SetiAlpha6 said:
How should you pray according to the Bible?
"4 Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. 5But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. 6For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head." (1 Corinthians 11:4-6)
It clearly depends on if you are male or female.
If you are a male you must pray without a head covering or you disgrace your head (Christ).
If you are a female you must pray with a head covering or you disgrace your head (Possibly either your father or your husband). It is all about hats and either short or long hair!
I know real churches that still teach this very thing! You "must" do this or you will disobey God!
Don’t blame me!
Most prayer is personal. You can pray to God however you like whenever you like. You can be in bed, on the bus or even sitting on the loo! Remember He can see you all the time, even at your worst so why should He require you to do something special to talk to Him?
The letter to the Corinthain church is to sort out the mess they had got themselves into in their public ('church') worship. It appears from the tail end of the letter that the services were total anarchy and more like a Bacchanalian orgy than a service to worship God.
'19Regarding this next item, I'm not at all pleased. I am getting the picture that when you meet together it brings out your worst side instead of your best! First, I get this report on your divisiveness, competing with and criticizing each other. I'm reluctant to believe it, but there it is. The best that can be said for it is that the testing process will bring truth into the open and confirm it.
20-22And then I find that you bring your divisions to worship—you come together, and instead of eating the Lord's Supper, you bring in a lot of food from the outside and make pigs of yourselves. Some are left out, and go home hungry. Others have to be carried out, too drunk to walk. I can't believe it! Don't you have your own homes to eat and drink in? Why would you stoop to desecrating God's church? Why would you actually shame God's poor? I never would have believed you would stoop to this. And I'm not going to stand by and say nothing.'
It also appears likely that unconverted wives were attending with their christian convert husbands and disrupting proceedings by challenging what their husbands were saying. Paul is attempting to get some order into this. The Message version (as usual) makes the sense rather easier to understand,
'It pleases me that you continue to remember and honor me by keeping up the traditions of the faith I taught you. All actual authority stems from Christ. 3-9In a marriage relationship, there is authority from Christ to husband, and from husband to wife. The authority of Christ is the authority of God. Any man who speaks with God or about God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of Christ, dishonors Christ. In the same way, a wife who speaks with God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of her husband, dishonors her husband. Worse, she dishonors herself—an ugly sight, like a woman with her head shaved. This is basically the origin of these customs we have of women wearing head coverings in worship, while men take their hats off. By these symbolic acts, men and women, who far too often butt heads with each other, submit their "heads" to the Head: God.
10-12Don't, by the way, read too much into the differences here between men and women. Neither man nor woman can go it alone or claim priority. Man was created first, as a beautiful shining reflection of God—that is true. But the head on a woman's body clearly outshines in beauty the head of her "head," her husband. The first woman came from man, true—but ever since then, every man comes from a woman! And since virtually everything comes from God anyway, let's quit going through these "who's first" routines.'
So this is about the custom of worship of that church at that time. Many western churches have of course gone to the other extreme where the service is almost like some form of religious 'library' where no sound can be made unless authorised and every one has to behave in a certain accepted way and follow an absolutely rigid formula. If that's what you want fine, but many of us find that less than inspiring and go for a freer form of worship.
To now get hung up on whether you should or should not wear hats is to go towards the Pharisee like concept of worshipping God by rules and there is absolutely no doubt of what Jesus thought of that!
regards,
Gordon.
