30 Day Prayer Series

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good evening everyone. It is Thursday, August the twenty ninth, twenty twenty four. It is currently six thirty pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here. In Abilene, Texas. Now. Earlier today, I received an email and at first I paid no attention to it because it had something like Hallman Bibles or something in the subject line. And I'm like, okay, I just got a new Bible.

0:44 I got a new Bible a couple of months ago, maybe maybe four months ago, I can't remember exactly. So I've had I've had a couple of new Bibles recently, so I've got plenty of Bibles. You know. Maybe I'll look at it, maybe I won't. And so I was doing I was going through my emails, checking other things. I ended up accidentally kind of just tapping on it, and then it came up and I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute, that's not that's not a Bible. Wait what is this? And I started looking at it and I'm like, whoa wait a minute, Wait a minute, this is the Protestant version of the Liturgy of the Hours. This is the Protestant version of what is known as the Divine Office.

1:27 And I'm like, oh, wait a minute, this could be interesting because not only in my own mind have I thought about creating kind of a quote unquote Protestant, non Catholic version of this so that non Catholics could possibly benefit from it. So I've always thought about trying to produce something like that, But it looks like someone actually has. But I also know I've spent oh, I don't even know how many years telling people about the Liturgy of the Hour, the Divine Office, going all the way back to how the early Church prayed. They borrowed from Judaism, where there were set hours of the day to pray, and then the Early Church carried that over from Judaism and designed what we'll we'll refer to as the Liturgy of the Hours of the Divine Office. Where there is morning prayer, there is you know, we'll call it afternoon or early morning or late morning or mid afternoon prayer, and then there was early evening prayer, and then there was night time prayer, and there was there was Office of the Hours there were other names for them. There was I think at one point there was like seven different times of prayer, and typically what they prayed was well scripture, mainly the psalms. It was designed that if you would kind of follow the Divine Office the Liturgy of the Hours, you would basically go through all one hundred and fifty palms, and basically in a month and four weeks, right and you would you would go through it over and over. Other readings were thrown in. There

2:57 would be a gospel and maybe reading from the epistle, from the Epistles, maybe from the Gospels. I mean, I've gone through them before. I've given you examples of what they look like, what they sound like. I told everyone about the four volumes the Liturgy of the Hours, which is somewhat expensive, you know, well over one hundred dollars for them, and I've talked about that. I talked about the Liturgy of the Hours and the Divine Office over and over and over and over and over. And I'm not getting in I'm not using all the terms perfectly and their technical way which they're to be used. I'm just throwing out the terms that i've utilize. The Divine Office, the Liturgy of the hours. Typically I use the Liturgy of the Hours. I've even done teaching in my church that here were the original hours.

3:38 And then they modified them. And then Vatican two really had a major impact on the liturgy of the hours being now used by the laity, by the everyday person, and it's maintained itself in this early church practice of praying at specific hours of the day. Scriptures was kind of maintained within Catholicism. In fact, if you kind of want more. Or like kind of a more technical definition of them, I could read it this way. What is the Divine Office? From ancient times, the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the liturgy of the hours. In this way, the Church fulfills the Lord's precept to pray without ceasing at once, offering its praise to God the Father and interceding for the salvation of the world right the ministry of the Divine Office. And so what is the liturgy of the hours? The Liturgy of the hours is the prayer of the whole people of God. In it, Christ himself continues his priestly work through the Church. His members participate according to their own place in the Church. And their circumstances of lives. The laity, too are encouraged to recite the Divine Office, either with the priest or among themselves or individually.

4:50 The celebration of the Liturgy. Of the Hours demands not only harmonizing the voice with praying heart, but also a deeper understanding of the liturgy and of the Bible, especially of the Psalms. And I could go through. A more you know, technical explanation, but it's the hell. The ancient Church prayed. They prayed the scriptures, and they prayed very specific hours of the day, so at the very least morning, afternoon, evening, or at the very minimum, morning. Afternoon, evening and night. And then you had the Office of the Readings, which was was again it's still prayer, but it's a lot more scripture in the Office of the Readings, a lot more. But all of that makes up all of those hours, make up what is known as the Divine Office. Now it's again, it was preserved and kept with in Catholicism.

