Don't Lose Sight

The current events surrounding the middle east make it very easy for many Americans to lose sight of what else is going on, and needs to be going on, in that area of the world. Thankfully some have not forgotten the Great Commission. In last weeks edition of World magazine Jill Nelson has written a piece on the Christian radio ministry to this part of the globe and better yet she tells us of some of the effects of this ministry. It's an excellent article that I believe can give hope and encouragment to those of us who still have a desire to see the Muslim world changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, for that is the only way it will be truly and lastingly changed.

Check out the article: http://worldmag.com/articles/11642

Also check out one of the ministry organizations invovled in this effor: http://merf.woh.gospelcom.net/

Has Sin Changed So Much?

In my studies today I came across this historical note about the church at Constantinople in 379, just after Gregory of Nazianzus had arrived. The author identifies the church as follows:

"Religious feeling like everything else had become to the idle and empty mind a subject of joke and amusement. What belonged to the theatre was brought into the Church, and what belonged to the Church into the theatre. The better Christian feelings were not seldom held up in comedies to the sneer of the multitude. Everything was so changed by the Constantinopolitans into light jesting, that earnestness was stripped of its worth by wit, and that which is holy became a subject for banter and scoffing in the refined conversation of worldly people. Yet worse was it that the unbridled delight of these men in dissipating enjoyments threatened to turn the church into a theatre, and the preacher into a play actor. If he would please the multitude, he must adapt himself to their taste, and entertain them amusingly in the Church. They demanded also in the preaching something that should please the ear, glittering declamation with theatrical gesticulation; and they clapped with the same pleasure the comedian in the holy place and him on the stage. And alas there were found at that period too many preachers who preferred the applause of men to their soul's health. "

Word on the Worlds

I saw Stephen Speilberg's production of War of the Worlds last evening. I had decided not to see this film early on because I couldn't stand the thought of encouraging Tom Cruise to make more films...his bout with "insanity" as of late has been disturbing to watch. But since I could borrow the film for free and since I am inclined to watch productions of the creative work of H.G. Wells I acquiesced.

Let me begin this brief review by saying that the graphics were decent. Not the best, but then again who can create what Wells' elaborate imagination concocted. The cinematography was great at moments, with some very impressive shots that make the entire scene! As far as that element of the aesthetics goes I was impressed. Of course the storyline is compelling, Wells was no softy on plot. It is, however, with the issue of character development that I find this film faulty. I don't recall if this is a weakness of Wells', but the film definately fails to develop its main character well. Cruise is not a bad actor, his work is usually quite compelling (its his real life that I find pathetic), but the character is developed so poorly on the screen that it truns War of the Worlds into only half a movie- just a lot of action, without much else.

That's my two cents, take it for what it's worth. If you can see the movie for free it's a fun watch, but I would't pay to watch it.

Honoring Men in a Christ-Centered Way

Yesterday I had the privelege of sitting in on a cerimony to honor Pastor Gary Pack as he retires from ministry after 15 years at the same church. The service made me think, however, of how it is that Christians can honor such godly men and faithful servants as Gary Pack without being merely man-centered. In other words, in what way can the Christian Biblical honor men?

It's a difficult question to answer. The early church struggled with honoring men over and against one another, such as the account in 1 Corinthians where some men professed to follow Peter, some Apollos, and some Paul. During the second and third centuries of the church a great deal of authority was given to those Christians who had survived severe persecutions, such that they began to make theological decisions even. How do we avoid such unbalanced honoring and yet still recognize the service that Christ has done through certain individuals? Or perhaps some would ask should we even honor someone other than Christ?

These are all important questions and I do not now have the answer, I merely pose the question because yesterday's celebration has made me think about them. I certainly want to say thank you to Gary Pack for his serving and pastoring me while I was under his watch, but how one does that in a cerimony is another question with which I will have to wrestle, as, I believe, we all ought to.

Men Loving Men

No, this is not another rant on the evil nature of Brokeback Mountain. I am not writing here to bewail the dangers of homosexuality, instead I am writing to bring again to the forefront the issues of Biblical manhood.

This subject is to be my study for the whole year, the reason for that is that I am finding there is a great deal that goes into becoming a biblical man. One issue related to this matter is the issue of men loving men. As I have a desire to grow more and more into a Biblical man I need help in understanding both how to do that and what it looks like, in this regard men who know the answer should be willing to come along side me and help me. This is the practicallity of men loving other men.

