Ok — everyone take a deep breath. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re about to touch on another very fun topic — prayer in schools.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been reading Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire<\/I> by Jim Cymbala, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle.
\nWhile reading about prayer, which most of the book is about, a section struck me straight to the heart.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What does it say about our churches today that God birthed the church in a prayer meeting, and prayer meetings today are almost extinct?
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Am I the only one who gets embarrassed when religious leaders in America talk about having prayer in public schools? We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have even that much prayer in many churches! Out of humility, you would think we would keep quiet on that particular subject until we practice what we preach in our own congregations.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am sure the Roman emperors didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have prayer to God in their schools. But then, the early Christians didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to care what Caligula or Claudius or Nero did. How could any emperor stop God? How, in fact, could the demons of hell make headway when God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s people prayed and called upon his name? Impossible!
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In the New Testament we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see Peter or John wringing their hands and saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, what are we going to do? Caligula\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bisexual… he wants to appoint his horse to the Roman Senate… what a terrible model of leadership! How are we going to respond to this outrage?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nThe lesson continues, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll let you get your own copy of the book and read it for yourselves.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never been a fan of prayer in schools — not because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not a fan of prayer or don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe in it. I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it belongs in schools.
\nIf Christians are allowed to have prayer in school, so are Islamics, Buddhists, and Wiccans.
\nPersonally I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want a Wiccan teacher telling my future children how to pray.
\nThey will learn to pray at home, and it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be up to a principal or teacher to tell them when they can or can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pray.
\nThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll know, just like I did growing up, that when you feel the need to pray – do it.
\nDon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait on a teacher or principal to give you permission or set aside a time to do so.<\/p>\n
eveningstar@hot.rr.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ok — everyone take a deep breath. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re about to touch on another very fun topic — prayer in schools. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been reading Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle. While reading about prayer, which most of the book is about, a section struck me straight to the heart. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What does … Continue reading This week’s column: Prayer in Schools<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31,18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-club","category-faith","category-reflections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-5s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}