March 31, 2011

Fearing God-The Definition

"The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge"
 Proverbs 1:7                              
Yesterday, I wrote about what fear of the Lord is not.  That post begs this post.

What does it mean to fear God?

There are two Hebrew words used when writers talked about this fear in the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament). One means "the fear of being before a superior kind of being. Usually it is used to describe the reaction evoked in men by God's mighty works of destruction and sovereignty." The other communicates a reverence. (Vine's Expository Dictionary, pg 80)

Reverence here is the ticket, and I think that most of us would quickly come to this word when talking or answering questions about what it means to fear God.

But I don't know that I really understand what reverence means.

Merriam-Webster defines reverence as a "profound adoring awed respect." 

So fearing the Lord is a deeply humbled worshipful respect of Who God is and what He can do. Holy reverent fear produces a quiet heart not a worried one. It makes us knell and produces gratefulness and peace. This type of fear can also hold us back from sin. It can make us tremble, not because we are scared, but more because we are overwhelmed with how GREAT our God is.

This definition makes me wonder who and what I do revere. Who's life, who's presence, who's work makes me feel adoration and respect. How often do I feel this when I'm spending time with God? Is this reverence rooted in my love for Him?

What do you revere? What humbles you about Who God is?

March 30, 2011

Fearing God-What It's NOT...

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge"
 Proverbs 1:7
"Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13:13
 I have been writing about Fearing God over the past few posts. And before I move on to talk about what it looks like and why we should fear God, I want to clear up what it is not. 

Fearing God is not being afraid of God.

My favorite professor talked about this once when he was talking about our motivation to be holy people, and the motivation that we (it was a seminary class for IV staff) used to call our students to live holy lives.  

He said there are three good motivators laid out in the gospel: Faith, hope and love. But the most common things we used to motivate ourselves and our students were: Guilt, shame and death.

This resonated with me. I stayed "pure" before marriage because of the deep guilt I felt when I went too far. I was kind to people and active in my IV chapter in college because I thought God was deeply ashamed of me. I was good in high school because I knew my mom would kill me if I wasn't (smile). In the end these motivators did not produce great life, and they pushed me far from my Father's embrace. They also fortified some false pride and superiority that God is still cutting out of my life.

But as I've grown closer to the Lord, as I've learned more and more about His heart, I have come to understand the deep energy that can come from being motivated out of His faithfulness to me and my faith in Him and His beauty. I've seen the long lasting fruit of things that I pursue because of the hope I have in my big brother Christ Jesus. And the freeing, overwhelming, and whole giving life I can live when I center myself in His love.

The Fear of the Lord is centered in these things too. Faith, hope and love. Holy fear is rooted in them.

So when you think about fearing God, and you start to feel anxiety, or shame, or you start to getting worried when you imagine meeting this BIG and Powerful God, you need to stop. Take a breath.

That is not appropriate fear. Not when fearing the True God. Not if you have a relationship with Him through His Son.

Try this exercise: turn to the first part of this Faith, Hope and Love verse (1 Corinthians 13). Read the chapter. When Paul writes love, replace it with God, and at the end of each phrase in verses 4-13 apply it to yourself. i.e. "God is patient with me, God is kind toward me..."

And press into the faith, hope and love that is yours through the completed work of Jesus.

"Now these three remain: faith, hope and God. Let the greatest of these in my life be God."


Where are you motivated by guilt, shame, or death?

March 25, 2011

Fearing God-The Blame Game

We had a rough week here at the Simmons Spot.

Joshua's job has changed and the transition has been rough for the kids and the mom, and the dad.

This has especially shown up in Cecilia's behavior at school. She has had several bad days, a note home, and some email exchanges between her teacher and myself.

When Cecilia and I were talking about what was behind this bad (and out of character) behavior, she said this, word for word: "Well Mom, I hate to say this, but it's really your fault that I had such a bad day. YOU are the one who let me stay up late, and that is why I was bad."

Now just to clarify. I did let her stay up 45 minutes later than normal. The night before had been the only night in the week where Joshua was home. So I let the kids stay up to spend time with their Dad. I stand behind the choice that time with her Dad was more important that getting to bed on time.

