Chapter 27 - Place

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

Chapter 26 - Time Management

Chapter 26 illustrated “Time Management” in 7 Bible passages, as follows:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Psalm 90:12
2 Corinthians 5:18-6:2
Job 7:1-10
Psalm 39:4-6
James 4:13-17
Ephesians 5:10-17

Prayer:

The hassle with being a better manager of your time is making the decisions about what is now most important and what is no longer important. But if you ask God what he’d remove if it were his life, he would gladly tell you.

Hymn:

The hymn for Chapter 26 was “Take Time to Be Holy” by William D. Longstaff. (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:

“O Christ, when I look at you I see that you were never in a hurry, never ran, but always had time for the pressing necessities of the day. Give me that disciplined, poised life with time always for the thing that matters. For I would be a disciplined person. Amen”

Meditation Selections:

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Anthony Bloom, M. Basil Pennington, Evelyn Underhill, Susan Annette Muto, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, James Stewart, 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:

· “There is absolutely no need to run after time to catch it. It does not run away from us, it runs toward us.”
· “…when you can use five minutes, three minutes or half an hour for leisure and for doing nothing …you sit down and say, ‘I am seated, I am doing nothing. I will do nothing for five minutes,’ and then relax and continually throughout this time (one or two minutes is the most you will be able to endure to begin with) realize, ‘I am here in the presence of God, in my own presence and in the presence of all the furniture that is around me, just still, moving nowhere.’ …you must (then) decide that within (these two or five minutes) which you have assigned to learning that the present exists, you will not be pulled out of it by the telephone, by a knock on the door, or by a sudden upsurge of energy that prompts you to do at once what you have left undone for the past ten years.”
· “There is in the lives of most of us a good bit more freedom and flexibility to organize (a time of apartness), if we really want to.”
· “Spiritual achievement costs much, though never as much as it is worth.”
· “Once we begin wisely allotting time for reading and reflection, wondering and writing, we shall soon notice the reward. Life becomes less pressured. Christ, not the clock on the wall, becomes the center of our lives. Amazingly, we seem to accomplish more…”
· “Since meditation on the Scriptures, prayer, and intercession are a service we owe and because the grace of God is found in this service, we should train ourselves to set apart a regular (time) for it… This is not ‘legalism’; it is orderliness and fidelity…”
· “But look at Jesus. Busy and crowded as our days are, his were emphatically more so. …and yet the harder the days were, the more time did Jesus make for prayer.”
· “The only solution is a prayer schedule that you will never break without consulting your spiritual director. Set a time that is reasonable, and once it is set, stick to it at all costs. …Let everyone know that this is the only time you will not change and pray at that time.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 26 not quoted) mean to you? Please post your responses to the blog site:
(http://lhcndeeperlifeclass.blogspot.com/).

Thanks for your participation.
John

Chapter 25 - Consciousness

Chapter 25 framed Biblical “Consciousness” in 7 passages, as follows:

Isaiah 32:14-20
1 John 3:19-4:6
Philippians 4:2-9
Romans 8:26-27
1 John 5:1-12
1 Corinthians 2:6-16
Acts 9:1-9

Prayer:

Everything is clamoring to become a part of you. You must carefully choose the things and thoughts you will allow to get inside. Ask God to begin to cleanse your consciousness. Then determine in prayer that you will guard the threshold of your mind.

Hymn:

The hymn for Chapter 25 was “Prayer Is the Soul’s Sincere Desire” by James Montgomery. (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, protect me from the onslaught of things, both good and evil, that will bid for my attention this day. Make me to remember that all that I allow inside my heart will become some part of me as I pray. Let me come to you in singleness of heart and purity of desire. In the name of Christ. Amen”

Meditation Selections:

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Albert E. Day, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Howard Thurman, M. Basil Pennington, Thomas R. Kelly, 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 consciousness of man can enter into a living, knowledge-communicating, life-transforming relationship with God. … the consciousness of such a relationship would not be possible if the human consciousness can be aware only of what the eyes see and the ears hear and the hands touch and the tongue tastes and the nostrils smell. … God is a legitimate inference from events. …But God may also be an immediate object of consciousness.”
· “If God does not have power to speak to us, how should we possess the power to speak to Him? Thus, prayer is part of a greater issue. It depends upon the total spiritual situation of man and upon a mind within which God is at home (blogger’s emphasis). … The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God.”
· “When a pool is greatly agitated by the breezes and the wind, one can throw in a pebble or even many pebbles and there is no noticeable effect. When a pond is perfectly at peace and one casts a pebble into it, the gentle waves spread in every direction till they reach even the farthest shore. … when we come to achieve a deeper inner quiet, then we are much more discerning.”
· “How, then, shall we lay hold of that Life and Power, and live the life of prayer without ceasing? … offer your whole selves, utterly and in joyful abandon, in quiet, glad surrender to Him who is within.”
· “‘In the beginning,’ John Eudes said, ‘your thoughts will wander, but after a while you will discover that it becomes easier to stay quietly in the presence of the Lord.’ … When you are faithful in this, you will slowly experience yourself in a deeper way.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 25 not quoted) mean to you?

