Chapter 27 clarified the “Place” to meet God in our lives in 7 Bible passages, as follows:
Hebrews 10:19-27
Mark 1:35-39
Acts 1:1-11
Genesis 13:1-18
2 Samuel 24:18-25
Luke 14:7-14
Matthew 6:5-14
Prayer:
Let your prayers this week be that God will direct you to some particular place for your regular prayer and that he will make it a sacred and holy place for you.
Hymn:
The hymn for Chapter 27 was “Near to the Heart of God” by C. B. McAfee. (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.)
Benediction:
“Father, teach me your Kingdom is all about (around) me, teach me it is within me, teach me so that I may withdraw into it and so that I may live my life centered there. Amen”
Meditation Selections:
The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of M. Basil Pennington, Henri J. Nouwen William Law, E. Stanley Jones, Thomas Howard, Oswald Chambers, Morton T. Kelsey, Madeleine L’Engle and Jane Howard. (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 place where one enjoys God.”
· “…to pray always in the same place … would have an effect upon your mind … as would very much assist your devotion.”
· “…a prayerful life … is not a life in which we say many prayers, but a life in which nothing, absolutely nothing, is done, said, or understood independently of him who is the origin and purpose of our existence.”
· “The Holy Spirit came upon the waiting group not in the Temple nor in a synagogue but in the upper room. …Religion was put where it belongs – in the human heart. Her (the Temple’s) holiness had shifted from places to persons. And rightly so.”
· “I would like to suggest that at least one place (among others) which may be hallowed anew as the place where … all of life may be offered up in oblation to the Most High, is the family household.”
· “… ‘enter into thy closet’; and remember, it is a place selected to pray in, not to make little addresses in, or for any other purpose than to pray in, never forget that.”
· “…find a place where the outer confusion can be shut off… . The purpose is not to create, or make something happen, but to allow it to happen, and where it takes place is an individual matter.”
· “My special place is a small brook in a green glade, a circle of quiet from which there is no visible sign of human beings. …If I sit for a while, then my impatience, crossness, frustration, are indeed annihilated, and my sense of humor returns.”
· “…a sense of place…these days is not achieved easily. …all the old symbols are gone. …So what are we to do…? …Live here, wherever here may be, as if we were going to belong here for the rest of our lives.”
What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 27 not quoted) mean to you?
Please post your responses to the blog site:
(http://lhcndeeperlifeclass.blogspot.com/).
Thanks for your participation.
John
Showing posts with label devotions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label devotions. Show all posts
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
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
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
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