Prayers

The Harvest Is Plentiful: Why Reaping Does Not Require Conversion

“The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.”
—Luke 10:2, KJV

What must these labourers accomplish? The familiar answer is that they must bring people into faith. The harvest is pictured as a multitude of prospective believers, waiting for enough messengers to gather them into the kingdom.

Prayer Is Not a Means of Making God Act

When Jesus says, “And praying, do not use vain repetitions like the Gentiles, for they think that in their many words they will be heard,” the key word is βατταλογήσητε. The word has the sound of a parody of stuttering: a person tries to say something, tries again, adds more words, and still does not arrive anywhere. This is not simply a warning against repeating a phrase.

Father's will was resurrection not crucifixion

The fundamental distinction is this:

Gethsemane tells us what Jesus says to the Father. It does not tell us what the Father says to Jesus.

That sounds elementary, but a great deal of theology quietly collapses the distinction.

The Law of Divine Paradox

One of the most remarkable features of Jesus' teaching is that it repeatedly overturns ordinary human reasoning. His sayings are not merely surprising; they appear to contradict the very logic by which people naturally live. Whoever wishes to save his life must lose it. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. The last shall be first. The grain of wheat must fall into the earth and die before it can bear fruit. These are not isolated aphorisms scattered throughout the Gospels. Together they reveal a single underlying principle—a law that governs the Kingdom of God.

Matthew 6:7: The Our Father Is Not a More Effective Way to Get What One Wants

Jesus Does Not Offer a Better Bid

It is commonly assumed that Jesus criticizes pagan prayer because pagans are using an ineffective religious technique. They use too many words, so their prayers fail; Christians, by contrast, are supposed to use fewer, purer, more correct words, and then prayer will work properly.

But this cannot be the meaning.

A Practical Guide to Dealing with Demons

Every practical approach must begin with a foundation. If the foundation is wrong, everything built upon it will eventually collapse. My entire understanding of demons rests upon one principle that may initially sound strange, perhaps even offensive:

The problem of demonic affliction belongs foremost to the exorcist.

If Only I Had Been There at the Miʿrāj

Part 1.

Sometimes I find myself imagining a rather unusual thing.

I imagine that I was standing there instead of prophet Muhammad during the story of the Miʿrāj. God speaks and says, "Fifty prayers each day."

Everyone else seems relieved that the number was reduced.

I cannot help wondering whether I would have reacted in exactly the opposite way.

I honestly think I would have asked for sixty.

Not because I enjoy collecting obligations. Not because I believe that more prayers somehow earn more points with God. Quite the contrary.

The Doctrine of Worship

One of the most misunderstood questions in religion concerns the purpose of worshipping God. Many people assume that worship is something God requires from human beings, as if the Creator had fashioned humanity in order to receive praise. This idea leads critics to ask a familiar question: why would a perfect and self-sufficient God need validation from His own creatures?

The question arises from a mistaken assumption about the nature of worship.

The Qur’an states:

“I did not create jinn and mankind except that they worship Me.” (51:56)
— Qur'an

Boundary Between Good and Bad When You Trust God

The boundary can be made very clear if we do not frame it simply as “doing something” versus “trusting God.” That would be too weak. The real boundary is between created means and rival spiritual means.

A good governing principle could be:

We may cooperate with God through the created, public, bodily order; but we may not imitate, invoke, or participate in a hidden spiritual order as though it were another channel of protection or power.

Prayers