Category: Christian Spirituality
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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“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…
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thoughts on the ascended Christ
God ascends to shouts of joy, alleluia, alleluia. The Lord to the blast of trumpets, alleluia, alleluia. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, God ascends to shouts of joy, alleluia, alleluia. A while back I bought a prayer book which, among other things, notes the days of the…
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questions and constancies
No one who lives stands still. One begins to ask questions as soon as one can speak. Indeed, my first utterance, if I am to believe Mother, was not a single word but a coherent question: “Where’s Daddy?” I must have wanted to know. The young, at least, always want answers . . . The…
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Abide in My Love
This morning I read John 15:9-12 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept the Father’s commandments, and abide in his love . . . This is my commandment, That ye…