Chapter 20 - The Will

Chapter 20 used 7 passages to enlighten the Biblical view of “The Will”, as follows:

John 3:10-21
Luke 11:14-28
Matthew 26:36-46
Luke 9:57-62
Mark 8:34-9:1
Luke 5:1-11
Luke 13:22-30

Prayer:

“If Jesus believed that his life was to be spent doing ‘the will of the Father,’ then our task is to be no less. Pray for his will to be accomplished in your life; that you may bring glory to him as Jesus did.”

Hymn:

The hymn for Chapter 20 was “My Jesus, As Thou Wilt” by Benjamin Schmolck. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

Meditation Selections:

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Mother Teresa, Emilie Griffin, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Evelyn Underhill, Georgia Harkness, George Fox, Thomas R. Kelly, Richard J. Foster, and Andrew Murray. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

· “Our progress in holiness depends on God and ourselves – on God’s grace and on our will to be holy. We must have a real living determination to reach holiness. …and make myself a willing slave to the will of God.”
· “There is a moment between intending to pray and actually praying that is as dark and silent as any moment in our lives. …It seems, then, that the greatest obstacle to prayer is the simple matter of beginning, the simple exertion of will, the starting, the acting, the doing. …we can approach the abyss that lies between us and prayer and retreat from it under cover of being-too-busy or having-family-obligations or even serving-God-in-other-ways. This seemingly justified retreat makes the approach more difficult the next time… .”
· “Man is constantly producing words and deeds, giving them over either to God or to the forces of evil.”
· “Real power is the result of inner harmony… .”
· “…motives, desires, and the spirit’s use of bodily powers will be in harmony with the will of God. If prayer did only this, it would do for us the most important thing that could be done.”
· “…there remained in me an unsubjected will…”
· “…we cannot take Him by storm. The strong man must become the little child, not understanding but trusting the Father.”
· “What freedom corresponds to submission? It is the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way. …almost all church fights and splits occur because people do not have the freedom to give in to each other. …Only in submission are we enabled to bring that spirit to a place where it no longer controls us. Only submission can free us sufficiently to enable us to distinguish between genuine issues and stubborn self-will.”
· “…Jesus called us to self-denial without self-hatred. Self-denial is not the same thing as self-contempt. …Jesus made the ability to love ourselves the prerequisite for our reaching out to others.”
· “Jesus in His prayers on earth, …makes this His first objective – the glory of His Father. Is it so with us too?”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 20 not quoted) mean to you?

Please post your responses to the blog site:
(http://lhcndeeperlifeclass.blogspot.com/).

Thanks for your participation.
John

Chapter 19 - Faith In The Process

Chapter 19 cited 7 scripture passages to spotlight the faith demonstrated in a number of situations in the Bible, as follows:

Hebrews 11:1-12:3
Genesis 22:1-19
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Nehemiah 6:1-9
Philippians 3:17-4:1
1 Peter 5:1-11
Romans 8:28-39

Prayer:

“Ask God to reveal himself to you this week in his form or way. Promise him that you will not ask him to speak to you in any certain images; but that you want to be open to all of his entreaties to you. Ask him to show you that these experiences of today are part of his processes for your life.”

Hymn:

The hymn for Chapter 19 was “Day by Day” by Lina Sandell and Oscar Ahnfelt. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

Meditation Selections:

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Lloyd Ogilvie, John Claypool, Al Bryant, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Ernest Boyer, Jr., Bob Benson and Frederick Buechner. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

· “What can you do when you’ve failed and denied what you believe? …the basic message of the story is this: the Lord’s love does not fail however much we fail him.”
· “…I had come to the conclusion that it was the nature of God to speak to us in the language of events, and that it was the nature of the Church for men to share with each other what they thought they heard God say in the things that had happened to them. …I have found the challenge to go on living even though I have no answer or any complete explanation.”
· “How different is the case, how vast the preeminence, of those who ‘walk by faith!’ … Those who live by faith, walk by faith. But what is implied in this?”
· “Many of us are willing to embark upon any adventure, except to go into stillness and to wait… Faith is the fruit of a seed planted in the depth of a lifetime.”
· “It is the bland and repetitious part of life at the center that seems its greatest defect; the reality of a life of care often seems as far from spirituality as possible. …Spirituality is anything that reveals how close God is to us – as close as our hands, as close as our heart.”
· “By examining as closely and candidly as I could the life that had come to seem to me in many ways a kind of trap or dead-end street, I discovered that it really wasn’t that at all. …Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is.”
· “To do for yourself the best that you have it in you to do – to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worst – is, by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful still.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 19 not quoted) mean to you? Please post your responses to the blog site:
(http://lhcndeeperlifeclass.blogspot.com/).

Thanks for your participation.
John

Chapter 18 - Fasting

Chapter 18 used 7 scripture passages to highlight the Biblical foundation of fasting as a useful tool in our spiritual life, as follows:

John 4:31-38
Matthew 9:14-17
Matthew 6:16-18
Luke 4:1-13
Exodus 34:27-28
Matthew 4:1-4
Luke 5:33-39

Prayer:

“I heard a godly man remark when asked if he got hungry while fasting. ‘Of course! But then I remember that I’m fasting for God and not for me, and the hunger goes away.’”

Hymn:

The hymn for Chapter 18 was “Fill Me Now” by Elwood Stokes. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

Meditation Selections:

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Richard J. Foster, Tilden H. Edwards, Ponder Gilliland, Rainer Maria Rilke, “An Anthology of George MacDonald” edited by C. S. Lewis, Andrew Murray and “the Message of the Wesleys” compiled by Philip S. Watson. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

· “One issue that understandably concerns many people is whether or not Scripture makes fasting obligatory upon all Christians. …Jesus was giving instruction on the proper exercise of a common practice of His day.”
· “My own and others’ experience leads me to recommend not a full fast, but a ‘juice fast’: vegetable juice (preferably freshly made) and especially fruit juice (which will provide more energy sugar) three times a day. …If you want to undertake a fast, it is easiest to do so with others.”
· “On the matter of prayer and fasting, all you need to do is to follow the inner promptings of the Lord. …There is no set pattern in all this. …It may be that God would only direct you to fast one meal. Or one day. …The important thing is not just the fasting, by why you are fasting.”
· “Prayer needs fasting for its full growth… . Prayer is the one hand with which we grasp the invisible; fasting, the other, with which we let loose and cast away the visible.”
· “Not that we are to imagine that performing the bare outward act will receive any blessing from God. If it be a mere external service, it is all but lost labour.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 18 not quoted) mean to you?
Please post your responses to the blog site:
(http://lhcndeeperlifeclass.blogspot.com/).

