Category: Christian Spirituality
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Wild Geese in the City
I live in a city famous for air pollution, across the river from a horrendously run-down section of Detroit. My neighborhood is decorated by abandoned shopping carts and graffiti. Two years ago the city workers went on strike for nearly the entire summer, and as weeds grew waist-high in our public parks and walking trails,…
-
the inconvenient necessity of understanding the Scriptures
Inconvenient or not, we are stuck with the necessity of exegesis. We have a written word to read and attend to. It is God’s word, or so we believe, and we had better get it right. Exegesis is foundational to Christian spirituality. Foundations disappear from view as a building is constructed, but if the builders…
-
my prayer
Today I had hot chocolate with a missionary friend, and I shared an area in which God is dealing with me: I’m scared of “big” things, especially if they have anything to do with serving God. It’s kind of a twisted hang-up, and I won’t go into all of its roots and branches here, but…
-
setting the table to pray
When I was in my late teens, I was really really passionate about seeking the Lord. So passionate, in fact, that after reading a few books on revival and the “godly habits of godly people,” I pretty much burned myself out in prayer. And ever since, I’ve been a bit gun shy when it comes…
-
treasuring God – practically
In my last post, I wrote about God as the single person’s inheritance and the opportunity we have to make God our treasure. But really, that idea is not new. Anyone who has been single for any length of time after the age of 21 has heard this. We are pointed to 1 Corinthians 7,…
-
God my inheritance
I am twenty-eight, and I am single. I don’t know whether I always will be, but I am sure single now. Several of my friends, both men and women, are in the same boat. And some of us will never marry. For the sake of discussion, let’s pretend that’s where I am–single and going to…
-
“too heavenly minded”?
For much of my life, a pallor has been cast over my spiritual aspersions by this insidious little whisper, spoken by some persnickety church person in the general ether of evangelical life: “She’s too heavenly minded to be any earthly good!” Why does that whisper manage to come in and cripple my prayer life, my…