The very question "Does prayer work?" puts us in the wrong frame of mind from the outset. "Work": as if it were magic, or a machine — something that functions automatically. Prayer is either a sheer illusion or a personal contact between embryonic, incomplete persons (ourselves) and the utterly concrete person. Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bead and wine. In it God shows Himself to us. That He answers prayer is a corollary — not necessarily the most important one — from that revelation. What He does is learned form what He is.

   —C. S. Lewis, The Efficacy of Prayer

   WOLF, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf's right to eat him. He thus addressed him: "Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me." "Indeed," bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, "I was not then born." Then said the Wolf, "You feed in my pasture." "No, good sir," replied the Lamb, "I have not yet tasted grass." Again said the Wolf, "You drink of my well." "No," exclaimed the Lamb, "I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me." Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, saying, "Well! I won't remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations."

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   The moral of this fable of Aesop's is, "the tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny." This is a true saying which could be taken on a number of different routes. As for me though, I am reminded of a great tyrant, Sin. No matter how much reasoning you conjure up, Sin will always prevail. You can tell yourself that yelling and making hand gestures at the person who just cut you off going 83 mph will benefit nothing, but yet, with all of the arguments against it, Sin, like a tyrant, will swoop in and eat, saying, "Well! I won't remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations."

   Without Christ, it seems that Oscar Wilde was right, "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it." But in Christ we are a new creation, we are not under the dominion of Sin, but are slaves to Christ. We can stand, not on our own reason, but on faith in Christ; mortifying ourselves daily and meditating on the written word. "Here, consecrated water flows to quench [the] thirst of sin."

    Here is a little something that will hopefully give all you out there who hate math a little more appreciation of the subject. Below is the earliest solution of a quadratic equation. It dates around 2000 B.C. On a Babylonian Tablet you find:

    I have subtracted from the area the side of my square: 14.30. Take 1, the coefficient. Divide 1 into two parts: 30. Multiply 30 and 30: 15. You add to 14.30, and 14.30.15 has the root 29.30. You add to 29.30 the 30 which you have multiplied by itself: 30, and this is the side of the square.

    Of course this is in base 60 so 14.30 really equals 14*60+30=870. Converting this problem to modern day algebra, we get the simple equation, x^2 - x=870. Which any high school graduate should be able to, or should have at one time, solve this equation with the Quadratic Formula. The solution ends up being x= 30 or x= -29. It really is wonderful what a little plus and equals sign can do to a culture. Imagine doing 50 of these problems for homework…I don't think I would be a math major anymore!

   While talking with a friend today, I was offered to buy an Xbox with a little bit of added features. It had a 20 Mb hard drive installed as well as a devise that would allow you to play any Play Station game you wanted ( I think he called it an emulyzer). Plus it had about 40 different games downloaded onto it and a DVD burner. This bad boy was fully loaded. All yours for only $380. Not a bad price for an illegal product, but I was assured that all of the games were legally rented from Blockbuster. A little later in the day we were talking and he wanted me to go somewhere I did not really want to go. Finally I caved in and replied, "dammit, alright." In shock he said, "What did you say?"

   My apologies to my friend, but this is a great example of how Christians can take something that is not necessarily wrong, and raise it to a level of sin, while at the same time, turn a blind eye to something that is obviously wrong. We see this all the time with issues like drinking, smoking, and yes, language. In the example above, it should be clear to everyone that pirating software and games is illegal (music is too by the way). But Christians don't seem to mind breaking such an "artificial" law. They seem to ignore the decree in scripture to "obey the laws of the land." "Surely the Bible can't mean this law?"

   In the second part of the example, we see a subjective statute becoming a generalized objective rule. "Christians ought not to curse…ever." While I will agree that it is wrong to use vulgar language in front of the queen, that does not imply there is no place for that type of rhetoric.

   My point is not banter about the oughtness of vulgarity, but to raise the question, what is on your A list, or, what things do you consider important? A while back my pastor told me that I needed to be careful to keep my A list clean of things that should be on my B list, C list, or even D list. That is, do not make things more important than they ought to be. I see this problem in the stanch theological realm. I have known people to not attend church because there was no church in the area that believed the exact same way they did. For them, everything was on their A list. Whether or not one was able to drink alcohol was right next to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. This type of thinking is not biblical.

