Horrible, terrible news from Paris today.
Absolutely horrific.
If you don’t know what happened, look at any news site on the entire internet. 100+ people killed in several coordinated attacks upon Paris, France.
The hashtag #PrayForParis went nuts on Twitter, and the people of Paris, France definitely need prayers. That’s certainly true.
Pray for the injured.
Pray for the families of the murdered.
Pray for order and justice.
Pray for the government.
Pray for the successful proclamation of the gospel to all parties on all sides.
And so on…
But I cannot help but notice how ironic it is how so many people who essentially live as though God doesn’t exist all of a sudden call for prayer when life takes a turn for the worst…as if folding one’s hands were some sort of emergency plan for life when everything else fails.
For example, Katy Perry was calling for people to Pray for Paris today.
I mean, come on. She lives with about as much concern for God as Steven Fry.
If you have no regard for God in your work, leisure, relationships, parenting, finances, politics, etc. but somehow think he’s obligated to treat you as if nothing’s amiss when your life turns upside down, why is that again?
Why does Yahweh, the God of the Bible (and the one you’re likely praying too), owe you a favor when you’ve done your best to utterly disregard him (outside of holidays and the occasional time you were upset) until now?
Do you get annoyed at friends who only call you when they need something from you because you see through their blatantly obvious manipulation and duplicity?
Do you think God’s stupid enough that HE doesn’t see through your blatantly obvious manipulation and duplicity?
Just a quick thought from a tired and burned out fellow.
Until Next Time,
Lyndon “Pray Without Ceasing” Unger
Watch Your Life and Doctrine Closely... 
I violated the rules of conduct here and have been barred from commenting due to an inability to control my tongue or act with basic civility. For some reason, I didn’t think the admin was serious about the warnings I was given. I apparently haven’t learned anything whatsoever from my experience. From now on, I’m part of a club with only 2 other people in it (of all the thousands of commenters who have ever posted on here). All further comments will simply read:
“I love pickles”
I love pickles.
Prescriptive logos like “Pray for Paris” seem as well designed as the attacks themselves.
Lyndon,
Very good points. Certainly hypocrisy is most acute when combined with godlessness. I have one question though. Where in the Bible do you actually find the name you use, i.e. “Yahweh” or any other permutation of it?
I’m sorry. What? Yahweh is an English rendering of the tetragrammaton. It’s not exactly something that’s original to me.
Yod Heh Vav Heh.
It appears 6,500+ times in the Old Testament.
Every time many translations have LORD, they’re translating YHWH.
Surely you know this.
Lyndon,
What? I am sure you realize that even tetragrammaton you use – YHWH is NOT the same as “Yahweh” , “Jahwe” , “Jehowah” etc. , etc. Surely you must realize that insertion of vowels into tetragrammaton probably first by Masoretes and surely by even later German Roman Catholic monks DOES NOT constitute true name of God but merely its human misleading misconstruct? Or are you? There is not even a “W” sound in Hebrew therefore even the version of tetragrammaton you are referring to i.e. “YHWH” is incorrect…
The truth is that NONE knows how to correctly say the tetragrammaton of YHVH and NONE knows for a very long time. Therefore human productions of convenience: “Yahweh” , “Jahwe” , “Jehowah” etc. , etc. are not.only false and incorrect but also oblivius, blatant bastardizations of the true tetraragrammaton YHVH.
Oh dear. Are we going to get into this?
For real?
You’ve been a good commenter for a long time. I’m going to keep using Yahweh and ignore this apparent hobby horse. You’re free to be offended at my apparent obliviousness.
“bastardizations?”
Come on now.
London,
Since when true name of God is a “hobby horse” ? 🙂 And how me being a good or bad commenter objectively adds to this biblical matter?
You can continue to use “Yahweh” or “Jehowah” or “Jahwe” but do.know that it is as true and correct as for example Yawahaea… or Jeohwahou… And if that doesn’t mean anything to you then I cannot help you.
Best,
D.
The true name of God isn’t the hobby horse. The hobby horse is you going goofy about what vowels I (along with the majority of Hebrew scholars) utilize in the English rendering of the tetragrammaton.
The fact that you’ve been a good commenter adds to this matter in that it seems uncharacteristic for you to fight about something so silly as the English rendering of a Hebrew name with a very small amount possible vowel options…small as in maybe 2, or 3 at the most.
Jehowah and Jahwe aren’t even on that list of other vowel options…and neither are Yawahaea or Jeohwahou.
Everyone who is aware of the many issues surrounding the correct rendering of the tetragrammaton knows that “Yahweh” isn’t the certain vowel arrangement of the tetragrammaton, but most agree that it’s not worth fighting about. Yahweh is the generally agreed upon English rendition of the tetragrammaton. In using “Yahweh” I’m using a common rendering instead of using HaShem or G*D or YHVH in order to show off that I apparently know the exotic language of Hebrew.
Most Christians on the web who like to drop Hebrew don’t know it any better than your average beginning ESL student knows Engrish.
Best,
L.
Yah, you’re probably right. When they so called “wayward” people reach out to God in a time of heartache, God must surely hate it. He hated the prodigal son doing it, he hated Saul doing it, and he sure as heck hated Jonah doing it.
Heaven forbid one day your pregnant teenage daughter calls you for help, after she runs away, I’m sure you would hang up…just as God does.
Good job Lyndon -I hate everyone- Unger. You must be lonely.
Where did I say that God hated it?
