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Red Letter Christians and Prayer

June 10, 2016

Red Letter Christians and Prayer

by Tony Campolo

Red Letter Christians should try to be at the Ocean City Tabernacle (550 Wesley Ave., Ocean City, NJ 08226) on June 26th at 7:00 pm. Along with Mark Lowry (of T.V. fame) I will try to explain the unique spirituality preached by Jesus, as highlighted in the red letters in many bibles.

Jesus was quite specific about what we should do to prepare for intimacy with God; how we should pray, and what to expect to happen because of our prayers.

Here are some things I will address:

  1. When Jesus told us that when we pray we should, “go into a closet and shut the door,” He was telling us that prayer should be a time and place when we shut out the extraneous things in the world and be totally focused on Him.
  1. That prayer should be a time of surrendering to Him, and in stillness allowing His spirit to invade our hearts and minds.
  1. That prayer should be a time of “cleansing.” This happens when we name those dark things in our lives and allow Him to reach across time and space to connect with us and absorb those dark things into Himself.
  1. That prayer should be preparation for action. We should come away from praying empowered to do His work in the world. Prayer should motivate us to share the gospel with others and to work to end sexism, militarism, homophobia, racism, and economic injustice. When Jesus prayed it resulted in action, and it should do the same for us.

Mark Lowry, who regularly appears on television in Bill Gaither’s “Homecoming” concerts, will be joining me, and singing from his repertoire a variety of gospel songs related to what I have to say about prayer.

I hope you come to the gathering on June 26th. Red Letter Christians very much need the kind of deep spirituality that prayer can give us if we are to engage the world with Christ’s radical calling all Christians.