This is the book Chris and I are currently
reading together. It is a wonderful book that
really challenges but speaks to and from the
middle at the same time. Please find download
links for just the etext in .rtf format or the
audio in mp3 recorded with Neospeech Paul.
CBN.com
-- Prayer is my passion. Although I am not good
at it and don’t fully understand it, I am growing
in that discipline. So is Larry Crabb. From the first
page of his latest book
The PAPA Prayer,
the reader connects with Crabb’s personal
struggle with prayer over the years. As a
self-proclaimed “relentless realist”, Crabb shares his journey from
lifeless praying to a new way of relating to God.
Reading his book is like talking to a safe friend
who, without condemnation, shares where he came
from, the journey, and how God has and is changing him.
The PAPA Prayer
is centered on knowing God and building a
relationship with Him. The goal is not praise nor
thanksgiving, and certainly not petition, for which we evangelicals
are famous. Many of our personal and corporate
prayer times are often a list of wants and needs
as if we are sitting on Santa’s lap as a child before Christmas.
Sure there are a few sentences praising God and
thanking Him, but the majority of time is spent
listing off requests. However good and needed these requests
may be, Crabb suggests that prayer is not about
that at all. It is not about making our life on
earth as comfortable as possible, nor praying for everything
to go right; it is about us coming to God as we are and relating to Him.
Relational Prayer is us communicating in a real
way with the God of the universe where we speak
and we also listen. Not only that, but we learn to hear,
not in a mystical way, but in a practical way. We
learn that knowing God has so much more for us as
Christians then any blessing here on earth. The blessings
on earth are referred to as “second things” --
second to knowing God, which should be our “first thing”.
How do we keep first things first? In the second
part of the book Larry Crabb explains in more
detail how to pray the PAPA prayer, which includes Presenting
yourself to God; Attending to how you think of
God; Purging yourself of anything that blocks
your relationship with God; and Approaching God as your “first
thing”.
The first step in the Papa prayer is presenting
yourself to God, not in how you think that you
should be, but in how you really are, authentically. Crabb
suggests that you make a pattern of looking at
where you are, to your very core, and telling God
just that without holding anything back. You are to find
your “red dot” -- the exact point that you are at that very moment.
Once you have presented the real you, then you
attend to your present picture of God. Many of us
grow up picturing God in an inaccurate manner, perhaps
as a buddy or a stern father. It is important to
unpack how you are thinking of God and then correct it with Scripture.
Crabb states: “When we see Jesus as He really is,
today, right now, we don’t casually pray …
Instead, we’re silenced. We dare not speak till spoken to.”
At this point, we need to clear out anything that
is blocking our relationship with our Heavenly
Father. We should see how we can be obsessed with ourselves
when we should be with God. Then we are free to
approach God and allow Him to fill all of our empty places.
Throughout his book, Crabb shares examples of how
the PAPA prayer might be worded in real life
situations and ends the book with a four-day plan to help
the reader delve into himself. He also ends with
a note to women and one to men to personalize how
we each relate to God differently.
The final paragraph ends the book the very way
Crabb could have also started it: “I offer the
PAPA prayer to return the body of Christ, and all its lonely
members, to the center of their privileged
position, to a close relationship with God. I
offer this book to restore prayer to its highest purpose.”
If you are ready to be challenged to a new way of
thinking about prayer and perhaps a new way of
looking at the Christian life, pick up a copy of
The PAPA Prayer
and see how Crabb’s new way of praying can also
change your life. Prepare to begin a new journey.
download link for audio (tts2audio Neospeech Paul + .rtf etext)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/po2amz
Just the etext in .rtf format:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/5b7yct
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