Thanks for your participation.
John

Chapter 17 - Spiritual Partners

Chapter 17 referenced 7 scripture passages to highlight “accountability partners” as an aid in your personal spiritual growth, as follows:

John 13:1-35
1 Timothy 3:1-7
Philemon 1-25
Philippians 2:19-30
1 Samuel 20:16-42
Acts 9:10-19
1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Prayer:

“Begin to pray that God will lead you to someone with whom you can be open and prayerful about both the efforts and progress in the spiritual life. For someone with whom you can begin to be mutually accountable for each other’s journey in faith.”

Hymn:

The hymn for Chapter 17 was “I’ve Found a Friend, O Such a Friend” by James G. Small. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

Meditation Selections:

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of M. Basil Pennington, Tilden H. Edwards, Frederick Buechner, Glenn Clark, Thomas R. Kelly and Philip S. Watson’s compilation from “The Message of the Wesleys”. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:
· “Anyone who has been graced with true friendship knows the cost and knows the worth.”
· “When someone else knows and cares, then we pay that much more attention to what we’re doing.”
· “Whom you should see or respond to will depend on many things, including your age, sex, experience, personality, spiritual path, …faith tradition.”
· “Do you love the spirit of your friend, or do you just love the outside of him? Each person has a slightly different quality of personality, a different soul through which he expresses the great God Spirit. If you penetrate to that inner soul and love it …then he is really and truly your friend.”
· “It is as if the boundaries of our self were enlarged, as if we were within them and as if they were within us. Their strength, given to them by God, becomes our strength, and our joy, given to us by God, becomes their joy.”
· “The (Wesley’s) Class Meetings … were Christ-centered fellowships. …they could go on to share their Christian experience with one another – their troubles and triumphs on the Christian way, or on their quest for that way. …always with the aim of helping one another grow in grace, in faith and hope and love.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 17 not quoted) mean to you? Please post your responses to the blog site (http://lhcndeeperlifeclass.blogspot.com/).

Thanks for your participation.
John

Chapter 16 - Journaling

Chapter 16 used 7 scripture passages to encourage the use of journaling as a tool for personal spiritual growth, as follows:

Ephesians 6:10-18
Jeremiah 17:5-10
2 Corinthians 4:7-5:5
2 Corinthians 10:11
1 Chronicles 16:8-16
Luke 2:8-19
Luke 1:1-4

The hymn for Chapter 16 was "I Must Tell Jesus” by Elisha A. Hoffman. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Edward J. Farrell, Madeleine L’Engle, Susan Annette Muto, Elizabeth O’Connor, Morton T. Kelsey and Ira Progoff. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:
· “One of the ways I have learned to pray is by writing.”
· “A help to me in working things out has been to keep an honest – as honest as the human being can be – unpublishable journal.”
· “The journal is not so much an integral part of the building as a scaffolding which is needed to construct the building and then needed later to repair the structure. But the size of the building one can construct without scaffolding is limited indeed.”
· “A journal is not only a record of events that touch and transform us; it is a private space in which we can meet ourselves in relation to others and God.”
· “Writing stops the flow of experience so that we can look at it again and gain insight into what was really occurring…”
· “…there is not a right way or wrong way to keep a journal.”
· “The keeping of a pilgrim journal requires a conscious, unswerving commitment to honesty with one’s self… This takes a lot of courage, a lot of endurance, a commitment to press on when we want to shrink back. The goal is to make Jesus Christ the Lord of our life.”
· “Among our primary tools for growth are reflection, self-observation and self-questioning. The journal is one of the most helpful vehicles we have for cultivating these great powers in ourselves. …Journal writing is enforced reflection.”
· “The journal not only gives us a way of dealing with the feelings that are often ready to burst out of us, but offers us objectivity about them as well. How different ideas seem as they lie naked on the page before us than in the moment of ‘inspiration’. Sometimes they appear less and sometimes even more inspired.”
· “The keeping of private journals has played a particularly important role in the history of religion… The individual uses the journal as a means of measuring his progress… Journals are used especially in those situations where a person is having difficulty in attaining his goal. A private journal is … for recording and then for evaluating how far he has attained his goals and to what degree he has failed. It is helpful up to a point in providing a means of reflection for the contents of the life.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 16 not quoted) mean to you? Please post your responses to the blog site.
John

Chapter 15 - Bible Reading

Chapter 15 referenced 7 scripture passages to heighten our understanding of the imperative of reading and knowing the Bible:

John 8:31-32
Hebrews 4:12-13
1 Peter 1:13-25
Deuteronomy 30:11-14
John 5:31-47
2 Peter 1:3-21
2 Timothy 3:10-17

The hymn for Chapter 15 was "Lamp of Our Feet” by Bernard D. Barton. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of William Johnston, Edward J. Farrell, Gretchen Gaebelein Hull, Frederick Buechner, Ira Progoff, Martin E. Marty, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, George Cornell, and “A Compend of Wesley’s Theology” edited by Robert W. Burtner and Robert E. Chiles. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

