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Save Us From Bumper Sticker Theology
We have so much information thrown at us every day we don’t know how to sift out what is meaningful and what is meaningless. As a result, we are reduced to trying to get our “message” out in short, pithy ways that capture some sort of attention, but ultimately fails to communicate what we really want to say. We’ve become…
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Back to the Man Who Started It All
The whole concept of “Apprentice2Jesus” arose out of reading Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy. Actually, it took two readings of the book, plus preaching on it, before I began to get what he was saying. (I’m an incredibly slow learner.) But as I began to get my head around what he was saying, I knew this was what my heart…
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Choosing the Good Part
The stories of Luke 10 give me pictures of ministry priorities. In the sending of the 72, it is remembering the call of God. Jesus asks the 72 to go and do what they had watched him do. Teach what he had taught them. Know your call. The parable of the good Samaritan is a nice bridge. One emphasis is…
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The Lesson of the Controlled Burn
Last week when I arrived at the retreat center for my silent prayer retreat the staff let me know they would be doing a controlled burn in the meadow near my cabin. It saved me from panicking when I saw the smoke a few hours later. Being a guy, I had to walk over to see what was happening. The…
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Embracing the Silence
As I am away on a silent retreat, I wanted to leave some thoughts on silence and solitude. These are from Thomas Merton. “In order to find God in ourselves, we must stop looking at ourselves, stop checking and verifying ourselves in the mirror of our own futility, and be content to be in Him and to do whatever He…
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Setting the Pilgrim’s Heart
I will be away at a silent retreat this weekend. It is time to come away and listen. My Bible and journal will be the only items to join me. No study materials. It is time to HEAR. My heart is longing for refreshing, as is my body. The silence is wonderful. These are times when I joyfully pull aside…
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Observing the Pattern of Prayer… and Action
I am reading/praying my way through Luke right now. One thing I truly love about Luke’s take on the life of Jesus is in the intricate tie between prayer and activity. In Luke 5 there is the constant rush of ministry activity. Healing, teaching, deliverance ministry, but Luke adds in, “Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.” (v. 16)…
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Life is a Prayer
There are “prayer times,” and then there is the joy of walking in prayer as life happens. I am struck by Jesus’ amazing ability to have times of tremendous ministry that had to expend a lot of energy, and he did so with ease. Luke’s gospel gives us a peek into the prayer life of Jesus. There would be flurries…
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Change the World in Ten Easy Steps
Bad title again. I have to do SOMETHING to get people to click on the post! 😉 The call of 1 Peter, and the call of Scripture to the believer is this: “Be holy for God is holy.” Holiness is not a dress code. It’s life-change. It is coming more fully into the image and example of Christ. The biggest…
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How to Be Holy in Ten Easy Steps
The text I will preaching this Sunday (and yes, it is without regard to the Hallmark Holiday and I apologize) is 1 Peter 1:13-25. Staring us in the face is that horrific verse: “BE HOLY FOR GOD IS HOLY.” Holiness in my life growing up was all about how we dressed. Quite honestly, I would say there are some ideas…
Category: Spiritual Formation
