R. Albert Mohler Jr.'s Blog, page 230

Friday, Feb. 2, 2018

Why a referendum in Ireland tells us a great deal about our place in the modern worldFinancial Times (Arthur Beesley) — Ireland set to hold referendum on abortion law in MayNew York Times (Liam Stack) — How Ireland Moved to the Left: ‘The Demise of the Church’

Secular authority tells American evangelicals that the future is going to require “theological flexibility”Daniel Cox (FiveThirtyEight) — Are White Evangelicals Sacrificing The Future In Search Of The Past?

Modern culture refuses to make absolute moral judgments about sex, but not about moneyThe Tennessean (Joey Garrison, Nate Rau, and Dave Boucher) — Nashville Mayor Megan Barry admits to extramarital relationship with top police security officer

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Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018

Yale offers a course on happiness which the professor suggests students should take pass-failNew York TImes (David Shimer) — Yale’s Most Popular Class Ever: Happiness

Adult happiness linked to Research indicates adult happiness is linked to marriage in a way it is not linked to cohabitationWall Street Journal (Susan Pinker) — For Long-Term Happiness, the Wedded Win the Race

Signs of the times as our society is increasingly dabbing, dropping, and dopingNew York Times (Paul Sullivan) — As States Legalize Marijuana, Investors See an OpportunityNPR (Sarah Varney) — Is Smoking Pot While Pregnant Safe For The Baby?New York Times (Farhad Manjoo) — About That Joint: Marijuana Start-Ups PassAssociated Press (Lauren Easton) — New beat team for marijuana coverage

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Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018

On the most important of all political stages President Trump strikes a different note, even as there are few surprises

New debates about homeschooling take on a new urgencyThe Week (Damon Linker) — The sickening danger of home-schoolingAmerican Conservative (Rod Dreher) — Homeschooling & BullyingAP (Carolyn Thompson) — Case of shackled kids revives home-school regulation debate

As Murphy Brown returns we have to ask, “Will she even be interesting today?” Washington Post (Travis Andrews) — ‘Murphy Brown’ is returning to television again with Candice Bergen

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Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018

What’s at stake in historic vote in the United States Senate on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection ActWashington Post (Ed O’Keefe) — Abortion ban bill fails to advance in the Senate

How science is used in today’s contentious cultural debatesNew York Times (Editors) — The Gathering Threat to Abortion RightsNew York Times (Editors) — The White House Puts the Bible Before the Hippocratic Oath

State of the Union preview: What to watch for as President Trump addresses joint session of CongressWall Street Journal (Louise Radnofsky and Peter Nicholas) — Trump to Soften Tone in State of the Union, Pursuing Immigration DealNew York Times (Michael Shear Mark Landler) — State of the Union Preview: Will Trump Stick to the Script?

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Monday, Jan. 29, 2018

Planned Parenthood loses its leader in pushing the culture of deathNew York Times (Amy Chozick) — Cecile Richards on Her Life After Planned ParenthoodU.S. Senator Ben Sasse — Sasse Statement on Cecile Richards

Reality sets in among Americans on question of LGBT rightsWashington Post (Alyssa Rosenberg) — In three years, LGBT Americans have gone from triumph to backlash

Lament over divorcing sex from love falls tragically shortWashington Post (Gracy Olmstead) — Divorcing sex from love hasn’t made sex more fun, more safe or less complicated

Florida legislators consider bill declaring pornography a public health problemAP (Brendan Farrington) — Florida could declare porn a health threat

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Friday, Jan. 26, 2018

Big news from China reveals threats to human dignity and the cracking of the worldview in the WestWall Street Journal (Preetika Rana, Amy Dockser Marcus, and Wenxin Fan) — China, Unhampered by Rules, Races Ahead in Gene-Editing Trials

As monkeys are cloned in China we recognize that what happens in China won’t stay in ChinaNew York Times (Gina Kolata) — Yes, They’ve Cloned Monkeys in China. That Doesn’t Mean You’re Next.

What the depersonalization of dating tells us about the next generation

Why Christians must reject a two-story morality and always call sin by its proper name

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Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018

An amazing testimony to the gospel, to the reality of good and evil, and to Christian truth in a Michigan courtroomNew York Times (Scott Cacciola and Victor Mather) — Larry Nassar Sentencing: ‘I Just Signed Your Death Warrant’

An amazing display of theological confusion among some German theologiansColorado Springs-Gazette (Tom Heneghan) — In Germany, Catholic Church grapples with blessings for gay marriage

Are pro-life politicians in one party an endangered species?Wall Street Journal (Matthew Hennessey) — Does the Endangered Species Act Protect Pro-Life Democrats?

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Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018

After a case of horrific abuse, should homeschoolers in California be inspected by the state?NBC News (Phil Helsel) — ‘California torture house’ case exposes lack of oversight of home schoolsLA Times (Editors) — After the Perris nightmare, it's time to monitor home-schools more closely

Parental rights and religious freedom at stake as New York officials move to control religious schoolsWall Street Journal (Avi Schick) — New York’s Bid to Control Religious Schools

Truth takes a backseat to storytelling on the big screen and the small screenWall Street Journal (Peggy Noonan) — The Lies of ‘The Crown’ and ‘The Post’Chicago Reader (J.R. Jones) — Gary Oldman is the complete Winston Churchill, but Darkest Hour tells only half the story(Michael Karp) — Cinema and "Reality": The Importance of Emotional Truth

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The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down

This article is an excerpt from my new book,  The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down: The Lord’s Prayer as a Manifesto for Revolution, which releases today.