· “…the force and power in the word of God is so great that it remains the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her children, the food of the soul, the pure and perennial source of spiritual life.”
· “It is Scripture, the Word of God that is the reality-depth of our prayer, for ‘we speak to Him when we pray: we hear Him when we read the divine sayings.’ …What would happen to us if we would more deeply believe the truth – God speaks! God speaks to me! …God is speaking directly to me in Scripture.”
· “Maintain at all costs a daily time of Scripture reading and prayer.”
· “What I began to see was that the Bible is not essentially, as I had always more or less supposed, a book of ethical principles, of moral exhortations, of cautionary tales about exemplary people, of uplifting thoughts… I saw it instead as a great, tattered compendium of writings, the underlying and unifying purpose of all of which is to show how God works through the Jacobs and Jabboks of history to make himself known to the world and to draw the world back to himself. …Until you can read the story of Adam and Eve, of Abraham and Sarah, of David and Bathsheba, as your own story, you have not really understood it.”
· “…God’s word whether written or spoken may be compared to a mirror. Spiritually, the eyes of your soul are your reason, your consciousness is your spiritual face. …if you have a dirty spot on your physical face your eyes cannot see that spot … without a mirror … ; so it is spiritually … that without reading or hearing God’s word it is not possible for a soul blinded by habitual sin to see the foul spot upon his consciousness.”
· “The Bible has to be plundered and searched for what has to do with one’s promise.”
· “…this word which sets us at once to work and obedience, is the rock on which to build our house.”
· “The Bible is the record of those divine breakthroughs into human history. ‘God’s search for man,’ it is described, rather than being our search for God. …Unlike most religious literature, it is not chiefly a collection of noble sayings, but a drumroll of events, people, struggles, great and terrible, of frailty, doubts and heroism, of the ultimate might of right. …It is ‘salvation history,’…a vivid…account of God’s persistent, unrelenting quest for us and our stumbling, often faithless response.”
· “I want to know one thing – the way to heaven: how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way… . He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! …here is knowledge enough for me.”
· “We are to hear. All of us. That is what the whole Bible is calling out. ‘Hear, O Israel!’ But hear what? …The Bible is hundreds upon hundreds of voices all calling at once out of the past and clamoring for our attention… . And somewhere in the midst of them all one particular voice speaks out that is unlike any other voice… . Come, the voice says. Unto me. All ye. Every last one.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 15 not quoted) mean to you? Please post your responses to the blog site.

John

Chapter 14 - Study

Chapter 14 used the following 7 scripture passages to sharpen our appreciation for the value of Bible and devotional study:

Philippians 4:8-9
1 Timothy 4:6-16
Deuteronomy 17:18-20
2 Peter 1:3-8
Psalm 119:97-104
Luke 8:16-18
Proverbs 2:1-22

The hymn for Chapter 14 was "How Blest Are They Who Hear God’s Word” by Johan Nordahl Brun. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Anthony Bloom, Evelyn Underhill, Susan Annette Muto, Richard J. Foster, Norman Cousins, Paul Tournier, Thomas Merton, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Henri J. Nouwen, and Philip S. Watson’s compilation of “The Message of the Wesleys”. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:
· “So there is need for some sort of prayer which is not spontaneous but which is truly rooted in conviction. …It is a question of learning by heart enough meaningful passages, from the psalms or from the prayers of the saints. …one day when you are so completely low, so profoundly desperate that you cannot call out of your soul any spontaneous expression, any spontaneous wording, you will discover that these words come up and offer themselves to you as a gift of God, as a gift of the Church, as a gift of holiness, helping our simple lack of strength.”
· “The question of the proper feeding of our own devotional life must of course include the rightful use of spiritual reading. And with spiritual reading we may include formal or informal meditation upon Scripture or religious truth: the brooding consideration, the savouring – as it were the chewing of the cud – in which we digest that which we have absorbed, and apply it to our own needs.”
· “Formative reading thus involves a shift…from ‘form-giving,’ in which we are inclined to impose our meaning on the text, to ‘form-receiving,’ in which we let its meaning influence us. …The text is like a bridge between the limits of our life here and now and the possibilities awaiting us if we open our minds and hearts to God.”
· “Many Christians…may be faithful in church attendance and earnest in fulfilling their religious duties and still they are not changed. …Why? Because they have never taken up one of the central ways God uses to change us: study. Jesus made it unmistakably clear that it is the knowledge of the truth that will set us free.”
· “I have learned to distrust speed reading and instant knowledge. Few joys of the mind can compare with the experience of lingering over deft character description, or hovering over a well-wrought passage.”
· “Countless writings underlie the urgency…of rediscovering the value of meditation, of silence, of prayer, of devotion. …The religious life must be fed. …If we bring our minds back again and again to God, we shall by the same inevitable law be gradually giving the central place to God, not only in our inner selves, but also in our practical everyday lives.”
· “Spiritual life is not mental life. …Nor…a life of sensation, a life of feeling… Nor does the spiritual life exclude thought and feeling. It needs both. …If man is to live, he must be all alive, body, soul, mind, heart, spirit.”
· “It cannot be that the people should grow in grace unless they give themselves to reading. A reading people will always be a knowing people. A people who talk much will know little. …Fix some part of every day for private exercises. …Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. …there is no other way else you will be a trifler all your days….”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 14 not quoted) mean to you? Please post your responses to the blog site.
John

Chapter 13 - Meditation

Chapter 13 focused our attention on 7 scripture passages designed to enlighten our understanding of the Biblical use of Meditation:

Ecclesiastes 12:1-7
Colossians 4:4-9
Luke 16:19-31
Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Psalm 119:97-104
Joshua 1:1-9
Luke 20:41-47

