the book (other than the Bible) that shaped me the most

Mom read us books as little children and the one she read the most and that I remember most vividly is Kenneth Taylor's The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes (the original of it, 1956- the year I was born). The pictures stood out to me and for me as a child were surely iconic, as the simplicity, clarity and power of the spoken word came through clearly for a child in Kenneth Taylor's (the author of the paraphrase The Living Bible) words, with simple questions at the end of each short entry.

This book surely was the most formidable of all books for me as a child in influencing and shaping my thought and formation, the fruit of it coming forth in my conversion years later. But before my conversion I rarely if ever doubted the truth of the simple gospel, or of the Bible. It's only now, as I look back on it, that I begin to understand just a little the profound impact this book, and my mother's faithful reading of it to us, had on me.

The picture of Jesus hanging on the cross always stood out to me. Also the first picture of the book- of God creating the heavens and the earth, along with a good many others. Each picture was quite important to us, and the words were kept simple and few, with good questions afterwards, just right for a child.

I have many good childhood memories, but this ranks among the best. My guess is that Mom often read several at a time. I can't remember exactly how I felt during such times, but I'm sure it was formational for me and to this day has an impact on what I do in more ways than I can understand. I think what it did tell me is that the Bible is both true and true to life. So that I carried that belief with me, even through my years of rebellion.

There are surely better books out there for children now in expressing the truth of God's word and God's kingdom come in Jesus. But surely there's no better book as to the format that was used and captured me as a child, preparing me for a love for God's word and the story in it, which continues on to this day.

Do you have any similar story? What book or books shaped you the most through your formidable years?

Thanks to Diane, of Emerging Quaker, who both brought up this question to her readers and then asked me to develop my thoughts further.

are we ever worthy?

4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

Revelation 3

The short and ultimate answer to that is, "No." Christ alone as the Lamb slain is worthy (Revelation 5). No human being except Christ (who is the God-Human) is ever worthy in themselves. We are not.

But God through Christ gives us a new standing in grace through faith because of Christ and his work for us in his death (Romans 3). And while we have no condemnation because of Christ and his death (Romans 8:34), this no condemnation in this life is also tied to the work of the Spirit, and is contingent on us by the Spirit putting to death the (mis)deeds of the body. Romans 8:1-17 makes it clear that what we do does matter.

I am not condemned before God because of Christ, and through faith. But I will live in at least a sense of condemnation if I am not dealing with sin and endeavoring to walk in the light.

So those people in Sardis were worthy in status and standing because of Christ's worthiness. But through Christ, the Spirit does a work to make them, and us in Jesus, not only worthy in our standing with an imputed (declared) righteousness, but beginning to partake of worthiness also in their lives with an imparted righteousness through the Spirit. It's not I, but Christ in us by the Spirit who makes the difference, but it's a life we have to live out.

So I take it that God in his grace calls these believers "worthy," who have not soiled themselves with the world (see the entire book of James on what that means). Not because they are perfect, but because they are being perfected through Christ by the Spirit in this life.

So Jesus alone is worthy, but in grace God calls those who believe and follow Jesus in this life, "worthy." And when God speaks this indeed begins to be true, but true only in Jesus, yet true not only in our standing before God, but also in our lives even in this world.

Does this make sense of Scripture, or what thought would you like to share here?

we are bodies, too

We live in an age when, as Scot McKnight reminds us in his new, provocative book on fasting, many of us look at our bodies to a large extent, as beside the point, while at the same time piling food and drink aplenty in them.

As Scot points out, we westerners have inherited a dualism which fails to see the unity humans are, that the different aspects of us: body, and soul/spirit, are united together in what it is to be human. So when we see spiritual as just about our inner person, we're missing the boat, because spiritual is to pertain to all of us.

When we fail to see this unity in humanity, how part of the real me is my body- just as much as my soul (which essentially just means "life" in Scripture), spirit, or heart, we read in a way inherited from the ancient Greeks, but not the way the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) or New Testament means. To be sure they are referring to different aspects of our humanity, so that we can divide them that way. But to make up the real us, they need to be seen as united together.

