With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, 87

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray continues his discussion, based on Mark 11:22-24:

And then follows a still wider application. Prayer is the reaching out after God and the unseen; fasting, the letting go of all that is of the seen and temporal. While ordinary Christians imagine that all that is not positively forbidden and sinful is lawful to them, and seek to retain as much as possible of this world, with its property, its literature, its enjoyments, the truly consecrated soul is as the soldier who carries only what he needs for the warfare. Laying aside every weight, as well as the easily besetting sin, afraid of entangling himself with the affairs of this life, he seeks to lead a Nazarite life, as one specially set apart for the Lord and His service. Without such voluntary separation, even from what is lawful, no one will attain power in prayer: this kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer.

Disciples of Jesus! who have asked the Master to teach you to pray, come now and accept His lessons. He tells you that prayer is the path to faith, strong faith, that can cast out devils.  He tells you: ‘If ye have faith, nothing shall be impossible to you;’ let this glorious promise encourage you to pray much. Is the prize not worth the price? Shall we not give up all to follow Jesus in the path He opens to us here; shall we not, if need be, fast? Shall we not do anything that neither the body nor the world around hinder us in our great lifework,—having intercourse with our God in prayer, that we may become men of faith, whom He can use in His work of saving the world.

‘LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY.’

Sunspots 834

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others:

Christianity: A Relevant writer asks why praying is so hard.

(and Politics) Christianity Today offers a primer on Christian Nationalism.

Environment: The Florida panther has not gone extinct, according to NPR.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight discusses private militias, and whether they can be regulated.

Relevant reports on where various groups get their news.

Science: The Scientist reports that virus RNA has been extracted from people who died during the 1918 pandemic.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking! 

With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, 86

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray continues his discussion, based on Mark 11:22-24:

And prayer needs fasting for its full growth: this is the second lesson. Prayer is the only hand with which we grasp the invisible; fasting, the other, with which we let loose and cast away the visible. In nothing is man more closely connected with the world of sense than in his need of food, and his enjoyment of it. It was the fruit, good for food, with which man was tempted and fell in Paradise. It was with bread to be made of stones that Jesus, when an hungered, was tempted in the wilderness, and in fasting that He triumphed. The body has been redeemed to be a temple of the Holy Spirit; it is in body as well as spirit, it is very specially, Scripture says, in eating and drinking, we are to glorify God. It is to be feared that there are many Christians to whom this eating to the glory of God has not yet become a spiritual reality. And the first thought suggested by Jesus’ words in regard to fasting and prayer, is, that it is only in a life of moderation and temperance and self-denial that there will be the heart or the strength to pray much.
But then there is also its more literal meaning. Sorrow and anxiety cannot eat: joy celebrates its feasts with eating and drinking. There may come times of intense desire, when it is strongly felt how the body, with its appetites, lawful though they be, still hinder the spirit in its battle with the powers of darkness, and the need is felt of keeping it under. We are creatures of the senses: our mind is helped by what comes to us embodied in concrete form; fasting helps to express, to deepen, and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, to sacrifice ourselves, to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God. And He who accepted the fasting and sacrifice of the Son, knows to value and accept and reward with spiritual power the soul that is thus ready to give up all for Christ and His kingdom.

Sunspots 833

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others:

Computing: Gizmodo reports that Colonial Pipeline had posted a job opening for a cybersecurity manager, a week or so before the ransomware attack that cut gasoline supplies down.

NPR interviews a company that helps negotiate with criminals after a ransomware attack.

Environment: Gizmodo reports on how ineffective the Environmental Protection Agency has been, during the Trump administration, and before.

Health: NPR reports that a dozen people are responsible for most of the anti-vaccination disinformation available on social networks. These people have, and will, contribute to COVID (and other diseases) deaths.

(and Computing) NPR reports on likely links between social media use and depression, among children and youth.

Science: The Scientist reports that children with severe combined immunodeficiency have been successfully treated with gene therapy, with a virus placing a normal gene in them. Treatment helps for at least a few years, and, we hope, for life.

Gizmodo reports that a system for generating characters by thought alone (in a paralyzed man) is quite effective, and surprisingly rapid. In other words, he's typing with his brain. See also report in The Scientist.

Gizmodo also reports on spectacular recently published photos of  Jupiter.

ScienceAlert reports that we would need several years to deflect an asteroid headed for earth.

Gizmodo seeks answers to the question of why birds and insects are often vividly colored, while mammals are not. (Did you ever see a blue one?)

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, 85

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray continues his discussion, based on Mark 11:22-24:

It is God, the living God, into whom our faith must strike its roots deep and broad; then it will be strong to remove mountains and cast out devils. ‘If ye have faith, nothing shall be impossible to you.’ Oh! if we do but give ourselves up to the work God has for us in the world, coming into contact with the mountains and the devils there are to be cast away and cast out, we should soon comprehend the need there is of much faith, and of much prayer, as the soil in which alone faith can be cultivated. Christ Jesus is our life, the life of our faith too. It is His life in us that makes us strong, and makes us simple to believe. It is in the dying to self which much prayer implies, in closer union to Jesus, that the spirit of faith will come in power. Faith needs prayer for its full growth.

