Integrated by Spiritual Practices

Jul 27, 2015

If you allow God’s inspiration to come to you in its own good time, if you are listening deeply to the “still, small voice”[1 Kings 19] within you, if you then act on what is suggested, you will never violate who you are or do anything wrong or in the wrong timing. Living this way […]

How to Love

Jul 20, 2015

If you want to know how to love people, first things first—listen to them deeply. Ask about their lives, what their hopes and dreams are, what it costs them to live as they live. Ask about their faith, if they have any. And when you have a real sense of the person before you, then […]

Purpose

Jul 13, 2015

In the dream I am talking to a favorite minister of mine: “Your job is to inspire the congregation; mine is to connect the dots.” And there in my dream God showed me my purpose. For me connecting the dots means translating Jesus’ sayings in the Bible into living a life dedicated to him in […]

Resuscitation or Resurrection?

Jul 06, 2015

I am grateful to the Rev. Rob Fuquay, author of “The God We Can Know, Exploring the ‘I am’ Sayings of Jesus” for looking at the distinction between resuscitation and resurrection in our prayers. He offers this comparison: While Lazarus was resuscitated, Jesus was resurrected. Lazarus gained his life back only to die later; Jesus […]

One Body, One Church

Jun 15, 2015

Paul wrote of the one body, the one church of Jesus Christ.[1] He wrote that Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free are all one in Christ Jesus.[2] But the church today is splintered and divided, certainly not one body, the one church of Jesus Christ. Certainly Paul, as a Roman citizen, a […]

“The Lord helps them who help themselves”

May 18, 2015

I don’t know how many times my father said to my brother and me when we were children, “The Lord helps those who help themselves!” In the 40’s and 50’s culture that I grew up in it was a common theme which still survives today as an assumption in our culture, even though I don’t […]

Recognizing God’s voice Within

May 04, 2015

I easily recognize God’s voice within after all these years because he never thinks like I do. For example, yesterday morning as I was awakening: these words on my mind—cerebellum the 2nd. If you’re interested in what this phrase meant to me see the ** section below. When he speaks in my mind, he is […]

Our lives are like huge ocean liners when it comes to change

Apr 20, 2015

I think our lives are like huge ocean liners that used to take two to three hours to make a significant turn(modern ones can do a 360 degree turn in 30 minutes). Slow, steady as she goes…that is the pace of our “repentance,” of turning our lives away from the culture towards the kingdom. Like […]

Holy Spirit, Tuner of our Souls

Apr 13, 2015

Think of the Holy Spirit as the tuner of our souls and personalities. Like a piano tuner tackles a piano that has long sat idled, the Holy Spirit takes our neglected souls and our existing personalities and attunes them so that they agree in pitch and harmonize well. He adjusts the “keys” and the “strings” […]

Love

Apr 06, 2015

When we say, somewhat glibly, that God is love, what are we really saying? God loves us. Yes. But more than that, he loves us with an unconditional, unchanging outpouring of love and affection, support and invitation to be in a deep relationship with him, an invitation to step into the fullness of who we […]