5:39 I stumbled upon it. I bought the. Four volumes the Liturgy of the Hours, and I may I've told you before, it took me years to try to figure out Okay, so where am I? Okay, what? Okay, I gotta mark. This part, then I gotta flip over to this part. Then I got to flip back to this part. Okay, this it takes you know, five college degrees to figure it out. I even said I talked to monks in a monastery to help me try to figure out how to use the Liturgy of the Hours because I was I really wanted to understand it, and I've definitely discovered the beauty in it. And you say, well, that's Catholic. It's basically the Bible. There are parts of it that obviously we may not agree with obviously, but for the most part, you're just praying scripture. And so there's different times, different seasons in my Christian life where I'm like, Liturgy of the Hours, Liturgy of the Hours, Liturgy of the Hours. How to translate that over to say more of a podcasting ministry way.

6:39 I never quite figured out exactly how you do this, How could I transfer this over in a meaningful way? Right, There's times I've kind of led everyone through the Liturgy of the Hours, and I think for the most part it's always been met with a few people go oh, that's interesting. But the majority is like, don't care. Not not part of my tradition, don't really care. I don't care how the early Church prayed. I'll pray my own way, like and and and or others were kind of kind of interested me, like I'm not going to pay that money for four volumes the book that you know that that much money for the books, or and so it's it was kind of always met with a little bit of indifference. There was always exceptions, but for the majority somewhat in different and I understand. But at the same time, I was like, but it's so important to understand.

7:26 How the early Church prayed. But so I've always been very much I mean, I've got here's one of the here's volume three of the Liturgy of the Hours right here, Okay, I've got these books all over the place, right I've got the large version of the Liturgy of the Hours. I've got the smaller of books. So I've got these, I've got the Divine Office app on my iPad, I've I've subscribed to different things that has kind of a modified version of the Liturgy of the Hours in it. So I've always been looking. But it's always been Catholic, Catholic, Catholic, Catholic. It's very much preserved and kept in within Catholicism, which then scares some people off because oh, that's Catholic.

8:07 Well it's it's scripture. But okay, if you, I guess, if we want to call the scriptures Catholic, be my guest, right, And I'm like, no, that's not what I'm saying. I understand, but I've done all my work on that and that sometimes I just kind of move on. So I was again somewhat shocked when I opened my email, and I'm gonna I'm gonna just again go to the way the email looks. Okay, So this was sent at ten forty nine am ten forty nine am this morning, and when I first saw it, I completely ignored it, right because the subject line is Hallman Bibles new from Trevin. I guess his name is Trevin Wax the N thirty that's all it says. Then it says teaching he and his wife c R I N.

8:55 That's all I can see when I look at the kind of the email preview. So none of that caught my attention right now, whatever whatever, And again I was just going through my different emails, and I ended up clicking on it. I'm like, wait, so when you actually open it up at the subject line, then doesn't say Hallman Bibles. It reads new from Trevin Wax, Trevin Wax the in thirty Days series. I'm like, okay, so what all right? All right? What is this new n thirty day series? Well then then it has underneath that Hallman Bible, so then I'm like, oh, it's some kind of bible. What is this? Right? So again I was just I was almost indifferent, like whatever, I'm you know, I'm doing this, doing that not. I don't really you know, I'm just gonna be on. I didn't really care one way or the other. So then I looked and it says and bark on a thirty day Prayer Prayer Journey and bark on a thirty day Prayer Journey.

9:53 And I was like okay. So then I kind of looked at it and it's in the and there's this nice looking book. It really looks cool. But at first I thought it was a journal. So now I'm like, oh, and bark on a thirty day prayer journey. My brain almost just because I saw the picture and I just immediately assumed it was a journal. I'm like, oh, and bark on a thirty day prayer journal. So then I kind of just read it differently. My mind was just imposing the words that I wanted to see there, or just was thinking. So I looked at him like, well, that looks like a cool journal. I mean, okay. But then I'm like, wait a minute. It says on it letters of Paul in thirty Days. I'm like, wait, that doesn't say journal. It says journey, Letters of Paul in thirty Days Prayer Journey. I'm like okay. So then I kind of I kind of like, okay, stop what I'm doing?

10:44 What is this? So then I read it? Hang on if I can can minimize this, Okay. I read this experience the Letters of Paul in a thirty day devotional with can essions of faith, prayers, songs, and scripture readings three times a day. I'm like, wait, what is this? What is this? As you lift your eyes morning, midday and evening, I'm. Like, whoaha, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's very that's very liturgy of the hours. What is going on here? Okay?

