Review: Prayers for Today

 Prayers for Today:  A Yearlong Journey fo Contemplative Prayer by Kurt Bjorklund guides the reader through a series of 260 devotional readings.  The readings are progress through a cycle of ten themes:

* Prayers of Thanksgiving * Prayers of Confession * Prayers of Affirmation
* Prayers of Petition * Prayers of Renewal * Prayers of Praise and Adoration
* Prayers to Have Christ-like Character * Prayers for Wisdom and Guidance
* Prayers of Intercession * Prayers of Surrender
The scope of this cycle provides promptings towards a well-balanced prayer life, without feeling overwhelmed by trying to focus on multiple topics during a single devotional reading.  Unlike some other prayer books, there is a single reading for each day, though the reader might choose to do more than one (such as a morning prayer and evening prayer), cycling through the book on a more frequent cycle.
     Most of the readings follow a similar pattern.  The readings begin with a scripture reading, followed by a written prayer on the theme, generally taken from other prayer books or Christian writers, but sometimes written by Bjorklund himself.  In some readings, there are multiple Bible readings and prayers.  The day's reading concludes with promptings for free prayer on the days' theme.
    Bjorklund is a Lutheran minister, and the book is firmly within the Protestant tradition, though it draws widely from the best of Christian history.  As a result, the reader is able to worship through the best of different traditions, without stumbling over material that would cause difficulties theologically.  Prayers for Today is very accessible to those who are new to using prayer books as a part of their personal worship.
     Prayers for Today is not organized according to the church year, and as a result can be used at any time.  Some readers may want to use it alongside more seasonally focused resources at some times of the year.  Because of the free structure, the reader is able to choose the number of readings they wish to use daily, and the cycles and seasons of the year during which they want to use the book.
     Prayers for Today is highly recommended for anyone wanting to increase the richness of their devotional life.  It helps the reader to broaden their prayer life to include a rich variety of themes, and to weave scripture and written prayer alongside free prayer.

  Prayers for Today: A Yearlong Journey of Contemplative Prayer

Note:  I received a free review copy of this book from Moody Publishers, but was not obligated to write a positive review.

Classic Poetry: Jehovah-Rophi by William Cowper

Jehovah-Rophi. I Am the Lord That Healeth Thee
Exodus 25:26 

Heal us, Emmanuel! here we are,
Waiting to feel Thy touch:
Deep-wounded souls to Thee repair
And, Saviour, we are such.

Our faith is feeble, we confess,
We faintly trust Thy word;
But wilt Thou pity us the less?
 Be that far from Thee, Lord!

Remember him who once applied,
With trembling, for relief;
"Lord, I believe," with tears he cried,
 "Oh, help my unbelief!"

She too, who touch'd Thee in the press,
 And healing virtue stole,
Was answer'd, "Daughter, go in peace,
Thy faith hath made thee whole."

Conceal'd amid the gathering throng,
She would have shunn'd Thy view;
And if her faith was firm and strong,
Had strong misgivings too.

Like her, with hopes and fears we come,
To touch Thee, if we may;
Oh! send us not despairing home,
Send none unheal'd away!

Snippets: Accidental Pharisees

 Larry Osborne's book Accidental Pharisees warns against falling into the errors or Pharisaism in a quest for obedient discipleship.  His book provides a warning against the sin of pride.  He also warns against turning our gifts into rules for others to follow, and inadvertently twisting obedient discipleship into extra-biblical burdens.
A few key points from the book:

When it comes to bruised reeds, smoldering wicks, and the weary saints, Pharisees have no patience. They pile on heavy burdens and lots of guilt. But they don’t lift a finger to make anything easier. They thin the herd at every opportunity. Not so with Jesus. The bruised reed he will not break. The smoldering wick he will not snuff out. To the weary and heavily burdened he offers rest, a light load, and an easy yoke. (Kindle location 349)

Now, obviously I’m not saying that we can live like hell and call ourselves disciples. The Bible is quite clear. If we genuinely know God and love him, we will keep his commandments. But I am saying that our definitions of what it means to be a genuine Christ follower must include room for the weak and the struggling, the frightened and the failing, in order to remain aligned with Jesus rather than with the Pharisees of old. Following Jesus is not a race to see who can be the most radical, sacrificial, knowledgeable, or quickest to burn out. It’s not a contest to see who’s willing to take the hardest road. That’s asceticism, not discipleship (Kindle location 2439)

Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith

Links: The Legacy of Flannery O’Connor: A Conversation with Jonathan Rogers

Trevin Wax has posted an interview with Jonathan Rogers about the legacy of Flannery O'Conner.  Rogers is the author of  The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O’Connor.  The interview addresses the impact that O'Connor's illness had on her writing, the way in which racial issues impact her writing, and the sacramental nature of her works.  Below is a portion of the interview.


