Apprentice 2 Jesus

Reading

  • The journey to Troas — Listening Prayer

    I have two main problems with Mark Batterson. Correction. I have ONE main problem with him and then I have a major problem with his current book, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God. (Now that I typed out that title, make it two main problems.) Read more

  • The hope of human flourishing

    A challenge I like to bring to people from time to time is this question: “Is it well with your soul?” Read more

  • We settle for so little

    I am working my way through The Great Divorce by C S Lewis. I’ve finished McGrath’s biography of Lewis, so reading Lewis more in historical context is slightly more helpful. I’m just not a great reader of “literature.” I love reading about Lewis, but reading Lewis is just plain slogging at times. The stories bring to life… Read more

  • We need a thirst to KNOW God

    There are those places, those authors, that continually take my breath away. I can’t hustle through their work. I am beginning the slow journey through the classic Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Third page in: Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfold, as it were, with no sense… Read more

  • To the desert go prophets

    I picked up a copy of Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, which is a fascinating read. At the beginning of each chapter he has some great quotes and I loved this one by Paul Shepard (from Man in the Landscape: A Historic View of the Esthetics of Nature) “To the desert to prophets and… Read more

  • Jesus in Charge

    I have started into Wright’s book, Simply Jesus. I have grown to really like his writing and am challenged by his thinking. To start off this book, it is about recognizing Jesus is in charge. It was dangerous talk in Jesus’ day. It’s not very welcome in our day, either. “Our culture has become used to thinking of… Read more

  • The perseverance of prayer

    My goal this year is to attempt to re-read some key books that have influenced my life and to slow down on the number of books I read this year to try to read deeper. I am not sure how the “slower” is going to go, but I did finish Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain as my first… Read more

  • Withdrawal is not the same as retreat

    Several years ago I was sharing with a historian in our denomination my work on the monks of the 4th Century in Egypt and what I was learning about their “Pentecostal” experience. He dismissed it quickly, saying that he wasn’t interested in people who retreated from culture and the world instead of engaging it. We… Read more

  • Merton and “Conversion”

    What has attracted me to Seven Storey Mountain over the years is the process of coming to faith. Merton sees his life in process and even when he “comes to faith,” it’s a process. The passage of his confession and baptism into the Catholic Church is still one of the most moving passages I have ever read. He details the… Read more

  • The powerful presence of God

    I am working through Merton’s autobiography, Seven Storey Mountain. In college he was gaining more of an awareness of God through his study of literature. At the end of one summer, he wrote this: “By the time summer was over, I was to become conscious of the fact that the only way to live was to… Read more