Her statement instantly reminded me of others.

"Well, I hate to say it, but the woman YOU gave me caused this mess!"

"Well, I hate to bring it up, but the serpent YOU created tricked me."

"Well, it's awkward to harp on it, but the wilderness YOU led us into is just too hard, the people YOU have brought us up against are just too mighty, the gods in the land that YOU brought us into are just too inciting."

And so on it goes through the history of the Hebrew people and on into the early church and right up into my life.

"Well God, if YOU would just give us more income, we would give more away."

"Well, I don't bring this up often, but YOU are the one who made me unorganized. It was YOUR idea to make me a verbal processor."

"Well I wasn't the one who knit these little ones together God. That was all YOU. I mean can YOU blame me for yelling."

And it goes on and on.

But blaming God points me to the thing I've been writing about in the past few posts. It points to my lack of fear. I might blame someone I was afraid of, but I would not dream of blaming my junk, my limitation and my sinfulness on a ruler whom I deeply feared. Whom I fearfully loved. Whom I REALLY and fearfully knew.

Why do you think YOU blame God when you fall short?

March 23, 2011

Fearing God-The Obstacle (at least one of them)...

"The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge..."
Proverbs 1:7
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
1 John 4:18

If the OT tells us over and over to fear God, how can the NT tells us that perfect love drives out fear?

In my last post I talked about how I struggle to connect with the idea of fearing the Lord. One of the reasons I struggle is because of some baggage I have left over from before I came to Christ.

I spent a good part of my younger life deeply worried about my relationship with God. I was scared that my faith was not strong enough to save me, I was anxious that God was deeply disappointed in me. I was afraid of the Lord, but I did not fear him.

Over the years God has taught me about true faith, and about His heart for me. He has convinced me that the work of His son has brought peace between Him and me, and that I am his beloved child.

I am convinced of these things. They are the foundation to my life and my love of God, and I don't want to go back to the way things were between God and myself. I don't want my relationship with Him to be defined by anxiety and worry. And anxiety and worry is what comes to my mind when I hear "Fear the Lord!" So I avoid the idea altogether.

But my baggage should not define my understanding of God or my movement toward Him. I can't start with my past junk and let that inform my understanding of fearing the Lord. I have to start with Who God is--who He has proved Himself to be in the person of Jesus Christ, who He proves Himself to be in the testimony of scripture, & who He is proving himself to be in my life. I also have to start with what the Bible calls me to. And I have to let those two things unpack my baggage & release me from it.

So if the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament) tells me to fear the Lord, and 1 John tells me that love drives out fear, I need to admit that I'm not thinking correctly about what fearing God looks like. I need to come to my good and gracious God and ask Him to show me the right way to fear Him.

What keeps you from moving toward understanding and practicing a healthy fear of the Lord?

March 21, 2011

Fearing God-The Invitation

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge"
Proverbs 1:7
In my last post I wrote about my need to grow in the area of fearing the Lord. This actually hit me square in the face when a friend issued an invitation to me.

This part of knowing God-the fearing part- is really hard for me to connect to.

I follow God because of His love for me, His closeness and intimacy. I was won to Him because through scripture, my InterVarsity staff, and some crisis moments, He convinced me that He knew me, the real me. That He saw through all the masks I had put up, all the "good deeds" that others saw. He saw straight into the REAL LEE. The junked up, gross, ugly Lee and He loved her. He saw beauty. He saw glory. He saw what I could be in Him.

And I was won. I was forgiven and changed. Devoted to the God who loves me so completely, even though He knows all there is to know about me.

Back to fearing the LORD. 

Recently I hit into this problem area of fearing God. I was studying scripture with other IV staff and the passage was highlighting some of God's more severe qualities. I was skimming, annoyed waiting for the questions to swing back to grace and love. This posture of mine troubled me, so I asked a friend to talk about it. I told him about my lack of fearing the Lord. My annoyance with the topic when I came across it in scripture. And my honest distress that this is who I was.

