Category Archives: Prayer

Please Pray for my Daughter, Madeline

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For any of you I am not friends with on Facebook, I just wanted to provide an update on what has been happening ever since yesterday. My 11 year daughter, Madeline, was playing at recess yesterday, and a boy fell off the jungle gym and landed full force with his elbow on her head. She had tremors after that, and was essentially knocked out. She was taken to Southwest Washington Medical Center’s Emergency Room by ambulance, and it was determined by way of CT scan that she had suffered a very serious skull fracture. She was then immediately transferred (by ambulance) to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon; in route it was determined by the team of surgeons at Doernbecher (it turns out the lead surgeon just happened to be the chief of pediatric neurosurgery and a highly sought after surgeon in his field) that Madeline would need immediate brain/head surgery. The surgery took approximately 3 hours wherein the surgeons removed the broken skull fragments that were impinging on Madeline’s brain, repaired a blood vessel that was about to burst (and if it did this matter could have been terribly more serious the surgeon said), and rec0nstructed her skull (which involved about ten small pieces) using titanium strips and tiny titanium screws (that Madeline will live with the rest of her life—as she heals the bone will just incorporate the titanium into itself). She has been in ICU recovering ever since (since about 9:00 pm pst yesterday), and could have been moved by now (to a regular room—I am gathering some stuff from home and will be spending the night with her as her mom did last night). She is doing exceedingly well, and is going to escape this incident with ultimately, just an amazing story to tell (and some titanium to boot). Please pray for a speedy recovery, and as painless a recovery as possible. Also pray that there will be no complications, and that Angela and I will have wisdom. Also pray for Madeline’s younger brother (8yrs), Jake. He has been through a lot these last couple years (with me and my cancer, and now his sissy and this); he is a very sensitive kid, and so just pray that the Lord would minister to him.

Thank you all!

Today is the day of salvation …

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I am having a summit of sorts ( 😉 ) tomorrow morning with my friend from work at a local Starbucks in Vancouver, WA. Our topic of discussion will be why he needs Jesus, and how that can happen. There are some things that need to be worked through before my friend can become a full participant in the life of God through Christ. 1) He is that same friend who likes to listen to this guy and this guy; unfortunately! See, my friend from work is a very genuine and sincere guy who is on a self-proposed journey of self-discovery and enlightenment. For some reason he has chosen against Christ (like Jesus said ‘You are either for me or against me’), and for himself (as god … if that sounds like something you have read before [hint, hint Genesis 3], it’s because you have!). 2) I will attempt to demonstrate for my friend that his position is untenable in light of various things—like ethics, morality, explanatory power, etc. (so an abductive exercise)—but in the end I am fully aware that as the Apostle has so pointedly noted:

4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. II Corinthians 4.4 (NIV)

So all I am left to believe is:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. Romans 1.16 (NIV)

I am not under the delusion that I can whip my friend into Christianity through winning the ‘intellectual’ arguments (even though I will 😉 ); it is the Spirit of God alone who brings a person to the point wherein they can finally say that Jesus is Lord (I Cor. 12.3). But maybe, just maybe the Lord will use my small offering tomorrow to plant seeds (I Cor. 3) that someone else might come along and water (or maybe I’m doing the watering by the Spirit tomorrow); that someone else, finally, will be able to harvest. Anyway, if you remember me and my friend tomorrow between the times of 10am-11:30am (pst); then please pray that the Lord would be present in our time of discussion, and that my friend would finally quit ‘kicking against the goads’, and become a full participant in the life of salvation and grace that Christ has won for all of us in his own life for us! Thanks.

Prayer Liam-Like, Guest Post by Dr. Myk Habets: On Praying the Trinity

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Here is a great guest post by my friend (and hopefully soon to be doctoral supervisor), Dr. Myk Habets. It is a reflection on teaching his children how to pray and think about God Trinitarianly. Enjoy.

Prayer Liam-Like

Dr Myk Habets

The Baptist 127 no. 8 (September 2011), 10.

Kids are one of the most wonderful things in life! I have two of them, a 4 year girl named Sydney and a 2 year old boy named Liam (although he insists on being called “big boy” and nothing else). One of the fun things to do with kids is experiment (within the parameters of what is psychologically safe, of course). In an earlier article entitled ‘Prayer Sydney-Style’ (The Baptist, March 2010) I reflected on my experiment in prayer with Sydney and how I sought to eradicate the word ‘God’ from our prayers and instead pray in a more Trinitarian—hence relational and personal—way.

Well I am experimenting again. While continuing with prayer ‘Sydney-Style’ I decided with Liam to be as equally Trinitarian, but in another way, and conduct prayer ‘Liam-Like.’ So as with Sydney so too with Liam, I don’t pray to ‘God’ with Liam but to the Trinity, and so we use the name: Father, Son/Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit for God. But I do so in a different way than I do with Sydney. Let me explain.

There are two basic forms of trinitarian prayer—the doxological and the mediatorial. In the first prayer is addressed directly to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. In formal liturgical settings this is known as a co-ordinated doxology: ‘Glory to the Father with the Son, together with the Holy Spirit.’ ‘Glory’ in Greek is doxa—hence doxological prayer. This is prayer ‘Sydney-Style.’ The strengths of this form of prayer are that it is dynamic and personal, it directly addresses the triune God, and it (hopefully) will mean that static and remote notions or concepts of God will not be implicit in Sydney’s psyche. This form of prayer is also a trenchant affirmation of the deity of Christ as the eternal Son of God, and the deity of the Spirit as the Holy one.

