Category: Christian Spirituality
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Just a Few More Steps
Last week I hiked 11.5 miles on the Bruce Trail, following the white blazes through Hamilton’s Dundas Valley. It was a perfect day–clear blue skies, warm sun, cool breezes, and no bugs to speak of. My hiking buddy and I didn’t have a plan to get picked up at the end of our hike, so…
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How Far Will Love Go?
Along with other members of the 1:11 ministry team, I had the privilege of sharing at my home church for Good Friday. Below are some of the thoughts I shared and the music we used. It happened over three thousand years ago, and we’re still telling the story today. Three thousand years ago, life…
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Double-Minded
“A double-minded man,” says the book of James, “is unstable in all his ways.” He was talking about prayer. But it’s true in so many ways, isn’t it? If I get on Facebook first thing in the morning and check out news and views and people’s pics and lives, I’ll have a horrible time getting…
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that which I see not
“Frequently we hold on so tightly to the good that we do know that we cannot receive the greater good that we do not know. God has to help us let go of our tiny vision in order to release the greater good he has in store for us.” – Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the…
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Rhyme Schemes Are Hard
I’ve been experimenting with poetry recently … you know, the kind that actually follows some kind of pattern. My conclusion is that rhyme schemes are harder than they look. This doesn’t have a title, but here you go: Warm and generous, like the sun Always giving, ever feeding The hungers of a world still…
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Swimming
What we must never be encouraged to do, although all of us are guilty of it over and over, is to force Scripture to fit our experience. Our experience is too small; it’s like trying to put the ocean into a thimble. What we want is to fit into the world revealed by Scripture, to…
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There’s More
written after an airplane ride, summer 2010 … I gazed out the airplane window at the storm gathering over the Arizona desert. Night was falling, and beneath the clouds, city lights shone out of the darkness. Above, the clouds were shining with amber sunlight. Lightning arced through the clouds, forking out over the city; it…
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The Closet
Posting something a bit different today :). I’m not sure if this qualifies as poetry, but here you go: The Closet Rachel Starr Thomson Written at the Magnificat Retreat in Guelph, February 12, 2011 Here I sit In my deep dark closet Where the plaster peels And reveals Wallpaper that was ugly when they put…
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Wake Up and Get a Life!
Ephesians is a companion letter to Colossians, and here we find the bracing instruction, taken perhaps from an early Christian poem or hymn: “Awake, sleeper, rise from the dead, and the Messiah will give you light!” (5:14). In other words, it’s time to wake up! Living at the level of the nonheavenly world around you…
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Study and Obedience
Besides overseeing the schedule and volunteers, my big job at SDG Ballet and Arts Camp earlier this month was teaching Bible class for older and younger kids. For the older class, we started each day by looking at principles of study. For me, one of the most important principles of study is obedience. A quote…