I’ve noticed a strange thing happen in wood fires, though. On occasion, an eerie whistle may come from the depths of an inflamed timber. It can sound like a chirping bird, although no birds chirp in the dark. Where does that pleasant sound come from? Is it the echo of songbirds from long ago when that tree was a sapling?

No, we understand that the sound comes from escaping gases from deep within the wood itself. Yet, there may be a great spiritual lesson for each of us in that whistling sound. Perhaps it should remind us that in troubled times in our lives there should always be a song in our hearts. As a matter of fact, there has been no sweeter sound to God than my hurting heart’s cry to Him. It may sound sadistic, but God loves to hear our outcry to Him in times of trouble. And that broken cry for help moves His heart to respond.

Perhaps the rain will drive people into the Industrial Tent where they will pass by the ‘Free Prayer’ booth and God will deal with their hearts. One person walked past and then stopped, looking back at the booth. “Can we pray with you about something?” asked the attendant. “No,” he replied as he walked on, “but I’ll be back.” We can only wonder what was going on in his mind at that point.

Another guy announced himself as an atheist and proceeded to debunk our idea of answered prayer. But he handed his business card to the attendant. I wonder what he thought the prayer booth attendant was going to do with that card?

Continue to pray this week as we see God’s still small voice speak to people where they are.

I shared that our military has always been about transporting freedom and democracy to other cultures. Many lives have been sacrificed to carry that message overseas. We need to pray for our brave men and women in uniform that they will be protected, vigilant, and successful in their efforts to uproot evil and tyranny.

The death of Osama bin Laden, which we hail as a victory, does not make the world a safer place. Others will rise up to take his place. Vengeance has already been threatened, and will surely be attempted. The world will never be a truly safer place until Jesus Christ comes back, which is imminent.

Take one minute right now and pray for our military. God bless the USA.

Mother Theresa was asked, “What are the sources of your strength?” She replied, “A 98-year old woman in Philadelphia who prays for me.”

Martin Luther once said, enjoying a meal: “If I could only watch and pray like that dog watches my meat.”

Please comment to this blog and finish this sentence: “When it comes to prayer, I…

“The only way to reach the wiring was to enter the attic above the altar and crawl over the ceiling by balancing on the rafters. Concerned for my husband’s safety, I waited in a pew.

“Unknown to me, some other parishioners were congregating in the vestibule. They paid little attention to me, probably assuming I was praying. Worried about my husband, I looked up toward the ceiling and yelled, “Sam, Sam – are you up there? Did you make it okay?”

There was quite an outburst from the vestibule when Sam’s hearty voice echoed down, “Yes, I made it up here just fine!”

At last they decided to hold a joint Saturday night prayer meeting. They would ask God to intervene. Saturday night came and all through the prayer meeting a terrible electrical storm raged. To the delight of the church members lightning struck the distillery and it burned to the ground.

Next morning, the sermons in both churches were on “The Power of Prayer”. Fire insurance adjusters promptly notified the distillery owner they would not pay for his damages. The fire was caused by an “act of God” and was excluded in the policy. Whereupon the distillery owner sued all the church members, claiming they had conspired with God to destroy his building. The defendants denied absolutely that they had done anything to cause the fire.

The trial judge observed: “I find one thing about this case that is very perplexing. We have a situation where the plaintiff – an atheist – is professing his belief in the power of prayer, and the defendants – and church members – are denying the power of prayer.

Moyers, usually rather quiet and softspoken, began praying softly. President Johnson, usually loud, confident, and assertive, interrupted him with “Speak up, Bill! Speak up!”

The former Baptist minister from east Texas stopped in mid-sentence and without looking up replied steadily, “I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President.”

“I wouldn’t know what to say,” she replied.

“Just say what you hear Mommy say,” the wife said.

The daughter then bowed her head and said: “Dear Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?”

Kids will do what you model for them, not what you tell them to do. Be careful.

If we, like this schoolboy, picture God as a Cosmic Kill-joy, then we will not go to God very often in prayer. Then there are those who picture God at the other extreme, as a Colossal Vending Machine, whose sole purpose is to give us what we want. Just pop in a prayer and out comes our heart’s desire. A problem arises, however, when prayer does not work out quite so simply, when the expected results are not produced. Then, in disappointment and anger, we kick and scream at our Cosmic Vending Machine for swallowing our prayer.

Jesus likens God to neither of these extremes. To Him, God is like a Good Parent who will give us in prayer what is good for us, not always what we want.

When my order arrived, it included something that was worth double the price of the article I had requested, plus several other items. The company explained, “We are sorry we do not have the article in stock which you ordered. We are sending you something better at our expense.”

The neat thing about prayer is that God sometimes substitutes something even better than that which we requested. He is always watching out for our good, and sometimes says ‘No’ for our own good, with a soon coming much better substitute.