“Father, give me to know and help me to see
The whole world full of tinder, as truly combustible,
And to see Your bright Word as unstoppable flame.”
21 Prayers, p. 63
Your Killing Spirit
“Father, my Father, keep me from sinning
Or grieving Your Spirit in my thoughts or behavior.
Put right within me what needs to be right,
Directed and led by Your killing Spirit,
In line with Your heart, Your words, and Your Spirit.”
21 Prayers, p. 62
Glory Days
“The popular expressions of American exceptionalism are as old as dirt. There is nothing new about top dogs vaunting themselves over their top dogginess. This is the most unexceptional form of exceptionalism possible. This high school has been here for many decades, and nobody currently knows who the senior class president was twenty-five years ago. Nobody knows because nobody cares.”
American Milk & Honey, p. 160
Under the Blessing
“The YHWH who dispenses Deuteronomic blessings on His people is thereby identifying who his people actually are. Let the true Jews, the Jews who are Jews inwardly, by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 2:29), be the ones who walk under the grace of all His covenant blessings.”
American Milk & Honey, p. 158
Low Door
“I pray I might find the doorway of grace,
Finding at last the low door to high heaven.”
21 Prayers, p. 59
Rattle Us All
“Rattle us all, Lord, and shake us all down
So that what is unshakeable may still remain.
Shake us so that what is permanent might be
Made manifest to all who stand and observe it.”
21 Prayers, p. 58
One of Those Serpents
“The Lord promise that we could handle serpents and not be bitten (Mark 16:18), and mammon is certainly one of those serpents.”
American Milk & Honey, p. 153
No Thanks to Both
“To leave true spiritual blessings out of the equation is to place human beings on the level of swine in a sty—with blessings being understood as anything edible that can fit in the mouth, like mash or acorns. But the gnostic error, the opposite error, is just as filled with unbelief—ungratefully reducing human beings to the level of wraiths, ghosts, and spiritual wisps. It is not the case that God gave material blessings to the Jews in the Old Testament, while in the New Covenant, all the blessings have been transported beyond the stars, or somehow vaporized. On this view, God has apparently appointed a team of burly archangels to throw all of our material blessings into a Cosmic Nebulizer, which will turn every last one of them into a very fine spiritual mist, in order to make Heaven idolatry-proof.”
American Milk & Honey, pp. 150-151
As With Ahab
“I pray that Your Spirit would direct my words,
Like an arrow, to a chink in the armor of fortune
That I did not know was even there.”
21 Prayers, p. 54
Mess Them Up Totally
“Unleash Your Word in our midst, we now ask You.
Have it run free and mess up all our plans.”
21 Prayers, p. 54