This is why our hope is not in life after death, but as N.T. Wright calls it, "life after, life after death." The resurrection of our bodies in Jesus is our hope, not the intermediate state as wonderful as that will be.

This is important because too often we think we can be holy by being right inside, but being holy also involves what we do with our bodies. Read the book of James with this in mind, which hearkens back to the Old Testament in which what one says and does matters. Our inner and outer self matter before God both in this life, and the life to come.

For me this speaks powerfully in various ways into my daily existence. For example I can't let my body do something (whether eyes, lips, etc.) that in my heart I want to do, if it's not according to God's will. And I know I must deal with the sin in my heart, when this is the case. Same goes on the opposite end: when I have a good thought in my heart, but fail to carry it out with my body, as James would say, "What good is that?"

What might you like to add to these few thoughts?

growing slow

In their book, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg make the excellent point that while Jesus did miracles, he did not make his disciples instantly holy. Instead he let them walk through the long and painful process (painful to him at times, as well) of spiritual growth in Christian formation- or becoming like him. Peter did not become a "saint" overnight.

They make the point that God may have chosen to work this way to help us grow in our sense of dependence and desire to be close to him.

This is quite encouraging. I have looked over my life many times over the years, and have been more than discouraged, practically in despair. But God in his grace in Jesus by the Spirit ("Amazing Grace") has kept me going and growing, now over thirty-five years in Jesus.

It should help us in looking at each other. We can lose patience with someone, but that fails to take into account God's longsuffering and patience, and faithfulness which is quite evident, when we think about it, in our own lives.

Wonderful. Mighty oaks, a planting of the Lord!

What would you like to add to this?

quote of the week: John Ortberg on "the true indicator of spiritual well-being

The true indicator of spiritual well-being is growth in the ability to love God and people. If we can do this without the practice of any particular spiritual disciplines, then we should by all means skip them.

John Ortberg, The Life You've Always Wanted, 45 quoted by Scot McKnight, 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, 97

the Jesus Creed

Scot McKnight, in his simple, yet powerful and provocative book, The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others, points out how Jesus changed the Shema, which was the confession of Israel. To love God continued to be at the center, but Jesus included with that the directive, from the Pentateuch (from Leviticus) to love one's neighbor as oneself. Jesus also changed the Jewish prayer, the Kaddish, reflecting the change he had made from the Shema, in the "Our Father" or "Lord's Prayer".

The Shema we can take to be the new confession of Jesus' followers, the Jesus Creed. Yes, it's a command, but it's likewise a confession. As Scot tells us in the book, as we learn to repeat it daily, just as Jesus and all religious and faithful Jews of Jesus' day recited the Shema, God can help us more and more make it a reality in our lives. And as we pray the "Our Father" prayer, we end up praying God's will. Not our own. The prayer reflects the Jesus Creed, and is really a prayer from God in that we are asking what God wants. It is good for us to recite that prayer, as well as hang our own thoughts and prayers on it, praying from it. This is not to say that we shouldn't be praying many other prayers. But it is saying that this can help us pray more, according to God's will.

I am once more rereading the book in preparation for reading Scot's 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, which I plan to do during Lent season, which begins February 25, Ash Wednesday (in Western Christendom, the Eastern Church's calendar is a little different) and ends this year April 11, 46 days later (Sundays are excluded in the count), Easter Sunday being April 12. So I plan to read prayerfully, with intentions for Christian formation in my life, Scot's book written for a 40 day period, and I think quite fitting for Lent.

Anything you would like to add? And has anyone read either of these books?

letting go

A big part of the walk of faith for us is to let go. Letting go of those things that have bound us for so long is not easy. I'd like to say that we let go to grab on to something better, and while I believe that is no doubt true, it just doesn't always seem that one is doing that in the process.

Process is an important word here, as well, by the way. Because we are prone to want to find our way out through a big experience or a tremendous over night breakthrough. But really letting go and learning to walk in a new way in holding on to something else, to God's hand and promises takes time.

