by Jon Swanson

Praying in a heritage of prayer (part one)

One day, I got curious about Nehemiah’s prayer. I searched an online Bible for the phrase: “great and awesome God.” It’s a phrase Nehemiah uses at the beginning of his confessional prayer, the prayer he prays for months. I discovered that he wasn’t original. The phrase had been used before. “Why were you looking at […]

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by Jon Swanson

A prayer for Pentecost.

God. It is the day of Pentecost on the calendar. The day when we remember your Spirit coming into a room with the sound of a tornado, with the quiet explosion of flame. In the aftermath there was proclamation and unity, story telling and community.And then resistance from the outside and disagreement on the inside.Even […]

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by Jon Swanson

A long time praying (part three)

(Continued from Tuesday) Nehemiah interrupted my thoughts about fasting like Isaiah. “Every day I said, ‘God you are the faithful one, the committed one. Please listen to me.’ Every day I said, ‘We have sinned. Generations of us, yes, but my family too. And I have sinned, God.’ That reminder was important to me as […]

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by Jon Swanson

The sign

From Rich Dixon +++ Last time I told you Becky and I reached a turning point. We knew about human trafficking. We couldn’t turn away. We had to do something. I told you something else that’s important to the story. I don’t want to skip over it. I’m just an old guy who rides a […]

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