Eric Clapton And Prayer

Eric Claptonis best known for his guitar licks and blue hits. But, the past ten years, his days have begun and ended in prayer.
Clapton wasn't always a Believer. He spent many years running from God and the faith he knew as a young man. Failing through a month of rehab in 1987, Clapton fell to his knees and finally "surrendered" to God, dedicating his sobriety to his newborn son, Conor. Four years later, when Conor died in a fall from the window of a 53rd floor of a Park Avenue apartment, Clapton admitted, "There was a moment when I did lose faith." Still, he found the strength to present a session to his Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on "handing your will over to the care of God". Afterward, a woman confessed that he had taken away her "last excuse" for drinking, a confirmation to Clapton that "staying sober and helping others to achieve sobriety" is "the single most important proposition" in his life.

In his autobiography,Clapton elaborates on the beginnings of his prayer life — that 1987 rock-bottom moment at the rehab treatment center.

"I was in complete despair," Clapton wrote. "In the privacy of my room, I begged for help. I had no notion who I thought I was talking to, I just knew that I had come to the end of my tether … and, getting down on my knees, I surrendered. Within a few days I realized that … I had found a place to turn to, a place I'd always known was there but never really wanted, or needed, to believe in. From that day until this, I have never failed to pray in the morning, on my knees, asking for help, and at night, to express gratitude for my life and, most of all, for my sobriety. I choose to kneel because I feel I need to humble myself when I pray, and with my ego, this is the most I can do. If you are asking why I do all this, I will tell you … because it works, as simple as that."

Excerpt from ChristianityToday.com

TOPIC: ACLU Intimidates and Seeks to Deny Free Speech to Christians
Article by christiansunite.com staff
"It's very troubling for the government to dictate what kind of prayers Christians can or cannot offer in the public forum," says Dr. Gary Cass. "Jesus taught His disciples to pray to the Father in His name. To require Christians to not pray in the name of Jesus Christ is asking them to pray contrary to their faith. By what authority does the Government deny Christians their First Amendment right to pray according to the dictates of their conscience?"

Reverend Hashmel Turner, a member of the Fredericksburg, Virginia city council, was threatened with lawsuits from secular anti-Christian groups, including the ACLU, for his Christian prayers during a council meeting. Turner was apart of a rotation of all the council members who would take turns praying at the council meetings. His case is currently making it's way to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on March 19, and would allow Christians the right to pray "in Jesus' name" in the public forum.

This case will have a tremendous impact on city councils and state legislatures throughout the United States. "Just because somebody objects to praying in Jesus' name does not mean that Christians must deny their faith to accommodate another person's opposing beliefs. This is discrimination," said Dr. Cass. "Over 80% of American's self-identify as Christians, but Hindu's, Muslim's and Jew's have all prayed in the public forum and no one has restricted the content of their prayers and the ACLU has not threatened them. The majority of Christians are subjected to non-Christian prayers, why are Christians told what they can or cannot pray? This is simply anti-Christian bigotry and an attempt to deny free speech for Christians," said Cass.

The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission is a non-profit organization devoted to protecting the rights of Christians to confidently live their faith. Dr. Gary Cass has degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary. He previously served as Executive Director of the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries founded by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy.

TOPIC: A Christian Statesman Has Gone Home
Rev. D. James Kennedy, Broadcaster, Dies at 76

Article by NEELA BANERJEE

[For some reason, Ms. Banerjee has a problem calling Dr. Kennedy by his proper title. Yet, she entitles Barry Lynn "reverend" as though it means something. ???]

The Rev. D. James Kennedy, a Christian broadcaster and the pastor of a Florida megachurch who played a critical role in the rise of conservative Christianity, died yesterday at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 76. The cause was not immediately known, said Kristin Cole, a church spokeswoman, but Mr. Kennedy suffered permanent damage from heart arrhythmia last December and had been undergoing rehabilitative therapy since then.

From the founding of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale 48 years ago, Mr. Kennedy became an indefatigable and persuasive voice urging Christians to take on a broader culture that, in his view, had begun to decay.

He argued that the decline was due to society’s increasing secularization and hostility to Christianity, said Frank Wright, a friend and the chief executive of the National Religious Broadcasters Association. Though not as well known to the broader public as the late Rev. Jerry Falwell or the Rev. Pat Robertson, Mr. Kennedy provided much of the theology that attracted millions of Christians into the camp of the religious right, said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “He was absolutely relentless in his criticism of everything on the left,” Mr. Lynn said. “He was a formidable creator of an opposition to what people like I believe.”

Mr. Kennedy stayed largely in the background as men like Mr. Falwell, Mr. Robertson and James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family spoke to Americans about the need to curtail abortion rights, gay rights and the teaching of evolution. But over the last decade, he, too, grew more openly active, creating the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, which held conferences that taught people to how to get involved in the political process. The center closed in April.

Mr. Kennedy opened the Center for Christian Statesmanship in Washington to equip evangelicals on Capitol Hill to be more effective in government. He was also instrumental in establishing the Alliance Defense Fund, an increasingly active Christian counterweight to secular civil liberties groups.

