It is for Freedom that Christ has Set You Free

I made a pledge when I began this blog to remain steadfastly apartisan, meaning I would endeavour, to the best of my ability, to favor neither Democrats nor Republicans in my post. I chose my wording carefully, because I did not see a way to remain wholly apolitical. These days, both matters of faith and higher education are highly politicized, and to avoid them when they naturally arise would be irresponsible. Christ was very political in His ministry, but He skewered all parties in His delivery of the truth of the Gospel. I will confess readily that I do not in any way have Christ’s perfect objectivity in the matter, so I know my true perspectives peek out from time to time.

I offer this explanation because from time to time David Theroux of the Independent Institute asks me to cover work of the institute here. If I feel it meets the above criteria, I say yes and do it. If not, then I don’t. Over Spring Break he emailed me about a short video by I.I. Research Fellow Anthony Gregory.

Requirements for a Faculty Ministry 1: Prayer

Today I was talking with a campus minister who works with our faculty group. He mentioned that his organization is going to focus this next year on prayer and evangelism in the various faculty ministries around the country.

Prayer is somewhat of a touchy subject for me. I have been blessed with several spiritual gifts, but prayer is not one of them. In other words, prayer doesn’t come easily to me and it isn’t the first thing I think of typically when I have a problem. However, that does not excuse me from doing it, and it is therefore a discipline I must challenge myself to develop. It is well and good for those with ‘the gift of prayer,’ and I ask any of you with it to lift university faculty up in prayer to the Lord fervently, faithfully, and frequently. (Preaching may be one of my gifts—three points all starting with the same letter—I’m golden!)

For the rest of us, which is probably a majority, we still have a responsibility to pray.

Power

Merriam-Webster.com defines “power” as (bold added): 

1 a (1) : ability to act or produce an effect (2) : ability to get extra-base hits (3) : capacity for being acted upon or undergoing an effect b : legal or official authority, capacity, or right

2 a : possession of control, authority, or influence over others b : one having such power; specifically : a sovereign state c : a controlling group : establishment —often used in the phrase the powers that be d archaic : a force of armed men e chiefly dialect : a large number or quantity

3 a : physical might b : mental or moral efficacy c : political control or influence

4 plural : an order of angels — see celestial hierarchy

5 a : the number of times as indicated by an exponent that a number occurs as a factor in a product <5 to the third power is 125>; also : the product itself <8 is a power of 2> b : cardinal number 2

6 a : a source or means of supplying energy; especially : electricity b : motive power c : the time rate at which work is done or energy emitted or transferred

7 : magnification 2b

8 : ¹scope 3

9 : the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis in a statistical test when a particular alternative hypothesis happens to be true

In short, human power is the ability to impact the lives of others.