I suggested that it’s wildly hypocritical of the person, but I never speculated on God’s response.
God’s not like us and he’s not selfishly judgmental or myopically pedantic…
…Speaking of which, it’s frightening to see how much hatred you immediately assume exists in other people on the basis of a handful of misunderstood comments.
Why is that?
Why do you assume you know what I mean and don’t find it necessary to clarify your assumptions?
I love pickles.
One more reason to pray for Paris…. Joni and Marcus Lamb recently announced that they have opened the first and only “Christian” television station in France. People confused and hurting from these terrorist attacks will now be filled with horrible false teachings and the fleecing of desperate people who in sending the Lambs a “faith seed” end up funding the Lamb’s extravagant kingdom, not God’s. The announcement is at 20:22. Marcus mentions that the French don’t like the U.S. or Protestants. They are banking on the French Catholics embracing the Pentecostal movement like the Catholics are in South America. http://www.daystar.com/ondemand/video/?video=4581600774001 Contre nous de la tyrannie, Marchons, marchons!
Oh goodness gravy.
The Lambs are about to fleece the French flock.
Definition of “Pray” – address a solemn request or expression of thanks to a deity or other object of worship.
Meaning of “Object of worship” – valued untouchable, protected interest etc
Therefore – praying does not necessarily mean you are turning to a God or a deity.
Sure. “Pray” doesn’t always and only refer to petitioning God.
But on average, when someone says “let’s pray about (insert issue)”, you tend to assume that they’re about to address:
a. God.
b. Absolutely nothing.
c. Your thymus gland.
d. The urn filled with what’s left of their cremated cat.
e. The impersonal and disembodied energy of universe.
f. The Virgin Mary.
g. The moon and/or man therein.
h. Portugal.
i. A Waldorf salad.
Be honest.
Also, its not as hard a question as you may think; options ‘b’ through ‘i’ are essentially synonymous.
I don’t follow a religion – but like most people, I have beliefs, morals and values. Therefore I shouldn’t be made to feel bad for using the word ‘pray’ – and seeing that the word doesn’t have to be a request or gratitude towards a God or deity I have every right to use the word publicly.
Be honest.
Sure.
You can use any word however you want…but when you use words over and against their normative usage, you’d better be prepared for a lot of people to misunderstand you regularly.
But far beyond that, why bother?
Why make a request of something that cannot hear or respond?
I thought religion was about peace and tolerance?
This dialogue sounds like intolerance to me.
Christianity is about the person of Christ: his work and teaching.
That means it’s about matters of truth and error, not ambiguous peace and tolerance.
I’m not stopping you from utilizing any English word in whatever way you want. I’m just not going to play along with you. I’m going to utilize the words as they are used 99.99% of the time, not 0.01% of the time.
That’s actually a fair example of tolerance. I tolerate your commitment to your position and, though disagreeing openly and offering rebuttal, am not attempting to somehow stop you or insult you.
You think I’m wrong.
I think you’re wrong.
That’s perfectly fine and actually unavoidable. I’m neither upset nor offended.
You’re the one coming on my blog and making the effort to tell me I’m wrong because I’m not doing something the way you want me to.
I’m not making you feel guilty, since I don’t actually “make” you feel anything. Your feelings are your emotional reaction to my propositional claims as filtered through your worldview. Don’t pretend that I’m somehow in error because you react in a way that is uncomfortable emotionally.
Your blog was shared on my Facebook feed, so in my eyes, your negative views towards those who supposedly use the word ‘pray’ loosely was pushed in my direction and I felt compelled to defend myself and those who don’t agree with your opinion.
You are extremely articulate and I wish you the best in your beliefs.
I just hope you will continue to be open minded regarding those who don’t always see things the same way.
Regarding my emotional reaction – I am, after a person with thoughts and feelings.
I see. So someone shared what I, a person who you don’t know and will likely never meet, wrote. Then, because it disturbed you so much, you followed the link back to this post in an effort to put me in my place…all in the name of tolerance?
How in the world is that tolerant?
Beyond that, neither one of us is open-minded.
Anyone who is truly “open-minded” would have no opinions one way or the other about anything. By your own admission, when you saw my post on Facebook, you weren’t open-minded to my ideas at all. You were not only closed-minded to them, but disturbed to the point that you wanted to come here and attempt to convince me of my error.
That’s quite amazingly closed-minded.
I’m open to discussing things with people who disagree with me, even wildly.
I just don’t pretend that all positions are equally valid or reasonable.
I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings…but I clearly didn’t know you when you first saw the link to this article and I still don’t really now. I’m not calling you names, nor am I taking potshots at you. I’m attempting to interact with you and put a pebble in your shoe about your presumed understanding of the world. In other words, I’m wanting to try to open your mind to ultimate truth, revealed by the creator God of the universe in the divinely written oracles that he has delivered to us, or at least the parts that I understand enough to explain. If that’s an offensive statement, I definitely understand.
Most creatures who ignore their creator don’t like being reminded about the one their trying to ignore.
*afterall
I’m grateful that God is merciful and kind but I agree also with you. People forget God till they need Him like when death strikes or pain or a financial collapse. I remember how people prayed after 9/11 but once life got back to normal, people went back to sinning and a ignoring God. We would do well to hear Proverbs 1:24-27 and heed wisdom’s cry.
Thank you for another sobering post Lyndon glorifying our LORD.
pray for paris
Yes. Pray for Paris.
I love pickles.
I love pickles.
I love pickles.
I love pickles.