Sunspots 832

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others:

The Arts: (and Christianity) A Relevant writer analyzes the theology of Star Wars.

Christianity: (and Politics) A Christianity Today writer presents data, comparing most of the countries of the world, indicating that the more Christianity becomes entangled with the government, the weaker it becomes.

A Relevant writer says that, too often, we assume that the woman described in Proverbs 31 is what a woman should be like. The writer points out that none of the women in the Bible seem to have held up that ideal.

Environment: Gizmodo has yet another warning about rising temperatures and Antarctica.

Health: The Scientist reports that COVID vaccination does protect against the most common variant strains.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight finds that our political views largely determine how we think the economy is doing, rather than the reverse.

Science: A Gizmodo report indicates that cats like to sit in squares, even illusory squares.

NPR reports on a fish, seven feet long, and probably 100 years old or more, that was caught and released by scientists.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

 

With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, 84

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here.  As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray continues his discussion, based on Mark 11:22-24:

Faith needs a life of prayer for its full growth. In all the different parts of the spiritual life, there is such close union, such unceasing action and re-action, that each may be both cause and effect. Thus it is with faith. There can be no true prayer without faith; some measure of faith must precede prayer. And yet prayer is also the way to more faith; there can be no higher degrees of faith except through much prayer. This is the lesson Jesus teaches here. There is nothing needs so much to grow as our faith. ‘Your faith groweth exceedingly,’ is said of one Church. When Jesus spoke the words, ‘According to your faith be it unto you,’ He announced the law of the kingdom, which tells us that all have not equal degrees of faith, that the same person has not always the same degree, and that the measure of faith must always determine the measure of power and of blessing. If we want to know where and how our faith is to grow, the Master points us to the throne of God. It is in prayer, in the exercise of the faith I have, in fellowship with the living God, that faith can increase. Faith can only live by feeding on what is Divine, on God Himself.
It is in the adoring worship of God, the waiting on Him and for Him, the deep silence of soul that yields itself for God to reveal Himself, that the capacity for knowing and trusting God will be developed. It is as we take His word from the Blessed Book, and bring it to Himself, asking him to speak it to us with His living loving voice, that the power will come fully to believe and receive the word as God’s own word to us. It is in prayer, in living contact with God in living faith, that faith, the power to trust God, and in that trust, to accept everything He says, to accept every possibility He has offered to our faith will become strong in us. Many Christians cannot understand what is meant by the much prayer they sometimes hear spoken of: they can form no conception, nor do they feel the need, of spending hours with God. But what the Master says, the experience of His people has confirmed: men of strong faith are men of much prayer.

Sunspots 831

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others:

Computing: Gizmodo reports that a number of entities are calling for a national strategy on fighting ransomware.

Education: A ListVerse writer tells us about 10 subjects that used to be taught in public schools, but aren't any more, and, says the writer, should be.

I am presently a member of a Wesleyan church. The Wesleyan Church has 5 institutions of higher learning in North America. An African-American has been selected as President of one of them, for the first time.

Health: Gizmodo on home smell training to help recover from loss of the sense of smell due to COVID.

And Gizmodo on why our skin itches, sometimes (or, in some of us, all the time).

FiveThirtyEight analyzes the likelihood of getting COVID from un-vaccinated children.

The Scientist reports that the risk of blood clots is higher in those infected by COVID than the risk of such in those who have been vaccinated.

Humor: (and Christianity) A Relevant writer has ranked worship instruments in order of their expense and/or complexity, or something.

Science: Scientists are trying to sequence the DNA of all animals with backbones, according to NPR.

Gizmodo reports on glacier melting, caused by climate change.

The Scientist reports that single-celled organisms, or single cells in higher organisms, may be capable of learning.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight says that you can't really tell how good an NFL team's draft picks were.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, 83

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here.  As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray continues his discussion, based on Mark 11:22-24:

But such want of faith must have a cause too. Well might the disciples have asked: ‘And why could we not believe? Our faith has cast out devils before this: why have we now failed in believing? ‘The Master proceeds to tell them ere they ask: ‘This kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer.’ As faith is the simplest, so it is the highest exercise of the spiritual life, where our spirit yields itself in perfect receptivity to God’s Spirit and so is strengthened to its highest activity. This faith depends entirely upon the state of the spiritual life; only when this is strong and in full health, when the Spirit of God has full sway in our life, is there the power of faith to do its mighty deeds. And therefore Jesus adds: ‘Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer.’ The faith that can overcome such stubborn resistance as you have just seen in this evil spirit, Jesus tells them, is not possible except to men living in very close fellowship with God, and in very special separation from the world—in prayer and fasting. And so He teaches us two lessons in regard to prayer of deep importance. The one, that faith needs a life of prayer in which to grow and keep strong. The other, that prayer needs fasting for its full and perfect development.