11:31 Now this email comes to me from LifeWay dot com. Okay, well that's not a Catholic publishing company. They're usually more in line with Southern Baptist So I'm like, wait, wait, so what is happening here right? So then my mind is like I'm trying to figure it out. I'm like, okay, so wait, you'll and it says you'll encounter the Savior who stands at the center. Of all of Paul's letters. I'm like okay, so then I scroll down. Then it says coming September to fifteenth. The Thirty Days Series bundle, it says experience the full collection in this series from Trevin Wax. The Thirty Days Series bundles includes Psalms in Thirty Days, Life of Jesus in Thirty Days, and Letters of Paul in Thirty Days package and an elegantly designed box set that makes the perfect gift coffee table book set or a bookshelf display. And they got it and I'm like, whoa, those looks cool. And there are three different colors. I'm like, okay, there's a green, there's kind of a redish, kind of a bluish, and I'm like, well, the Liturgy of the hours. They come in different colors.

12:40 There's a blue, there's a red. I'm like, okay, so this is interesting. There's a green. Green typically is for Advent. I think the Advent one is green. I think or maybe the ad one is blue. I think that Advent one is blue. Ordinary Time maybe green? Okay, maybe confusing them, I apologize. Or maybe lint is green. I can't remember. I should know. I don't always pay attention to the color. The one I have here is kind of a brownish color. I don't know where the other ones are. They're oh wait, oh wait, there's the green one. Give me one second and go get it. It is ordinary time. The ordinary time is green, ordinary Time is green. The brownish one.

13:22 Is ordinary time as well. So the green and the brown are ordinary time. Blue I think is Advent and I think red. Maybe around lent Easter maybe all right, So so but immediately I've got my attention. They're color, they're different colors. They're thirty days. Okay they they I'm like, okay, I'm really now, I'm kind of I'm really now starting to get interested. So I scrolled down a little bit more, and then there's three pictures morning midday evening, and I'm. Like whoa, okay, So then it says. Pre order the bundle, right, So I'm like, okay, well, maybe I'll look at the Then there's a shop now. But so I click shop now takes me to LifeWay dot com and there's the Letter of Paul in thirty Days and I'm like, oh, that looks interesting. So there's some pictures. So I open one and it has canticle.

14:15 I'm like, wait a minute, that's literally from the Liturgy of the Hours. It has a evening reading. I'm like that this looks like even the print looks like the Liturgy of the Hours. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. Look, this cannot be happening. And so then I look and there's another page. All right, there's morning prayer, right, there's a call to prayer, confession of faith. Can'ticle. I'm like, oh wait, this is designed almost identical to the Liturgy of the Hours. Then I click on another page. It's got the Gloria, the Lord's Prayer, the Blessing. I'm like, for crying out loud, this is the Protestant version of the Liturgy of the Hours.

14:57 This can't be. I've always I've thought about this, ver like fifteen years to do this. Someone actually did it. So I'm like, okay, So I'm hoping they have ultimately four volumes. I'm hoping they could actually expand it and do more if they really wanted to, depending how they say. So here here's I'm gonna give you what. To look for. If you go to LifeWay dot com, look for Letters of Paul and thirty days, look for Psalms in thirty days, and look for the Life of Jesus. In thirty days. All right, And it looks like some of these could be Is this what is this?

15:43 Hang on? Is this a there's a download here? Hang on, it's downloading. It may give you a chance to see them, all right. I didn't even see this until right now. Oh yes, okay, all right, yes, So day one day one morning prayer, Call to prayer. Our King and Savior now draws near. Oh come, let us adore him now in the liturgy of the hours. I'm gonna grab one. I'm gonna go to I'm just gonna go to there's a there's evening prayer, and let's go to. Morning prayer.

16:23 I'm just gonna go to a Wednesday morning prayer and the liturgy of the hours, our daytime prayer. And I know where's morning prayer. There's morning prayer, right, morning prayer. Hang on, that's the office of the readings, morning prayer. Here we go, all right, Uh, this is the morning prayer. What's known as an antiphond. Oh God, all your ways are holy? What God can compare with our God? Now the antiphond is like a short little statement, one little thing to draw your attention. May be used to summarize the Psalm, etc. There's lots of reasons the antiphon could be for. So they're called a prayer. Our King and Savior now draws near. Oh come, let us adore him, ladies and gentlemen. That's basically like the antiphon. Then they have the confession of faith. I believe in God, Father, Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

17:17 I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. That's the Apostles creed. And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. This is like the this is like they have now brought the Liturgy of the Hours really over to the non Catholic world. The canticle is and in the in the Liturgy of the Hours you have the morning prayer, you have him right, so you almost and not only that, I see in many cases you may have yeah, the canticle that now the canticle here in this morning prayer. I'm looking at week two in. The volume three, and the chemtical here is First Samuel to one through twenty. Sometimes it's just scripture the chentacle here.

