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