Trevin Wax: O’Connor was a devout Catholic who saw the Eucharist as the central and most profound aspect of Christian worship. How did the sacramental vision she inherited from the Catholic Church impact her view of the world, and Southern Protestants in particular?

Jonathan Rogers: O’Connor once wrote,

“The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.”

She was making a theological statement. Everything deserves our attention because the world of human experience is shot through with meaning.

That’s the sacramental vision – the idea that ultimate meaning doesn’t just live off in some Platonic ideal that we strain toward “spiritually,” but that God reveals Himself to us, does His work on us, through the concrete facts of the material world. For that reason, the artist has an obligation to depict the world that she sees, the way that she sees it. It is not her job to clean anything up or tie up loose ends or offer simplified answers to complicated questions. It is her job only to portray what she has seen in the world God has made.

All Christians agree, of course, that God reveals himself through the world around us. In that broad sense, all Christians have a sacramental vision.

But O’Connor, as a Catholic, was much more comfortable with mystery than most Protestants tend to be. She wrote:

“The type of mind that can understand good fiction is not necessarily the educated mind, but it is at all times the kind of mind that is willing to have its sense of mystery deepened by contact with reality, and its sense of reality deepened by contact with mystery.”

We Protestants aren’t looking to inhabit mysteries; we’re looking for explanations, solutions, household hints. Just stroll through a Christian bookstore. Seven Steps to This, Ten Steps to That, Your Best Life Now! It’s all very pragmatic and solution-oriented, thoroughly modern and slickly marketed. The modern/post-modern impulse is an impulse toward demystification, and American Protestantism is right in the middle of it.

O’Connor’s sacramental vision frees the Christian writer from the tyranny of “edification.” We assume that the Christian writer’s job is to edify the reader – which is true enough, I suppose – but we have such a narrow definition of edification.

What passes for edification is, to borrow a term from O’Connor, “Instant Uplift.” It doesn’t invite us into a mystery. It’s “safe for the whole family,” as the billboards for the Christian radio stations say. I don’t know that the Bible is safe for the whole family. It’s hard to imagine Christian bookstores stocking a book so wild and ragged and mysterious as the Bible if it weren’t the Bible.


Click below to read the full post.
The Legacy of Flannery O’Connor: A Conversation with Jonathan Rogers

November Reading Log

Here are this month's reading adventures...so far:

• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand- The fascinating biography of Louis Zamperini, Olympic athlete and WW2 veteran
• Too Busy for Your Own Good by Connie Merritt- A time management book for professional women
• Modest:  Men and Women Clothed in the Gospel by Tim Challies and R.W. Glenn
• Accidental Pharisees:  Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith by Larry Osborne
• Succeeding When You're Supposed to Fail by Rom Brafman
• Heaven Without Her by Kitty Foth-Regner
• The Evernote Bible:  The Guide to Everything Evernote by Brandon Collins
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Snippets: A Hidden Life of Prayer

David McIntyre's classic work, The Hidden Life of Prayer motivates Christians to develop a deep and meaningful life of prayer.  From the book:

He who has a pure heart will never cease to pray, and he who will be constant in prayer shall know what it is to have a pure heart (Kindle location 51)

The equipment for the inner life of prayer is simple, if not always easily secured. It consists particularly of a quiet place, a quiet hour, and a quiet heart. (Kindle location 184)

Our realization of the presence of God may, however, be accompanied with little or no emotion. Our spirits may lie as if dead under the hand of God. Vision and rapture may alike be withdrawn. But we ought not therefore to grow sluggish in prayer. So far from interupting the exercise at such times, we ought to redouble our energy. And it may be that the prayer which goes up through darkness to God will bring to us a blessing such as we have not received in our most favored hours. (Kindle location 339)

Hidden Life of Prayer, The: The Life-blood of the Christian

Review: A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband "Master"

