Category Archives: Contemplative Spirituality

Taize and Ash Wednesday

On Wednesday night this week, at 7 pm, New Life will host a Taize, Ash Wednesday service. I have been praying and pondering this possibility for over eight years. In the summer of 2004, Geri and I, along with our four daughters, spent a week in Taize, France with a monastic community of about 90 men. About 5000 young people from Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic backgrounds also participated. I learned3 simple, powerful truths that week: 1. There is only one church and it consists of people from all three main branches of Christianity – Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant. Brother Roger, a Lutheran pastor, founded Taize during World War 2 to be a prophetic sign in the midst of the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Christians killing each other on an unimaginable scale. What unites us is a personal faith in Jesus Christ and a commitment to Scripture as outlined in the Nicene Creed. This. Read more.

Prayer and the Healing Waters of the Love of Jesus

Prayer is carrying people, paralyzed by life, to the healing waters of the love of Jesus. We meet a man in John 5, paralyzed and suffering for 38 years, who has been unable to get to the healing waters of the pool. Fred Craddock notes that, perhaps, this was because able-bodied people with headaches, sunburn, and fever blisters continually beat the lame, the blind, and the paralyzed to the pool. What kind of community would allow someone to suffer 38 years without once helping him to the head of the line? At our NLF staff meeting last week, we symbolically created the “pool” through placing a blanket in the middle of a circle. We then invited individual staff to step into the “center of the pool,” representing people paralyzed by life. The rest of us in the circle then picked up the edges of the cloth blanket and gently ruffled it, “troubling the waters.” We. Read more.

Prayer: Let Your Words Be Few

I have spoken way too many words in my prayers to God over the years. Fortunately, as C.S.Lewis reminds us, God retains the power and to refuse our prayers, knowing now easily we could destroy ourselves (God in the Dock, pp.106-107). Do not be quick with your mouth…God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few (Eccl.5:2). And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words (Matt. 6:7). I will stand at my watch and station myself at the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me (Habbakuk 2:1). Proverbs reminds us that even a fool is thought wise if he is silent. I am beginning to realize this applies to talking with Him as well.

The Prayer of Groaning

My prayer life has widened over the years. Daily silence and stillness before the Lord remains foundational for me. Yet now, I find myself additionally drawn to “the prayer of groaning” (I am not sure what else to call it). Scripture teaches that “the whole creation groans as in the pains of childbirth. We groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption…the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Rom. 8:22-26). The longer I follow Jesus, the more aware I am of my limitations. The needs around us are staggering – globally, nationally, locally, in our neighborhoods, in our churches, in ourselves. Paul is right: “We don’t know what to pray.” Try allowing the Spirit to groan in and through you today as you carry different people or situations to the healing waters of the love of Jesus. Allow the groans to come. This “prayer of groaning” may be the kind of leadership He. Read more.

God, Tweets and Sound Bytes

God can’t be reduced to a tweet of a sound byte. Transformation in Christ cannot be done in our present culture’s attention span. A saint is someone who sees the beauty of God in and through all things. This can’t be done on the run. We can communicate creative ideas in this format — but let’s distinguish that from the very large, costly work of the time needed in Scripture and stillness to be truly changed by God.

Silent Sermons – Every Week!

Imagine a church service where there were two sermons: a 20 minute “Sermon of Silence” followed by a 20 minute “Sermon of Words.” A new friend from Melbourne, Australia visited me this past week. She teaches field education in a seminary, using Emotionally Healthy Spirituality as one of her texts. She shared the work of South Yarra Community Baptist Church, along with their ministry called Laughing Bird Liturgical Resources. (Don’t you love that name!) Without the silence, the Scriptures can’t penetrate our lives. Without Scripture, silence is empty. While I am not quite ready for 2 sermons each week at New Life, there is something here from God for us in our frenetic, multi-tasking, always-plugged-in world.

Equipos emocionalmente sanos: 5 prácticas no negociables para equipos exitosos

Seminario web gratuito en vivo con traducción simultánea al español

Seminario web gratuito

Sabbat

Un libro electrónico gratuito para explorar 4 prácticas de un Sabbat bíblico

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