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Someone named J. R. Illingworth once said, "Prayer has been defined to be a wish referred to God; and, if we could keep this thought before us, it would help us to acquire the habit of prayer by making us refer each wish, as it comes into our minds, to God, for His assistance in furtherance or frustration."

The late great German-American theologian, philosopher, and Christian existentialist, Paul Johannes Tillich (1886 - 1965), once said, "The church is potentially a powerful body with a necessary arsenal at its disposal to change the moral character of the world. The fact that it is not doing so causes us to be painfully aware that its potential is not being realized. That which is possible is not being produced, for while possessing the dynamite of the Gospel, the church has lost the detonator (explosiveness). As a result of this inaction, the church that the world sees is weak, timid, divided, and crawling instead of flying. While it has material resources to convert the world, it is restricted by its stinginess and narrowness of vision."

I am totally convinced that the "detonator" that Paul Johannes Tillich refers to is a lack of prayer on the part of Almighty God’s people for His church - the "Body of Christ!"

(from a sermon by George Dillahunty, "Prayer-A Top Priority!" 7/5/08, SermonCentral.com)

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