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Just before holidays a propitious (“propitious” — ‘likely to result in or show signs of success’ ) event/book jumped onto my reading table .

A book arrived at the church.  The author is an acquaintance of ours.  He has pastored a church for two decades or more, was once working for Atomic Energy of Canada, and is a truly intelligent, wise and discerning man.

The book’s subtitle is “learning the language of prayer.”  In reality the content is basically taking the Jewish Psalms and using them as triggers, prompters, and any other word you wish to use, to prayer. 

In the introduction, Sunder makes a clear statement that the first two chapters are paramount for the understanding of the book.  These chapters are not about the Psalms, but about listening to God.

First — Who speaks first? 

The Word of God is, and always was, intended to be the Voice of God that pulled hearers into dialogue with Him, permanently affecting them in the process, by either hardening or softening their hearts. (p. 5).

With the invention of the printing press (which meant we read individually instead of hearing corporately) and a shift in teaching methods (from dialogue, dispute and modelling to the current dispensing of datum) we lost something.

Hence the scriptures are no longer a Voice that pulls us into relationship with the Lord but something to be read to obtain data. Given what the Word says about itself, we have to reverse the shift.  Reading the scriptures must somehow be seen as a means of listening in order to relate to the speaker. (p. 6)

Quoting Henri Nouwen, Krishnan makes the following summary —

For Jesus, the order was always communion with God, which drew a community around Him and through which he accomplished ministry.  We, however, usually follow the opposite order.  We desperately try to accomplish something (ministry).  When we fail, we try to get people to help us (community), and when that fails, we pray (communion).  (page eight)

You might see where this is headed!!  I’ll blog on the second chapter in my next post!

I’ve set aside 4 1/2 days for holidays.  As I awoke this morning, I didn’t rush anywhere.  I did spend time doing something I like — rearranging things! 

And when the phone rang, I let it ring.  An answering machine is a marvelous thing!!

Now, I’m off to some soup for lunch and an unhurried afternoon.

November 14-15 we took teams in to Saskatoon for Bible quizzing.  The team I coached placed 9 out of 13 teams and almost made it into the elimination finals (at least our enthusiasm was great).  The other two teams took first and third in their divisions.

I have just picked up a book called “Teach me to pray” by Andrew Murray, 365 thoughts for daily devotional insights.  January 1st begins with this thought:

The more I think of and pray about the religious situation in our country, the deeper my conviction becomes that Christians do not realize that the aim of conversion is to bring them into daily fellowship with the Father in heaven.

It is not enough at conversion to accept forgiveness of sins or even to surrender to God.  That is only the beginning.   We must understand that we have no power of our own to maintain spiritual life.  We need to receive daily new grace from  heaven through fellowship with the Lord Jesus.  This cannot be obtained by a hasty prayer or a superficial reading of a few verses from God’s Word.  We must take time to come into God’s presence, to feel our weakness and our need, and to wait on God through His Holy Spirit to renew fellowship with Him.  Then we may expect to be kept by the power of Christ throughout the day.