Our 52nd Wedding Anniversary!

                                                                      (August 9, 2025)

(August 11, 1983)

Day 10 - Healing Prayers

 

 Dear Church, 

 Pray for the sick to be healed. 

 I was Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church of Joliet, Illinois, from 1974-1981. We had many wonderful friends there. One was a beautiful, Jesus-filled, elderly lady named Elsie. She was so kind to Linda and me. I can still hear the sound of her voice and see her smile. 

 Elsie had become physically frail. One day I got word that she was sick, with some kind of virus. I visited her and prayed for God to make her well. I always pray this way for sick people. So do you, right? 

 To be honest, I did not expect much to happen. Yet it felt good to lovingly pray for her, and she seemed to appreciate it. When I left her that day, the thought came to me that I would soon be doing her funeral. God, however, did not share my pessimism. 

 That evening Elsie called. Her voice was alive and vibrant. “I am feeling so much better. Thank you, John, for coming and praying for me. God has healed me!” Really? I was happy, and stunned. We all loved Elsie so much. The illness that had a grip on her physical body was gone! To my surprise, Elsie was alive, and would be for several more years. 

 As significant as that experience was for Elsie, I wonder if it was not more important for me. I gained confidence in praying for people. I had a greater realization that praying is a powerful thing to do. I found that God’s healing love was not corrupted by my mini-sized faith. 

 If your loved one was sick, you would pray for them to get better. In my church family, every Sunday, we pray for sick people to be healed. We view healing as comprehensive, and in this way Hebraic. This comprehensiveness is seen in how Eugene Peterson translates Isaiah 53:3-5, in The Message: 

The fact is, it was our pains he carried — our disfigurements, 

 all the things wrong with us… 

 He took the punishment that made us whole. 

 Through his bruises we get healed. 

"All the things wrong with us." Physical suffering. Mental illness. Anxiety and panic. Depression. Our inadequacies and failures. Sin. The atoning sacrifice of Christ has covered all our bases. The Atonement covers sin, yes, and so much more (a lot of which is the logical outcome of our sin). 

 Last Sunday we prayed for sick people to be well. I talked with a number of people who told me they had pain, and after praying for them the pain was gone. People were smiling, saying that chronic pain had been taken away. They were praising God for what only he can do! 

 I think this is good, don't you? 

 I want you to keep praying for the sick, with expectation. 

 Love, 

 PJ 

 CHALLENGE 

 Identify someone who is sick. 

 Contact them. 

 Ask if you can pray for them. 

 Pray for them to be healed, in Jesus’ name. 

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

Day 9 - Prayer Works

  

Dear Praying Church, 

 I want you to remember that your prayers work. 

 I pray because prayer works. If I thought prayer didn’t work, I would not waste my time praying. 

 Praying “works.” What does this mean? As I see things…, 

 • Prayer is powerful. Which means, it does things. (James 5:16) 

 • Prayer is effective. Which means, it changes things. (James 5:16) 

 • Praying brings me into relationship with God, experientially. I meet with God, in prayer. I experience and sense the presence of God, with me. This is important because experience, not theory, breeds conviction. 

 • I engage and co-partner with God in his redemptive mission. 

 • I experience God’s guiding hand. I can corroborate this. I have multiple examples, written in 3500+ pages of journals, over the past forty-five years. I have read countless stories of God's guidance, from among the 4000 students and pastors I have taught. 

 • I have seen things happen, and change, as a result of praying. I can make a case for the causal efficacy of praying as co-laboring with God. 

 • I have seen how a life of praying recalibrates, daily, my heart to the heart of God.

 • A life of praying has changed me. For the better, I believe. (Note: for the Christian theist “better” is understood in terms of the “best” that is Jesus.) 

 • I experience a life of praying that renders me less anxious, less fearful, and less lonely. This is a palpable, existential, living reality. 

 • I know that praying changes things and changes the one who meets with God and prays. 

 • While praying, I often experience brokenness within me, resulting in breakthrough outside and around me. 

 The 4th-century theologian John Chrysostom, in a moment of joyful realization and remembering, wrote on the efficacy of praying. 

 The potency of prayer hath subdued the strength of fire; 

 it hath bridled the rage of lions, 

 hushed anarchy to rest, 

 extinguished wars, 

appeased the elements, 

 expelled demons, 

 burst the chains of death, 

 expanded the gates of heaven, 

 assuaged diseases, 

 repelled frauds, 

 rescued cities from destruction, 

 stayed the sun in its course, 

 and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. 

 Prayer is an all-efficient panoply, 

 a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, 

 a sky unobscured by clouds, 

 a heaven unruffled by the storm. 

 It is the root, 

the fountain, 

 the mother of a thousand blessings. 

 (From The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom) 

 James 5:16 says, Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 

Be encouraged! Your prayers work to make a holy difference. 

