critical role in my life, but it is certainly one of the more recent.

This event concerning my wife, coupled with a growing desire to pray for my friends, has caused me to ponder prayer extensively over the last few days. What is it about prayer that God likes? What types of prayer does He prefer? What does the Bible mean when it instructs us to pray without ceasing? (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

I’m reminded of Dallas Willard’s book, The Divine Conspiracy, where he teaches that prayer is basically a request of things we want from God (see 1 Kings 8:22-56). Willard suggests that many of us have been taught that we are only to pray about big things like world peace or hunger (Willard calls this ‘heroic prayer’ but I prefer the term ‘Bono prayer’ coined by a friend of mine). Willard has the following to say about ‘Bono prayers’:

“Prayer simply dies from efforts to pray about “good things” that honestly do not matter to us. The way to get to meaningful prayer for those good things is to start praying for what we are truly interested in. The circle of our interests will inevitably grow in the largeness of God’s love.” (Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p. 242)

It’s not that we shouldn’t pray for the big necessities of this world. However, if we are praying for the big things because we think God prefers them, we are mistaken. God wants us to pray for the things that really matter to us. Consider the Lord’s Prayer for a moment ( Matthew 6:9-13). The prayer opens by acknowledging the “bigness” of God ( Matthew 6:9-11). It is quickly broken down into things that really matter to us … daily food, forgiveness, temptation, and protection ( Matthew 6:12-13). Not many of us are in a position to cause world peace or end hunger, but we all have a small sphere of influence where we can help advance God’s Kingdom. If we all pray for God to put the little things of our lives in order, it will go a long way towards addressing the big things. God desires us to be honest and to pray about what really matters to us. If I may borrow from Willard once more:

” … [T]he most adequate description of prayer is simply, ‘Talking to God about what we are doing together.’ ” (Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p.243)

What are you in the midst of doing with God? For me, I immediately think of my marriage and our children. I have a vested interest in praying for my wife and kids. They matter to me. I pray for my friends and their families – those people who mean something to me. I pray for my schooling. I pray that someday God will be able to use what I’m learning for His glory in some small way. I am learning that as I consistently pray for the most immediate issues in my life it is inevitable the Spirit will lead me into some of those “Bono prayers.”

If you find your prayer life is growing stagnant, I highly recommend that you take a personal inventory in an attempt to discover what matters the most in your life. Once that discovery is made, dedicate yourself to a daily pattern of prayer. Keep your focus on those specific issues that you are most passionate for and stick with it. Eventually, you’ll find yourself praying for multiple issues in a variety of situations.

The more I stick to this routine, I am continually shocked by the blessings I have received. God is good!

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I will attempt this by sharing some brief thoughts in upcoming articles on some of the major personalities and themes we encounter when reading the Bible.  I will then follow with some general articles on the books of the Bible so to perhaps provide a general overview of them prior to reading them.

In each of these articles, I will provide the subject of the article, a verse to meditate on concerning it, and then just some of my own thoughts concerning it.  These articles will not claim to be definitive answers to these subjects, but rather thoughts that have been helpful to me in grasping them in hopes that maybe they can help you as well and maybe even serve as examples to share with others in introducing them to God and these other related topics as well.

I will share other articles of topic as led, but will mention the God in a Nutshell theme in the title of those that go along with this “series.”  Again, I hope these articles serve in some helpful capacity, as always I invite comment and discussion, and God bless.

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Note: This review originally appeared on the now defunct centurybound.com and is reprinted here with some editing by the author.
I have to admit that I opened this book with some trepidation. I can never know what to expect from Anne Rice. When the “Queen” of vampire stories is on her game, she produces a fabulous book such as Interview With A Vampire or Tale of the Body Thief. When she’s off, she’s very capable of writing a convoluted time-waster like Memnoch the Devil. I was also afraid that Rice might use a book about Jesus as an opportunity to make some “way out there” artistic point. My fears were apparently somewhat justified. Consider what Rice herself writes in the Author’s Notes at the end of her book …

“Having started with the skeptical critics, those who take their cue from the earliest skeptical New Testament scholars of the Enlightenment, I expected to discover that their arguments would be frighteningly strong, and that Christianity was, at heart, a kind of fraud … And what would I write about Jesus? I had no idea. But the prospects were interesting. Surely he was a liberal, married, had children, was a homosexual, and who knew what?” (page 312)

These were the types of things I expected to see in a Rice book about Jesus. But Rice goes on to explain how she discovered that the skeptical scholars were wrong. After extensive (and impressive) research, Rice found that the “anti-Jesus” arguments made in the “liberal circles [she] frequented as an atheist for nearly thirty years” (page 315) were unsupported and “some of the worst and most biased scholarship [she] had ever read” (page 315).

As it turns out, the story of how Rice’s faith and confidence in the Scriptures were strengthened by all her research is, in some ways, far more interesting than her work of fiction. I could easily recommend this book on the “Author’s Notes” alone. I love stories about people who are sure they know all they need to know about God and Jesus. Scholars like C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel, and now Anne Rice who investigate the matter and then get “knocked on their butts” just like Paul on the road to Damascus. These types of stories really get me jazzed up.