This was his response:

"You know Lee, God won you by knowing you completely and still loving you perfectly. I think it is time for you to return the favor." 

And I agree with Him. It is time for me to return this gracious favor.

Time to know God better. 

March 18, 2011

Fearing God-The Confession

It is about 6 o’clock on a chilly morning. I am awakened all of the sudden for no apparent reason, and as I’m trying to settle down to go back to sleep, I hear the Lord’s invitation to get up and pray with Him. I look at the clock, consider the chill, and as I’m rolling over I say, “Sorry God, why don't you come back in 30 minutes, we'll pray then.” I drift back to sleep.

Rewind about a year and I’m standing in my new church having just taken communion. The week had been really hard. A crisis of faith had left me feeling worn thin and bruised. The pastor of my church gets up and says, “Sometimes taking communion can cause some intense things to come up. If you need to, the elders will be off to the side to pray with you.” As he spoke I felt the Lord's invitation again, “You should go and get prayer, you’ve had a tough week.”

I considered the suggestion a moment and then responded, “Nah, that’s ok. I don’t need to.” He gently encouraged me again to get prayer, “Nope. I really don’t think I need to.” 

Then He got firm. “Go And Get Prayer.” 

To which I literally crossed my arms over my chest and said, “I AM NOT GETTING PRAYER.”

These two stories (and many others) are like red flags in my life. Places of distress or indicators that things are not as they should be. These two stories point to a very serious  problem.

I do not fear the Lord. 

Some one who tells the all powerful God to come back when it suited their schedule, does not have a healthy understanding of who God is. Someone who would casually and obstinately cross their arms and tell God "NO"-the same God that created said person, that redeemed said person and that could END said person-that someone needs to consider what a healthy fear of the Lord looks like.
Proverbs 1:7 tells me that, "The FEAR of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge." 

I want to learn to fear the Lord. And even though I'm anxious about this part of God, I want to know the God that deserves my fear.

March 15, 2011

The Thorn of Superiority and Charlie Sheen

In my last post I talked about Christ's parable found in Matthew 13: The Farmer and the seed. I shared that lately I've been struggling with a thorny or distracted heart.

I see lent as a time to do some good gardening in the land of my heart. Tilling up hard dirt. Infusing my life with the nutrients that spiritual disciplines bring. And fasting something during lent has always led to good things in my walk with God and my life with others.

This year (just like last) I'm fasting from TV during the 40 days of lent. TV is one of my BIGGEST distractions. It is where I escape, where I recharge, where I fold laundry and clean bedrooms, and where Joshua and I spend most of our downtime together.

In this first quiet week of lent, I have begun to realize some things about the state of my heart and places that God needs to prune. One of them is my interaction with celebrity news. I stumbled on this blog post today from "Her.meneutics"-the Christianity Today blog for women. The post is about the author's and our culture's desire to consume the lives of celebrities. She says this about the recent media onslaught of news from the crazy fall of Charlie Sheen:
The disturbed actor has been offering us the intimate details of his life on a plate, and we’ve been grabbing them by the handful, wolfing them down, and licking our fingers in expectation for the next course. But, after a few weeks of noshing on Charlie’s braggadocio and the perverse details of his life, the novelty of it is — forgive me — losing its sheen. We’re sick of hearing about him, but no worries: there’s an app for that.
Our culture wipes its mouth with the back of its hand and glances absentmindedly around the room. What’s next, we wonder. We want a new distraction.
OUCH! This image of gluttony sliced open my heart. And being free of TV and alot of media that revolves around TV happenings, it made my heart ready to hear God's call to me in this area.

How I objectify celebrities and sport figures is a gross part of my life. It chokes out God's call to see all people as precious and as having deep worth. It kills the good and hard news that all brokenness is BAD and that my brokenness is no better than the brokenness I read about in "People" or on-line. I have no right to feel superior to Charlie Sheen or the NFL players (though I still feel like they are being unreasonable). This is the real reason that I gorge myself on celebrity news (or watch Super Nanny for that matter), it makes me feel like my junk isn't that bad.

