Tuesday, February 21, 2006

African Jabez?


Some of you may remember Bruce Wilkinson. He made millions on the publication and program promotion of “The Prayer of Jabez.” Well what goes around may just come around. Christianity Today is featuring an editorial on Bruce Wilkinson's recent breakdown and departure from his African mission.

The writers of the article are candid with why they believe things fell apart. Yet it avoids a full treatment of the issue of Wilkinson's Prayer of Jabez philosophy simply not working in Africa.

Wilkinson made a fortune convincing American Christians that the prayer of Jabez would expand their personal borders now. He mostly ignored the fact that sometimes God restricts or tightens our borders for reasons known only to Him. At the least, many of the well known Christians throughout history did not live to see how God would use their testimony and work.

Can you think of anyone whose borders didn't look too expansive at the time but God chose to use them mightily according to His will? Do we have a right to order God to expand our borders when His sovereign will may lead us in a completely different direction?

Here’s a prayer: "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

insightful

marc said...

I heard about this a couple weeks ago. Bruce's hot-line to heaven seems to be out of range in africa.

Ron,
When are you coming back to make obscure comments and keep the other readers wondering what you are talking about. I actually got emails from people asking about you. I told them I didn't know anything about you so I checked out your blog and you know what? I drive past your church on the way to work almost every weekday! Hah, small world! Come back soon Rev!