There is a great need in our society for men to be nutured and mentored by other men. I am not talking here about some form of macho male bonding, but genuine Christian love that takes a brother alongside and cares for him and helps him to conform his life to the will of the master. Xavier Pickett, Co-Founder of Reformed Blacks of America, has written a very insightful post on this at the RBA blog. His concern there is for men in general, and black men in specific. The blog is a great eye-opener to how the church at large has left off caring for men, and it is a challenge to Christians to take up the task of helping men. I recommend it to you.

When David told his son Solomon, while the former was dying, to show himself a man he listed the ways in which he was to do that. Why record this "father-son moment" in Holy Scripture? To help us see the need for teaching others how to be MEN, and this means not only our sons, but our fellow brothers as well.

http://www.reformedblacksofamerica.org/blog1/index.php?itemid=76

Spurgeon School Quotes

Over at the Spurgeon school Blog we are doing a series of posts in which we quote a number of authors from various books on various topics. The aim in this is two-fold: (1) To encourage thoughtful dialogue about issues these authors raise, and the way they raise them, (2) and to reveal what books are out there on various subjects. The first two posts are from Jay E. Adams book Christian Living in the Home and from Erwin Lutzer's book After You've Blown It.

Check it out by clicking on the link to the Spurgeon School to the left.

New Members

Krista and I were officially welcomed into the membership of Third Avenue Baptist Church this last Sunday morning. We are thrilled to be at this church and know that it was the Lord's leading that brought us here. As we come into the family at 3 ABC they have just appointed three elders over the congregation and we are ready to submit to their leadership and learn and grow under their ministry. You can learn more about our new church by going to www.thirdavenue.org

Seafood Fastfood?

Long John Silvers has always grossed me out. The thought of having seafood fastfood makes me want to gag. Recently, however, the chain has added a new item to their menu: lobster! That's right, lobster. What has usually been regarded as an expensive treat is now available fried in greasy batter and left under a warming lamp for your fastfood feeding pleasure. After renewing my vow not to eat at LJS I thought about how common it is in our culture to get the "good-stuff" at half the price.

I once heard Ravi Zacharias, Christian apologist, express his frustration with the lack of effort people will put into grasping a concept. Everytime a fan would comment about having to re-read certain paragraphs in Ravi's book he said he praised them for their dilligence. Why do we expect everything to be simple and cost us nothing, he wondered. It's a fair question, and one that we all should take note of. I am thankful that the Bible is simple in that anyone can study it and grasp it, with the aid of the Holy Spirit of course. But at the same time the Bible is not simple in the fact that you can read it once and get all there is to get. Some passages are subtle, some difficult, some very straightfoward, but they all require diligence to study them. The bottom line here is that the only way to eat lobster is at a fine dinning restaurant, with time to savor it, and the best way to study the word is with diligence and thoughtful meditation*.

*For those who confess that they do not have enough time in the day for thoughtful meditation, let me urge you to read small portions of Scripture in your devotional time and spend the majority of that limited amount of time not on reading large portions of Scripture, but on meditating on smaller portions.

Breaking Back into View

Even after it failed to grab the "gold" at the Oscars this year Brokeback Mountain continues to pop up in the news. Why? Because Annie Proulx, the author of the book, is outraged by her stories loss. Her assesment of the situation comes down to what she calls a conservative Hollywood. Yes that's right, Hollywood is just too conservative to like a film about homosexuality. This makes my list for one of the most ignorant comments of the year (of course I anticipate, since it is early in the year, there will be many that are more ignorant).

Since when did Hollywood become conservative? Not when major actors and celebrities put their support behind John Kerry, not when their films protested the fight for a free Iraq, not when they released and honored films like Philadelphia, Capote, and Million Dollar Baby, (two films about homosexuality, and one about euthanasia). It's just absurd to call Hollywood conservative. Nancy Pearcey offers some fair criticism of Proulx's outrage. In her opinion, the problem is not that Hollywood is hiding their conservative bias, but that Brokeback Mountain is simply "broken".

Not only does the film fail to grab the Oscar for best picture, but more importantly it fails to present the true picture of what "love" really is. Annie Proulx may be outraged, but she is missing the point completely. Whether it won or lost at the Oscars, Brokeback Mountain falls way short of presenting true love.