Even while writing this, a small sinister voice is whispering in my mind, "Well, this isn't a REALLY bad issue for you. You're much better than others..." AAAAAKKKKKKKK. I have some BIG THORNY WEEDS in my heart. Pride and superiority are deeply enmeshed into my life. And they are choking the life right out of me.

I need to press into the truth that junk is junk. And all junk needs God's redemption, forgiveness, and junk-removal system (enter the cross, the resurrection and the blessing of the Spirit poured into our hearts). I need Easter to come, and I need it just as much as the "bad" mom at my daughter's school, just as much as the guy who flipped me off in traffic, and just as much as Charlie Sheen. Maybe even more..

Where does your superiority come out?

March 8, 2011

A Little Gardening for Fat Tuesday

This week Cecilia read out the Gospels for the first time ALL BY HERSELF.

Sunday before church Cecilia and I were talking about good storytellers. We had just seen Tangled the day before (which is quite good, with a great story) and I interjected, "You know who was a great storyteller? Jesus! He loved telling stories." She was surprised and asked to hear one.

So I told her the parable of the Farmer and seeds in Mark 4.
Again Jesus... taught them [large crowd] many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Later in the afternoon, I looked up the passage and asked her to read it to me. She did. IT WAS AWESOME. And it made me think about Fat Tuesday, Lent, and gardening.

The soils are like our hearts. Some are hard (the path), some are shallow (the rocky), some are distracted (the thorny). And when we hear the Word of God it is like seed that falls on these soils. 

In hard hearts the Word has nowhere to go. Bitterness, callousness, anger, and apathy keep the surface of our hearts tough and so God's truth can't make it in and it gets carried away by the enemy. 

In shallow hearts the Word makes it below the surface, but not far enough. After an emotional experience with God, or an Ah Ha moment, the heart has no depth, no structure, no discipline for the seed to plant some roots and stick around. It soon withers and dies.

In distracted hearts the Word starts to grow, develops roots, but soon is killed by the "plants" that were already there. Our commitment to these weeds of wealth, status, independence, and happiness kill the truth that was planted by the good news of God.

When I look for myself in this story, my heart has looked like all these soils, but lately it has been mostly a thorny heart. I'm a distracted person. I read God's Word and seeds get planted in my heart: "think of others before you think about yourself;" "Do everything without grumbling or arguing;" "Don't be conceited, don't envy others." And as those seeds start growing into a beautiful and lush garden, my weedy heart starts to chock them back. My commitment to myself steals nutrients. My lack of trust that if I give of myself God will take care of me, nudges the truth out. My self-sufficiency robs the truth of the light and power it needs from the Spirit. And soon it dies.

Enter in the purning power of Lent.

Lent is a church season. 40 days before Easter, men and woman in the church give things up, fast, so that when Easter arrives our hearts are ready. Lent tills up the soil in our hearts. It begins sweeping away the rocks and infuses our hearts with nutrients. It also can be utilized to cut out distractions, to prune the things that take our affections away from the Gospel.

That is why we celebrate Lent. That is why I'll be giving something up tomorrow and will be trying to replace that thing with God. I want my heart ready. I want my heart to be soft, and deep, and clear, so when the seeds of Easter are thrown into my soul, there will be a crop beyond my wild imaginations.

What "soul" do you identify with most?
What do you need to give up to be ready to take in the seed of our Risen Lord?

March 6, 2011

A Little More Praying Library

Trying to keep the posts "short" here is the continued list of books from the last post that have shaped the way I think about prayer and more importantly the way I pray.