As it turns out, Rice’s fictional account of the childhood of Jesus is a pretty good read as well. While it is obvious that she has drawn on some non-authoritative works such as the Gospel of Thomas, her use of these narratives are very unobtrusive and rare. This book shines though by giving the reader a glimpse into the word that surrounded Jesus. Rice draws from sources like Josephus and Philo to paint a picture of the politics, geography, and people that surrounded Jesus during his childhood. While it is obvious that this is a work of fiction and that specific conversations and the like are purely conjecture, they are all set over a backdrop of real historical events that give the book a sense of realism. I have to admit that it is an excellent read.

Readers will detect a hint of the Catholic in Rice’s theology, but there is nothing that a Protestant should take much issue with. I think Rice has produced a book that readers of any denomination (even non-Christians) will enjoy.

My biggest fear now is that this book will become the next “controversial Jesus film.”

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While surfing the internet, I happened upon the blog of an atheist who was asking the following question of her readers:

 “How many people would believe in a god if there were no rewards promised to the self for doing so?”

This rather loaded question is a complicated one. It is actually not meant to be a question, but rather an attack on the principles of Christianity. The atheist is suggesting that the Christian faith is a selfish one and insinuating that if there were no promise of Heaven, there would be few, if any, Christians. There is no chance I could ever answer the question to this particular atheist’s satisfaction because I suspect she believes she already knows the answer. Furthermore, I’m not sure there is a way to know the answer. Since there is a promise of Heaven, I have no idea how many Christians there would be if that promise was ripped out from under us. I suspect, rather sadly, there would be less. Possibly much less, but that is just a guess. I know that in my own experience, Heaven did not enter the equation. I chose to believe in God because I had an encounter with Him that began to make sense to me intellectually. I then chose to believe in Jesus Christ (and the Christian faith) specifically for an abundance of reasons – none of which were Heaven. I sort of see Heaven as the icing on the cake. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad the promise is there; but my faith doesn’t hinge on it.

I believe we can examine this question introspectively in a way that can help us examine our faith. What if today, we pondered the following question?

Would you still follow Jesus Christ if there were suddenly no promise of Heaven?

If our answer to this question is ‘no’, I would suggest that we may be on shaky ground spiritually. I spent the majority of life before Christ creating a particular version of God in my mind and then imposing those values on the real God. For instance, the God I created was all knowing and all powerful. He had created this world and then stepped back to see what would happen. He was a fair God who would allow pretty much let anyone into Heaven provided they tried to live a good life (you know … paid their taxes, supported their children, didn’t kill anyone … that sort of thing). It was only when I humbled myself that I realized I had no right to impose my beliefs on God. If God were real, I had to allow Him to teach me about Himself and accept even what I didn’t understand. I had no business trying to invent God in my image. I had to understand and apply the old Axum that “Father Knows Best.” In other words, if God, in all His wisdom, suddenly decided there should be no Heaven, I would have to accept it – even if I didn’t understand it. I can’t worship God because of what He promises me, rather, I must worship God because He deserves it.

I am so thankful that my God has promised me Heaven. I also believe there is a hell. Hell, in my opinion, is proof that God loves us. How’s that you might ask? Well, if what we really want is a place that is free from the presence and influence of God, he will provide it for us even though it breaks His heart to do so. That place is hell. It’s not God that makes hell such a terrible place … it is the complete absence of God’s influence that makes hell so bad.

Even though I have a concrete belief in Heaven and hell, I can’t make that the focal point of my faith. Why? Well, if all I do is think about the future … someday far in the future … I am ignoring one of Jesus’ most powerful lessons. Jesus taught that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. What did He mean by that? I think He meant that we can experience Heaven right now in our mortal life. If hell is the total absence of God, then Heaven is living in God’s presence. In fact, Heaven is more than just the presence of God – it is a place where God’s Will is done. We can experience God’s presence and live in His will right now. If we spend all of our time looking towards the future, we will miss out on the beauty that is Heaven on Earth.

Think about it … we all know the bitter and depressed Christian who lives a miserable life and constantly talks about Heaven in the future tense. My heart goes out to these people. Thank God they have the promise of eternal life from the One True God to keep them going. I am not suggesting that it would be healthy to totally forget about our promise of Heaven; I just pray that someday we can all experience a shadow of Heaven right now!

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I have a BA in Social Science from Shawnee State University and an MA in Pastoral Counseling from Liberty University.  I am essentially a full-time, independently ordained pastor, even though some of my calling to ministry is performed in the “secular” world with some in the more traditional “ministry” settings.  In sharing this description with my wife, she reminded me that Jesus was this way as well to remind me both that I am on a good path with the Lord and of why He blessed me with a wife like her.

With my calling being as such, the postings I share on here at times may be somewhat “sermonish” in format, but hopefully practical in nature.  My hope is that they are enjoyable and helpful towards serving Him and others trying to walk out life with Him.  God bless all!

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