Category: Christian Spirituality
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Right Places, Right Times: What Looking at the Birds Teaches Us about Provision
My friend Sheila watched a nature documentary about penguins. This is a bad idea for anyone who wants to retain magical, fuzzy feelings about the natural world. I saw one recently too: there were all these penguins living on an island near Antarctica or somewhere, and every day they would go plunging off these sheer,…
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Laying Up Treasure in Invisible Places: How to Live Life Jesus’s Way
“Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21) In September…
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Secret Sorrow and Private Fasting: How Jesus Meets Us in Our Brokenness
“Whenever you fast, don’t be sad-faced like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so their fasting is obvious to people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward! But when you fast, put oil on your head, and wash your face, so that you don’t show your fasting to people but to your Father…
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The Centerpiece Prayer: Why “Forgive Us Our Debts” Is the Central Step in the Lord’s Prayer
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12) Right on the heels of asking for provision—that God will meet our needs—Jesus teaches us to ask that our debts may be forgiven, and he adds the only note of “bargaining” in the Lord’s Prayer: if God will answer this prayer…
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How to Find Yourself in the Words “Our Father”
“Our Father in heaven . . .” (Matthew 6:9) In our culture we’re a bit flippant about names. We tend to use first names for almost everyone, without a lot of regard to relationship or age or role. But even we haven’t managed to erase the importance of names. What you call someone is deeply…
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“Pray Like This”: How to Pray the Pattern in the Lord’s Prayer
Therefore, you should pray like this . . . (Matthew 6:9) In last week’s post we talked about “vain repetition” or empty babbling: praying like the prophets of Baal, in a desperate show of works meant to get the attention of an indifferent God. Jesus is clearly against that kind of praying. What sometimes gets…
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“Your Father Knows”: Why It Matters Who You Pray To
When you pray, don’t babble like the idolators, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him. (Matthew 6:8) I grew up on the KJV, so I knew “babble” as “vain repetition”: empty parroting, just saying words to…
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Religion and Relationship: The Call of Jesus to Authentic Faith
Characteristic of Jesus’s teaching on spiritual disciplines is his constant calling out of a crowd he calls “the hypocrites.” So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do … Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites … Whenever you fast, don’t be sad-faced like…
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The Spiritual Discipline of Giving to the Poor
Jesus doesn’t start his discussion of spiritual disciplines by trying to convince people to do them. He treats them as a given: these are things his listeners are already doing. We can see this clearly in the first discipline: So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites…
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Keeping Secrets and Finding Right Rewards: Jesus on Spiritual Disciplines
I remember years ago realizing that disciple and discipline share the same root. This sheds light on just what it MEANS to be a disciple. A disciple is a learner in a specific arena, a “discipline.” And a disciple is one who practices certain behaviors and habits, “disciplines,” in order to achieve a set result.…