Here's Something to Watch for in January

 

A big prayer event is planned for this month in Texas. We all need to see if it affects anything.

The group sponsoring this quotes scripture from here and there in the Bible. Its overarching conclusion is only two countries in the world are in on the God deal called the covenant. They are Israel and the U.S.  The problem is there is so much sin in the U.S. God is mad and may break the covenant. This would mean chaos and destruction everywhere in this country.

So the BIG prayer event is called intercessory prayer. Those praying will intercede in the dispute between God and the sinners of the U.S. and save it from God's wrath. The link article from Christian Post.Com treats these people as if they are sane and rational people instead of the whackos they obviously are. 

I have the impression there are thousands of Christians across the country claiming to do intercessory prayer. They pray that God will cause something that is very unlikely to actually happen.

A couple of decades ago a medical group ran an experiment on prayer. They separated people with the same medical issue into two groups. One had documented prayer for recovery. The other did not. Much to the surprise of those Christians who endorsed this experiment those who were prayed for did no better than those who were not supported by prayer. 

I think I have told this story before, but years ago when I was well known and a mayor, a preacher from three or four hours away made an appointment to see me. He spent much of the half hour in his scheduled time telling me of his successful intercessory prayers. He liked to save the lives of politicians. He had prayed for the Governor who said later that, yes, at the time the preacher was praying his airplane developed a strange sound but it landed safely. There were other suspicious stories. The answers politicians gave him made me think they were humoring him to get rid of him. 

After listening and not believing him I saw may next appointment was coming up and thanked him for sharing all of that. He stopped and froze. "No," he said, "I have something important is ask you."

He said he had a vision I suffered a hole in my heart exactly the size of his pinky figure. He held up his finger so I could see the size. "You had this hole in your heart, I know you did. I prayed your life would be saved." His face fell when I would not agree any such thing had happened. He did not want to leave my office until he had questioned me more about any recent day I might not have felt well. He left not liking me.

I think those who are praying in Texas this week are just as whacko as that preacher was.