2012 will come and go just like 2011, and just like 2013 and 2014, etc. The only thing about the 2012 end of the world, is that the prophet is not around to argue with or deride after his failure.

This whole thing has come down to us as a newly popularized yet old as time document that intimates that the Earth will simply run out of time at the Winter solstice of 2012. Maybe the Mayan copyist just ran out of paper…or stone…or papyrus…or what ever. Maybe they understood the cyclical nature of life in a way we don’t and this calendar is a graphic representation of it.

Or maybe not.

But I know that if I really thought that the world was going to end in December 2012, I’d spend a lot more time in prayer.

And I may just do that anyway.

For an easy to use e-book on prayer, go see  www.therealprayer.com .

It wasn’t for any theological reasons, mind you, the church’s religious paradigms were well within accepted parameters. It appeared to be the people. In spite of all the love talk, and forgiveness talk, there was an obvious shortage of both. Decisions were made in business meetings which were fraught with disagreement and hostility, and nobody can hold a grudge like a Christian!

Recently, I read a news article about just how churches were shrinking http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44192469/ns/health-behavior/t/who-going-church-not-who-you-think-study-finds/. Now historically, churches were peopled with either the good of the town or the bad of the town. You know, good people go to church because that’s what good people do, and bad people go to church because that’s what bad people do. But much of this was also tied to economics as well. The affluent went to a certain kind of church and all the poor people went to another kind of church.

Now it seems both the middle class and the poor are avoiding the church. My guess is that in times of real stress, people have tried the church and found out there are no answers there. There is a lot of talk, but no answers.

The problem? People have gotten in the habit of looking to the church for answers rather than God. No one at a church has an answer for you–they’re all just seeking like you (or have long since stopped seeking and have settled for a life of peer affirmation.) YOU are responsible for finding your own answers! You have to seek God. You have to seek out a way to pray, or meditate, or think, or feel, or whatever.

The purpose of this little blog is simply to get you to begin–somewhere. And just maybe by learning to use and experience the Lord’s Prayer. Go visit: www.therealprayer.com

Now days, the only thing which should frighten us is if something like an eclipse occurred and nobody knew it was coming! Pandemonium would ensue and I can’t imagine the utter chaos which would break out if the sun or moon or Earth somehow got out of place in the heavens.

One of the things we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer is that the Creator’s will be done on Earth as it is in the heavens. Just think about that for a moment. We are asking for the perfection, order, and creativity of the heavens to be replicated in our lives on Earth.

Now that’s something worth praying for.

For a useful  work book on the Lord’s Prayer, go see: www.therealprayer.com

I’m not sure how I feel about suicide, let alone one shown on television. At the outset, it seems that we could easily take one side or the other. There are probably more reasons a person would want to die than we can imagine (or understand) and to simply dismiss it out of hand with some glib cliché seems to be insensitive. And as I get older, the more I feel this way.

Many of us are fortunate in that we will never feel that unfathomable hopelessness, or know such irreparable regret that ending it all seems to be the only solution. While many do experience discouragement, we do not all feel it to the level that suicide becomes an option.

Health problems present another conundrum. What if we want to “pull our own plug?” What if we know how it will end, and the process of our demise seems just too horrible to go through or put our families through?

No one has the “just right” answer.

No one has the corner on the truth. But I happen to believe our Creator, our Father, knows all about the created and remembers “that we are but dust.”

I cannot tell you, just now, sitting at my computer, what I may believe when the time of my personal decision comes, but I do believe that if I have lived a life of sustained contact with that Creator, the decision will be much easier.

Pray every day.

For a helpful workbook on prayer, visit: www.therealprayer.com .

Various Christian churches observe it various ways, but always with an emphasis on the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost, Holy Presence, Paraclete, Breath of God, among others.)

At its simplest, it is the recognition that the Spirit is to be within us what Christ would have been beside us had we lived in his day: teacher, healer, provider, counselor, consoler, whatever is needed.