18:04 And this example is listen, Lord and answer me, for I'm pooring, needy, protect my life where I'm faithful. You are my God, save your servant who trust in you. And that comes from Psalm eighty six. So they take the kenticle directly from scripture, just like the Liturgy of the Hours does. Then the morning prayer is Galatians chapter one. This is literally this is insane to see. So I definitely yeah. So what you'll look for, I apologize I got all carried away there. So what you'll do go to LifeWay dot com. Look for Letters of Paul in thirty days, look for Psalms and thirty days, and look for the Life of Jesus in thirty days.

18:48 Now, at some point. They're gonna combine all of these into a bundle. There's gonna be three of them in a bundle. And what I think you should definitely want to look for all of these and get all of these now individual they're fourteen ninety nine. I definitely want to get one. I want to get the psalms. I definitely I want to get one. I definitely want to get one, so I may try to order one here soon. And now, of course, if things were different, you know, back when the podcast had lots of money, we would be giving away all. Kinds of copies, back when we had all kinds of money. That's what happens when the podcast now, you know, as the church is winding down or trying to sell the building.

19:30 I don't have that ability. I'd have to have people giving lots and lots of money so that we always have money able to go. All right, let's give away thirty copies. But I can't do that anymore. But I want you to go get this for yourself. There are videos here. I don't there was no way for me to grab the audio, but I want you to watch the videos and I want you to find these. These are again. The email calls them the thirty Days series in fact, I'm going to go hang on, let me see how quickly I can find it. I'm going to go to a lot LifeWay dot com, LifeWay dot com. I'm gonna type in thirty Days Series, thirty Day Series, and I found the thirty Day Series bundle, right, So have the The bundle's going to be forty one twenty four now.

20:25 It is going to be the Christian standard Bible. I don't know if they're going to make it available in a different and different translations at some point. Maybe they will. But yeah, if you just type in thirty day series, you should be able to find them. They look awesome, they really do. I love the cover. I love everything about it. Here's an overview. The thirty Day Series Bundle includes Psalms in thirty Days, Life of Jesus in thirty Days, and Letters of Paul in thirty Days. Packaged and elegantly elegantly designed box set that makes the perfect gift or bookshelf display volume. Author and teacher Trevin Wax has crafted a devotional experience that guide you in morning, midday, and evening pattern. Now I'm just gonna say something that ticks me off. Trevin Wax has crafted a devotional experience you basically borrowed from the Liturgy of the Hours, which has been around for like, I don't knowe eighteen hundred years.

21:21 I mean, really, it goes all the way back to the early Church. It goes all the way back to Judaism. Okay, but all right, I understand he structured it, and obviously it's a little different. But I'm just saying it's very. When I'm looking at it, I'm like, I'm looking at the Liturgy of the Hours, right, But so it guide you in a morning, midday, and evening pattern, following a scriptural precedent for praying three times a day. The prayer and well, they forget church history. Here the scriptural precedent for praying three times a day. The prayer journey features psalms, other songs from scripture, confessions of faith, and written prayers from faithful Christians who have gone before us. Here's a guide to praying through the Psalms, walking with Jesus and alongside Paul for a month by lifting three times a day to see and encounter a savior Psalms and thirty days.

22:04 Across the generations, many Christians have made a habit of praying monthly through all one hundred and fifty Psalms. Yeah, it's called the Liturgy of the Hours, the biblical song that undergrid much of our corporate worship and individual devotion. Over thousands of years of memorization, recitation, a recitation, and singing, the people of God have found in the Psalms a God centered view of reality that speaks to all our joys, trials, times of suffering, and experience of faith and doubt. Life in Jesus here is a central figure. Jesus is the central figure of the New Testament, and his life, death, and resurrection and exaltation is the heart of the Gospel. His story is foretold by the Old Testament prophets, anticipated in the Psalms, and then explained by the apostles who witness his work. But nowhere do we see him more clearly than in the Gospels. The four biographies that reveal his ministry on Earth, Letters of Paul Well. They go through the Thirty Day Series Bundles, feature of the highly readable, highly reliable text of the Christian Standard Bible. The CSB captures the Bible's original mets without sacrificing clarity, making it easier to gauge with scripture life transforming message and to share it with others. Now, at some point they may place it in other.