Even though I would stress process, I do believe in breakthrough. Maybe more like breakthroughs. I think Abraham's life is a case in point. God led him along the way to grow and see breakthroughs, but perhaps the biggest breakthrough of all came when God tested him concerning his son Isaac. But for that breakthrough to occur, smaller breakthroughs needed to have preceded, such as leaving his country, at last leaving his kindred, believing God's word about his descendants though he still had no son, obeying God's command of circumcision, interceding for Lot and his family, believing God's promise of Isaac's birth, trusting God in his promise to care for Ishmael his son when they were sent away.

God works in ways we little realize or perceive. Though it is good to look back to where we were, how we've progressed, and where we are now. For me most of the time, it's more like I know louder and clearer what God wants and is surely working to see done in my life.

Letting go is scary, because for so long we've held on to something which actually bound us, but we believed it was important, somehow, for us. But to let go because of God's promises in Christ, sets us on a path of true freedom and in finding what is better, what is best.

What would you like to add to these thoughts on letting go?

quote for the week: Eugene Peterson on following Jesus as the Way

To follow Jesus implies that we enter into a way of life that is given character and shape and direction by the one who calls us. To follow Jesus means picking up rhythms and ways of doing things that are often unsaid but always derivative from Jesus, formed by the influence of Jesus. To follow Jesus means that we can't separate what Jesus is saying from what Jesus is doing and the way that he is doing it. To follow Jesus is as much, or maybe even more, about feet as it is about ears and eyes.

Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way, p. 22

following

For me a powerful imagery of our life in Jesus involves following. We're called to follow Jesus, and part of that is to follow those who are closely following Jesus. You can't really do that in the blog world or through email. You need to do that in real life. Truth then being caught which is more how it's passed on, not just taught. Not to say we can't help each other in the venue of the internet.

I learn best from other people who have learned to follow Jesus. We need to see this in the writings of Paul and others in Scripture, as well as those who have passed on before us, like John of the Cross whose writings through David Hazard's paraphrase of them have impacted me lately.

Following means observing. Observing in this sense involves the work of the Spirit and the oneness we have in Jesus. And it involves nothing less than how we live. Jesus lived first, then taught. True for the first nearly thirty years of his life. And true in his ministry as well. It was more than what he did and said. It was something of who he was which captured people. Partly why Jesus asked his disciples who people said he was, and who they thought he was. Of course that involved mission, but it was about a love relationship with God and a new way to be human. Yes, Jesus is unique, no one is God and Human. But in Jesus we are to find what God intends for us all in the end, beginning now. Jesus is the way for us to God and to God's will for us in the new creation beginning now.

Let us learn to follow Jesus here, to the very end. Together, with those who are learning to do so.

What thoughts would you like to add to this?

nothing less than a new life

Yesterday I read another for me, helpful meditation from John of the Cross. I was reminded of the necessity of coveting but one thing: the attitude and mind of Christ, which comes from the eternal life found in Christ. If I'm living for anything else, whatever that may be, then I'm not only not living in the way of Jesus, but I'm actually living in opposition to the way of Jesus. This reminds me of "the hard sayings of Jesus," and is something we must face.

As the meditation reminded me, we can clamor after many things, even okay in themselves and in their place, though how we hold them in our hearts can be nothing less than idolatrous. Some things we may want are completely wrong. It seems that we tend to hold on to what is killing us. Instead, in Scripture we're told to put such things to death in Jesus, and to put on the new kind of life found in Jesus. And then to walk in this new life, by the Spirit.

This was refreshing to me, as I meditated on this passage of Scripture after reading that meditation from John of the Cross and David Hazard. It's a new kind of life which is not into finding one new experience after another. But instead finding an entirely new life of death and resurrection in Jesus. Living that out with each other and in mission to the world, in Jesus.

Read the meditation if you can get this book: "11 - Created Anew." But far better yet, read each meditation one day at a time.

What would you like to add to these few brief words?

bite-sized pieces

This evening, in responding to Andrew's comment here, I was led to think of what I've been doing recently in relation to reading Scripture, which for me so far has proved to be far more satisfying than my recent past practice, or practice before that.

