mountains and molehills
Had to laugh at this comment from dave paisley on one of Leighton’s posts about a Purpose Driven Life:
At least PDL isn’t the Prayer of Jabez.
Ye Gods, has there ever been a more materialistic mountain been made out of a spiritual molehill?
Well, maybe the Jim and Tammy Faye glory days of the 80s…
I remember one church we visited which was just promoting its week of prayer focussing on the Prayer of Jabez. The service was basically a running advertisement for all of the prayer gigs they were going to do.
After we left, we turned to each other and wondered why on earth nobody had prayed once during the worship.
I never got the prayer of jabez thing. In my (reading as opposed to studying) bible it reads as:
Please bless me and give me a lot of land. Be with me so I will be safe from harm
Other translations are more poetic, but that is the basic gist. Seriously, how could anyoen (including a whole bunch of churches) think that this was the prayer on which to base a whole focus or movement or whatever? Kind of self-interested, wuncha say?
October 25th, 2004 at 5:56 am
I’ve always taken it to mean “please bless me and help me be successful” in a righteous way. Applied to a church it could be taken to mean ‘help us have a greater influence in our area’. Sure it’s possible to find unrighteous applications of it too. The important thing is the heart from which this type of prayer originates.
November 27th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
“Purpose Driven carried out the first round of layoffs in July, while Warren preached in 14 countries across Africa and Asia. Saddleback leadership had hoped the cuts would be enough. Warren and his wife, Kay, even donated $2 million to cover a deficit at Purpose Driven and hopefully save a few jobs.
But a second round of layoffs couldn’t be avoided. From a peak of 160 employees, Purpose Driven laid off 30 staff members while another 24 positions were eliminated through attrition.”
From http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/december/5.15.html