{"id":1153,"date":"2010-07-13T13:22:42","date_gmt":"2010-07-13T13:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/a-prayer-for-leroy.html"},"modified":"2010-07-13T13:22:42","modified_gmt":"2010-07-13T13:22:42","slug":"a-prayer-for-leroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/a-prayer-for-leroy.html","title":{"rendered":"A Prayer for Leroy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><font color=\"navy\" size=\"6\"><span style=\"color: navy;font-size: 24pt;font-weight: bold\">The preacher<br \/>\nsaid, &#8220;Anyone with &#8216;special needs&#8217; who<br \/>\nwants to be prayed over, come forward to<br \/>\nthe altar.&#8221; &nbsp;<\/span><\/font><font color=\"black\"><span style=\"color: black\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ecxecxMsoNormal\"><b><font color=\"black\"><span style=\"color: black\"><\/span><\/font><\/b><b><font color=\"navy\" size=\"6\"><span style=\"color: navy;font-size: 24pt;font-weight: bold\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/b>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ecxecxMsoNormal\"><b><font color=\"navy\" face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"6\"><span style=\"color: navy;font-size: 24pt;font-weight: bold\">With<br \/>\nthat, Leroy got in line and when it was<br \/>\nhis<br \/>\nturn, the preacher asked, &#8220;Leroy, what<br \/>\ndo you<br \/>\nwant me to pray about for<br \/>\nyou?&#8221;<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ecxecxMsoNormal\"><font color=\"black\" face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;font-size: 10pt\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong><b><font face=\"Times New Roman\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/font><\/b><\/strong><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ecxecxMsoNormal\"><b><font color=\"navy\" face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"6\"><span style=\"color: navy;font-size: 24pt;font-weight: bold\">Leroy<br \/>\nreplied, &#8220;Preacher, I need you to pray<br \/>\nfor help<br \/>\nwith my hearing.&#8221; &nbsp;The preacher put his<br \/>\nhands over Leroy&#8217;s ears, and prayed and prayed and prayed. He<br \/>\nprayed a &#8220;blue streak&#8221; for Leroy, and<br \/>\nafter awhile the whole congregation joined in with great<br \/>\nenthusiasm.<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\" class=\"ecxecxMsoNormal\" align=\"center\"><font color=\"black\" face=\"Times\nNew Roman\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;font-size: 10pt\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ecxecxMsoNormal\"><b><font color=\"navy\" face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"6\"><span style=\"color: navy;font-size: 24pt;font-weight: bold\">When the preacher finally had<br \/>\nprayed all he could pray, he removed his hands, dried the sweat on his<br \/>\nbrow, and said, &#8220;Leroy, tell the congregation, how is your<br \/>\nhearing?&#8221;<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ecxecxMsoNormal\"><font color=\"black\" face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;font-size: 10pt\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ecxecxMsoNormal\"><strong><b><font color=\"navy\" face=\"Times New Roman\" size=\"6\"><span style=\"color: navy;font-size: 24pt\">Leroy<br \/>\nanswered, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know. It ain&#8217;t &#8217;til<br \/>\nnext<br \/>\nweek.&#8221; <br \/><\/span><\/font><\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The preacher said, &#8220;Anyone with &#8216;special needs&#8217; who wants to be prayed over, come forward to the altar.&#8221; &nbsp; With that, Leroy got in line and when it was his turn, the preacher asked, &#8220;Leroy, what do you want me to pray about for you?&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Leroy replied, &#8220;Preacher, I need you to pray for&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Prayer for Leroy - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/a-prayer-for-leroy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Prayer for Leroy - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The preacher said, &#8220;Anyone with &#8216;special needs&#8217; who wants to be prayed over, come forward to the altar.&#8221; &nbsp; With that, Leroy got in line and when it was his turn, the preacher asked, &#8220;Leroy, what do you want me to pray about for you?&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Leroy replied, &#8220;Preacher, I need you to pray for&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/a-prayer-for-leroy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-13T13:22:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Prayer for Leroy - The Bible and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/a-prayer-for-leroy.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Prayer for Leroy - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"The preacher said, &#8220;Anyone with &#8216;special needs&#8217; who wants to be prayed over, come forward to the altar.&#8221; &nbsp; With that, Leroy got in line and when it was his turn, the preacher asked, &#8220;Leroy, what do you want me to pray about for you?&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Leroy replied, &#8220;Preacher, I need you to pray for&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/a-prayer-for-leroy.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2010-07-13T13:22:42+00:00","author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/a-prayer-for-leroy.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/a-prayer-for-leroy.html","name":"A Prayer for Leroy - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-07-13T13:22:42+00:00","dateModified":"2010-07-13T13:22:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/a-prayer-for-leroy.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/a-prayer-for-leroy.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/a-prayer-for-leroy.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Prayer for Leroy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&amp;E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}