Fifty Prayers: If you want to pray but don't feel like you know how to pray find a book of prayers that can get you started. I got this book for Christmas this year and LOVE IT! Barth is one of my favorite theologians. I love his heart, his thoughts, the way he writes, and come to find out--I adore the way he prays. This is a collection of prayers he wrote to go with his sermons, and they are arranged to go with the church calendar. Here is a segment of one of my favorite ones:
"Lord our God, you are great, high, and holy over us and over all people. And indeed, you are so great that you have not forgotten us, have not left us alone, and despite all that might testify against us, you have not rejected us. Now, in your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, you have given us nothing less than yourself and all that is yours. We thank you that, as long as we live and in eternity, we may be your guests at the table of your grace.
   We now spread before you everything that troubles us: our mistakes and attempts to overreach, our sorrows, cares, rebellion, and bitterness-our whole hearts and lives that you know better than we do. We place all of this into the trustworthy hands that in our Savior you have stretched out toward us. Take us as we are, hold up the weak among us, and make the poor among us rich from your fullness!
   And so, let your friendliness shine over us..."
The Way of the Heart: This was required reading for staff this year in my region, and it was great! Nouwen is a great writer and I love how he thinks about leadership in Christ. In the book he quotes Theophan the Recluse: "To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all-seeing, within you." (73) This is the shortest book in the bunch, and if you are looking to be challenged not only in the way you pray but also in how you practice (or don't practice) silence and solitude then you should read this little book. His thoughts on prayer in this book actually convinced me to start practicing more simplistic praying.



 
Red Moon Rising: This was the most adventurous book I've read about prayer. It is a "history" of the 24/7 prayer moment that began in England. I was encouraged to read it at Urbana by a wise woman. I think anyone would get excited about intercessory prayer when reading this book. It inspired me for sure. I don't walk into prayer rooms the same way.
"Initially 24-7 was a lot of hard work. It wasn't easy persuading people to say they would come to the prayer room: prayer didn't really seem to be top of anyone's agenda! But when the week started, it just ...flowed--people came and people came back! Many people called in for an hour and ended up staying for three or four!...It wasn't until Thursday morning that I found myself in the prayer room alone. I was on my knees and just looked over at our wall covered in the names of family and friends--and God broke my heart. These weren't just random people, but people who were deeply loved, and someone was desperate for them to know Jesus." Lucy-Dublin (95)
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: If you are a human you need to own this book. It is in my prayer library because it has a whole section of prayer disciplines, but it could be in any "library" that as to do with me getting closer to being like Christ. It is an amazing resource and I use it all the time! It has 14 different kinds of prayer: including Breath prayer, Centering prayer, Prayer walking, and fasting.
"Prayer is sustained less by duty than by a desire to connect and grow in intimacy and communion with the holy Three. But prayer also moves us up and out into our world" (203)
I also made a handout that went along with the talk on prayer I gave at Greek Conference. It breaks down 4 different ways to pray, and has some quotes on prayer that challenge me. Click here to look at it or print it off.

Books on my waiting to read list--History Makers-by Dutch Sheets and William Ford 
                                                        Prayer-by Karl Barth

What are some books you love that deal with the topic of prayer? Expand my list!

March 4, 2011

A Praying Library

I've been writing about prayer over the past few weeks. Here are some books that have been shaping my thoughts and habits in prayer.

Too Busy Not to Pray: This was the first book I ever read on prayer. I've read it a few times since then, and if you are just starting out on your journey into wanting to pray, or wanting to want to pray (smile) you should start here. Some of the chapters include: Heart-building Habits, Prayer Busters, The Hurt of Unanswered Prayer, The Importance of Listening.
"From birth we have been learning the rules of self-reliance as we strain and struggle to achieve self-sufficiency. Prayer flies in the face of those deep-seated values. It is an assault on human autonomy, an indictment of independent living. To people in the fast lane, determined to make it on their own, prayer is an embarrassing interruption." (9)
Can I get an OUCH!

Praying the Scriptures: Another IVP gem. This book walks you through different ways to use the scriptures in your prayer time, and it gives you several handy dandy appendix's in the back to point you to some good scripture to start your praying. The opening quote from the book is, "One of the greatest attractions of praying the Scriptures is that it is not boring."(17) To be quite frank I agree with him wholeheartedly! This book helped me go from prayer being something I knew I should do to something I wanted to do. It infused my time in prayer with depth and enjoyment.

Using God's word when I'm praying also helps jump start my conversation with God. It keeps me grounded and focused on God's heart for me and for what I'm praying about. I love praying out of the psalms (which the book offers a whole chapter on) and I spend a lot of time praying in Colossians 1. 