Over the years and certainly so in recent months I would most every day go through relatively large portions of Scripture. It was good, especially early on, as I was hearing God's word read and through parts of it, I believe God was speaking to my heart, while the rest I was getting exposed to. I think whenever we read Scripture we should simply value each reading for the reading itself in relation to the goal of such reading: to hear God and know him and his will for us better.

Lately, as I stated in an earlier post, I had become fatigued over all the Scripture reading both morning and evening, and found myself just wanting to get it done. Not good in really getting the point as to why it is given to us.

I then simply stopped reading pretty much altogether for awhile, just taking in some from The Bible Experience, and a short portion daily from Scripture. After a couple weeks of this I knew I needed to really get back into the word again.

So now I'm taking it in throughout the day in bite-sized pieces. Smaller portions, read with prayer. I'm liking it. I think it's helping prevent me from missing the point of why it's given, something I'm good at doing, I'm afraid.

We're to meditate, and in the words of Scripture, "eat this book" (to Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Apostle John in the Revelation). This involves the whole thing, not just the parts we like. I really kind of dislike these little promise books that have verses pasted in to help people in this and that trouble. Sometimes such verses are taken out of context, though I wouldn't say they don't do any good at all for people. But we need to learn to take in the whole, all of God's word from Genesis to Revelation.

Yet for me, at least now, I need to do so frequently in bite-sized pieces. Not too much at a time and with prayer. And often every day, being my goal.

We need to be those who are hungry for God's word because we love God and want in Jesus to grow in his will in our character and actions. And simply because we know we need it, even if most of the time we don't really understand what's going on in the process.

How about you? How do you like to take in Scripture? Or any thoughts about this that could help us?

keep learning

If there's one thing I may need to hear right at this moment (among other things for sure), or that refreshes my day today, it can come in two words: Keep learning.

Scripture alone is enough to keep us learning for a lifetime. It is a Book that is interactive with its Author, in other words the Author is alive and the Book is written for our good, to bring us along in the journey of faith individually and together. It has a dynamic to it unlike any other book so that one like George Muller could say after reading through it for around the one hundredth time- it seemed like a new book to him every time he read it! Being in the Book and on books that help me understand the Book is for me more important than all the other books. Though I think I can learn from God through other humans in their books, even from those who do not know or acknowledge God.

We also need to keep learning from God's people who have preceeded us. We need to look at the full scope of Christian history because there is much there for us. Of course most of us don't have the time to look long into that. Even scholars have only so much time and their own niche is quite enough. For me at this time I want to learn more from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and especially from his book, Letters and Papers from Prison (and from his book on ethics, as well). I do this not to learn some abstract theories but the heaven-down to earth truth where the rubber meets the road.

We need to set ourselves, our hearts to seek ever to be apprentices of our Lord Jesus, to learn to follow him more closely in our lives whatever the cost. To be like Mary who sat at the Lord's feet to learn from him. This comes to me today as something important for me to remember and put into practice. Slowly and steadily in faith. Eagerly seeking to learn more and grow deeper in our Lord Jesus, and further in doing his will.

What thoughts might you like to add to this?

acquired taste

Many of the best things in life are enjoyed only through an acquired taste for them. Take a good glass of wine, or some music from Bach. I really think a good marriage fits into this, as we learn what makes a good marriage and acclimate ourselves to it. Relishing Scripture is an acquired taste. It's certain that when we're new born babies in Jesus we love the milk of the word of God. But to get into the meat of the word, and grow by that as well, we need to keep maturing in Jesus, and that involves an ongoing change which involves an acquired taste.

Why do we need an acquired taste? It's because we don't have the capacity in ourselves to take in and appreciate what is really good and from God. We need a change and this comes through grace, ultimately the grace of God in Jesus. That is the change which begins now, and is ongoing and lasts. It involves a process for us in Jesus, a part of our new life in Jesus.

What thoughts do you have on an acquired taste and what this means in your own life?

being in the word

Lately, while I've been in the word daily, I really haven't been in it like I've been in the past, at all. Though I had been reading alot (relatively for me) of Scripture, I had often been just wanting to get it done. I had developed a rut in which while I was reading Scripture, which is good, I was not relishing it as God's word, as I should.