23:11 And other translations. I don't know, but there they are. It's called the Thirty Days series. The thirty Day Series. Go to LifeWay dot com and look for it. I will try to send out a link, at least to those on the Church one app. I'll also try to post an article about them. If you go to Beta dot Sermon Audio dot com, look up Theology Central, go to the article section. I'll try to have it there. It may be a little while and maybe tomorrow before I get all of that sent out, but you can go to LifeWay dot com and just. Do a search right now for the thirty Days series. It was easy for me to find. You should be able to find. I definitely want to try one and see what I think.

23:54 I would love. You know, it'd be great to give some away, but you know, at this point, yeah, we you know, money. Needs to go to staying on the air. Okay, So but yeah, they look really they look really awesome, and yeah, I would prefer you know, yeah, I know some of you would prefer it to be in King James I understand, but I mean I use the Liturgy of the Hours and it's obviously not King James. So but there we go. Yeah, right now they have zero review because well the bundle hasn't been sold yet. That's probably why the other ones. If I go, if I pick out the individual ones, let's go that. I don't want the e book. Yeah, here we go.

24:38 Okay, thirty one reviews for the Psalms in thirty days and they have five stars. So and there's a video here of it. And I was going to see if they have anything here. They got the reviews hanging, well, they don't take me, doesn't take me to surely the reviews. I was gonna see what they have to say. Possibly they have these available on. I'm gonna I'm interested. Do they have these on Amazon? Let's go to Amazon really quick, go to Amazon. But I just wanted to turn on the microphone really quick and tell you about. This because I was like, whoa, this is really awesome.

25:22 Oh they do have it. Oh you can get them on Amazon for nine dollars. Wow, and get it for hardcover for nine dollars. That's down fifty two percent. So you may want to go to Amazon. To get one that's really really cheap. That's really cheap, really cheap. It's got one hundred and eighty one ratings, four point seven stars, four point seven stars, so almost at five stars. They do have it on a kindle version. I think when you look at it, to me, the kindle version you would get the basic concept. But the kindle version is nine dollars and twenty cents, where the paperback is nine are the hardcovers nine dollars and sixty eight cents, So it's almost the exact same amount. Now for some if you're worry about getting points from Amazon so you can get maybe a free book or whatever, it's crazy you earn twenty eight points for the kindle version and only ten points.

26:20 For the hardcover. So that's a little frustrating. But yeah, that's relatively cheap, right there, that's relatively cheap. So there you have it. Yeah, that looks really really awesome. It looks really really awesome. So I just wanted to tell you about it. It's one of those kind of informative ones. So but I've been trying to tell everyone about this forever, and I understand the liturgy of the hours. Maybe those books are much more expensive. Than that, and it requires, you know, fifteen degrees and trying to figure out, say, wait. A minute, are we here? Are we here? Wait? So I go here for this part, then I jump over here to this. It's all discombobulated the way it's organized.

27:04 It's it's really you've got to mark this, and you've got to mark this, and you got to go, okay, now I'm here. Now I'll flip to here, and now this section are the instructions of what I'm supposed to say here. This is much easier. It's just straightforward. You just open it up and boom right there, right there, right there, right there. Now, it may be weird. It may be weird to in a sense pray scripture. You're just reciting the scripture almost as a prayer. It's it's because I have a tendency to just want to read it right, and then I didn't exeget it and take it apart and question it and challenge it and all the things. That I may do. So it's it's much. It's a weird practice to you just you're just kind of praying the scripture. You're not praying for anything specific for yourself. You're just reciting in a sense of God's word to God. And so it's kind of a an it's a it's an interesting way the early Church prayed, and uh, well yeah, there we go. I just I wanted to bring it to your attention because it was like, well, it's now or never, right, because by tomorrow then Sunday, I'm going to forget about this. So hopefully I can have a copy of the book soon. All right, So I'm going to stop there. Let me know what you think, all right, all right, everyone, have a great evening, a great Labor Day weekend. And consider the thirty day series.

28:30 And again if you look at Psalms in thirty days, you can find it and it says frequently bought together Life of Jesus and Letters of Paul, and they have them all together. I think if you can get them all together on Amazon for forty two dollars and. Thirty two cents. So they're all available. On Amazon and atlifeway dot com. So you should be able to find them, all right. If you need help, let me know. Everyone, have a great evening. God bless them.