Draw Near: Lenten Devotional by Lynne Baab, illustrated by Dave BaabTwo Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian LifeA Renewed SpiritualityNurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care in the Twenty-First CenturyThe Power of ListeningJoy Together: Spiritual Practices for Your CongregationSabbath Keeping FastingPrayers of the Old TestamentPrayers of the New TestamentSabbathFriendingA Garden of Living Water: Stories of Self-Discovery and Spiritual GrowthDeath in Dunedin: A NovelDead Sea: A NovelDeadly Murmurs: A NovelPersonality Type in CongregationsBeating Burnout in CongregationsReaching Out in a Networked WorldEmbracing MidlifeAdvent Devotional

Connections between the Bible and prayer: Paul’s prayer in Colossians

Lynne Baab • Friday September 28 2018

Connections between the Bible and prayer: Paul’s prayer in Colossians

When I was about 24, I went to a five-day conference where we studied Colossians. I came away so impressed with the Apostle Paul’s prayer in the first chapter.

In verses 3-5 Paul says that he thanks God for the Colossians’ faith in Jesus Christ and the love they have for “all the saints.” Then he describes how he learned about their faith.

Next he describes the way he prays for them. When he says “heard of it” in the first line, he’s referring to the way they came to faith.

“For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased...

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Connections between the Bible and prayer: the context of the Lord’s Prayer

Lynne Baab • Friday September 14 2018

Connections between the Bible and prayer: the context of the Lord’s Prayer

Jesus, the Apostle Paul, and some of the other writers of the New Testament give instructions about prayer, and for the next couple of blog posts I want to write about those instructions. Today I focus on the Lord’s Prayer. So much has been written about the prayer itself, so I’m going to let others help us understand the words of the prayer. I’m interested in the context of the prayer in Matthew and Luke, and what those two very different contexts might teach us about prayer.

Chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Matthew give us a long speech by Jesus that...

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Connections between the Bible and prayer: Who is God?

Lynne Baab • Thursday September 6 2018

Connections between the Bible and prayer: Who is God?

I argued in my post last week that prayer fuels our Bible reading, and the Bible fuels our prayers. Next week I’ll begin looking at some of the many specific passages that help us learn to pray more deeply. This week I want to reflect on the character and nature of the God revealed in the Bible and the ways our understanding of God shapes our prayers.

1. God the Creator. At the very beginning of the Bible, God is introduced as the Creator of everything in the cosmos and everything on earth. In my home office, where I am writing this...

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First post in a new series: Connections between the Bible and prayer

Lynne Baab • Friday August 31 2018

First post in a new series: Connections between the Bible and prayer

I became a committed Christian at 19, and for the next two years I was actively involved in the Christian fellowship group at my university. The group was affiliated with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and we were taught that one of the basic commitments of being a Christian was to have a daily quiet time.

The DQT, as some people called it, had two components: Bible study and intercessory prayer. We were encouraged to pray briefly before beginning our Bible study to ask for God’s help to understand the passage. We were taught to look for three things in the biblical passage:

What does...

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