The hymn for Chapter 13 was "O Thou in Whose Presence” by Joseph Swain. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Susan Annette Muto, J. I. Packer, Dorothee Soelle, Kenneth Leech, Mary Strong, Morton T. Kelsey and Thomas Merton. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:
· “Listening means being released from willfulness, arrogance, and self-assertiveness. It calls for respectful presence…, for humble openness… Listening is only possible to the degree that we let go of the grip of our egotistic will….”
· “Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God; as a means of communion with God.”
· “The creation of a framework, an atmosphere, a structure, is not prayer, but it is a necessary preliminary to prayer. It is within the atmosphere of inner discipline and simplicity that prayer can begin to grow.”
· “When you meditate or abide in your quiet times of communion, you do not charge in and do something, like saying, ‘I will now be good and move mountains by my act of faith.’ No, you water your garden, knowing that these ideas are growing into a heavenly garden; the indwelling spirit doeth the work, not you: you merely water it.”
· “Living things need an appropriate climate in order to grow and bear fruit. …Meditation is the attempt to provide the soul with the proper environment in which to grow and become. …The flowering of the human soul…is more a matter of the proper psychological and spiritual environment than of particular gifts or disposition or heroism. …Meditation is simple and natural, like a seed growing and becoming a tree. At the same time it requires the right conditions, conditions not provided by the secular world today. If meditation is to touch reality, we must seek out the right climate.”
· “…successful meditation is much more than reasoning or thinking. …All good meditative prayer is a conversion of our entire self to God.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 13 not quoted) mean to you? Please post your responses to the blog site.
John

Chapter 12 - Intercession

Chapter 12 directed our attention to 7 scripture passages to enlarge our understanding of the Biblical use of Intercession (with my personally assigned title for each passage):

Numbers 14: 11-20 (Intercessory love is greater than self-interest)
1 Samuel 12: 12-25 (Samuel’s intercessory prayer for the nation)
Psalm 106: 1-48 (The vicious cycle of sin and intercession)
Genesis 18: 16-33 (Abraham’s intercession)
Hebrews 7: 23-25 (Jesus is OUR intercessor)
Romans 8:28-39 (Our intercessor at God’s side)
1 Timothy 2: 1-8 (Pray with intercession, etc., for everyone)

The hymn for Chapter 12 was "Lord, As to Thy Dear Cross We Flee” by C. M. Windsor. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of George MacDonald (edited by C. S. Lewis), Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas a Kempis, John White, Andrew Murray, Anthony Padovano, and Henri J. Nouwen. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:
· “ Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day. …Intercession means no more than to bring our brother into the presence of God… To make intercession means to grant our brother the same right that we have received, namely, to stand before Christ and share in his mercy.”
· “We should, therefore, bear with the tempers of others and endeavor to give no cause of uneasiness to anyone on account of our own.”
· “What does bless mean? Is the word an excuse on your part for not being specific (about something in the life of (Jack) the one for whom you are praying)? …But if nothing dramatic is happening to Jack, …how are you supposed to pray? Bless comes in handy. You probably use it at different times to mean such things, ‘Do whatever is best for Jack and make things work out for him. Make him a better Christian in some way or another. Make him happy,’ and so on. Are these the things God wants for Jack? What does God want? …I know you have been working in his life. What is it he most needs? …Play it God’s way. That is what partnership in prayer is all about.”
· “The thought of our fellowship in the intercession of Jesus reminds us of what He has taught us more than once before, how all these wonderful prayer-promises have as their aim and justification, the glory of God in the manifestation of His kingdom and the salvation of sinners. …Let us each find out what the work is, and who the souls are entrusted to our special prayers; let us make our intercession for them our life of fellowship with God…”
· “Prayer is a willingness to admit we can do something even if not everything and that, although nothing is done without God, God does nothing without us. …We have judged the value of prayer by the amount of time given to it rather than by its intensity.”
· “The power of the prayer of the heart is precisely that through it all that which is on our mind becomes prayer.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 12 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John

Chapter 11 - Petition

Chapter 11 selected 7 scripture passages to help us study the Biblical practice of petition (with my personally assigned title for each passage):

2 Thessalonians 1: 1-12 (Petition for the Thessalonians)
Colossians 1: 1-13 (Petition for the Colossians)
Matthew 7: 7-12 (Jesus says: Ask, seek, knock”)
James 5: 13-20 (Practical petitions)
Genesis 18: 16-33 (Intercessory petitions)
John 14: 1-14 (Properly prioritizing petitions)
1 John 5: 13-21 (Petition confidently)

The hymn for the week was "My Faith Looks Up to Thee” by Ray Palmer. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Albert E. Day, Georgia Harkness, Glaphre Gilliland, James Stewart, Will Campbell, John Powell and D. M. M’Intyre. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

· “ ‘What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’ … There is a limitation in the passage itself which is usually overlooked; ‘What things soever ye desire, when ye pray.’ There are many things we naturally desire… but those same things disappear when we begin to pray. They and prayer just do not seem to go together.”
· “In many discussions of prayer, petition if not ruled out is placed on the lower rounds of the ladder.”
· “Seek God first… if you seek success…, acceptance…, increased income…, vindication…, happiness…, health…, to be useful…, to be helpful to others…, to be spiritual… We tend to use God instead of seek Him. We want God to do our bidding more than we want Him.”
· “Jesus never outgrew it… (petitionary prayer).”
· “When you pray, say ‘Our Father.’ … Fathers are kinfolks! … kinfolks have claims and designs on each other.”
· “The prayer of faith, like some plant rooted in a fruitful soil, draws its virtue from a disposition which has been brought into conformity with the mind of Christ.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 11 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John

Chapter 10 - Confession

Chapter 10 used 7 selected scripture passages to help us begin to understand the Biblical view of confession (with my personally assigned title for each passage):

I John 2: 1-14 (Talk the talk or walk the walk)
Hosea 1: 1-11 (The consequences of no confession)
Romans 10: 1-13 (Unconditional surrender)
Leviticus 26: 32-45 (Disobedience vs. confession)
Nehemiah 9: 1-3 (Formal, public confession)
Proverbs 28: 13 (Confession triggers mercy)
Jeremiah 3: 11-13 (God pleads for Israel’s confession)

The hymn for the week was "Just As I Am” by Charlotte Elliott. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Henri J. Nouwen, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Richard J. Foster, Paul Tournier, George MacDonald (edited by C. S. Lewis), and Hannah Whitall Smith. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

