When God Tells Us Not To Pray

Three times God told Jeremiah “do not pray” for the people (Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14, 14:11). Have you ever heard this? How does this command from God sit with you? It really depends on your understanding of God.

If you believe that God does not exist, then it does not matter to you. If you believer that God is not involved in our lives, then you are similar to the atheist who does not believe that God exists. I am not like these people. I believe God created all things, nothing holds together without God’s active involvement, God is supremely powerful, God knows all things and that He is everywhere. I am in desperate need of God working in my life. There are too many things out of my control. I have too little influence on things that really matter.

To have God say, “do not pray” because He will not listen is the worst that can happen. If God does not intervene in my life, He if is not active, then I am lost. Do you understand the importance of God saying, “do not pray”, or have you never really thought about it? Maybe you shoud.

2007 Family Christmas Letter

Sam and Melissa were married on July 20th of this year. The day was perfect. The wedding and reception were a good reflection of their personality. Lori and I enjoy the addition of a daughter to our family. Sam works as a sales person with Sprint and Melissa is a third grade teacher in Independence. They have a nice apartment in Liberty and have settled well into the married life.

Luke is a junior at Belmont University in Nashville where he is continuing his work toward a degree in psychology. This year he is a resident assistant in the dorm and he is part of a group that bakes pies.

This year we said good bye to a friend who had lived in our house for over a year. Jason had lived with us as he raised support for his missionary work in Central Asia. In May he left for a five year tour of duty. It was our pleasure to have Jason with us during his preparation to be a full time missionary.

Lori continues to work at Love Bites Café in Riverside. The café is a family owned business and we have been adopted into the family. She has taken a few classes in the women’s program at seminary.

Chris has one semester plus one class remaining for a Masters of Divinity degree. He continues to work on a part time basis as an engineer, working this year what will be the largest ethanol plant in the country.

Lori and Chris took a vacation/scouting trip to Colorado in August. We rode the motorcycle to Pueblo and worked our way up to Fort Collins. We spent time seeing the country side and visiting with some Baptist officials about opportunities for applying my seminary training in Colorado after graduation. We have applied for an internship next summer in northern Colorado in another step toward determining the next step after school.

Last year we reported the addition of Amos the Labradoodle. He has taken up fetching of papers in the morning; unfortunately we do not take the paper so my job is to return the paper to the rightful owner.

God has taken care of us this year and we trust He as done the same for your family.

Chris, Lori and Luke

Three Months

This day started like most everyday. There were tasks and activities that were very normal. I attended class and handed in an assignment. I talked with a professor and worked a half day. I did some shopping, actually just following Lori around the store, and went to a birthday party. In my family, we have three birthdays on consecutive days in the first week of December.

It is routine in my family to have these parties. They are low-key affairs, but we enjoy the time we spend together. This night was not normal. It started yesterday when the doctor asked for Mom and Dad to come in today. Brother Mark went with them to hear the report from the doctor. Dad had surgery five years ago to remove a spot on his lung and came out of surgery with 1/3 of his lung removed. They had found cancer during the surgery. Today the doctor said they had found two problems, one in each lung. When asked about the seriousness of the report, the doctor estimated that Dad has three months to live.

What is there to say? I am sure there will be much to say in the weeks to come. Right now the words are not coming. There is one thing that I know. God is in control. He has blessed our family with more things that we can count. More than the things that God has given us, He has promised Himself. This is the promise that I will need in the coming weeks.