Read Pearcey's Report: http://www.pearceyreport.com/archives/2006/03/kimberly_collin.php

Saturday Afternoon Meditation

We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (Romans 6:6)

“Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.” Those are the words of a wise English Puritan, John Owen. Owen wrote often on killing sin, and he meant just that…kill it! Jesus himself in Matthew 5 spoke of killing sin. He said, “If your right eye causes you to sin tear it out and throw it from you.” And also, “And if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it from you.” The response to sin is a violent one, and so it should be for it takes a seriousness and a vehemence to end sinful habits!

There is much that could be said here but for the apostle Paul it is enough at this time to say that the Christian’s “old self was crucified with Him…” The old self, that is the old nature, the unregenerate person that we were before Christ saved us, that self is crucified. It is dead! That’s why Paul has already written, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” It’s a question of continuous un-repentant sin that Paul has in mind here. He is concerned that some will say, “Well since Jesus died for the punishment of my sins then I can continue in my sin and fear no repercussions.” For Paul such a view proves that one is indeed not a Christian at all, merely a formal religious person. Genuine faith in Christ produces continuous striving for holiness.

Sin is always at our heels, however. As long as we are living on this earth in these corruptible bodies, we will be prone to sin and prone to wander. But there are steps to take in killing our sin!

First and foremost let us be reminded (as Paul is doing here) that our Old self was crucified with Christ. Remember that as a Christian, born again believer in Jesus Christ, you are no longer held captive to sin. You are free! In Christ there is a freedom to obey Him, love Him, serve Him, glorify Him, that as a non-Christian you do not have. Remember Christ crucified and remember your old self with Him. Thanks be to God, our Father, whom through Jesus Christ, reconciled us to Himself, pardoning our sins and crediting to us the righteousness of Christ. Our old self is dead and our new self has the righteousness of Christ that we may indeed stand before the Holy Judge and not be destroyed.

When we battle, when we struggle, when we fight and face the terrible temptation to sin, let us remember that there is one who has freed us from its bonds, and has given us the grace and strength to resist sin and live for the glory of God!

The Dunhams are Doing Well

Thank you again friends and family for praying for us. We continue to be doing well here in Louisville and have had many blessings from the Lord.

Tomorrow Krista and I are being voted on for membership into the congregation at Third Avenue Baptist Church, we are very excited about this event. I continue to work hard at my new job with UPS, you prayers are appreciated as I am still trying to adjust to the hours of work. Krista is making friends among the ladies at our church, a group of them are getting together for tea this weekend. My classes continue to amaze me and edify me, we have reached the half way point of the semester now and I am striving to bring it all together and prepare for the end.

Nothing else to report at this time friends, thank you for your prayers.

Biblical Manhood: Lessons from 1 Kings

In the first eleven chapters of 1 Kings I believe we can find a picture of both the way of Biblical manhood and the failures of unbiblical manhood. I am in the process of working my way through these first eleven chapters and developing this theology of manhood as it is laid out in 1 Kings, here is my preliminary outline:

I. Leaving the Right Kind of Legacy- Chapter 1
II. Show Yourself A Man- Chapter 2
III. Wise Guys: The Need of Our Day- Chapter 3
IV. Providing and Protecting Displayed- Chapter 4
V. A Passion for Religion- Chapter 5
VI. An Action in Religion- Chapter 6
VII. Leaving the Wrong Kind of Legacy- Chapter 7
VIII. Every Man's Greatest Need: Forgiveness- Chapter 8
IX. The Maker of a Godly Man- Chapter 8: 54-61
X. The Serious Nature of Sin- Chapter 9:1-9
XI. Beware the Green-Eyed Monster- Chapter 9:10-28
XII. Are You Living a Double Life- Chapter 10
XIII. Lust and Idolatry: A Friendship Between Foes of Your Soul- Chatper 11
XIV. God's Faithfulness Inspite of Man's Faithlessness- Chapter 11:34- 42
XV. What to Learn from Solomon- Various Scriptures

Update on Dr. Nash

Dr. Ron Nash has gone to be with the Lord. I beleive he passed away on Sunday afternoon and is finally free from the pain and sorrow that his physical body was enduring, he is now at rest in with our Savior and we rejoice because of it. Yet let us remember to pray for Dr. Nash's widow as she remains behind.

Ron Nash was a godly man, a great defender of the faith, and, from what I hear, a gifted teacher. His heart was in the service of the Lord and in training up men who had the same desires. He is sorely missed.

