This is not a post for everyone. If you are not a protestant, if you are not a Christian, this is not for you. You will take offense at this most likely. With that said… I’ve probably sucked you in and you’ll continue to read and then get upset at me. I’m not sorry if you ignore this warning 🙂

I subscribe to the Bible in a Year Podcast. This weekend the host/reader/producer of the podcast, Rick, posted a ‘special’ podcast wherein someone else did a “study” on prayer. I place quotes around the study because it was really hinky. The first prayer he looked at was all of the following:

Jesus. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I recognize that Rick is a Catholic. I recognize that Catholicism is amazingly different from protestantism. I also recognize Jesus as my personal Savior. This is not a prayer. This is the name of my savior, a person. When I pray, it is not one word, it is to one person: God. To put this in perspective, prayer is communication with God. Similarly talking to my wife is communication with Jessica. I would not, no matter how goofy I am, walk up to my wife and say:

Jessica.

And then walk away.

I stopped listening to the podcast after about 10 minutes (I wasn’t keeping track, it could have been less, I’m just guessing). Why is it that I get so riled up about others trying to pray in single word prayers? Mostly because when Christ was talking to His disciples in John 15 he calls them friends. The principle in this context is that believers are not just removed from the Law, but that they are brought close to God and are hidden in Him (Colossians 3:3). If you have a friend in Jesus you’re not going to pray His name! His name is priceless, precious and special because He is a friend. It is not a prayer. Paul wrote in I Thessellonians 5:17 that we should pray without ceasing. Try praying that prayer very long and you’re going to give up and move along. However, if you are praying to your friend Jesus you will have lots to talk about. You will have lots to be thankful for, lots to request that He would be glorified, and lots that you can ask about for wisdom. You can pray for opportunities to share the Gospel, you can pray for lots of things, but it won’t just be His name over and over.

I’m still subscribing to the podcast because its nice to get incremented sections of scripture to listen to. I will not be listening to the rest of the special messages to avoid this sort of rant in the future. If I do listen, I will not blog about them :).You don’t need to read too many of these sorts of things.

OK, sorry if you’ve read even though I warned you not to and you’re now all bent out of shape about it. Like the title suggests I’m an intolerant Religionist. I guess this makes me a “fighting fundy.” [actually, not, I’m not much of a fighter.]