Experiencing Prayer With Jesus
Henry Blackaby & Norman Blackaby
Authors

Our Key to Life and Ministry

The twelve disciples whom Jesus chose were no doubt men who prayed. They had been raised in a culture that valued and practiced prayer, and each of their hearts must have been prayerfully tender toward God for each man to leave everything and follow after Jesus when He extended His call to them.

And yet, as the disciple went on to closely observe Jesus, they consistently noticed a stark difference between their way of praying and the prayer life of the Lord.

In the presence of these twelve men, Jesus both taught and modeled a radical life of prayer, and it caught their attention. We see this, for example, in Luke 11:1. Jesus "was praying in a certain place," and when He finished, "one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray.'" They wanted something better than they already had; they wanted the same reality and vitality of prayer that Jesus experienced.

So He taught them. And everything He taught, He also lived out before them.
the rest-excerpt from the book


Grace as a License for Sin
Why obedience isn't just for legalists.
Stan Guthrie interviews Robert Jeffress
posted 03/29/2006

Evangelical commentators from Ron Sider to George Barna have bemoaned the apparent disconnect between Christian beliefs and practice. Robert Jeffress, minister at First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls, Texas, looks at the problem from a pastoral perspective in Grace Gone Wild: Getting a Grip on God's Amazing Gift (WaterBrook, 2005). Stan Guthrie, a CT senior associate editor, sat down with him. the rest