Interesting reflection from Stanley Hauerwas:
The worship of God does not come naturally to me, as it seems to for some. I live most of my life as if God does not exist. Yet I know I would not have survived without the prayers of friends who have learned to pray the prayers of the church. My life depends on learning to worship God with those who have made it possible for me to go on. Through worship, the world learns the truth that is required for our being truthful about ourselves and one another.Two key themes emerge in that paragraph:
1. For many of us not so gifted, the prayers of others are necessary to sustain and shape our own prayers.
2. Worship is about truth (see John 4:23-24). In worship we encounter the one who is the Truth, we hear both the good news and the bad news about our own condition, and we learn to be truthful by proclaiming the truth.
In the end, it is because of the rough confrontation with the truth that we know we need the prayers of others.
The quotation is from Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2010), p. 159.
4 comments:
Thanks for these updates, I enjoy reading them. I am currently reading Ancient-Future Worship.
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Good prayer!
Thank you, muchly.
PRAYING GOD'S WRITTEN WORD
Hello,
My name is Steve Kindorf,
I thought you would like to use these free Bible study resources on your web site or for yourself, or give them out to others for edification.
It is a prayerbook called 'A Method for Prayer' -the 1710 edition, by the puritan writer Matthew Henry, who also wrote a commentary on the whole Bible. With added Bible study and reference aids for daily devotions.
‘A Method for Prayer’ is a classic bible-based prayerbook, I newly transcribed it from the 1710 editions with modernized spelling; and it has all the cross references from Matthew Henry's original prayerbook.
–Featured in this new expanded edition is a collection of 700 short devotional prayers to the Godhead of Jesus Christ called ‘My Affection’ (that is, proclamations and praises of his many names, titles and attributes; being with you in worship and adoration before his throne as you think upon them throughout the day and meditate in the night watches; God has said in Philippians 4:8 & Psalm 63:6.)
–A poetic setting of Psalm 119.
–A Glossary containing 2400 words of the King James Bible.
–And a daily Bible reading plan.
A free instant PDF download of the September 2014 revised edition of 'A Method for Prayer' by Matthew Henry is now available (this PDF is from the printed book, and has an enlarged fully active table of contents)- http://goo.gl/0N7mqV
The home site for 'A Method for Prayer' where there is a daily blog from the book is at- www.mrmatthewhenry.com
A free audiobook of 'A Method for Prayer'
Chapter 1- Adoration http://goo.gl/7hxCiK
Chapter 2- Confession of sin http://goo.gl/3vqnDT
Chapter 3- Petitions and requests http://goo.gl/3tMtA2
Chapter 4- Thanksgiving http://goo.gl/4evRNr
Chapter 5- Intercession http://goo.gl/gGqC7U
Chapter 6- Addresses to God upon particular occasions http://goo.gl/N9gF56
Chapter 7- Conclusion of our prayers http://goo.gl/K3f4uQ
Chapter 8- A paraphrase on the Lord's prayer http://goo.gl/LK6JhB
It will always be free to download at-
kindle- http://goo.gl/QowZm8
iBook- http://goo.gl/2n3dfX
Nook- http://goo.gl/apofU2
Smashwords (this site has an ePub file and also a mobi file for kindle)- http://goo.gl/7aHshr
Scribd- (this PDF file is the June 2014 revised edition of the printed book, and has a fully active table of contents)- http://www.scribd.com/doc/176484165/A-Method-for-Prayer
Thanks,
Steve
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