I don't know if my recent blogging through John Frye's book, Out of Print, had an impact here; though I don't doubt it. But for awhile I essentially stopped reading Scripture altogether (like a couple weeks and a few days) except for the passages I would get into most every day, as well as my listening to The Bible Experience.

It was refreshing yesterday to get back into a renewed meditative reading in Scripture, and I know this is important for me. Of course I need to hear it in our worship gatherings, and apply it to life. But I also need to regularly, "day and night" be in it. After all, since it is God's word (or for any sceptics out there, if it is God's word), I need to make the effort to be reading/hearing it, so that God can do his work in me, and so that my life can be changed by it, and according to it. Changed by God of course.

The difference for me from the past is that I no longer have rigid set times daily that I keep, which I did keep for some time. But that I do so regularly, because I want to do so, and because I love God and God's word. And because I want to really meet with God during special times in a shorter passage, for prayer in waiting on God in giving him my praises (I need to improve there) and requests, and looking to God for his answers or working.

What about you? What does being in the word mean for you as one in Jesus, and what might help us that you've learned in this endeavor?

don't go back

I find during those inevitable low points that come, that I'm tempted to give up "good" ground gained when all seemed well in the sense of following on with the Lord. For me the key is whether or not I'm going on with the Lord. The arrows sent my way by the evil one, often challenge the good I see in my following of Jesus, even while at the same time knowing I've not (and never will in this life) arrive.

The point in this post: Don't go back. As Ben Witherington points out in the commentary I'm reading, the posture of the Christian in the spiritual warfare passage of Ephesians 6 is one of resistance and of standing in defending one's ground. This will involve struggle as the passage plainly says, and it certainly is not a kind of push button strategy to take care of the problem. We must be engaged- in the strength and armor of the Lord, with prayers.

So, don't go back. When you are in the darkness, don't abandon what God has revealed to you in the light. Or abandon the freedom God has given you in the light (I heard this said in the past, by Chuck Swindoll). And hang in there in the dark valleys. Hopefully I can learn to negotiate such valleys better, though I think I've come a long way in doing so over the years.

What would you like to share on this that can help us, or any thoughts about this?

silence

I'm finding that I need silence more and more. I'm afraid my life was too full of wall to wall noise, in my past.

For years I either had music on, or was listening to the Bible being read on recordings. Alot of good stuff, but constant noise. I know of times if my wife wasn't home, I'd even have noise on at night as I was going to sleep.

That did change over the years as I became a person of alot less noise, yet relatively still more than was perhaps healthy. Now "noise" for me can include too much reading, though reading more meditatively, especially Scripture, in silence I think doesn't necessarily count as noise.

But I find that more and more I value silence. It makes me more keen for when I do read or listen to something. And in the silence I often get the sense of God which I need. I get a sense of trying to listen to God, draw near to him, and pray.

I need to listen, be still, and wait on God. In the silence, in the stillness, while in the word of God, or in a good book. This seems important to me, and maybe it's just a needed escape from the noisy culture in which we live, good at drowning out what we most need to hear.

What do you think about silence? Do you like it? Why or why not?

"Palisade Cliffs - doubt" from L.L. Barkat

We continue our journey with L.L. into her college days. Going to a Bible college she expected to grow her faith, but instead she found her faith slipping away. Fortunately for her she went to a professor who listened well, and helped her struggle through this crisis of faith, so that in the end she came out with a stronger faith. Important in healing her past and preparing her for her future.

Doubt is often looked on with the gravest suspicion. When you consider the passage in James 1 you can understand why some would doubt that doubt has any place in the Christian life. But when we think about the development of faith so as to be grounded in the faith as it is in Jesus, we must be willing to grapple with the doubts that are surely to come our way.

Again, I love L.L.'s honesty and vulnerability in this chapter. Here's how she prayed in those days of grappling with her doubt that the faith in Jesus is true:

"If you exist, I don't want to know you. You send people to hell. You let people suffer. You think you're so great that everyone should worship you - how arrogant." (p. 54)

I love the fact that we have such a God who lets us be who we are, lets us struggle through to find our footing in him, to find that there really is something to this faith that is in Jesus, after all.