The Bible tells us that the Spirit intercedes for us before God with words we cannot utter, and in ways we probably cannot understand.

But it all starts with a prayer.

For a simple and useful work book on the Lord’s Prayer and praying, go see: www.therealprayer.com

It became illegal to say prayer, pray, invocation, amen, or anything other words and phrases associated with Christianity. Talk about stepping on someone’s rights!

So we spend a full semester teaching them about freedom of speech, freedom of religion (not freedom from religion,) constitutional rights, etc., then take away these rights through the smoke screen of a misappropriated civil liberties argument. It’s kind of like the way we teach them basic science and the scientific method, then flush it all down the drain by telling them life spontaneously generated and developed through evolution in some magical way we can’t really explain.

I like to quote the words of song writer and producer Steve Taylor in his song Lead the Way, “The more I chew the less I swallow.”  Great line.

Later, more rational folk lifted the ban and the school’s valedictorian can at least say “amen.” See the article at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/03/texas-senator-blasts-judges-decision-to-forbid-public-prayer-at-high-school/?test=latestnews 

And though I’m happy at the students’ restored rights to open or close their ceremony with prayer (or not to –if it is their collective choice) it saddens me that the argument ever lifted it’s head to begin with.

Pray everyday.

Go see: www.therealprayer.com

The end of the world! – Ok, for starters, it’s ok to cry to the Lord–God wants us to bring our hurts and joys and wants and needs. But no matter how many times some one says the world will end (and it will–someday) it’s probably not going to be on May 21.

The end of the world! – Here’s my prediction: There’s going to be a lot of back-peddling and good old fashioned cognitive dissonance on Sunday when the world doesn’t end on Saturday. The Bible says clearly (trust the red letters) that no one knows when the end of the world will come-not even the son.

My 21 will come and go like May 20. There will be a sunrise and sunset on May 21 just like May 22. Remember, there was NO May at all in Noah’s day (or June or July) and there was no 21st of May to start the clock ticking down to now. The math is just wrong.

So-the end of the world-will come and go. The pastor in California is well-meaning no doubt. He is concerned with non-believers and that’s a good thing. I just think when May 21 comes and goes he will have simply added more to their ranks.

Daily prayer will do a lot to cure these unreasonable fears. Get started at: www.therealprayer.com

The Bible is pretty clear that no one knows when the end will come. All of Jesus’ warnings come with the sobering idea of “watch yourselves–for you don’t know when the end will come.” NOR, I might add, did he continue by saying “but I do and it’s May 21, 2011.”

Think for a moment–which is more troubling, the idea that it will all end on May 21, or that the end could come any moment without warning? Yeah, I thought so.

My advice is to make personal piety and prayer a priority. That’s why I have this little blog site. I want you to pray–daily. And if you’re not sure how, check out the rest of my blog entries, and begin to pray the Lord’s Prayer.

I think it helps.

For an easy to use work book on the Lord’s Prayer, go to: www.therealprayer.com

Can technology help us find God, or Faith? Well, Pope Benedict XVI has encouraged priests to get involved in at least one aspect of online ministry, whether blogs, podcasts or something else, so the Catholic church is already embracing the God through technology idea.

This little blog you’re reading here is an attempt to revive personal piety through technology as well. It is an encouragement to pray and build up you faith through the praying of the Lord’s Prayer. Will it help? I hope so!

For an easy to use guide to the Lord’s Prayer go see: www.therealprayer.com

Granted, the melody is horrendous! It starts unreasonable low and then soars unrealistically high. But, the song is just not that long. How hard can it be?

Believe it or not, I once heard a pastor get halfway through the Lord’s Prayer and then switch off to the Pledge of Allegiance. And it wasn’t even Super Bowl Sunday!

Learn the Lord’s Prayer. Use it every day.

For an easy-to-use study go see: www.therealprayer.com