Arquivos Prayer - OTPB - Ordem dos Teólogos e Pastores do Brasil

mar302020 by @prflavionunesNo Comments

Social Distance, Don’t Social Isolate

“Social distancing” is a term used by epidemiologists to refer to a conscious community effort to reduce contact between people in order to slow the transmission and reduce the impact of disease. In the face of the current global pandemic, it’s a necessary short-term measure intended to protect and preserve humanity, particularly those who are most vulnerable. It’s necessary, but it’s not easy. Humans were made for physical presence, so it’s natural to feel disordered when this presence is taken from us. The thought of social distancing brings a sense of loss—we worry we’ll lose spiritual vitality, stabilizing routines, interpersonal relationships. It’s scary. I understand this fear. I’ve spent the last five years battling chronic medical conditions that have kept me home l...

Suffering, Healing, and the Hope of Eternity

ATUALIDADES, podcast

Nancy Guthrie and Joni Eareckson Tada begin their conversation by reflecting on the first time they met, more than 20 years ago. At the time, Guthrie was reading Tada’s book Heaven: Your Real Home, as Guthrie’s daughter had recently gone home to heaven. This memory prompts Guthrie to ask Tada what it means to set the heart on heaven. Tada does her best to take God’s advice to lay up treasures in heaven, where she will be with Jesus, who makes it a heavenly place. Tada also references Jonathan Edwards’s remark on heaven where he said, in Tada’s paraphrase, that everything we do down here on earth has a direct bearing on our capacity for worship and joy and service in heaven. For Tada, this means that every day she can invest in heaven, trust and obey God, believe his Word, and follow hi...

Never a Better Time for Family Prayer

ATUALIDADES

A looming pandemic feels invisible to most of us. There’s danger out there—lurking on grocery-store carts and wrapped in friendly hugs—but we can’t see it with our eyes. We can wash our hands while singing “Happy Birthday,” but we can’t be sure we rinsed away every germ. We can wipe down the subway seat, but we don’t know which surfaces we overlooked. We can stay home, but the virus may have already moved in. It’s a great time to pray. As families are stuck at home, we have an opportunity to together take up the largely invisible, outwardly unremarkable tool of prayer. We can’t see the danger, but we know the One who sees everything. What’s more, the excuses for prayerlessness—too little time, too much going on—are wiped from the calendar. Evening activities have been cance...