“For decades, Dr. Kennedy has been a passionate defender of biblical truth in a culture that increasingly forgot it,” Dr. Dobson said in a statement. “He was a giant in the battle to restore traditional values in our nation.”

Kennedy accepted Jesus after the message of a radio preacher woke him one Sunday morning. In Mr. Kennedy’s often-repeated account, which appears on his Web site, the preacher asked: “Suppose you were to die today and stand before God, and he were to ask you, ‘What right do you have to enter into my heaven?’— what would you say?”

In 1967, he started an “evangelism clinic” called Evangelism Explosion, which taught Christians how to spread the Gospel. Mr. Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Ministries, which includes radio and television, says it now has an audience of 3.5 million people, according to the group’s Web site. “Coral Ridge Hour,” a weekly sermon by Mr. Kennedy, is broadcast in more than 145 countries and on more than 600 stations.

Mr. Kennedy also founded a seminary and a school and wrote more than 65 books. Mr. Kennedy worked with other evangelicals to articulate the core beliefs of what would become the religious right. Mr. Kennedy spoke sharply against gay rights and abortion rights. But he thought the greatest threat to society was the fact that public education had left prayer out of the classroom and continued to teach evolution, Mr. Wright said. “When people feel that they are the product of some accident and not the intended creation of God, they are filled with a sense of hopelessness and there is an almost pagan barbarianism in the way some people would act,” Mr. Wright said.

TOPIC: 56th National Day of Prayer
This year’s National Day of Prayer will be celebrated May 3rd.

From Shirley Dobson, NDP Chairman:
On Thursday, May 3rd, all across our nation in church events and public venues from coast to coast, hearts and hands will be joined together for the 56th Annual National Day of Prayer. This year’s theme, “America, Unite in Prayer,” comes from the promise the Lord gave us in II Chronicles 7:14:

“If my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

We hope this message will not only serve as a catalyst to encourage God’s people to take prayer for our nation seriously, but that it will draw believers closer together as they intercede corporately on behalf of our country. I truly believe God is calling His people to be faithful for such a time as this. If you would like more information on how you might unite with your fellow citizens to intercede on behalf of this great nation, I invite you to visit our Web site at www.nationaldayofprayer.org.

Hear the Prayer for NDP 2007 from Honorary Chairman Chuck Swindoll. Watch a video message from Dr. Swindoll. For further reading: What Makes Prayer Work? Read the NDOP proclamation signed by President George W. Bush.

TOPIC: The Wright Stuff
I received an interesting email this morning. Most chain emails are junk, but this one caught my eye. After checking it out on a couple urban legends websites, it became clear that the story behind the email was worthy of comment. The content of the email [or at least most of it] is included below.
Back in January of 1996, the Reverend Joe Wright, senior pastor of the 2,500-member Central Christian Church in Wichita, was invited to offer the opening prayer at a session of the Kansas House of Representatives (not the Kansas Senate, as claimed in the text), and the prayer he offered was this one (which differs somewhat from the version cited in the text):

Heavenly Father, we come before you to ask your forgiveness. We seek your direction and your guidance. We know your word says, "Woe to those who call evil good." But that's what we've done.
We've lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We've exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We've neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name of right to life, we have killed abortionists.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it taxes. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, oh, God, and know our hearts today. Try us. Show us any wickedness within us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of Kansas, and that they have been ordained by you to govern this great state. Grant them your wisdom to rule. May their decisions direct us to the center of your will. And, as we continue our prayer and as we come in out of the fog, give us clear minds to accomplish our goals as we begin this Legislature.
For we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

The prayer Rev. Wright used wasn't of his own crafting; it was a version of one written in 1995 by Bob Russell who offered it at the Kentucky Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Rev. Wright had been invited to serve as the House's guest chaplain by Rep. Anthony Powell, a Wichita Republican who was also a member of Wright's church. Accordingly, Rev. Wright read the prayer at the opening of the legislature on January 23, and departed, unaware of the ruckus he had created until his church secretary called him on his car phone to ask him what he had done.
Reportedly, one Democrat (not "a number of legislators") walked out in protest, three others gave speeches critical of Wright's prayer, and another blasted Wright's "message of intolerance." House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer (also a Democrat) asserted that the prayer "reflects the extreme, radical views that continue to dominate the House Republican agenda since right-wing extremists seized control of the House Republican caucus last year." Rep. Jim Long, a Democrat from Kansas City, said that Wright "made everyone mad." But Rep. Powell, who had invited Wright in the first place, claimed that House Democrats were only trying to make political points with their criticism and affirmed that he supported the theme of the prayer.
Rev. Wright said afterwards: "I certainly did not mean to be offensive to individuals, but I don't apologize for the truth." His staff stopped counting the telephone calls that came from every state and many foreign countries after the first 6,500. Wright appeared on dozens of radio shows and was the subject of numerous TV and print news reports, and his prayer stirred up controversy all over again when it was read by the chaplain coordinator in the Nebraska legislature the following month. Wright later explained, "I thought I might get a call from an angry congressman or two, but I was talking to God, not them. The whole point was to say that we all have sins that we need to repent — all of us . . . The problem, I guess, is that you're not supposed to get too specific when you're talking about sin."
What to make of all the fuss? Syndicated religion columnist Terry Mattingly probably explained it best when he wrote: "The easy answer is that he read a prayer about sin. The complicated answer is that Wright jumped into America's tense debate about whether some things are always right and some things are always wrong."