Weekend Observations

I love movies, but I am picky about the quality of films. I'll watch almost any movie (excluding the obviously grossly immora), but I tend to be highly critical of the films I see. This weekend Krista and I took the recommendation of Gene Edward Veith and saw a film that he commended: Elizabethtown. This was a classy production. It was interesting, entertaining, and yet unique. In an age where film-makers basically repeat the same movie concepts with different characters I welcome this film and recommend it to you. It was clean (save for a few swear words and such), fun, and creatively done.

I finished reading C.J. Mahaney's book Humility. Sharing with others the fact that I was reading this book sort of defeats the purpose of reading it, but nonetheless I can't say enough in praise of this work. The very practical suggestions that Mahaney offers are grounded on a firm theological foundation of God's hatred of pride and praise of humility. It should be required reading for every man, for, I fear, we struggle most with pride issues.

Solid-Ground Books is having a huge inventory reduction sale this March, check out all the listed titles that they have, there looks to be some great material here.
http://solid-ground-books.com/books_InventoryReductionSale.asp

The Punk and the Professor

No, that is not the name of a new sitcom on abc, though I am sure it would be a winner. Actually it is the two authors of a new book from IVP. Is Belief in God Good, Bad, or Irrelevant? is the e-mail correspondance of Preston Jones, history professor at John Brown University, and Greg Graffin, whom many will know as the frontman for punk rock band "Bad Religion". These two men began a friendly e-mail debate over the rationality and truth of Christianity and IVP has taken those e-mails, edited them, and published them to bring forth an intersting book that may spark much interest among young "punk rockers". Here's a chance, brothers, to reach out to a community desperately in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Check out the book here : http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=3377

Prayer for Ron Nash

Noted Christian Apologist Ronald H. Nash needs our prayers today. Dr. Nash, a former professor of Christian philosophy and apologetics at Southern Seminary, is dying and is not expected to make it through the day. Our prayers go out to the Lord on behalf of him and his family. We are thankful that he is a believer and has loved and served the Lord faithfully throughout his life, and so we rejoice with Dr. Nash, his wife, and indeed with the Lord Jesus that this godly man will soon be at eternal rest in the Savior's bossom.

I'll try to keep you updated on this news.

Danny Akin's Humble Discourse

In light of my most recent post I thought it would be helpful to post a link to Tom Ascol's blog, this is a great summary of Danny Akin's up and coming article on Calvinism in the SBC. May we have more humble and honest dialogue about this matter from respected Southern Baptists.

http://www.founders.org/blog/2006/03/danny-akin-on-southern-baptists-and.html

We Need More than a Solid Defense

Baksetball commentators have said that the number one thing for a team to work hard on is defense. Good defense wins games, they say. I am sure that this statement is true, but at the same time I am certain no coach would admit that he never works on offense. Why? Because defense may be important, indeed crucial, to victories, but if you can't score points after you steal the ball what you end up with is only a tie.

Just as it is with sports so it is with theology, we must have both good defense and good offense. In recent days I've begun to wonder if the Reformed constitiuency has not forgotten to work on their offense. The "Five Points of Calvinism" are the most common features of Reformed theology cited by both proponents and opponents of this system. Yet these five poitns were developed as a defensive response to the five points of Arminianism. The "five points," then, are the defensive efforts of Reformed Theologians, but there is more to this system than simply this. What about the offensive efforts? They seemed to have been misplaced, forgotten, or simply ignored, and this to the detriment of the system's appeal.

Why bring this up? I bring this up today for several reasons: (1) I have just recently begun to realize this truth for myself. When I say that the Reformed constituency has spent too much time working on their defensive plays I include myself in it. (2) Because there are a number of charaterizations of Reformed theology that are currently floating around. Baptists especially are right now watching Calvinists from out of the corner of their eye, to keep an eye on us, and these misrepresentations of our theological system may, and will, effect the growth of Reformed theology among Baptists. So how can we counter it? By teaching what Calvinism is beyond the five points. Moving beyond the five points to a full-life-orbed explication of the system. Calvinism is more than simply five points it is worldview, so let us move on to show it in its full beauty and all its Biblical truth and application.

Good defense is needed, but not at the expense of good offense!

Pressing On

I have just finished my first week of work for UPS, getting off this morning at 3:40. It has been, suprisingly, not so difficult. The hours of course are hard, but, by God's grace, I am managing to get my needed sleep and still having time to work for class and be with Krista.