· “…the rich find it easier to call sin a virtue. When the poor sin, they call it a sin; when they see holiness, they identify it as such.”
· “He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone.”
· “There are two dangers that a Christian community which practices confession must guard against. … First… it is not a good thing for one person to be the confessor for all the others. … Second… (the confessant) must guard against ever making a pious work of his confession. … Confession as a routine duty is spiritual death.”
· “We may trust God with our past as heartily as with our future.”
· “A sudden failure is no reason for being discouraged and giving up all as lost. Neither is the integrity of our doctrine touched by it. We are not preaching a state, but a walk. The highway of holiness is not a place, but a way.”
· “We can only walk in this path by looking continually unto Jesus...”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 10 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John

Chapter 9 - Adoration

Chapter 9 introduced us to 7 scripture passages to help us understand the Biblical view of adoration (with my personally assigned title for each passage):

• Deuteronomy 6: 4-25 (Remember God in everything)
• Isaiah 43: 1-13 (Knowledge instills adoration)
• Genesis 1: 1-31, 2: 1-3 (Adoration inevitably follows creation)
• I Peter 1: 3-9 (Adoration developed by faith)
• Job 38: 1-33, 42: 1-6 (A focus on God brings adoration)
• Revelation 21: 1-7 (Unavoidable adoration)
• Luke 1: 46-55 (Mary’s song of adoration)

The hymn for the week was "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” by Henry Van Dyke. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Edward J. Farrell, Albert E. Day, A. W. Tozer, Annie Dillard, Kenneth Leech, Martin E. Marty, C. Fitzsimons Allison, Philip S. Watson (in a compilation from The Message of the Wesleys) and Frederick Buechner. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

· “Thus ‘adoration’ in its religious and original sense – the bowing down in awe and reverence, tinged with the fear of God – has become largely lost in superficial wonder and feeling.”
· “We never really adore Him, until we arrive at the moment when we worship Him for what He is in Himself, apart from any consideration of the impact of His Divine Selfhood upon our desires and our welfare. Then we love Him for Himself alone. Then we adore Him…”
· “There is a place in the religious experience where we love God for Himself alone… If this should seem too mystical, too unreal, we offer no proof and make no effort to defend our position. This can only be understood by those who have experienced it.”
· “ ‘Religion is adoration’ wrote Von Hugel. As in meditation, adoring prayer calls for a concentration. But it is not a fierce mental concentration so much as a focusing of our love, an outpouring of wonder toward God.”
· “Rabbi Zalman said of the Lord: ‘I don’t want your paradise, I do not want your coming world. I want you, and you only.’ …The ancient Hebrew loved God for the sake of a long life in which to enjoy creation, but he also was to love the Lord for the Lord’s sake. …A believer shifts away from a bartering concept in which one loves God for the sake of a transaction. Now there is a relation in which the trusting one is simply reposed in the divine will.”
· “The silent treatment is an extremely powerful weapon of aggression.”
· “Your life is continued to you upon earth for no other purpose than this, that you may know, love and serve God on earth, and enjoy him to all eternity.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 9 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John

Chapter 8 - Silence

Chapter 8 cited 7 scripture passages to focus on the value of silence as a help in our ability to hear what God may be trying to say to us (with my personally assigned title for each passage):

Revelation 3: 20-22 (Listening enables hearing).
James 3: 1-12 (Guard the tongue).
Ecclesiastes 5: 1-3 (Listening beats talking).
I Kings 19: 9-13 (The still, small voice).
Psalm 46 (Be still to know God’s presence).
John 10: 1-15 (Knowing the Shepherd’s voice).
Habakkuk 2: 20 (Silence in God’s presence).

The hymn for the week was "Still, Still with Thee” by Harriet Beecher Stowe. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Tilden H. Edwards, M. Basil Pennington, Dom Helder Camara, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John White, Richard J. Foster, Susan Annette Muto, Thomas R. Kelly, Thomas Merton, Anthony Padovano and Henri J. Nouwen. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

• “…the only path to life, to freedom, to peace, to true love…begins with silence.”
• “…the grace You grant me of silence without loneliness, …to clamour for my brothers imprisoned in a loneliness without silence!”
• “Silence is the very presence of God – always there. But activity hides it. We need to leave activity long enough to discover the Presence – then we can return to activity with it.”
• “…the religion instructor at a Christian high school decided to introduce silent meditation into one of his classes. He gave the students instructions simply to ‘be’ during the silence: to be relaxed and awake, open to life as it is, with nothing to do but appreciate whatever comes. Week by week he slowly increased the amount of time to a maximum of ten minutes. …One boy summarized the general feeling of the class: ‘It is the only time in my day when I am not expected to achieve something’.”
• “The Word comes not to the chatterer but to him that holds his tongue. The stillness of the temple is the sign of the holy presence of God in His Word. …Silence is the simple stillness of the individual under the Word of God. …Silence is nothing else but waiting for God’s Word and coming from God’s Word with a blessing. …(It) is something that needs to be practiced and learned. Real silence, real stillness, …comes only as the sober consequence of spiritual stillness.”
• “(God) is more anxious to speak to us than we are to hear him.”
• “The disciplined person is the person who can do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.”
• “Silence can be an escape… But it can also be an opening to God.”
• “Silence becomes like a creative space in which we regain perspective on the whole.”
• “We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them… .”
• “ ‘Father’ sometimes becomes the only word silence allows as we express inexpressibly all we feel and want and reach for.”
• “…silence is the discipline by which the inner fire of God is tended and kept alive. …Timely silence, then, is precious, for it is nothing less than the mother of the wisest thoughts.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 8 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John

Chapter 7 - Making Moments

Chapter 7 used the 7 scripture passages to illustrate the kind of moments that may seem mundane at the time but then can become seared in our memories (with my personally assigned title for each passage):

Luke 24: 13-35 (The moment of realization).
Mark 9: 2-8 (The moment of transfiguration).
I Chronicles 29: 10-30 (A moment of acknowledgement and praise).
Revelation 3: 14-22 (A moment of stark truth).
I Samuel 7: 7-17 (The “Ebenezer” moment).
Mark 14: 1-9 (The anointing moment).
Matthew 17: 1-13 (The transfiguration moment).