 Love, 

 PJ 

 REMEMBER 

 Make a list of answered prayers. 

 Keep adding to the list, as the Holy Spirit reminds you.

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

Day 8 - God Power-shares with Praying People

 

Dear Church, 

In praying we gain access to the power of God. 

 I meet people, including pastors and Christian leaders, who struggle to find time to pray. My seminary teaching tells me that many North American and European pastors don't have much of a praying life. Why not? Some reasons for this are: 

 • Their lives have become so cluttered with many things to “do” that they have little time for just “being” with God. 

 • Their material possessions allow “no time to pray,” and create the illusion of not needing to pray. Time for praying is in inverse proportion to the amount of stuff a person has. 

 • They have lost their first love. They used to get alone with God and pray, back in the day. 

 • They know what prayer is, but do not really believe in it. They have become practical atheists. 

 If prayer is what it claims to be, viz., communicating with an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent Being, then it seems someone who believed this would pray. Because 18 praying is talking with God. And – (insert awe and wonder) - because God and I are co laboring together. 

 To pray is to partner with God. God and I, dialoguing! Are you kidding me?! If this is real, only a fool would not pray. If this is not real, then you won’t see me praying, even in a foxhole. 

 Dallas Willard writes: "Prayer is God's arrangement for a safe power sharing with us in his intention to bless the world through us.” In praying I interact with God. God shares his power with me. 

Pause at the enormity of this. Who in their right mind would not have time for this? Brothers and sisters, praying is a beyond-big deal. 

As you pray, God shares his power with you, power for effectively engaging in the redemptive mission of Jesus. 

 Love, 

 PJ 

 PETITION 

 Identify an impossible person, or situation. 

 Pray for God’s power to fall on that person, or situation. 

 Pray for a prayer movement in your church.

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

Day 7 - Praying with Expectation

 

 Dear Church, 

 Pray, with expectation, that Almighty God is responding. 

 Recently some great Christian scholars have written books containing testimonies of miracles. J. P. Moreland has given us A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles. Eric Metaxas published his book Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life. New Testament scholar Craig Keener has written his massive, exhaustive two-volume study Miracles: The New Testament Evidence. He recently published another miracles book, Miracles Today. And Lee Strobel has contributed The Case for Miracles. If you are in need of some encouragement, check these books out! 

 Both Keener books, and the Strobel book, contain a miracle that happened in my church family. It’s about a man named Carl, who broke his ankle. This was sad for several reasons, to include that Carl was a long-distance runner who has run in the Boston Marathon more than once. 

 The Sunday after his accident, several in our church family prayed for Carl’s ankle to be healed. To our joy, it happened! When Carl revisited the orthopedic surgeon the following week, the radiology report caused the doctor to tell Carl, “You never had a broken ankle.” 

 I have the MRIs of Carl’s foot before receiving prayer (broken ankle), and five days later (no broken ankle). You can read Carl’s story in Keener, Miracles Today (pp. 76 ff.), and in Strobel’s Case for Miracles. (pp. 105 ff.) 

 When Carl came before our church, on a Sunday morning, and gave his testimony, there was great joy and thanksgiving, given to the God who still heals! Our people were gifted a fresh infusion of hope, which leads to the expectation that God is moving in our midst. 

 A Jesus-follower in the first century would go to church gatherings expecting prayers for the sick, demons being cast out, spiritual gifts manifesting, and maybe even a dead person brought back to life. What they would see in many American churches today bears little resemblance to that. Why would such things normally be expected? Because... 

 • Jesus did these kind of things. 

 • Jesus said his followers would do these kind of things. 

 • The Church was birthed in these things.

I often tell my church family, “We are a praying church!” In a praying atmosphere we offer many prayers, and experience miracles, signs, spiritual gifts, deliverance from demonic oppression, and wonders. 

 My dear sisters and brothers, where prayer focuses, God’s power falls. 

Therefore, as you pray, be expectant! 

 Love, PJ 

COUNSEL 

 Pray today with your physical eyes wide open. 

 Pray today with your spiritual eyes wide open. 

 Pray this: “God, let me see the things of earth, through the lens of heaven.” 

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

Day 6 - Intercession and Intersection

 

Dear Church, 

 Effective praying happens at the intersection of heaven and earth. 

 I live in Monroe, Michigan. Monroe is located south of Detroit, north of Toledo, on the shores of Lake Erie, and off I-75. The main north/south road that cuts through Monroe is Telegraph Road. It used to be called “bloody Telegraph,” before I-75 was constructed, since it was the main, heavily congested, north-south artery connecting Detroit to Ohio. 

 Our church building is adjacent to Telegraph. One mile north of us is M-50, which runs from east downtown Monroe to the west. M-50 and Telegraph Road intersect. If I were standing in the center of this intersection, which road would I be on? The answer is: I would be on both M-50 and Telegraph. 