We ask that you continue to pray for us as we persevere here in Louisville. We are thankful to the Lord that we are making some new friends and finally finding ourselves more at home. We are pursuing membership, as well, at a local church here in Louisville: Third Avenue Baptist Church, which you can find out more about by clicking on the link under the heading of "Churches" to the left of the screen. Krista's mom is in for the weekend and we are glad to see her. She and Krista have had the oppurtunity to spend a great amount of time together and enjoy the fellowship that I know they have both missed. I would also like to thank those of you who have been praying for Krista's grandfather. Walt is doing much better and should be out of the hospital soon, the Lord has been gracious.

I continue to press on in my classes, and am enjoying them greatly, and Krista presses on her job, which we are both thankful for. The Lord has been so wonderfully rich to us these last few months giving and taking from us as He has seen fit and we are humbled by His love for such undeserving sinners. Thank you for your prayers friends and we look forward to hearing from each of you.

A Help To Prayers

To continue the concept of transforming our prayer lives I've decided to investigate more carefully just how that can be done. I believe Dr. Whitney's suggestions are the a must and essentials to beginning, but I wonder, "is there more?" To that end I will pursue a little farther the idea of transforming our prayer lives and see where it should lead me. Today I am posting some suggested helps to guiding your prayer life.

I've already mentioned Valley of Vision, which is a book of Puritan prayers. Let me add to that also the hymns of William Cowper, Isaac Watts, and Horatius Bonar. These three gentlemen wrote some of the most theologically sound and beautiful hymns. Several of these have been a major help to my thinking as I pray to the Lord. Adding to this I would encourage you to read the biographies of great prayer warriors, particularly George Muller. No man's prayer life has been so well documented in the history of the Christian church and it is an inspiration to modern day Christians. Read Muller's autobiography or the biographies written about him by Roger Steer or A.T. Pierson.

It should be noted here that what I have previously said about praying through Scripture stands as the most important and helpful tool to guiding your prayers. As wonderful as the Puritans and other historical figures were they cannot bring us closer to praying in line with Scripture than Scripture itself can. Not to mention that the Psalms in particular express so many of our own heart concerns. It has been said that there is a Psalm for every sigh of the heart. So these additional suggestions are not meant to replace praying through Scripture but merely to offer some other helps if you want them.

As I continue to explore how to transform prayer I will post my finding here, may God lead us all to more fruitful and serious prayer lives.

Autistic Teen Becomes High School Hoops Hero

This is an amazing story, watch the video footage too.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2348397

Transforming Your Prayers, Part 3

To conclude this series on Transforming Our Prayers I thought I would post a list of materials that are especially helpful as guides to our prayers or simply as books helping us to understand, better, prayer.

1) Valley of Vision- This is a small book of Puritan Prayers. The Puritans were, as I have said numerous times, much more mature than modern day Christians. Their prayers are very Christ-centered and very humble. They tended to express things in a way that we don't usually think to (and that's not simply because of it's old English style). These can be a great guide to your prayers.

2) The Pastor in Prayer- This book, published by Banner of Truth, contains the pastoral prayers of C.H. Spurgeon which his students copied down (against his wishes) as he prayed over the congregation at the chapel. It is a great help to pastors as they formulate their own pastoral prayers.

3) A Call to Spiritual Reformation- D.A. Carson has written this wonderful book that helps modern Christians to be able to pray through the prayers of Paul. Another great place to look to for a guide to your prayers.

4) Prayer and the Knowledge of God- Graeme Goldsworthy has written a wonderful book, from what I've heard, on the theological foundation for prayer.

5) Prayer- John Bunyan has written two books on the subject of prayer. As far as I know both are very basic but very refreshing. Sometimes we need a good reminder of what prayer is, does, and why we should do it, to this end Bunyan is a good read. His other book is How to Pray in the Holy Spirit.

Transforming Your Prayers, Part 2

Yesterday I related the lessons which Dr. Don S. Whitney is teaching to his Personal Spiritual Disciplines students. Particularly I recounted how he proposes that the best way to transform one's personal prayer life is through praying Scripture. Today I want to follow that up by focusing on the benefits of praying through Scripture.