The hymn for the week was "This Is My Father’s World ". (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of John Powell, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Evelyn Underhill, Howard Thurman, Truman Capote, Tilden H. Edwards and Jean-Pierre de Caussade (translated by Kitty Muggeridge). (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

• Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:
  “It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.”
• “The supernatural can and does seek and find us, in and through our daily normal experience: the invisible in the visible. There is no need to be peculiar in order to find God.”
• “A king and queen are the center of “where it’s at,” so they move with easy, royal bearing. …Looking deeply at our lineage, we see that we are of the highest royal line: the royal image of God is in us – covered over, but indestructibly there. …We mainly need to attentively relax and dissolve the amnesia that obscures our true identity.”
• “With all the suddenness and jolt of a heart attack, I was filled with an experiential awareness of the presence of God within me.”
• “The present moment holds infinite riches beyond your wildest dreams but you will only enjoy them to the extent of your faith and love.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 7 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John

Chapter 6 - Solitude

Chapter 6 utilized 7 scripture passages to spotlight how solitude was helpful to those taking advantage of it (with my personally assigned title for each passage):

• Luke 5: 12-16 (The priority of private prayer)
• Matthew 4: 1-11 (Quality quiet time builds strength)
• Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13 (A time for everything)
• Luke 22: 39-46 (How solitude can strengthen)
• Galatians 1: 11-24 (Solitude precedes Service)
• Luke 17: 20-21 (The true "kingdom of God")
• Psalms 37: 1-7 (Lessons learned)

The hymn for the week was "I Need Thee Every Hour ". (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Henri J. Nouwen, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, Tilden H. Edwards, Edward J. Farrell, Morton T. Kelsey, S. D. Gordon, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas 'a Kempis and Andrew Murray. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

• “Deserts, silence, solitudes are 'not necessarily places but states of mind and heart'. ...it is God who makes solitude, deserts and silences holy. ...One of the first steps toward solitude is a departure."
• "...Jesus' guidance ... was a rhythm of dealing with individuals, groups and crowds ... There was one other dimension of this rhythm: solitude."
• "As long as my mind is raging with thoughts, ideas, plans and fears, I cannot listen significantly to God or any other dimension of reality. ... In quietness we find detachment and so untie ourselves from total attention to outer, physical reality."
• "How much prayer meant to Jesus! ... There was no emergency, no difficulty, no necessity, no temptation that would not yield to prayer, as He practiced it."
• "Exterior retirement is not sufficient ... but interior retirement is likewise necessary. ... A soul which is separated from all the amusements of the senses seeks and finds in God that pure satisfaction which it can never meet within creatures. ...with a view of honoring His sovereign dominion by the complete destruction of sin in itself, it renounces all desire of finding any other satisfaction than that of pleasing Him."
• "The desert initiates us into the life of the spirit by helping us to discover who we most deeply are."

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 6 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John

Chapter 5 - Desire

Chapter 5 selected 7 scripture passages to illuminate the depth of desire we can or should have for God (with my personally assigned title for each passage):

• Philippians 3: 7-11 (Knowing Christ surpasses everything)


• Psalm 63: 1-8 (The only satisfier is knowing God)


• Luke 9: 46-50 (The least is the greatest)


• John 12: 1-8 (Getting priorities rights)


• I Peter 2: 1-10 (Man’s inverted wisdom)


• Romans 8: 18-25 (The surpassing hope in God)


• John 7: 37-44 (The surpassing thirst-quenching of the Holy Spirit)

The hymn for the week was "Oh! To Be Like Thee ". (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Catherine de Hueck Doherty, M. Basil Pennington, Thomas R. Kelly, Henri J. Nouwen, E. M. Bounds, A. W. Tozer, John Powell and William Barclay. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

• “Prayer is a contact of love between God and man.”
  (The next paragraph said that “married people don’t need a bedroom to make love”, explaining that “making love” does not necessarily mean what people immediately think it means, but can consist of looking into each other’s eyes, or holding hands, or simply being aware of each other in the midst of a crowd. I was reminded of the love poem that Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote to Robert Browning:

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.”

• “I find myself asking what I am getting out of this retreat, but I realized today that that is the wrong question. This retreat is not for me, but for Him. It is to give Him, at least for this little while, the fullest attention and love that I can, freed as I am from many other cares and concerns that ordinarily clutter my life…”
• “…there is a deeper, an internal simplification of the whole of one’s personality.… This amazing simplification comes when we “center down”, when life is lived with singleness of eye, from a holy Center … and we are wholly yielded to Him.”
• “The Lord will reveal himself and enter into our lives to the extent we (really desire) and believe this is possible and want it.”
• “Desire is not merely a simple wish; it is a deep seated craving; an intense longing… Without desire, prayer is a meaningless mumble of words. … And yet even if it be discovered that desire is honestly absent, we should pray anyway… pray whether we feel like it or not, and not allow our feelings to determine our habits of prayer. … we ought to pray for desire to pray… so that praying, henceforth, should be an expression of ‘the soul’s sincere desire’.”
• “To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love… Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God.”
• “It is this desire (for something more than human resources can promise or produce) that carries us beyond what we can see into the darkness and obscurity of faith. It is a hunger that can be satisfied in God alone. … This inner restlessness and disquiet can well be God sowing the first seeds of faith in the human heart.”
• “Do you desire righteousness with that intensity of desire with which a starving man desires food, and a man parched with thirst desires water?... In effect Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Do you want to become my disciples enough to give me the unconditional first place in your life?’ ”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 5 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John

Chapter 4 (second session) Discipline

Having skipped a week because of severe weather, we were able to resume our discussion of Discipline this past Thursday night. The discussion quickly evolved into a well-participated discussion on "sanctification".

