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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 of direction and no understanding…
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Goals are dreams with deadlines — um, no
It’s a very Western saying. We tend to not like dreamers. Dreamers don’t get anything done. They sit around and, well, dream. We can’t wait that long! We need a PLAN! Dreams in the Bible were different. For Abraham, he had a dream. If he had put a deadline on it, he would have settled with Ishmael. For Joseph,…
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What is the harvest of my life?
The fruit of the Spirit is what we are harvesting in our lives. What am I harvesting in my own life? If I love Jesus, why do I still battle the very familiar evidence of life in the flesh (sinful nature) at times? It is a matter of what we are feeding. What I think we battle sometimes is the “list.” We focus on…
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Being busy is not being hurried
In Soul Keeping, Ortberg points out what we already know: we’re busy. Being busy is not the same as being hurried. Being hurried is much more harmful. You don’t always want to be busy, but you really don’t want to be hurried. Busy We have a full schedule There are many activities It’s an outward condition It’s physically demanding It reminds…
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“Saving” Souls
It’s not about the destination that “save” a soul. It’s about the condition of the soul. “If a car no longer works, it doesn’t matter much whether it ends up in a junkyard or the valet parking section of the Ritz-Carlton. we are not lost because we are going to wind up in the wrong place. We are going to wind up…
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On the stronghold of busyness
“… busyness may sometimes be an excuse for laziness. As Eugene Peterson observes, busy people are too lazy to take control of things, so they fit themselves into other people’s demands. Activities can be an excuse for spiritual inertia or acedia, an unwillingness to accept God as God, that is, his absolute claims on our lives. It is easier to be…
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Book Review — Living in Christ’s Presence
Living in Christ’s Presence has Dallas Willard as the author, which is appropriate. It is more a collaboration. The book came to me with a DVD of the sessions given by Dallas Willard and John Ortberg not long before Dallas passed away. The book is a transcript of those lectures by Ortberg and Willard, along with the transcripts of their conversations.…
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What’s your hurry?
There are times when reading through the Bible in huge chunks is needed. There are a few times when the “One Year Bible” is helpful. Most of the time, it’s not necessary. The question is this: “What’s your hurry?” Why do you think you can read that one chapter of Luke once, maybe twice, and know it? It will be there…
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Doing “enough”
We can fall into the disappointment of something not happening in life. Spiritually, it can be a real sinkhole. We were given the thought, or teaching, at some point that said, “Study the Scripture… enough. Pray… enough. Have faith… enough.” And the end result will be _________________ (fill in the blank). And then… it doesn’t happen. The games begin. “Did…
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Spiritual discipline is a bad phrase
“Spiritual disciplines are not a gauge of my spiritual maturity. The disciplined person is not someone who does a lot of disciplines. The disciplined person, the disciple, is someone who is able to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.” — John Ortberg, Living in Christ’s Presence.
Tag: Spiritual Formation