1) Keeps You Focused- There is nothing more discouraging and frustrating than being constantly distracted in prayer. The more we are distracted or lose our train of thought the sooner we will end our praying. But by praying through a passage of Scripture we have an outline to keep us on track. And even if we should find ourselves day-dreaming we are able to come right back to our prayer and pick up where we left off by simplying looking at our text.

2) Adding Freshness to Our Words- Part of what has made prayer so boring for some people, Dr. Whitney says, is that they say the same old things everyday. By praying from the Psalms of from another Biblical genre we are granted a sort of fresh expression to our concerns. We move from simplying praying, "Lord bless my family," to praying from Psalm 23, "Lord make my family to lie down is green pastures. To be at rest in you, to find sweet peace for their souls." Or praying from Psalm 1 that our children or spouse would be a meditator of God's word. Isn't that better than a vague "bless my family" prayer?

3) Grants God-Centeredness- The Bible is completely God-centered. Even passages that seem to focus on our wants and needs identify, repeatedly, God as the one to whom we make our appeals. Praying through Scripture has a way of turning our focus from our wants and needs to the great and awesome God that can meet them. It's the Biblical way of prayer.

4) It Prevents Loss of Words- Whenever you find that you have run out of words to say you can simply return to the text and find a whole new way of continuing your prayer. There's never a lack of expressions.

5) It Brings us Closer to Praying Biblically- We can never pray more in line with Scripture than when we pray Scripture itself. My own thoughts, while they may be mostly according to God's written Word, are not as close as the can be when I am lead by His Word in those prayers. So praying the verses of the Bible is the best way to glorify God in our prayers.

So let me again encourage that you take time, maybe even right now, to pray through a passage of Scripture, and after you have done that to record your thoughts on how it benefited you. Write them down in a journal or on a piece of paper that you can keep in your Bible. I gurantee this will transform your prayer life, friends, for it has mine already!

Transforming Your Prayers

Why is it that for so many Christians prayer tends to be such a minimal part of our daily Christian life? Dr. Donald S. Whitney has claimed that for many people prayer is boring, and he credits that with a bad prayer method.

In his discussion of prayer this week Dr. Whitney stated that the reason why so many Christians pray for five minutes or less is because they struggle with enjoying prayer. He makes a comparison: If there was one person in the whole world whom you would want to meet who would it be? Now imagine that I told you, "tomorrow you are going to get to spend an hour lunch with that person." You'd be excited wouldn't you? You'd probably be so excited you'd be unable to sleep the night before. So you go to lunch and it is everything you thought it would be, and more. Now imagine that I told you, "Tomorrow you get to have lunch with that person again, and in fact every day after that, but you have to have the exact same conversation you had today." Now at first it might be still somewhat exciting, but after a while you would rather die than have that lunch! This is the way many of us treat prayer, by saying the exact same things to God every single day. No wonder it is boring!

Dr. Whitney proceeded to tell a story of a five year old boy who had been in the world for something like 60 months and had completely memorized every prayer his dad prayed. Why? How could he do this? Because dad prayed the exact same prayer everytime he prayed, just changed the names and dates. Another example he gave us was of those familiar prayers you hear in church services everywhere. You could go to any church across the nation, he stated, and here the same prayers: Lord guide and direct us, hide the pastor behind the cross, bless the gift and the giver, etc. It's funny until we realize our own prayer lives resemble this same lack of creativity.

The problem here, however, is not that we are second rate Christians who stink at praying. The problem is our method. We say the same things, like reading a manuscript, and it creates an atmosphere of drugery and boredome. What is the solution? Well, change the method.

Dr. Whitney proposes that the best way to revolutionize your prayer life is to pray through Scripture. Take, for example, a Psalm (say Psalm 23) and pray through each line of that Psalm one by one. So the first verse in Psalm 23 reads, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." In light of this verse one might pray as follows:

Lord, you are my shepherd. You are my provider and defender. You have called me as your sheep and I praise you for loving and tending me. I pray now, Lord, that you would guide me through this difficult decision I have to make. Lead my loved one to your green pastures and feed them on your sweet word of truth.

It doesn't have to be as poetic, perhaps, as that- but simply pray in light of the verses you read. Whitney stated that he once had a student so engrossed in praying through scripture that she actually spent 25 minutes alone praying just over verse one. She didn't event get to the rest of the psalm. How amazing! Something as simple as using a guide for our prayers can completely transform our prayer lives.

Be encouraged friends, if your prayer life is weak now- it does not have to be!