 Think of an intersection. Intercessory prayer is intersectionary prayer. We pray for others, where heaven intersects with earth. We see this in The Lord’s Prayer, when we pray, “God, let your kingdom come, let your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”

 Authentic praying happens at the intersection of earth and heaven. We see this in 1 Timothy 2:1. 

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, 

intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people. 

The biblical Greek word translated as ‘intercession’ has the sense of to converge. To converge, in the case of praying, is to come between God and the person we are praying for. When I pray for others, it helps to remember that I am kneeling in the place where the resources of heaven converge with the limitations of earth. Thus, I am praying in a place of great power, love, and hope. 

My expectation that God is empowering my prayers makes, for me, a great praying difference. 

 Love, 

 PJ 

 EXERCISE 

 Using Colossians 1:9, fill in the blank with someone you are interceding for. 

 For this reason, since the day [I] heard about ______, 

[I] have not stopped praying for _____. 

[I] continually ask God to fill _____ with the knowledge of his will 

through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives… 

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

Day 5 - God Will Tell You Something

 

 Dear Church, 

 If you acquire a habitual praying life, you will often hear God saying, “I love you.” 

 In the late 1970s I taught a Doctor of Ministry course on prayer, at Northern Seminary. One of my students was a pastor named Matt. I saw Matt as a great leader, who passionately loved Jesus. I have never forgotten the first day of that class, and what happened to Matt. 

 I handed out a copy of Psalm 23 to the students. I then said, “I want you to find a quiet place on the seminary campus. When you are there, meditate on Psalm 23. When God speaks to you, write it down on this paper. Do this for an hour. Then, return to class.” When the hour was over, all the students came back. Except Matt. My immediate thought was, “He doesn’t like my class.” What happened to him, I wondered? 

 The next day of class came. Matt was there. I asked about what happened in yesterday’s class. Why didn’t he come back? Matt said, “As I was praying, I heard God tell me that he loved me. I haven’t heard God say that to me for a long time. I was so moved that I couldn’t leave that place and return to the class.” 

 Before Jesus began his earthly ministry, two things happened. He was baptized. Then, he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by Satan. Immediately after he was baptized, we read this. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” 

 The voice of the Father could have said countless things about Jesus the Son. Like, “You will do great things.” Or, “You will one day die on a cross, for the redemption of humanity.” Or, “I will raise you from death to life.” While all these things, and more, are awesome and true, the Father chose to say, “I love you.” 

 In saying this, God the Father established Jesus’s identity. How significant is this? We could interpret the rest of the gospels as a battle over the identity of Jesus. The conflict began, immediately, after the Father spoke, “You are my greatly loved Son, and my pleasure rests upon you.” And then… At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. Satan tempted Jesus…, to do what? To forsake his identity as Beloved Son of the Father. 

 Your identity has the same root as that of Jesus. You are beloved daughters and sons of the King. For God so loves you, that he sent his Son to live and die for you. It is no coincidence that these were the first words from God that I ever heard. 

 I was twenty-one. A campus pastor, whose name was Marshall, was talking to me and my roommate about Jesus. I wasn't listening, because I was thinking how I could argue against this pastor. I asked him a question. A hard one. I threw him an unhittable curve ball. I was hoping he would try to answer it and make a fool of himself. Instead, to my great disappointment, he responded, "I can't answer that one." Then he added, "But I do believe there is a God, and that God loves you."

 That was it, for me. I was undone. My narcissistic self was struck a fatal blow. God… loves… me. I knew it, viscerally, existentially, ontologically. In my heart. I have never been the same. I am God's beloved. So are you. 

 I find this to be a rule: I love talking with people who love me. I am in a praying, communicating, conversational love-relationship with the Lord of heaven and earth, who calls me “Beloved.” 

Sisters and brothers, listen! As you live the praying life, you will hear the Father telling you, “You are my beloved child.” 

 Love, PJ 

 QUESTION 

 What is God saying to you, about you? 

 TO DO 

 Pray for a move of God in your church.

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

A Time to Speak; A Time to Be Silent

(Grandson Levi's hand)

There is a time for silence, and a time for sound. 

In a musical score, there are rests, and there are notes. Without rests the notes would lose their individuality. Without rests, the notes would bleed together.

Rests abstain. Notes obtain.

In a rest there is the absence of notes. There may be the sounds of overtones and echoes of notes recently played. But in a rest there is the celebration of quietness. 

Without rests, there will be no drama. No anticipation. No hope. The emptiness of a musical pause sets the stage for the fullness of notes to shine forth.