Mediatorial prayer is slightly different. In mediatorial doxologies one prays: ‘Glory to the Father through and with the Son and in the Spirit.’ In this doxology prayer is directed to the Father but indirectly; through and with the Son and in or by the Holy Spirit. It thus highlights the mediation and humanity of Christ as our Great High Priest. This is prayer ‘Liam-Like.’ Under this construct we only approach the Father in and with Jesus Christ, enabled by the Spirit who unites us to him. And so with Liam I might pray something like: ‘Dear Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you loving us by the Holy Spirit.’ Or we may pray: ‘Dear Jesus, thank you for making your Father our Father, and for sending us your Holy Spirit to help us and love us.’ Here Jesus is thrust in-between ‘God’ and ‘man’ as he assumes his rightful place as our Lord and Saviour, our Priest and Mediator.

Doxological prayer, while not wrong, can have the unintended effect of diminishing the humanity of Christ and thus giving a distorted view of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Mediatorial prayer has the advantage of keeping Jesus before us as the one in whom and with whom we relate to the Father by the Spirit. As someone once expressed so beautifully: ‘Christ is the choir master who tunes our hearts for worship.’ Mediatorial prayer seeks to emphasise this fact.

Now here is what is interesting, both Sydney and Liam are now able to say grace at the dinner table and how do they typically address the Godhead? Like this: ‘Dear God…’ Is this a good thing or a theological failure on my part? Well I think it is a good thing. I hope and trust that when my children think of God and speak to God, they are explicitly and intuitively addressing the triune God of grace: the Father who loves us and has through Christ and by the Spirit given us every good gift. May a similar reformation occur in all our prayer; private and corporate, at home and at church. May we begin to experience the personal, relational, triune God of grace; not the remote god of the philosophers.

 And now: ‘May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God [the Father], and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all’ (2 Cor 13.14).

 

The Power of Prayer; Over All of Creation!

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For my opening post here at my new blog, Mirifica Commutatio, I thought it would only be fitting to christen it with a thought from one of my favorite theologians; Thomas F. Torrance. And to open this blog up with a word on prayer, and its centrality to what it means to be participants in God’s life through Christ as a result of the mirifica commutatio ‘wonderful exchange’. Because we are participants in God’s life through Christ’s vicarious life pro nobis (for us); we are able to find our voices thoroughly grounded in the intercessory voice of our Faithful High Priest (cf. Heb. 7.25), Jesus Christ. Our voice is a real voice and Spirit spirated echo of Jesus’ voice at the right hand of the throne of the Father, and it is through this voice that the gap between heaven and earth is filled with the glory of God’s pleroma (fullness, plenitude); and Jesus’ taught prayer of ‘thy will be done on earth as it is heaven’ is brought to fruition through the incense of the saints prayer mingled with His by the Spirit that the telos (purpose) of all of creation (including our lives as we participate in the Kingly rule over it with the Son of God) is being brought to consummate reality as it reaches its ultimate climax and regeneration (cf. Rom. 8.16ff) in the revealing of the sons of God at the time of the yet proleptic (future) coming of Christ; our hope! It is in this vein that T. F. Torrance’s word on prayer provides even more clarity, let’s read:

Prayer is the link between world history and the intercession of Christ in heaven

So far as the church in history and on earth is concerned, therefore, the great connecting link between world history and the heavenly session of Christ is to be found in prayer and intercession. That is why when the New Testament speaks about the relations of church and state it regularly directs the church to prayer as its most important service, for it is in prayer that through the Spirit the heavenly intercessions of humanity and the people of God are locked with Christ in the great apocalyptic struggle with the forces of darkness. Because he who rules from the throne of God is the lamb who has been slain, but is alive for evermore and holds the keys of death and hell, the church’s engagement in prayer is already a participation in the final victory of the kingdom of Christ. Thus the life, mission, and worship of the church on earth and in history are, as it were, in counterpoint to the victorious paeans of the hosts above who surround the throne of the lamb and worship and glorify God. (Thomas F. Torrance, Atonement: The Person and Work of Christ, 297)

What a wonderful thought. Unfortunately, prayer is often bantered around in almost cliché like terms amongst Christians; especially us Western Christians who have it so good, all of our creature comforts being met (relatively speaking). With the perspective provided above, shouldn’t prayer be seen in ways that really are at the height and nexus of what it means to rule and reign with Christ? Instead of viewing politicians, medical doctors, scientists, Wall Street, CEOs, et alia as the gatekeepers of society and cultures; shouldn’t we, as Christians (cf. I Cor. 6.1ff) understand our place as participants in God’s life in Christ as both Priests of God (cf. Rom. 15.16; I Pet. 2.9), and Kings of God in Christ (cf. I Cor. 3.21-23)? That we rule over this creation, in Christ, through joining our voices with His by the Spirit (cf. Rom. 8.26); and so participate in effecting the reign of Christ over both death and life and all of creation (cf. Col. 1.13ff) by simply Praying!

What a wonderful thought! All of the above is the result of one thing, Mirifica Commutatio!