prayer

The Virginia-based evangelical Christian school Liberty University has announced that freshman offensive lineman Tajh Boyd has passed away. He was 19 years old.

Dr. Zahl states that “the heart of Christian ministry is the facilitation of an emotional encounter with the God revealed in Jesus.” Knowledge, even from Scripture, is not enough by itself. Nor is participation in various spiritual disciplines or practical ministries. Humans are so fallen and resistant to change that only the Holy Spirit can change us. And he does this by speaking to our heart.

Consequently, “the experience of being helped by God in your place of felt need is the heart of Christianity.” In this context, according to Dr. Zahl, stories and illustrations are “powerful technologies of the heart, much more powerful than mere words and ideas” because “they know how to speak the strange electric language of the heart.”

What does this emphasis on Spirit-led storytelling mean for those of us committed to seeing our culture experience genuine moral and spiritual transformation? Let’s consider three responses.

The state of Manipur in north-eastern India has been plunged into an unofficial civil war, as ethnic and religious violence has ravaged the state since early May.

The violence, lasting over three months, has resulted in a staggering toll of over 150 people dead and over 500 wounded. Over 60,000 people are estimated to have been internally displaced as the army, paramilitary forces, and police strive to quell the escalating violence. Over 400 Churches have been destroyed in the attacks, along with over 5000 houses and countless families torn apart.

A man in Virginia was recently arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter after a high-speed collision killed a pastor’s 17-year-old daughter and critically injured three teenagers.

Boston’s City Council did not discriminate against the Satanic Temple when it denied its request to deliver an opening prayer at a recent weekly meeting, a federal judge ruled.

Kidnappers have issued a $1 million ransom demand for an American nurse and her daughter, who were recently taken by gunmen in Haiti.

U.S. officials have not released details about what may have happened to an American nurse and her daughter who were kidnapped in Haiti last week.

Terrorism attacks in West Africa jumped to more than 1,800 with some 4,600 deaths, the president of the Economic Community of West African States reported to the U.N. Security Council.

It takes no work to get people to lament the state of America. Gather a group of liberals, and they will wring their hands over the impending theocratic patriarchy that will create a dystopia that rivals The Handmaid’s Tale. Conservatives remain convinced that a cabal of elites is conspiring to destroy America as we know it with high taxes, mass immigration, liberal indoctrination and sexual deviancy.

Too often, we complain infinitely more than we pray. Think about this, though, if the state of our country causes us anxiety, shouldn’t prayer be our first recourse?

A Muslim in eastern Uganda on July 9 killed his wife for converting to Christianity that morning, a relative said.