Month: December 2013

Don: Michael has posted on The Interface a story  about an unspoken prayer, in the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. David commented that he found this fictional prayer more meaningful than some of the great prayers we have been studying, from the Old Testament. I find myself sometimes personally reflected in them. Like Jonah,…

I just finished reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and was pleasantly surprised by the shepherd’s prayer. The boy referred to in the prayer passage below is the shepherd, Santiago. He wants to turn himself into the wind so he can escape the desert tribesmen who are out to kill him. The boy turned to…

What Do Prayer Studies Prove? When a landmark study suggests that intercessory prayer may actually hurt patients instead of help them, you have to wonder. Gregory Fung and Christopher Fung [ posted 5/15/2009 9:03AM ] Should your doctor prescribe prayer as part of your treatment? According to a study of 1,134 physicians this past December…

Don: There is still a tension between the concepts of prayer and free will. If I successfully pray for help for someone else and that person does not want help, then I have violated that person’s free will. In scripture, we see god doing this all the time. Three personal prayers from the Old Testament…

Don: The world in which we live and must function is governed by natural laws. In a general sense, natural laws control our environment. They have to do with causes—gravity, for instance; and their effects—falling apples, for instance. They can be predicted, and therefore they can be managed, Newtonian laws determines how physics work; economic…

Don: The story of Jonah is not really about Jonah, or about the Ninevites, or about the great fish that swallowed him. It is about god and god’s grace. Jonah’s first prayer, which occurs in the second chapter, teaches us as much about what is not good prayer as about what is good prayer. Jonah’s…