JUST THE THREE OF US

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20)

This may be a first on The Blog of Bob Baril. I don't think I've ever posted THREE items in one day, and this makes three. If you haven't already read them, I hope you will continue on and read:

"JIMMY CARTER'S LATEST NEWS," and "SAD NEWS ABOUT NEW COVENANT CHRISTIAN SCHOOL."

Each of those postings is far more important than this one.

Even so, I wanted to say something briefly about "Just the three of us". (The inspiration is a pop song that keeps repeating the line "Just the two of us".) I even thought about entitling this "The Three Stooges" but I thought the good Christian friends I'm about to mention might find that quite insulting!

A few days ago, I put out a mass e-mailing to slightly over 60 people who live in Framingham and vicinity. I invited them to join me on this past Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Framingham Registry of Motor Vehicles parking lot to spend a maximum of 30 minutes praying that God would give our Town and State officials wisdom about the planned closing of the Framingham R.M.V. branch office. There was also prayer about pedestrian and traffic safety in Framingham and also prayer for the prosperity of the downtown Framingham area. I guess sometimes I'm very idealistic. No, I didn't think 60 people would show up, but I thought there might be, maybe ten.

I walked over to the Framingham Registry on Sunday afternoon and arrived at ten minutes before 4. I stood leaning against the building wondering if anybody would really show up and thinking maybe I'd just be praying by myself for fifteen minutes or so and then I'd sheepishly leave. I kept reminding myself that sometimes Old Testament prophets stood alone, but somehow that wasn't very reassuring!

I was very gratified that two others showed up. One was John Gibbons, a very bright retired guy with an interesting past. (Among other things, he's a graduate of The Citadel, and he served his country in military service.) The other was well-known conservative political activist Jennie Maroney. The three of us "huddled" in the R.M.V. parking lot and prayed aloud earnestly about the issues I've mentioned above for about 20 minutes or so.

Will our prayers make a difference? According to James 5:16, prayer does make a difference. The three of us are just simple, fallible, struggling Christians, but God is on His Throne, and it will be interesting to see how He answers those prayers.

John has mentioned he may also pray outside the Framingham Memorial Building sometime on Wednesday morning about the same issues we prayed about on Sunday. God bless him!