I am not one who sails through life without doubts, though I can't recall ever seriously being on the edge of losing my faith. I think my doubts had more to do with not believing that things would really work out in certain situations. Or thinking somehow I don't fit in, though I still in my mind believed the faith itself. I was maybe more like one of the disciples who remained in the boat while Peter ventured towards the Lord, walking on the water.

Peter's faith grew from that incident- his was a bold faith, and such a faith can be readily assailed with doubts. In my case my doubts did often come right before big events, like preaching times. I remember one time I was to preach at a church I wasn't that familiar with, and I studied ahead of time. But I was assailed with doubts and felt entirely lost and poured out my heart to God, over and over again in prayers. And the Lord seemed to pour out his Spirit at least on me- as I boldly preached the word. In that case my doubts drove me to the Lord in desperation and the Lord answered in full. And I wondered later when I was to give a talk at my parents' church why the same thing didn't happen all over again. I wasn't assailed with doubts at all that time! I was just drifing along, but probably not with my eyes much on Jesus.

Of course we can have doubts of all kinds, but the question becomes do we seek the Lord and his ways for us, in the midst of those doubts? For me Jesus is the key. Without him I would have abandoned Christianity long ago, but that should be no surprise, since- after all Jesus is Christianity, the faith is in him.

L.L. includes reference to the memoir, Jesus Land, by Julia Scheeres. Julia tells her story of growing up in a rigidly ruled fundamentalist family and reform school which taught, "'Faith is blind,' 'What leaders do in Jesus' name is done with Jesus' approval,' and 'Never question.'" (p. 58). Julia went through the motions of memorizing Bible verses and praising Jesus, but faith was forced on her- and I'll venture to say, not the true faith, but a caricature of it, because it's not only what we say (and I'd question even that with them), but how we live which demonstrates our faith. She now believes in trusting no one and subverting all rules. How do we look at this in raising our children, or with reference to our own faith?

L.L. looks at King Saul's defection from faith, Paul's incident of walking on the water towards Jesus then sinking, and mentions Jacob's wrestling with God in this thought provoking chapter (but true of all the chapters!).

L.L.'s book is truly a treasure. It's right up their with my favorite books, period. Of course it helps that Deb and I were able to meet L.L., even for a brief hour; it was fun. But get your own copy, and read as slowly as you can!

From the "discussion questions" in the back of L.L.'s book:
"1. What is doubt?
2. Is it possible to have a faith free of doubt? Is it desirable?
3. If you meet someone who's doubting his faith, how might you handle his concerns?
4. Why do people sometimes keep doubts to themselves? Are there dangers in doing so? Are there dangers in sharing our doubts?
5. What kinds of real things nudge you into doubting your faith? What kinds of equally real things about God pull you out of doubt?
6. Why do you think Jesus lets us experience moments of doubt? What criticisms might be leveled at him for doing so? Does the grace of Jesus help us meet our doubts?"
(pp. 155-156)

1. Stepping Stones - conversion
2. Christmas Coal - shame
3. Tossed Treasures - messiness
4. Heron Road - suffering
5. Sword in the Stone - resistance
6. Howe's Cave - baptism

Next week: chapter 8: "Holding Pfaltzgraff - inclusion"

slowing down

Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed has an interesting post about a book advocating "slow spirituality". I think this British author, Ian Stackhouse is making an excellent point I need to hear.

I don't see myself as a hurried person, though the nature of my factory work at RBC Ministries sometimes demands that. But I have found myself simply trying to get as much done of this and that as possible, without sufficient thought and prayer as to the reality that I'm to be doing it all out of love for the Lord and as to the Lord, as well as out of love for others. And with the thought of savoring and enjoying it at least because I want to do it as to the Lord.

Slowing down for me is going to mean reading less Scripture. Many years of my Christian life I've been through Scripture at least two or more times a year, either by listening to it, or more recently by reading it. I've decided that I need to slow down, make it a reading - praying time, try to be consistent in keeping set times as a rule (but not as a binding law) which majors on drawing near to God, hearing his voice, and prayer.