   We as Christians are to seek after righteousness, but not at the expense of unity. (As if seeking after righteousness could cause fraction.) We are to continue daily in prayer and the working of our salvation, both in deed and thought. But while we do this, let us be careful that our pride and selfish desires do not cloud our minds and elevate non-essentials, as well as illegal and immoral activities, to a level that could separate us from the fellowship, the holy catholic church (little "c").

   Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.—Psalm 133

   This post is more of a response/reflection to a friend of mine, Trevor Acorn. In his January 5th post, he states "Calvinism doesn't have a good answer to the problem of pain." I beg to differ, not because I am a big fan of Calvinism, but because I do see the answer.

   But first, there must be a question. What IS the problem of pain? Surely not all pain is bad. For instance, after a hard days work and your limbs are sore and fatigued, it is a pleasure to come home, sit in a nice comfortable chair and have a beer. The pain we feel in our muscles is one of comfort and satisfaction. It is proof that we have spent the day not in vain. It is the pain in which we feel that makes the chair comfortable, the beer refreshing and enjoyable.

   Of course, not all pain is enjoyable; I could hardly think that the men and women who were beheaded in Iraq enjoyed their pain. This I believe is the type of pain Trevor was talking about. The pain of famine, the pain of disease, the pain of bodily harm, the pain of death. It is in light of these pains that many ask the question, where is God? If He is so good, then why so many disasters? Why did my son die? Why did I lose my house?

   We must stop here, for we have made a grave mistake. The very assumption, if God is so good, creates a false dichotomy. We cannot set the goodness of God against the pains of the present age. When we do so, we label the pains as evil, and this may not necessarily be so. Consider Noah and the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, Ananias and Sapphira. Where these evil acts of pain? These where just acts of judgment. Thus not all pain is evil. But some intelligent web browser may say, "Ah ha! There you go saying pain is an act of God's judgment!" My answer to this accusation is yes, some pain is an act of judgment by the Living God. Paul says this himself "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." But, we cannot assume all pain is due to the judgment of God. Paul and many others throughout the history of the Kingdom of Christ have suffered much for the sake of the Gospel. This pain is not judgment, but a crown.

   So, what is the problem of pain? Why is there hurt and suffering in this world? For the Christian, the answer is given within the heart of man; sin. Every aspect of creation is effected by it. Our thoughts, our actions, our inventions, even nature, "for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain…" But we have hope in Christ; a hope of the redemption of the body. We know that "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." We understand the providence of God and with Job we can stand fast in faith.

   But what about the non-Christian? What consolation do they have in this world? The answer is none. They have no hope, they have no comfort. The pain they feel and see is nothing but "God's megaphone to arose a deaf and dying world." The problem of pain is not that they experience the pain, but that they do not answer the call. They sit in derision and say "curse God and die!" instead of "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner." If asked by a non-Christian, "What do you think of all the disasters?" our response to them should be to share with them the gospel of Christ and the hope we have in Him. Not idle stories, but teaching that is truth.

   So when famine strikes, wars breakout, and nature shows her mighty power, we as Christians ought stand firm with long suffering in the hope which we have not yet seen. For "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?"

   Christ did not say to his first company:
'Go, and preach idle stories to the world';
but he gave them the teaching that is truth,
   and truth alone was sounded when they spoke;
and thus, to battle to enkindle faith,
the Gospels served them as both shield and lance.
   But now men go to preach with jests and jeers,
and just as long as they can raise a laugh,
the cowl puffs up, and nothing more is asked.
   But such a bird nests in that cowl, that if
the people saw it, they would recognize
as lies the pardons in which they confide—
   pardons through which the world's credulity
increases so, that people throng to every
indulgence backed by no authority;
   and this allows the Antonines to fatten
their pigs, and others, too, more piggish still,
who pay with counterfeit, illegal tender.

         —Dante, The Divine Comedy, Paradiso XXIX, 109-126

Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

         —preface to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

   Wow, 2005. About ten years ago, I went to visit my brother at College of the Ozarks near Branson Missouri. While there he brought me out to a small grave yard right off of the highway. It was quite small and with all of the hustle and bustle of life, I am surprised anyone ever noticed it. The yard was filled with about twenty to thirty grave markers all dated back about one hundred years ago. There was even one crypt that was open due to the roots of the great tree in the middle of the yard. The whole place seemed normal, as normal as a grave yard can be, except one marker. It stuck out mainly because it was the only new one around. Inscribed on it was the regular markings, name, date of birth, etc. But the odd part about is was the year of death. The year was 2005. This year I plan on traveling back to that cemetery just to see if the ladies prediction was correct.