 Rachel Evan's book A Year of Biblical Womanhood chronicles her year long exploration of the Bible through the eyes of a 21st century woman.  Each month, she chooses an area of focus- ranging from submission, to modesty, to justice, and chooses tasks for herself from passages of scripture concerning women.  Interspersed between these chapters are portraits of women from the Bible, ranging from well-known women such as Ruth, to lesser-known women such as Junia and Tabitha.  She also interviews women from various streams of Judaism about the way they seek to follow the Bible's instructions for women in their various lifestyles.  The book is similar in theme and organization to A.J. Jacob's The Year of Living Biblically.
The Bad:  Not a Hermeneutics Lesson
There are no nuances in Rachel Evan's application of various scripture texts.  Her self-assigned projects for living Biblically are taken from texts ranging from Leviticus to Proverbs to the New Testament epistles, with little regard for the overall intent of the passage or its place in the overall biblical story.  For example, she follows the Levitical purity laws with equal fervor as commands to seek justice.  The overall result of this haphazard interpretive method can be the distortion fo scripture, and as a result her writing at times is irreverent.  At times, her approach seems disrespectful of women who hold to more conservative positions about women's roles.  However, her approach needs to be understood in light of the fact that although she addresses theology at many levels, she in no way seems to intend that the way of life she adapts for her "project" should be used to interpret scripture in normal circumstances.
The Good:  Biblical Freedom
Though some may disagree with Evan's overall egalitarian position, she has many valid insights about the overall biblical perspective on women's lives and roles.  She challenges some interpretations that are viewed as "biblical", but in fact go beyond the clear teaching of the Bible about women.  Throughout the book, she challenges the reading of Proverbs 31 as a prescriptive list of tasks for the "ideal woman",  reading it instead as a poem praising a woman of valour.   She also challenges the idea that marriage and raising children is the only valid calling for a Christian woman, highlighting Paul's teaching about singleness.  She writes, "as a Christian, my highest calling is not motherhood; my highest calling is to follow Christ. And following Christ is something a woman can do whether she is married, or single, rich or poor, sick or healthy, childless or Michelle Duggar." (Kindle location 3282).  In light of her own experience, she explains,
     Growing up in the Church, I must have heard a thousand times that my highest calling as a woman was to bear and bring up children. While men could honor God in varying capacities through work, family, and ministry, a woman’s spiritual aptitude was measured primarily by her ability to procreate. Even as a child I noticed that the church deaconesses hosted dozens of wedding and baby showers each year, but never a housewarming party for a single woman or a celebration dinner for a woman who passed the bar or graduated from medical school. Subtly, the belief that I was incomplete without a husband and children crept into my subconscious. Without procreating, I believed, my contribution to the Church didn’t really count. It hasn’t always been this way. Both Jesus and Paul spoke highly of celibacy and singleness, and for centuries the Church honored the contributions of virgins and widows to the extent that their stories occupied the majority of Christian literature.  (Kindle location 3254)
    Throughout the book, Evans seeks to correct the idea that there is only one correct life model for a Christian woman.  Though she may err in taking some of the Bible's commands lightly, she does well to correct an imbalance that requires a lifestyle for women that is mandated more by cultural norms than by the Bible's teaching.  At the end of the book she concludes,
    So after twelve months of “biblical womanhood,” I’d arrived at the rather unconventional conclusion that that there is no such thing. The Bible does not present us with a single model for womanhood, and the notion that it contains a sort of one-size-fits-all formula for how to be a woman of faith is a myth. Among the women praised in Scripture are warriors, widows, slaves, sister wives, apostles, teachers, concubines, queens, foreigners, prostitutes, prophets, mothers, and martyrs. What makes these women’s stories leap from the page is not the fact that they all conform to some kind of universal ideal, but that, regardless of the culture or context in which they found themselves, they lived their lives with valor. They lived their lives with faith. As much as we may long for the simplicity of a single definition of “biblical womanhood,” there is no one right way to be a woman, no mold into which we must each cram ourselves—not if Deborah, Ruth, Rachel, Tamar, Vashti, Esther, Priscilla, Mary Magdalene, and Tabitha have anything to say about it. (Kindle location 5139)
     Though the book has its imperfect moments- and perhaps more so than some other books- her overall conclusions make the book a thought provoking and worthwhile read.  The book intersperses the lighthearted humour of some moments of Evan's quest with deeper reflection about what it means to live as a Christian woman seeking to live out the Bible's teaching.

A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband "Master"