For myself I find that I end up getting more done that is worthwhile and lasts when I slow down. There may be moments when we need to do something quickly. But in thinking about how Jesus lived his life on earth it seems like it was one thing at a time with always an openness to the Father and a life led by the Holy Spirit. Paul and Jesus' disciples seemed to learn from the Lord in regard to this. They were devoted to prayer and the ministry of the word of God, and I'm sure like their Lord, they spent time alone with God. And we need quality time with each other, as well, and that cannot be rushed. Being busy with our hands should be done in the same spirit.

So just starting this morning I broke my Scripture reading fast (actually it hasn't been a total fast, though relatively speaking it has) and it was wonderful not to be in a hurry as I was reading through the psalms and praying from them and for others and myself. As well as praying "the Lord's prayer".

What would you like to share with us about slowing down spiritually?

See A Time to be Quiet from Been Thinking About - Mart DeHaan

Scripture- then tradition, reason and experience

Over at Jesus Creed, Scot McKnight has been going through John Stackhouse's book, Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World. In this book Stackhouse talks about how Christians think through issues: Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. In the end, Christians sometimes come to different conclusions on how best to address a problem of society or who to vote for, etc. This is inevitable as we all vary with reference to all four entities. I need to add to this that the prerequisite to Stackhouse is the commitment to follow Jesus in discipleship.

Scripture involves interpretation, and though we have the Spirit to guide us, why is it that we Christians do have different interpretations and think differently on how to tackle the problems of this world? I think it involves in part the nature of our existence here. We know only in part and we see through a glass darkly. This makes us more dependent on God, and it should make us more humble about what we think with reference to everything, while not watering down at all our commitment to the Triune God and to the faith once for all entrusted to us, God's people in Jesus.

The realism Stackhouse seems to be advocating (I haven't read the book) is in light of the idealism we find in Scripture, but an idealism that does not deny the existence we live in here. So that God's will worked out in us in Jesus does involve experience, but an experience that is always being brought back to the touchstone of Scripture and then to our church tradition and various church traditions, as well as to the tradition of the Church at large. Then to our reason, and finally back to our experience.

We live out God's will mediated to us in Christ and from Scripture in a real world together as God's people with the gift of our reason. But oftentimes we're better off to acknowledge that we simply don't know what the best course is in a given situation. And in prayer along with fellowship with other Christians, we seek to make the best decision we can, and keep learning. All four of these are important, and probably in that order: Scripture certainly first always having priority- then tradition, reason and experience.

This is not a denial that Scripture is our basis for faith and practice. But how that is worked out, I believe, is through the church as best we understand it in real life. With an ever ready desire to change where need be and keep growing in our understanding of God's will, and in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

What do you think about factoring in, along with Scripture: tradition, reason and experience?

being whole hearted

Whole heartedeness is something we see in Scripture that God wants from us, his children. I think whole heartedness involves putting our whole selves into whatever endeavor we do, even with all of our weaknesses and sin. Whole heartedness for us depends on Jesus and is in him. We want to keep going and going strong, even in the midst of weaknesses and all that involves living in a fallen world. In Jesus we can and must.

If we're not whole hearted in our life and endeavors, then we're prey to all kinds of problems, the kind that are destructive to our life in Jesus. And we tend to miss out on what God is doing and our own special part in it. If we aren't putting ourselves 100% into whatever we're doing than we need to examine our hearts and review God's calling for us, both general and special.

I'm afraid too much of our lives can be lived in a kind of twilight zone in which we're either just trying to survive, or we're floundering around in a questionable use of time and activity. A good prayer to be praying is to ask God to search our hearts so we can live in a better way in God's will. Or when we're working at a job or having to do what we really don't enjoy doing, or have a knack at doing, then we need to look to God for grace, and the gift of finding enjoyment even in those things.

In Jesus we can live as God has called us to live, and this includes being whole hearted, putting ourselves entirely into whatever we do. Of course that includes simply resting, as well as enjoying God's good creation.

What thought might you like to share in being whole hearted?