Praying guideines

Psalm 96:1-9
We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us. --Romans 8:26

I have been inspired by the Christian dance group, the Philippine All Stars. For them, prayer is one of the most important spiritual exercises for a believer. Jesus, the Son of God and Lord of all things, spent whole nights in prayer while He lived on earth.

In those night-long encounters, Jesus communed with His Father. His prayers were not just petitions to get something. Too often we think of prayer as a way to get God to do things for us or for others, but the highest purpose of prayer is to deepen our relationship with Him.

Prayer does involve petition and intercession, but it also includes communion. In petition God does something FOR us, in intercession He does something THROUGH us, and in communion He does something IN us.

As a christian magazine pointed out, when we pray, how much of our time is spent communing with the Lord? Our prayers will become less self-centered and more God-centered as we draw closer to Him, seek His glory, and subordinate our petitions to His will. Communion is the line that connects our soul with the battery of God's power. When this line is down, our petitions are but idle chatter. God's power must flow into our lives as we bow before Him and recognize Him as Lord of all. Communion with God is a great privilege and the most important element of prayer.

Bee Pollen And The Gospel

Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. --Colossians 4:6

Nellie Pickard loves to tell people about Jesus Christ. She does it so often that she's written a series of books describing how she witnesses in everyday situations. In Just Say It! she tells about her phone call to a health-food store. She had noticed that bee pollen was on sale, so she asked the manager about the benefits of using it. "You'll live forever," he replied.

To Nellie, the words live forever were an open invitation. "I know you're joking," she said, "but I know I'm going to live forever, and not because I buy your bee pollen."

His response was encouraging. "I'd like to hear about it. I'm really interested in why you think you're going to live forever." Although he did not trust Jesus as Savior at that time, Nellie had planted the seed by being wise "toward those who are outside" (Col. 4:5).

Our opportunities are endless, yet our words are often powerless. Instead of directing our conversations with unbelievers toward spiritual matters, we tend to stay in the safe zone. Doing as Nellie does is a skill we need to develop and a challenge that comes straight from God's Word.

We must look for those openings. With sincere kindness and genuine concern we can turn most conversations to eternal matters--even if the subject is bee pollen. Kind a reminds me of that skater Jay Adams.

Here is further reading when you want to know more about the Gospel that I found in a christian magazine.

Colossians 4:2-6 (New International Version)

Further Instructions
2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

William Paul Young: A Profile of a Christian Author

William Paul Young was flown away to boarding school at age 6. He was like a white Dani that was wandering around. He was a wanderer and by the time he finished middle school he had attended thirteen different schools. Not only that but he paid his way through Bible College working as a radio disc jockey, lifeguard. He even did a gig in the oil fields of northern Alberta just to realize his dream of being a pastor.



According to a christian magazine went to the Philippines one summer and he spent another summer touring with a drama troupe before working in Washington D.C. at Fellowship House, an international guest house. He completed his undergraduate degree in Religion and graduated summa cum laude from Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon.

He said in his website that, "The Shack was a story written for my six children, with no thought or intention to publish. It is as much a surprise to me as to anyone else that I am now an ‘author’. Overall, I am a very simple guy; I have one wife, six kids, two daughter-in-laws and two grandkids on the way. I work as a general manager, janitor and inside sales guy for a friend who owns a small manufacturers rep company in Milwaukie, Oregon, and I live in a small rented house in Gresham, Oregon, that Kim has made into a marvelous home. My time is spent loving the people that are a part of my life. I am surrounded by people of faith and we have incredible friends; now you are one of those. Oh yeah… and I wrote this book."