Renewing Faith Through Prayer The Book of Prayer, NCT- 2nd Edition Prayers and Devotions for the Progressive Christian

By Marshall Thomas

Do you long to deepen your relationship with God but struggle to make prayer a consistent part of your life? Do you desire a more authentic faith but feel disillusioned with exclusionary church teachings? This prayer book is the solution for Christians seeking a thoughtful spiritual life aligned with Jesus' message of radical love and justice.

Many believers today feel disconnected from traditional Christian practices and worn-out doctrines. People are leaving the church in record numbers, spiritually adrift. Rigid dogmas ring hollow in our evolving world. Liturgies feel stale and inaccessible. Evangelical conformity chokes exploration. The path forward through these uncertainties is renewing a life of prayer.

Prayer is the cornerstone for revitalizing your faith, but putting principles into practice can be challenging. You know prayer matters, but how do you even begin? What words should you say? How do you find time amidst life's busyness? This prayer book meets you where you are, providing diverse devotions, rituals, resources and guidance to incorporate prayer into your daily life.

Ground yourself in ancient wisdom with classic prayers for contrition, thanksgiving, adoration. Pray through life's journeys with petitions for solace, justice, strength. Take prayer deeper through spiritual disciplines like lectio divina, breath mantras, embodied rituals. Find inspiration in scripture, quotes, prompts. Reimagine God and prayer beyond limits.

Let these pages start you on a journey into prayer's endless wellspring of connection to the Divine. Be nourished by the living waters. Discover how consistently showing up to prayer transforms us into greater alignment with love, peace and liberation - the essence of Christ-consciousness. Come as you are and renew your spirit through prayer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marshall Thomas
• Release date: Nov 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215296981

Marshall Thomas

Marshall was born in Landstuhl, West Germany, grew up an Army brat, lived in 6 different states several of them several times. Marshall is cis/het (that’s cisgender and heterosexual) and uses the pronouns he/him.Always wanting to serve his community Marshall started in the fire service as a volunteer firefighter in 1987 (to 1993) in Avon, CT. A volunteer firefighter in Cherokee County, GA, in 2005 (to 2006) and currently serves as a Fire Chaplain (2017-2019). During college at UCONN Marshall took a semester off and joined the U.S. Army in 1991 – injured during week 7 of basic training he returned to complete his B.S. in Psychology.After graduation, he started his first career in the security industry. Marshall worked for Burns International, Pinkerton, ADT, HarvardNet, and North Atlantic Internet, finally founding We Manage Computers, LLC, in 2005. That rounded out a 20-year progression from physical to computer network security.Starting his second career, in Information Systems, Marshall got his MBA in Information Systems Management while CIO (Chief Information Officer) with North Atlantic Internet. In 2005 he joined Welcome Home America, Inc as their Virtual CIO and full-time CIO in 2012 as CIO responsible for all things digital. He took the firm’s e-commerce sales from $1.2 to $2.6 million.Marshall started studying Christian theology in 1996 and was ordained in 1999, served as a chaplain for Milford, MA police department from 2000 to 2001. He was called as interim pastor of the Hispanic Ministry of Roswell First Baptist Church, Roswell, GA in July of 2010, served as an elder for Life Bible Church Canton, GA in 2013, and teacher/pastor for a home church since Easter of 2018. He’s also led several Bible studies over the years. He edited The Gospel of Jesus, a Harmonized Chronological Gospel published in 2018 and The Didache, a commentary and contemporization, as well as The Book of Prayer, in the spring of 2020.Marshall has been married to Stephanie for 21 years, they have two children, Mack and M.T., and two former foster children, and love them all very much.

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Preface

Why do we pray? How do we pray? For what do we pray? In the context of the New Covenant, what is prayer? These are the questions that compelled me to compile the first edition of the Book of Prayer.

This second edition seeks to continue answering those questions as well as some new ones.

Remaining faithful to Jesus’ message of inclusive, compassionate love, these prayers voice the diverse longings and laments of the human spirit. They summon us to delight in beauty, grieve injustice, ask for and give forgiveness, offer gratitude, and dwell gladly in our Creator's presence.

Honoring the full humanity of Christ, this edition expands language and imagery for God beyond exclusionary gender constraints. Herein God envelops us all in sacred mystery beyond human categories as source of life, fountain of love, wind of change.

Just as the early Christians radically lived Jesus’ Way within their unique cultural contexts, so too are we called to root our prayer in the fertile soil of this present moment. May these words water seeds of spiritual renewal, equality, and peace in our time.

I offer additions to the first edition’s collection of prayers with the hope that through daily spiritual practice, we might be awakened to see all people as siblings in God's embracing family, recognize our fragile planet as holy sanctuary, and find the strength to build communities that reflect Christ’s vision of justice, inclusion and compassion.

You will find that I use the pronouns They/Them for the godhead [God], He/Him for the Father and Son, and She/Her for the Holy Spirit. While God is genderless, I’ve done this because God is (in the Christian context) three persons in one; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We use He for the Father out of cultural convenience, not as assigning gender to God. She for the Holy Spirit is similar as Wisdom is one of the names and descriptors for the Holy Spirit, and traditionally in multiple cultures, wisdom is considered a feminine trait, so I use She when referring to the Holy Spirit.

Elizabeth A. Johnson, leading Catholic feminist theologian, wrote in her book She Who Is: The symbol of God functions exactly as a symbol should: it points beyond itself to engage the mystery of the living God. The reach of that mystery always lies beyond language, yet the symbolizer (in this case, masculine language and imagery) points toward and participates in the reality toward which it points.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, an influential 20th century Orthodox rabbi, wrote: God has no body, no genitalia, therefore the very idea that He is male or female is patently absurd. We refer to God using masculine terms simply for convenience's sake, because Hebrew has no neutral gender; God is no more male than a table is.

Rabbi Rachel Adler, a leading Jewish feminist theologian, wrote: Though grammatically masculine, God is ontologically neither masculine nor feminine.

Rabbi Reuven Hammer, former president of the International Rabbinical Assembly, commented: The rabbis of the Talmud already understood that gender terms do not apply to God. Referring to God as He is simply their use of the only Hebrew pronoun available to refer to a sacred being.

Elizabeth Johnson, Catholic theologian, wrote in She Who Is: Ruach (Hebrew for Spirit) is a feminine noun. ...The language of church tradition also identified the Spirit as feminine when calling her the soul's bride.

Orthodox theologian Kallistos Ware wrote: The Holy Spirit was also at times represented [in church history] in feminine terms...In Hebrew, Ruach HaKodesh [Holy Spirit] is in the feminine gender.

Catholic priest John Wijngaards wrote: It is significant that in Jesus' parable of the sower the 'seed' sown by God is called logos (masculine) while the receptive element is called psyche (feminine).

Theologian Mary Grey wrote: The Spirit sophia, Holy Wisdom, has distinctly feminine overtones.

Introduction

If you are seeking to grow in your relationship with God, read on. You don't need a degree in theology or need to be a prayer warrior to use this text.

Prayer is an integral part of the Christian spiritual life, uniting us with the heart of God and sustaining us on the journey of faith. As Christianity has evolved over two millennia, so too have the diverse understandings and practices of prayer within its living tradition. This text seeks to explore Christian prayer from a progressive theological perspective amid the questions and complexities of the contemporary world.

Progressive Christianity celebrates an inclusive faith centered on Jesus’ message of compassionate love and justice. As such, the prayers offered here voice the diverse longings and laments of the human spirit in ways that affirm the dignity and sacred worth of all people. They summon us to