We long for revolution. Something within us cries out that the world is horribly broken and must be fixed. For centuries, the word revolution was scarcely heard, buried under ages of oppression. The word itself was feared and speaking it was treason. And then, revolutions seemed to appear almost everywhere.

Some historians have gone so far as to identify our modern epoch as “The Age of Revolution.” Is it? Perhaps it is more accurate to refer to our times as “The Age of Failed Revolution.” Looking across the landscape it becomes clear that very few revolutions produce what they promise. Arguably, most revolutions lead to a worse set of conditions than they replaced.

And yet, we still yearn for radical change, for things to be made right. We rightly long to see righteousness and truth and justice prevail. We are actually desperate for what no earthly revolution can produce. We long for the Kingdom of God, and for Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We are looking for a kingdom that will never end and a King whose rule is perfect.

This is why Christian’s pray the Lord’s Prayer. This is the very prayer that Jesus taught his own disciples to pray. So Christians pray this prayer as a way of learning how to pray and what to pray – as Jesus teaches us to pray.

The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer that turns the world upside down. Are you looking for revolution? There is no clearer call to revolution than when we pray “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But this is a revolution only God can bring … and He will.

This short prayer turns the world upside down. Principalities and powers hear their fall. Dictators are told their time is up. Might will indeed be made right and truth and justice will prevail. The kingdoms of this world will all pass, giving way to the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ.

It all comes down to one of the shortest prayers found in the Bible. The Lord’s Prayer takes less than 20 seconds to read aloud, but it takes a lifetime to learn. Sadly, most Christians rush through the prayer without learning it – but that is to miss the point completely.

Perhaps this is part of a larger problem. Gary Millar, who has written some enormously helpful resources on prayer, goes so far as to argue that “the evangelical church is slowly but surely giving up on prayer.” The statement is shocking, but the truth of his assessment is even more shocking. Why are evangelicals giving up on prayer?

Millar suggests that life is easy for most evangelicals – perhaps too easy. Some of us lack the desperation that most Christians have experienced throughout church history. Desperation leads to prayer. We are also incredibly distracted and busy. Both are enemies of prayer. But giving up on prayer is not only a sign of evangelical weakness. It is disobedience.

Jesus did not only teach his disciples to pray – he commanded us to pray.

I think there is another big reason behind the fact that so many Christians do not pray. Many Christians simply do not know how to pray.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us how to pray.

We remember Martin Luther as the great Reformer, nailing his famous 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517 and leading the Reformation of the church. What we do not so often remember is that Martin Luther was also a man who regularly needed a haircut. We should be very glad that he did.

Luther’s barber, Peter Beskendorf once asked Luther for advice on how to pray. Luther responded by writing instructions on prayer he called “A Simple Way to Pray, for Master Peter the Barber.”

Luther pointed his barber to the Lord’s Prayer, and he offered this incredibly helpful advice:

“So, as a diligent and good barber, you must keep your thoughts, senses, and eyes precisely on the hair and scissors or razor and not forget where you trimmed or shaved, for, if you want to talk a lot or become distracted thinking about something else, you might well cut someone’s nose or mouth or even his throat.”

We get Luther’s point immediately. We must learn to pray, and to resist distractions in prayer. Advice about cutting hair or shaving is easy to understand. A distracted barber is a dangerous barber. Luther applied the lesson well: “How much more does a prayer need to have the undivided attention of the whole heart alone, if it is to be a good prayer!”

We have much to learn about prayer, and the Lord’s Prayer is the right place to start. This is no tame prayer for safe times. This is the prayer that turns the world upside down.

So, let’s learn to pray, taught by Jesus.

To read more, purchase your copy of The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or ChristianBook.com.

Gary Millar, Calling on the Name of the Lord: A Biblical Theology of Prayer, New Studies in Biblical Theology, ed. D. A. Carson (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press/Apollos, 2016), 231.

Martin Luther, “A Simple Way to Pray, to Master Peter the Barber,” in Luther’s Spirituality, eds. Philip D. W. Krey and Peter D. S. Krey, Library of Christian Classics (New York: Paulist Press, 2007), 222.

Ibid.

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Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018

The federal government is back in business...at least for another three weeks

As new conscience protections become national policy, the political left complains about the very argument they once advancedWall Street Journal (Stephanie Armour and Louise Radnofsky) — Trump to Let Health Practitioners Skip Procedures on Religious GroundsWashington Post (Juliet Eilperin and Ariana Eunjung Cha) — New HHS civil rights division to shield health workers with moral or religious objections

What one politician calls “a mistake”, the Bible calls “sin” AP (David Lieb and Summer Ballentine) — Greitens: 'No blackmail,' 'no violence' in affair

Abortion reveals a divide that points to the deepest divide of allPew Research Center (David Masci) — American religious groups vary widely in their views of abortion

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