Truly my soul finds rest in God;
my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from him. (Ps. 62:1-2,5)
Hemmed in
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain. (Ps. 139:5-6)
Spiritual formation and exile
The more we will walk in these uncertain days the more we are in need of spiritual formation and spiritual rhythms. As we go into a spiritual Babylonian exile, we need to understand we are equipped for this time. Without Christ, we deal with a void.
John Mark Comer and James Bryan Smith talk about spiritual formation in a time of spiritual exile and change. Well worth the listen.
The beauty of hope
“To hope is to ‘borrow grace.’ It is not naive optimism. Hope admits the truth of our vulnerability. It does not trust God to keep all bad things from happening. But it assumes that redemption, beauty, and goodness will be there for us, whatever lies ahead.” — Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night
The hard realizations of our evangelical structures
This whole Twitter chain is worth the read. But a snippet:
Lent: trust the long walk
Lent isn’t a cure all. Growing up as a Pentecostal, the prayer time around the altar was treated as a cure all. Youth camp was treated as a cure all. One time events were treated as cure alls. You pray, God visits you, the Holy Spirit does his work… you move on.
Read moreLent: We must see our sickness
“The first step toward recovery is admitting you have a problem.” — Alcoholics Anonymous
“Unless we see our symptoms and sickness, we do not seek a cure. The Lenten disciplines do not take too long to reveal something to us, and when they do we are supposed to rest in the knowledge of God’s love and grace.” — Lent: The Journey From Ash Wednesday Through Holy Week
The heaviness of this past week SHOULD lead us into Lent
What a week.
The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. (Just sit on that thought for a few seconds.)
Read moreMaundy Thursday prayers
Almighty Father, whose most dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ our Savior, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34)
Kingdom resources in the time of coronovirus
My regular daily office reading has me in the Gospel of Matthew currently and today was Matthew 25.
It is still hard for me to read this passage and not have my upbringing in Bible reading flood my thoughts. In the past I was sure Matthew 24 and 25 were about the “end times” as in: “Are you rapture ready?” They are about the end times… and we are living in those times.
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