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

Thanks for your participation.
John

Chapter 24 - Anxiety

Chapter 24 challenged us with 7 Bible passages to help us discern the presence of “Anxiety” in daily life situations, as follows:

Philippians 4:6-7
Matthew 5:25-34
Luke 12:1-12
Matthew 13:1-23
Luke 11:38-42
Luke 21:34-36
1 Peter 5:6-7

Prayer:

Can you identify your greatest fear? And could you confess it to God? If you keep it hidden within you he can never cleanse it, much less use it to his glory. Offer your fears and anxieties to him this week.

Hymn:

The hymn for Chapter 24 was “Come, Thou Long-expected Jesus” by Charles Wesley. (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:

“O God, who is the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: I thank you for the timely blessings of the day, and humbly beseech your merciful protection all the night. Bring me, I pray, in safety to the morning hours; through him who died for me and rose again, your Son my Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.” (The Book of Common Prayer)

Meditation Selections:

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Howard Thurman, Annie Dillard, Thomas à Kempis, George MacDonald (edited by C. S. Lewis), Andrew Murray, Hannah Whitall Smith, Anthony Padovano, Joshua L. Liebman, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Philip S. Watson, 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:

· “There is a sense of wholeness at the core of man … That warms the depth of frozen fears …”
· “I meant to accomplish a good bit today. Instead I keep thinking: Will the next generations of people remember to drain the pipes in the fall? I will leave them a note.”
· “To preserve peace in time of trouble our will must remain firm in God …”
· “The next hour, the next moment, is as much beyond our grasp and as much in God’s care, as that a hundred years away.”
· “Troubled soul, thou art not bound to feel but thou art bound to arise. God loves thee whether thou feelest or not. …Heed not thy feeling: Do thy work.”
· “All growth in the spiritual life is connected with the clearer insight into what Jesus is to us. …the more I learn to live the real life of faith, which, dying to self, lives wholly in Christ.”
· “…there are two things which are more utterly incompatible than even oil and water, and these two are trust and worry.”
· You find no difficulty in trusting the Lord with the management of the universe, and all the outward creation, and can your case be any more complex or difficult than these, that you need to be anxious or troubled about His management of you?”
· “Prayer is successful not in terms of what it logically produces or pragmatically achieves but in terms of what it forces reality to experience.”
· “… I set down my inventory of earthly desirables: health, love, beauty, talent, power, riches and fame… With a pencil stub he crossed out my entire schedule. …Then … he wrote down three syllables: peace of mind.”
· “Earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety. …The fetters which bind us to our possessions prove to be cares themselves.”
· “I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I slowly discovered that my interruptions were my work.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 24 not quoted) mean to you?

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

Thanks for your participation.
John

Chapter 23 - Distractions

Chapter 23 referred to 7 Bible passages to help us focus on the subject of “Distractions”, as follows:

Luke 6:46-49
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Proverbs 3:1-18
Ephesians 6:10-20
John 5:1-15
James 3:13-18
Luke 10:38-42

Prayer:

Try to use some of the ways of adoration and meditation to aid you in freeing your mind from all the things that would invade your mind as you would pray.

Hymn:

The hymn for Chapter 23 was “Sweetly Resting” by Mary D. James. (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, you are full of compassion. I commit and commend myself unto you, in whom I am, and live, and know. Be the Goal of my pilgrimage, and my Rest by the way. Let my soul take refuge from the crowding turmoil of worldly thoughts beneath the shadow of your wings; let my heart, this sea of restless waves, find peace in you, O God. Amen.” (St. Augustine in Little Book of Prayers)

Meditation Selections:

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Igumen Chariton of Valamo, Evelyn Underhill, Henri J. Nouwen, M. Basil Pennington, Andrew Murray, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Morton T. Kelsey, George MacDonald (edited by C. S. Lewis), 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:

· “You must not allow your thoughts to wander at random, but as soon as they run away, you must immediately bring them back…. St. John of the Ladder says of this, ‘You must make a great effort to confine your mind within the words of prayer.” (Ed. Note: St. John of the Ladder is quoted in honor of Bill Schmidt. LOL)
· “Most of our conflicts and difficulties come from trying to deal with the spiritual aspects of our life separately instead of realising (sic) them as parts of one whole.”
· “Moods are worth attention. I am discovering … that I am subject to very different moods, often changing very quickly.”
· “… ‘Think glorious thoughts of God – and serve Him with a quiet mind!’ …the more glorious and more spacious our thoughts of Him are, the greater the quietude and confidence with which we do our detailed work will be.”
· “How completely we are dependent on the coming and abiding presence of his grace.”
· “… I lack the urgency and desire to pray. … so also will I deliver you from the sin of prayerlessness – only do not seek the victory in your own strength. … Be assured of this – I will teach you how to pray.”
· “… the privilege of prayer, the supreme opportunity of friendship with God kept vital by deliberate communion…”
· “One has to set aside time for silence and then turn toward it with composure, letting go of immediate things a little at a time in order to enter a world where dreams and also the energy for life are born.”
· “… the pilgrim must be headed back from the sidepaths into which he is constantly wandering.” · “Let it be your business to keep your mind in the presence of the Lord. … the will must bring it back in tranquility.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 23 not quoted) mean to you?


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

Thanks for your participation.

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 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