The Manual of the Church of the Nazarene (PDF version available at: http://media.premierstudios.com/nazarene/docs/Manual2005_09.pdf

beginning on page 30 of that document explains it as follows:

III. The Holy Spirit
3. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the
Triune Godhead, that He is ever present and efficiently active
in and with the Church of Christ, convincing the world
of sin, regenerating those who repent and believe, sanctifying
believers, and guiding into all truth as it is in Jesus.
(John 7:39; 14:15-18, 26; 16:7-15; Acts 2:33; 15:8-9; Romans 8:1-27; Galatians
3:1-14; 4:6; Ephesians 3:14-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8; 2 Thessalonians
2:13; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 John 3:24; 4:13)

X. Entire Sanctification
13. We believe that entire sanctification is that act of God,
subsequent to regeneration, by which believers are made
free from original sin, or depravity, and brought into a state
of entire devotement to God, and the holy obedience of love
made perfect.

It is wrought by the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and
comprehends in one experience the cleansing of the heart
from sin and the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy
Spirit, empowering the believer for life and service.
Entire sanctification is provided by the blood of Jesus, is
wrought instantaneously by faith, preceded by entire consecration;
and to this work and state of grace the Holy Spirit
bears witness.

This experience is also known by various terms representing
its different phases, such as “Christian perfection,” “perfect
love,” “heart purity,” “the baptism with the Holy Spirit,”
“the fullness of the blessing,” and “Christian holiness.”

14. We believe that there is a marked distinction between
a pure heart and a mature character. The former is obtained
in an instant, the result of entire sanctification; the latter is
the result of growth in grace.

We believe that the grace of entire sanctification includes
the impulse to grow in grace. However, this impulse must be
consciously nurtured, and careful attention given to the requisites
and processes of spiritual development and improvement
in Christlikeness of character and personality.Without
such purposeful endeavor, one’s witness may be impaired
and the grace itself frustrated and ultimately lost.
(Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:25-27; Malachi 3:2-3; Matthew 3:11-12;
Luke 3:16-17; John 7:37-39; 14:15-23; 17:6-20; Acts 1:5; 2:1-4; 15:8-9; Romans
6:11-13, 19; 8:1-4, 8-14; 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 6:14—7:1; Galatians
2:20; 5:16-25; Ephesians 3:14-21; 5:17-18, 25-27; Philippians 3:10-15;
Colossians 3:1-17; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; Hebrews 4:9-11; 10:10-17;
12:1-2; 13:12; 1 John 1:7, 9)
(“Christian perfection,” “perfect love”: Deuteronomy 30:6; Matthew 5:43-
48; 22:37-40; Romans 12:9-21; 13:8-10; 1 Corinthians 13; Philippians
3:10-15; Hebrews 6:1; 1 John 4:17-18
“Heart purity”: Matthew 5:8; Acts 15:8-9; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:3
“Baptism with the Holy Spirit”: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:25-27;
Malachi 3:2-3; Matthew 3:11-12; Luke 3:16-17; Acts 1:5; 2:1-4; 15:8-9
“Fullness of the blessing”: Romans 15:29
“Christian holiness”: Matthew 5:1—7:29; John 15:1-11; Romans 12:1—
15:3; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Ephesians 4:17—5:20; Philippians 1:9-11; 3:12-
15; Colossians 2:20—3:17; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 4:7-8; 5:23; 2 Timothy
2:19-22; Hebrews 10:19-25; 12:14; 13:20-21; 1 Peter 1:15-16; 2 Peter 1:1-
11; 3:18; Jude 20-21).

If this doesn't give you plenty of reading material, let me know! :-) Also let me know if you have other questions on this.

As we move on into Chapter 5, you might want to review the first 4 chapters to see if there is any discernable thread beginning to tie these chapters together.

Looking forward to seeing you Thursday night!
John

Chapter 4 (first session) Discipline

Chapter 4 referenced 7 scripture passages dealing with discipline in the Bible (with my personally assigned title for each passage):

• John 3:25-36 (Certifying God as truthful)
• Luke 12:35-48 (Readiness and Responsibility)
• Matthew 25:14-30 (Risk and rewards)
• Romans 12:1-2 (How to know God’s will)
• Luke 2:41-49 (Acting on God’s will)
• Deuteronomy 27:1-8 (Publishing God’s will)
• I Thessalonians 4:1-12 (Sanctification is God’s will)

The hymn for the week was "Sweet Will of God". (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Annie Dillard, Virginia Stem Owens, Emilie Griffin, Edward J. Farrell, Albert C. Outler, Tilden H. Edwards, Henri J. Nouwen, Evelyn Underhill and Brother Lawrence. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

• …life … in time is not a stumbling from one ecstatic epiphany to another. The enormous task is to keep your eyes open, your wick trimmed, your lamp filled, your powder dry. … There are no two ways about it. You’ve got your eyes open or you don’t. … Whatever the great human enterprise currently in hand, the point is to watch. All the rest is addenda. Seeking the kingdom is the essential (thing).
• Prayer is a matter of keeping at it. The rewards will come no other way. … You should have it firm in your mind that prayer is neither to impress other people or to impress God. … The goal, in prayer, is to give oneself away. The Lord loves us – perhaps most of all – when we fail and try again.
• Prayer tomorrow begins today or there will be no prayer tomorrow. … Prayer is a journey, a path that is created only by walking in it. (Editor’s comment: Prayer is not a fly-over.) … Eventually one is led out to the desert where one discovers the new creation and becomes a new creature.
• The denying ourselves, and the taking up our cross, in the full extent of the expression, is not a thing of small concern: It is not expedient only, as are some of the circumstantials of religion: but it is absolutely, indispensably necessary, either to our becoming or continuing His disciples.
• …spiritual discipline…is to aid human digestion of the Holy, so that we do not 1) reject his nourishment, 2) throw it up by not allowing room inside for it, 3) mistake “artificial flavors” for the real thing, or 4) use its strength for building an ego empire.
• Yes, I notice, maybe only retrospectively, that my days and weeks are different days and weeks when they are held together by these regular “useless” times (time with God). God is greater than my senses, …thoughts, …heart. …when I feel this inner pull to return again to that (time with God), I realize that something is happening that is so deep that it becomes like the riverbed…
• …being a disciple means living a disciplined life…
• You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.
• One way to recollect the mind easily in the time of prayer… is not to let it wander too far, …(but to) …keep it strictly in the presence of God.
• Some of us are more naturally night people or morning people. …Most important though is not the number of times or duration (of our prayers), but on deciding on some time and duration and sticking to it, at least for a trial period of a few weeks. …we treat it like brushing our teeth: it is just something we “do”, without agonizing over it each time.
  

