Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God's overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10). -- Dallas Willard
Devotional Classics: p. 16
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
A Glimpse of Glory
Madeleine L'Engle wrote the following to give an example of an experience she calls an "intimation" of a life beyond this one.
Josephine and I began to sing to the little girls, trying to lull them to sleep, taking turns in singing the old nursery and folk songs, many of which had come to us from my mother.
Then suddenly, the world unfolded, and I moved into an indescribable place of many dimensions where colors were more brilliant and more varied than those of the everyday world. The unfolding continued; everything deepened and opened, and I glimpsed relationships in which the truth of love was fully revealed.
It was ineffably glorious, and then it became frightening because I knew that unless I returned to the self which was still singing to the sleeping baby it would be -- at the least -- madness, and for Josephine and Alan's sake I had to come back from the radiance...
Was this no more than a hallucination caused by fatigue and hunger? That may have been part of it, but only a part. I offer no explanation for this vision of something far more beautiful and strange than any of the great beauties I have seen on earth. I only know that it happened to me, and I am grateful.
Glimpses of Grace: January 8, pp. 7-8
Josephine and I began to sing to the little girls, trying to lull them to sleep, taking turns in singing the old nursery and folk songs, many of which had come to us from my mother.
Then suddenly, the world unfolded, and I moved into an indescribable place of many dimensions where colors were more brilliant and more varied than those of the everyday world. The unfolding continued; everything deepened and opened, and I glimpsed relationships in which the truth of love was fully revealed.
It was ineffably glorious, and then it became frightening because I knew that unless I returned to the self which was still singing to the sleeping baby it would be -- at the least -- madness, and for Josephine and Alan's sake I had to come back from the radiance...
Was this no more than a hallucination caused by fatigue and hunger? That may have been part of it, but only a part. I offer no explanation for this vision of something far more beautiful and strange than any of the great beauties I have seen on earth. I only know that it happened to me, and I am grateful.
Glimpses of Grace: January 8, pp. 7-8
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Where does Spirituality come from?
However, spiritual life does not come to us haphazardly. The Holy Spirit -- and the life the Holy Spirit brings -- is available to us only in Christ. And He gives this life to us through His Word and through faith in His Word. This means that our spirituality does not come from having spiritual powers or from our spiritual self-development but depends on our faith in Him. Because we are joined to Christ we continually receive our life from Him.
John W. Kleinig: Grace Upon Grace; pp. 10-11
John W. Kleinig: Grace Upon Grace; pp. 10-11
Monday, January 2, 2012
Starting out in 2012 : The New Devotionals
This year I'm putting away Buechner and replacing him with Madeline L'Engle's Glimpses of Grace. Near to the Heart of God is being replaced by Devotional Classics by Richard Foster. C.S. Lewis' Business of Heaven is being switched with Promises to Keep, a compilation by Nick Harrison. Finally, I want to re-read Grace Upon Grace by John W. Kleinig, one of the best books on practical spirituality I've ever read.
I kind of like what I wrote on my facebook page for New Year's Eve:
I kind of like what I wrote on my facebook page for New Year's Eve:
Thursday, December 29, 2011
The Wisdom of Guigo
Affluence conceals and increases wretchedness. It does not take it away.
Prefer to be taught rather than to teach.
Your burden is not nearly as heavy as the Lord's.
Flee from your own faults. The flaws of others will not hurt you.
Be angry with the sinner only if you think it will do him good.
It is your lack of interior pleasures that makes you go looking for exterior ones.
Your purpose is not to be seen or known or loved or admired or praised. Your purpose is to see, know, love, admire and praise God.
We quickly accept an obtuse thought when an important person speaks it.
Never rejoice if you are better than others. Be sorry they are not better, and accept responsibility for it.
If you need to hate someone, hate yourself. No one else has hurt you more.
It is a mistake to love things that will inevitably decay, and to be annoyed when they do.
If it is for your own advantage that you do something for someone else, you are doing it for yourself.
Guigo I: Meditations
Near to the Heart of God: December 28
Prefer to be taught rather than to teach.
Your burden is not nearly as heavy as the Lord's.
Flee from your own faults. The flaws of others will not hurt you.
Be angry with the sinner only if you think it will do him good.
It is your lack of interior pleasures that makes you go looking for exterior ones.
Your purpose is not to be seen or known or loved or admired or praised. Your purpose is to see, know, love, admire and praise God.
We quickly accept an obtuse thought when an important person speaks it.
Never rejoice if you are better than others. Be sorry they are not better, and accept responsibility for it.
If you need to hate someone, hate yourself. No one else has hurt you more.
It is a mistake to love things that will inevitably decay, and to be annoyed when they do.
If it is for your own advantage that you do something for someone else, you are doing it for yourself.
Guigo I: Meditations
Near to the Heart of God: December 28
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Faith in faith?
Wow, two days in a row....
A Unitarian Universalist student student said once that what he believed in was faith, and when I asked him faith in what, his answer was faith in faith. I don't mean to disparage him -- he was doing the best he could -- but it struck me that having faith in faith was as barren as being in love with love or having money that you spend only on the accumulation of more money.
Listening to Your Life: Frederick Buechner; December 18; p. 327
A Unitarian Universalist student student said once that what he believed in was faith, and when I asked him faith in what, his answer was faith in faith. I don't mean to disparage him -- he was doing the best he could -- but it struck me that having faith in faith was as barren as being in love with love or having money that you spend only on the accumulation of more money.
Listening to Your Life: Frederick Buechner; December 18; p. 327
Saturday, December 17, 2011
In Memory of Christopher Hitchens
I've always kind of liked Hitchens... Is it just me or is it ironic that people are wishing him to Rest In Peace? I thought today's C.S. Lewis reading is particularly appropriate...
If what you want is an argument against Christianity (and I well remember how eagerly I looked for such arguments when I began to be afraid it was true) you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say, 'So there's your boasted new man! Give me the old kind.' But if once you have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue. What can you ever really know of other people's souls -- of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next door neighbors or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count (will you even be able to remember it?) when the anesthetic fog which we call 'nature' or 'the real world' fades away and the Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?
The Business of Heaven -- December 17; p. 311
If what you want is an argument against Christianity (and I well remember how eagerly I looked for such arguments when I began to be afraid it was true) you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say, 'So there's your boasted new man! Give me the old kind.' But if once you have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue. What can you ever really know of other people's souls -- of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next door neighbors or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count (will you even be able to remember it?) when the anesthetic fog which we call 'nature' or 'the real world' fades away and the Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?
The Business of Heaven -- December 17; p. 311
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