growing
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Nothing I Hold On To
A simple yet powerful prayer put to song …one I learned on my Sabbatical… I have sung this song literally walking up a mountain with hands wide open and weeping,… giving over all my burdens for Him to carry… Nothing I Hold On To by Will Reagan and United Pursuit (Lyrics written out below, plus…
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His Presence
I just completed this compilation of Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach’s journals and letters. What a powerful yet simple read. A classic indeed! A perfect read for my sabbatical… I have and will be sharing quotes from it in my posts. An excerpt from my first phase sabbatical report… “Now, I’ve started to re-read Frank…
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Stark Naked Before God
The human heart is of pride. We would rather die than repent, rather lose ourselves than humble ourselves. But we cannot escape the embarrassment of one day standing stark naked before God. It is no use trying to cover up like Adam and Eve in the garden. Our attempts will be meaningless. We will have…
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Raw Before God (Prayer)
Prayer is basic language… honest, true, and personal. It is the means by which we get everything in our lives out in the open before God. Only as we develop raw honesty and detailed thoroughness in our praying do we become whole, truly human in Jesus Christ, who also prayed the Psalms. (Eugene Peterson) Just…
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Sabbath Celebration Using our Senses
Marva J Dawn in her book Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting on p.199 touched on celebrating God on Sundays using all our senses… I love this! Early on Palm Sunday morning, with our boys while sitting in the morning sun on our deck, we asked each other what we could sense around…
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What Brings You to Rest?
What gifts in your life enable you to rest? Perhaps it is beauty, music, nature, textures like blankets and quilts, food, the embrace of family and friends, or works of art? What kinds of things bring you to true rest? What things bring you into God’s presence? Most of all, meditation on God’s word…
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Holding On To Your Own Pleasurable Imaginings
“Maybe we wonder if God can take all that goes on in our mind and heart. Maybe we simply want to hold on to our own pleasurable imaginings, afraid that in showing them to our Lord, we may have to give them up. Thus, we are constantly tempted to fall back… out of fear or…
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Don’t Over Analyze Yourself
A good reminder for me as I seek to transition healthily into my sabbatical… It’s all about my focus… “Know yourself” is good advice. But to know ourselves doesn’t mean to analyze ourselves. Sometimes we want to know ourselves as if we were machines that could be taken apart and put back together at will.…
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Stay Awake.
Watch, learn, act. Watch for God at work. Do not miss Him as the world does as it dozes with day-dreaming, self-pity, gluttony, boredom, fighting,… Lost is the opportunity to be alert to God at work, alert through renewal, reading, prayer, teaching, service to the needy, justice and peace-making… Keep awake and watch. Learn all…
Following and Trusting : Encountering God Out of the Box 