The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Evils of TV

Eric,


I know who BTB is, or rather was.


I did not find this insulting and ad hominem comment to be edifying, and neither would you.

Denny

Romans 3:22-24

Hey Denny,

Unless you and Snoopy have a "past" (some history of conflict or animosity that I don't know about), like Gary Larson's mad scientist Dr. Jenkins and the duck, I took his comment as totally humorous and not by any stretch insulting -- frivolous perhaps.

As to St. Ephraim's prayer, I have memorized it and pray it often. If Pelagius hated Augustine's petition to "Command what You will, and give what You command," he would have REALLY hated this one.

This may be equally "off thread" (bring on the rebukes!) but sometimes reading the prayers of great saints, both biblical (David), and post-biblical (Augustine), allows me to better focus my energy on worshipping and communing with God rather than on what I'm going to say next. It's like being led in prayer by the greatest teachers and leaders the church has ever had. Of course, to avoid "vain repitition" one must always make the words one's own, and many of our petitions are unique and personal and cannot be covered by prayers written by others. But again, I have found them to be a great source of spiritual encouragement and enrichment.

I keep including the prayer in my posts because I would like to make it part of my signature, but it is apparently too big to fit.

I'm going to break the forum rule about posts/replies and simply recommend the following book since IMHO, it is the greatest selection of prayers to ever be bound in one book; outside of those in Scripture, of course.

See here: Valley of Vision.

Note also, that there is both a leather-bound edition as well as a soft cover edition, both of which are currently being offered at 25% off the regular price as shown.

In His grace,

Denny,
It was not intended as adhominen, or as Brad took it being funny. Though it might have been taken as both. I was and still am in dead earnest. Why? Well, I noticed how taken you were by the saints prayer, and was curious to know if you yourself wrote out prayers like this. What is called a crafted prayer. Only over the last week or so my wife and I discovered a really interesting lecture on this very topic and whilst walking at a place high in the mountains by a very peaceful lake we discussed this. We then listened to the rest of the lecture while on our way home. (Morning Devotion.)

Well, the story that the lecturer told was very profound and made me understand that crafted prayer can certainly give one great courage and help one to pray through areas of difficulty. One can have special prayers for member of the family, for one's spouse, for one's close friends etc. Prayers that capture the essense of the problem that the Lord might have opened your eyes to pray about.

He explained that he had fallen on hard times and was forced to take a job as a grave digger. His associate diggers decided he needed a little lesson, sort of an initiation, and while he was digging one day they removed the ladder. It was raining and they left him in this pit for about eight hours. During this time he spent most of his time praying as the level of the water rose, finally they dropped the ladder down and he surfaced muddy and broken but he admitted that his prayer life had changed in dynamic ways. It was out of this that the Lord showed him about crafted prayers. So forget about my funny comment and let's go with Pilgrim's excellent reference.

This link gives some of the prayers. I bought a little book and have been exploring this idea of writing out prayers, not that I will not pray the spontaneous ones too, but it is most enlightening and I have already found that some of the prayers I might certainly use again, or even pray regularly.

Here is a link to some of the prayers in the book Pilgrim linked too.

http://www.oldlandmarks.com/puritan.htm

Eric,

OK, what say you and I "bury the hatchet" in the Christian way?

Yes, I have been "crafting" poems of a spiritual nature for perhaps the last 30 years. I rarely share them but I found that there is much for me to learn when I meditate and write upon the themes of God's justice and grace.


For me, crafted prayers or poems and the Scripture that they bring to mind are also a great way to learn about oneself, others and the (sometimes not so beautiful world) in which we live.

Denny

Romans 3:22-24

Yes, I agree.

Writing is very good as it drags me away from the idiot box. I started writing poetry, but then turned to song writing and eventually to writing books. This idea of writing out one's prayers is FANTASTIC. I bought a tiny hard cover and have written about seven already.

Over the years I have been amazed how the Lord has cleaned out my dirty heart. The writing has given me a pretty good indication as to how that has moved along. I used to write very black stuff and over the last decade I have found myself desiring purity in what I do. To give glory to His name is my one desire.

Sincerely,
Straw