How to Pray

Quoted from blog by  Taylor LaForest                              Posted on April 03, 2017.                   

"On my second day as an intern at Alliance Defending Freedom, I watched a video of a college student being arrested on her campus, along with two associates, for handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution.  I then realized I had been living in the dark regarding the state of free speech on college campuses nationwide.  These students in particular were arrested because of both the  school’s Speech Zone Policy and Solicitation Policy; they were not in a  free-speech zone, nor had they asked permission from the administration  prior to talking with their fellow students. Ironically, they were  arrested for distributing copies of the Constitution, the very document  that guarantees the students’ rights to be there expressing their ideas and points of view without permission."

When things get emotional or too political, people of good will need to communicate calmly and not be censored.  Students must learn to communicate as adults.

New attempts to rob students of free speech are ironically disguised as "Stop the Hate" campaigns.  A school's policy cannot take away your right to free speech.  It's time for academicians supposedly dedicated to diversity to practice what they preach.  Christians can have opinions too and it is NOT necessarily one of hate.

Go over your terminology. Ask what do you think I mean when I say "xxx"?   

True education and true diversity must allow everyone to speak their minds and pose reasonable questions. Liberal atheists are very vocal about what they believe, so why is that not hate of religious people?

"There  is a real threat to religious freedom on campuses,  funded by your tax  dollars of people trying to purge Christian influence and limit  religious freedom. ... You may remember: 

• Graduate student Julea Ward, who was expelled from her university’s  counseling program because her Christian convictions would not allow her  to affirm same-sex relationships. 

• College student Emily Brooker, whose professor ordered her to publicly  advocate for homosexual adoption by signing a letter to the legislature.  When she objected, she was brought before an ethics committee and  threatened with having her diploma withheld. 

• Dr. Mike Adams, who endured a campaign of academic persecution at the  hands of his faculty colleagues and was denied a promotion because of  his conservative and Christian views.

 • College student Jonathan Lopez, who was called a “fascist” by his  professor and was told to “ask God what [his] grade [is]” because he  quoted two Bible verses and shared the biblical view of marriage during a class speaking assignment."  See ADFLegal.org  

https://adflegal.org/issues/religious-freedom/university/key-issues/access-and-association

Case Study 1: A  depressed Jonah has run away from God's call and tries to kill himself  by throwing himself overboard.  God intervened and Jonah ends up as a giant sea beast's lunch. I never really thought about it before- but that must have been terrifying thinking he was going to rot away in a creature's stomach underwater. Jonah prays: "When my soul was overwhelmed within me, I remembered the LORD: and my prayer reached you in your holy temple."  

God's  response: And now at the Lord's bidding, the sea beast cast forth Jonah  high and dry on the beach. The moral of the story: don't run away from  what God wants to do with your life. Jonah 2:7-10

Case Study 2: The prophet Isaiah informs Hezekiah that he has a terminal illness and Hezekiah reacts in despair.

 Hezekiah's prayer:  "I beseech you O LORD, remember now how I have  walked before you with a perfect heart, and have done that which was  good in your sight". and Hezekiah wept sore. 

God's  response: The LORD tells Isaiah to tell Hezekiah: "Thus says Jehovah,  The God of David your father, I have listened to your prayer, I have  seen your tears. Behold me! I will heal you: on the third day you shall  go up to the Temple of Yahweh. And I will add 15 more years to your  life."  II Kings 20:1-5

 And when you pray, you are not to behave as the play actors do, for they  love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the  streets, that they may be seen of men. Believe me, they have their reward.

But when one of  you prays, go into a room by yourself, and when you have shut the door,  pray to your Father privately and your Father who sees in secret, shall  reward you openly. But when you pray,  you must not keep on repeating  set phrases as the heathen do: for they think they will be heard in  accordance with the length of their prayers.  Do not copy them for your  Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask Him. Matt 6:4-8  

Keep on praying for us for we are persuaded that we have an honorable conscience here in all things willing to live honestly.  Heb 13:18 

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation;  steadfastly maintaining the habit of prayer.  Romans 12:12