Surely one of the greatest musical rests ever written is at the end of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus." An article on the BBC says, "the Hallelujah Chorus at the end of part 2 is in D major and concludes with a plagal cadence." After a series of choral hallelujahs, the sounds come to an abrupt stop. This prepares us for a full-force IV chord, which will resolve into the I chord. (If the key is D, the IV chord is G, the I chord is D.) The "plagal cadence" is the IV chord returning home to the I chord. For those of us who love Handel's "Messiah," this is what we have been waiting for.

The absolute silence is just as needed as the plagal cadence.

The muteness is as important as the wordness. 

Both muteness and wordness are needed for witness.

Henri Nouwen writes:

"Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure. Somewhere we know that without a lonely place our actions quickly become empty gestures." (Nouwen, You are the Beloved.) 

At Redeemer we are still preaching through the book of Revelation. Revelation is, among other things, a feast of literary and linguistic fireworks. An overflowing goblet of falling-to-the-ground worship. A never-ending, repetitive holy-holy-holy-ness. But in the midst of it all, the universe and all that is in it is reduced to ear-deafening, absolute, auditory vacuity. 

We read...

When he opened the seventh seal, 

there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Revelation 8:1

As I begin to try and think about what this will feel like, I feel I am to emulate the silence and keep my mouth shut and resist trying to give words to the quiet.

Before us lies a world, awaiting Something, and Someone, to be heralded by seven supernatural trumpets, Who will, out of the Great Pause, resolve all anticipatory IV chords into the everlasting I-chord.

And that my little life must make silence and stillness essential parts of the composition God wants to orchestrate through me.

Day 4 - Jesus Had a Praying Life

 

 Dear Praying Church, 

Because Jesus prayed, so also are you to pray. 

 When I was a boy, Elvis was my hero. I wanted to be like him. I remember a day when I took an Elvis album cover into the bathroom and propped it against the mirror so I could see it. There I was, with my face in the mirror, next to the King’s. Then, I attempted to curl my lip like Elvis did when he sang. I took some hair gel and tried to recreate Elvis’s hair. I began to speak like Elvis did, in that low, smoky, bluesy baritone voice. All this and more was hard work, but worth it if people would see the resemblance. 

 Finally, I was ready to walk into the real world. I left my house and Elvised into my friend John’s backyard. I was hoping he would see that I looked like you-know-who. When he saw “Elvis,” namely moi, John said words that shattered me. “So, you’re trying to look like Elvis again.” 

 Trying? I want to be him! 

 We want to be like those we worship. In many ways, we become what we worship. When I began to follow and worship Jesus, I wanted to be like him. I wrote a worship song that was recorded by some Christian artists. It was called “More Like You.” I recorded it myself, and Linda and I had it played at our wedding. To be like Jesus. To be formed into greater and greater Christlikeness. (Galatians 4:19) 

 John 3:2 says, 

 Dear friends, now we are children of God , 

 and what we will be has not yet been made known. 

 But we know that when Christ appears, 

 we shall be like him, 

 for we shall see him as he is. 

 What was Jesus like? Well, he prayed. Here’s my reasoning. 

 1. Jesus is my Great Shepherd. 

 2. My Great Shepherd spent much time praying.  

3. Therefore, I spend much time praying. 

 We read these words in Luke 5:16: 

 Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. 

 Jesus prayed. 

Often. 

 For decades it has been my habit, weekly, to go to a lonely place, and pray. I do this for several reasons. But mainly, I do it because this Jesus that I worship did it, and I want to be like him. 

 As do you. 

 When you look into the mirror, see the face of Jesus next to yours. He’s calling you to meet with him and talk with him and listen to him, often. 

 Love, 

 PJ 

 CHALLENGE 

 Imitate Jesus’s praying life.

From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.

It's Linda's Birthday!

 

 

Sunday, August 3.

It's Linda's birthday!

I met Linda in 1970 at Northern Illinois University. We were part of the same campus ministry.

I was attracted, not only to her physical beauty, but to her heart, to her spirit. And, most importantly, to her unwavering love for Jesus.  

I thank God regularly for giving me Linda, my beautiful wife and life partner. 

She has a vast personal ministry to many people. 

She is a source of wisdom for constant callers. 

She is a compassionate God-seeker and prayer warrior. 

Linda has a fierce, loyal, unswerving faith in Jesus. 

She is a piano/vocal teacher, imparting more to her students than musical abilities.

She is a knowledgeable and skilled educator.

She is a clear and compelling teacher and speaker.

She has many gifts, and uses them for the glory of God. 

She is a phenomenal mother.

And now, a loving and creative grandmother!

She is a great support and strength to me. I could not do what God has called me to do without her. 

Her sense of humor really gets to me.

She is my travel companion.

And, Linda is the perfect Wordle partner!

On August 11 we will celebrate fifty-two years of marriage! 

Thank you, God, for giving Linda to me, and to so many others.

Happy birthday!