Entering into Prayer

When I pray, especially at bedtime, I often just plunge in, leading with whatever concern is foremost on my mind. Then, usually, I pause and begin again, struggling to put God the Father, the Holy God being addressed, above my pressing concern.

Perhaps it will help if I speak to myself some words of Martyn Lloyd Jones, a pastor now with the Lord.

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"Before we begin to utter words we always ought to do this. We should say to ourselves: 

`I am now entering into the audience chamber of that God, the almighty, the absolute, the eternal and great God with all His power and His might and majesty, that God who is a consuming fire, that God who is "light and in whom is no darkness at all", that utter, absolute Holy God. That is what I am doing.' 

"We must recollect and realize all that. But above all, our Lord insists that we should realize that, in addition to that, He is our Father."

"The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him." Nahum 1:7 

Martyn Lloyd Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

Hollow Crusades

All this "sanctuary" city/county/state stuff looks hollow to me. Cities and states that offer sanctuary from federal law enforcement to non-citizens are merely grandstanding.

Instead of grandstanding, state and local officials should use their "bully pulpits" to persuade citizens to communicate directly and persistently with their U.S. Senators and Members of Congress, urging them to reconsider and reform federal immigration laws. Congress can actually fix the immigration system; local sanctuary regimes can't.
The immigration system needs fixing. One jurisdiction insulting another is not a fix.

The Great Loop of Impotence-Taking Apart the News Cycle Merry-Go-Round

"According to [Neil] Postman, [with the coming of the telegraph] for the first time people had an “information glut.” They were reading headlines about events that were happening across the U.S. and Europe. However, most people could do nothing about these events. The most they could do is offer opinions in the form of public opinion polls, which are then converted in to a news item that no one can do anything about. Postman refers to this as “a great loop of impotence.”

From, Taking Apart the News Cycle Merry-Go-Round, by Heather Zeiger, October 17, 2017, https://www.mercatornet.com/mobile/view/taking-apart-the-news-cycle-merry-go-round

Retrieved October 18, 2017