Partial sources: Snopes.com

TOPIC: Hollywood to Host International Prayer Event for Christians in Entertainment
An international prayer event will take place in Hollywood for Christians involved in the entertainment industry. Led by London members of Artisan Initiatives and a team from the Hollywood Prayer Network, the event will encourage people to pray for the industry, all the Oscar nominees and for Hollywood itself. The prayer event will be held during the Oscars weekend Saturday 24 February at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church from 6pm-9pm (PST).
Recently, Hollywood star Jennifer Hudson raised the bar of Christianity in Hollywood as she celebrated her success in the week leading up to the Academy Awards at her family’s church. The Oscar-nominated Dreamgirls’ actress said: “I’m not having no club party; I better have a praise party.” Hudson, 25, headlined a gospel concert, “An Evening of Praise With Jennifer Hudson”, accompanied by the acclaimed Soul Children of Chicago.

Source: ChristianToday.com

Speaking of Hollywood...
Top Hollywood Filmmakers Share Desire for Faith-Based Movies
Some of the biggest behind-the-scenes names in Hollywood film production have shared their dream to make more faith-based movies that eschew violence for violence sake and instead embrace great spiritually uplifting stories with positive content. Movieguide, an established family guide to movies and entertainments in the US, brought top producers and filmmakers in Hollywood together to share their thoughts on faith-based moviemaking at two special Movieguide Panels, reports Assist News.
"I want to do something that I can be proud of, that my children can be proud of," said panel member Leo Severino, formerly with the Producers Guild of America and the Fox Networks Group and first-time producer of Bella, a family-friendly Christian movie that became the surprise winner of the Audience Award at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival in September, 2006. "Good stories with good content. Beauty, art and morality go together,” he said during the panels, held at the recent Screenwriting Expo 5 in Los Angeles and sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation. Severino pointed out that filmmakers spend huge amounts of time working on perfecting the colour and lighting of each shot but challenged, “How much time is spent on the moral content of a movie?"
The founder of Movieguide and author of So you want to be in pictures, Dr Ted Baehr, led the panels. "People want to see good news at the movies. People don't want violence for violence sake,” he said, adding that China and Muslim countries, which represent at least 50 per cent of the world’s population, do not allow sex or violence in their movies or on TV.
Joel T. Smith is a writer, producer and distributor who has worked on the TV movie Merlin and the TV series Tarzan. "There's a universality to Christian ethics that can be appreciated by many people," he said. "Christian products have universal themes that people in Spain, Germany and Scandinavia can relate to."
Dr Baehr also pointed out that films with morally and spiritually uplifting content and with positive Christian values and elements enjoy the greatest success at the box office. "People want good to triumph over evil. The average person wants to see people with hope." Smith said, however, that it was pointless to criticise the Hollywood studio executives for their overriding interest in money. "You don't criticise a tiger for having stripes," he pointed out. "Ninety per cent of independent movies don't make money [but] the Internet will open channels that aren't there just yet."
Dr Baehr ended with a core message for writers, producers and filmmakers who dream of making more faith-based films. "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever,” he said, citing Daniel 12:3 and Ephesians 5:1-3 of the Bible. He continued: "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people." Dr Baehr said: "Don't stoop to conquer.”
Other panel members include: Will Davies, Rob Hudnut, David Sams and Casey Wolfe.

TOPIC: Through His Eyes
As I do most days, the reading of an online devotion helps me to better understand God, the Savior, Jesus and the Holy Bible. The main devotion I personally use is Back to The Bible online -- with Woodrow Kroll & Tony Beckett. The following devotion is a reminder that we need to set before us a total dependence on Jesus for our success. Through Him, we can do all things [Philippians 4:13]. This devotional comes from Matthew 14:16-18 . It centers on one of the miracles performed by Jesus.

An indication of the importance of the feeding of the 5,000 is the fact that it is the only miracle of Jesus recorded in all four Gospels. The account in John 6 gives so much emphasis to the meaning of the miracle, presenting it as a sermon in action.
The timing of this event is significant. It is the beginning of a phase in Jesus' ministry in which His primary focus was on His disciples. Jesus used this occasion to stretch their understanding of what He expected of them. They were to undertake responsibilities that looked beyond their ability, things they could accomplish when their inability was coupled with Jesus' ability.
The crowd needed to eat. The disciples' suggestion was to send them to the villages nearby to buy food for themselves. But Jesus said that was not necessary. Instead, He instructed His men to give them something to eat - an overwhelming task for a group with limited resources. The disciples then saw that what they had, when placed in the hands of Jesus, could be used to accomplish what looked impossible.
One of the lessons of the loaves is that we must look past our inability and see His ability. When Jesus works through us, we can accomplish the tasks He gives us.

Prayer: "God, help me rely on your ability. The tasks You set before me can appear overwhelming until I see them through Your eyes."

Photo from art.com