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 3 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John

Chapter 3 Addressing God

Chapter 3 selected 7 scripture passages to illustrate how God was addressed by some of the people in the Bible (with my personally assigned title for each passage):

Luke 10:25-28 (The testing lawyer calls Him “Teacher”)
Matthew 6:1-4 (Give confidentially, except for the Father’s knowledge)
Exodus 20:1-17 (The Ten Commandments – “I am the Lord your God”)
John 1:1-18 (the Word)
Proverbs 8:22-36 (I, the Lord, was there before…)
Romans 5:1-11 (God as Christ, showing faith, grace, hope and reconciliation)
Luke 18:9-14 (Approaching God in different attitudes)

The hymn for the week was "O God, Our Help in Ages Past".
(If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Anthony Bloom, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Annie Dillard, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Martin Buber, and Kenneth Leech. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

• …think of the warmth, the depth and intensity of your prayer when it concerns someone you love or something which matters to your life. …Does it mean that God matters to you? No, …it simply means that the subject matter of your prayer matters to you.
  
• What is decisive? Decisive is not our “feeling” but our “certainty” of His being close to us… Decisive is not our emotion but our “conviction”. The true source of prayer…is not an emotion but an insight…insight into the mystery of reality…
  
• It is all right – believe it or not – to be people.
  
• Nothing could be more intensely individual than the prayers of the Bible. …There are as many different ways of praying as there are different individuals.
  
• “How can you bring yourself to say ‘God’ time after time?” …It is the most heavy-laden of all human words. None has become so soiled, so mutilated. …But we may not give it up. …We cannot cleanse the word ‘God’ and we cannot make it whole; but, defiled and mutilated as it is, we can raise it from the ground and set it over an hour of great care.
  
• Jesus is clearly encouraging a relationship with God which is marked by childlikeness.
  
• Unless we can find the right name for God, we have no free, real, joyful, open access to Him. …There are moments when the sacred writers…burst out with something which has the quality of a nickname (a “personal name”)… Remember the Psalm in which…suddenly David bursts out, “You, my Joy!” That is the moment when the whole Psalm comes to life, …evidencing a personal relationship.
  

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 3 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John

Chapter 2 - Going Inward

Chapter 2 looked at 7 scripture passages selected to focus our attention on some specific aspects of looking inward by people in the Bible (with my personally assigned title for each):

• Isaiah 55 (Free Spiritual Food)


• John 3:1-8 (You must be born again)


• 2 Cor. 4:7-18 (The surpassing value of eternals)


• Matthew 15:1-20 (The superiority of God's commands)


• John 15:1-17 (The life-relationship of the vine and the branches)


• Ephesians 3:11-21 (The mystery that is Christ)


• Matthew 11:25-30 (The mystery of resting in Christ)

The hymn for the week was "It Is Well With My Soul".

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Igumen Chariton of Valamo, Dorothee Soelle, Anthony Bloom, Emilie Griffin, Evelyn Underhill, Edward J. Farrell, Elizabeth O'Connor, Thomas R. Kelly, Norman Cousins, Tilden H. Edwards and Kenneth Leech. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

• "The (prayer) closet is twofold, outer and inner, material and spiritual: the material place is of wood or stone, the spiritual closet is the heart or mind...."


• "Each step of one's own (on the journey of religious experience) is worth more than all the knowledge and insight of others."


• "People who pray, really pray, don't talk about it much. ... In order to find a person who prays, you have to look for clues: charitableness, good temper, patience, a fair ability to handle stress, resonance, openness to others. What happens to people who pray is that their inward life gradually takes over from their outward life. That is not to say that they are any less active. They may be competent (professionals). But their hearts lie in the inner life and they are moved by that."


• "Each of us is the artist of his own life."


• "To know oneself is a vital element in prayer."

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 2 not referenced) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John

Week 1 - Authentic Experiences

Week 1 pointed us to 7 scripture passages selected to focus our attention on some specific incidents experienced by people in the Bible (with my personally assigned title for each):

1. 2 Cor. 12:7-10 (Power thru weakness)


2. Gen. 32:22-31 (Wrestling with God)


3. Philippians 3:7-12 (Losing to gain Christ)


4. John 4:1-26 (Christ revealed as Living Water)


5. 1 Cor. 2:6-16 (Wisdom from the Spirit)


6. Jeremiah 17:5-10 (Reliance on man vs. God)


7. Job 42:1-6 (Real awareness of God)

The hymn for the week was "I Know Whom I Have Believed".

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Emilie Griffin, Dorothee Soelle, Kallistos Ware, Joshua Heschel, William Johnston, Frederick Buechner, Howard Thurman and Etty Hillesum. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

This week's class discussion gravitated to Jesus' declaration to Nicodemus regarding new birth and the need for baptism by both water and Spirit. (See John 3:1-8, but especially verses 5&6.)

I know what I've always been taught about these verses, but before I launch into that here, as well as the gist of our discussion which I found very interesting, I would like to know your thoughts - not only about those verses but about anything else covered in the week's scriptures or meditations.

Hopefully we can then conduct an online dialog through this blog and not be so frustrated by the one hour limitation on Thursday nights. Please give me your feedback.

John