The Papa Prayer: I read this book of Larry Crabb's just this year and it changed the way I pray considerably. The main point of the book is that the church needs to stop seeing prayer as a means to get God's stuff, and start seeing it as mainly a means to relationship with God. He also calls for us to shift our prayer energies away from intercession (asking for things) to relationship (getting to know God better). He uses a model of prayer using the word Papa as an acronym. P: Present yourself to God w/out pretense. A: Attend to how you are thinking of God. P: Purge yourself of anything blocking your relationship with God. A:Approach God as the "first thing" in your life.

“The true center of prayer, its real point, is relating to God. When we restore relational prayer to its rightful place, then petitionary prayer is restored to its rightful and powerful place, as an expression of our love for God, not as the chance to get whatever we want for ourselves.
But we don’t naturally think of prayer as an opportunity to relate with God. ...[And] if we keep on believing that prayer is more about getting things than getting God, not only will we eventually get thoroughly confused when prayer doesn’t ‘work,’ but talking to God will at some point feel boring as well.” (37)
The Voice of Jesus: I just started this book. Smith focuses on the art of discernment in prayer. (Is there anything that man can't write about!) So far I really like it, and I'm excited about the thoughts the book is drawing out of my mind about prayer and how I listen to the inner witness of the Spirit.
"The genius of the Christian life is the resolve, willingness and capacity to respond personally and intentionally to the prompting of the Spirit...As communities of faith,...we urgently need to develop our capacity to listen together to the witness of the Spirit" (16-17)

March 3, 2011

The Folly of Prayer

We here in the Simmons' home have had the flu. Hence the reason I've not posted the final reason we should pray (as seen in 2 Chronicles 7)

I talked about the #1 reason we don't pray: We don't need to.
I wrote about the first reason we should pray: because prayer allows us to know God and ourselves
And the second reason we should pray: prayer is a unique privilege & God promises to attend our prayers.

But His attention is not all He promises. Look at 2 Chronicles 7:12-16:
“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place [the temple the people had just built] for myself as a temple for sacrifices. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,  if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.  I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.
 He doesn't just promise to hear our prayers, but he promises to do something about them, to do something with them.

"If my people pray...I will hear..., I will forgive..., I will heal."

We should pray because prayer changes the world. 

And when we don't pray we are acting like idiots.

This week good friends had a crisis and needed prayer, so they called. I wanted to jump in the car, and head to their house (hours away) because I felt like I needed to be present, but with the flu and little ones about me, going was impossible. So I headed back to my little uncomfortable chair to sit and pray. Going back to my room and sitting felt pointless and weak. I felt like I was letting my friends down by not going to them, taking care of their practical needs, distracting them with my funniness.

But then God met me.  

He was present with them. He was taking care of their needs. He was comforting them AND He was attentive to my prayers on their behalf. He was taking my prayers and using them to bless my friends. My prayers were as powerful as my presence. More powerful in some ways, because God called me to pray for them, not to be with them.

Here are some challenging thoughts on prayer from John Piper:


Friends! God will win your communities, your neighborhoods, your campuses, your workplace. Scripture tells us that in the end all knees will bow, all tongues confess that Christ is Lord of all. And as He is winning He is willing to take your prayers and incorporate them into what He is doing.

He will heal your families, your friends and your own heart. And as He's healing, He is willing to use your prayers to be a part of that restorative work.

God is changing the world. He is breaking down strongholds and rescuing people from every nation. And He is willing to take our prayers, our hopes, our dreams and fold them into that change.

We can't junk up the order. We can't jump into prayer just to get Him do what we want. That is not the purpose of prayer! We pray so that we can know God. So we can grow closer to Him. As we are praying, as we are pressing in closer and closer to the heart of the Living God we will start to ask for things that He wants, and we can confidently ask Him for what our hearts long for. We can passionately ask Him to forgive our sins (both individual and corporate) and we can, with as much detail as our imaginations can afford us, ask Him to heal our land.

As I ponder this reality of prayer I have to admit that I wholeheartedly agree with Piper, that we are fools if we don't take God up on His offer to pray.

So pray!