Imprecatory prayers seem to be a hot-button thingy deal. There are many wonderful evangelical Christians who pray that God will convert unbelievers, and I wonder if it would give them pause if they thought about what it meant, 'zactly. First, there's some Calvintastic assumptions working... assuming God does the saving. But when God saves someone it's a pretty messy business: new friends, new thoughts and behaviors, the works! The Bible describes it as a death and resurrection, dying to sin and living for Christ, and death can be messy. But it's the way God works, and we pray for it for people by name.
<br><br>Anywho, I wanted to give you some quotations:<br><br>"Imprecation is not the biblical equivalent of casting a spell, or
running pins through a voodoo doll. It is a prayer to the infinite
personal God, who sees and knows all things, down to the motive of
every last heart. All true prayer commits everything to Him, and where
is the danger in that? We may ask God to pay back to our adversaries
seven-fold (Ps. 79:12). How is this consistent with forgiveness to
seventy times seven (Matt. 18:21-22)? If God visits our enemies with
conviction of sin, seven-fold, then He will destroy our enemies by
transforming them into friends. If this ticks us off, like it did
Jonah, then we have an attitude problem (Jon. 4:9), not knowing what
spirit we are of (Luke 9:55). But if we rejoice in this kind of
triumph, then we are fitted to say <i>amen </i>to the other kind."<br>Pastor Wilson, at Sunday worship<br><br>This one's from Flannery O'Connor, the subject of the next C/A magazine. You can get her complete works at my bookstore! Free local delivery, so you could make me come to your house if you wanta:
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Flannery O'Connor, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Complete Stories, </span>(Faber, 1990), "The Peeler", pp.72, 74:<br><blockquote>The
blind man reached out again and his hands suddenly covered Haze's face.
For a second Haze didn't move or make any sound. Then he knocked the
hands off. "Quit it," he said in a faint voice. "You don't know nothing
about me."<br> <br>"You got a secret need," the blind man said. "Them that know Jesus once can't escape Him in the end."<br> <br>"I ain't never known Him," Haze said.<br> <br>"You
got a least knowledge," the blind man said. "That's enough. You know
His name and you're marked. If Jesus has marked you there ain't nothing
you can do about it. Them that have knowledge can't swap it for
ignorance."<br> <br>...<br> <br>"Fornication," the blind man said.<br> <br>"That
ain't nothing but a word," Haze said. "If I was in Sin I was in it
before I ever committed any. Ain't no change come in me." He was trying
to pry the fingers off from round his arm but the blind man kept
wrapping them tighter. "I don't believe in Sin," he said. "Take your
hand off me."<br> <br>"You do," the blind man said, "you're marked."<br> <br>"I ain't marked," Haze said, "I'm free."<br> <br>"You're marked free," the blind man said. "Jesus loves you and you can't escape his mark ..."
<br><br></blockquote><br>-- <br>Austin Storm<br>Sky Cow Books<br>P.O. Box 9128 Moscow, Idaho 83843<br>208.596.5752 work | 678.550.5503 fax