LENT: An Opportunity to Start Again A 40-Day Journey to Renewal LENT: An Opportunity to Start Again is a 40-day devotional for the season of Lent. The season of Lent refers to the 6 weeks of preparing our hearts leading ...
“And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all ...
“No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him – but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” (1 Cor. 2:9) What I have discovered is ...
"Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." (Luke 2:15) Lent is all about taking an honest look at our cluttered lives and taking stock. ...
“I cannot answer the question, what do I love? Without answering the question, what story do I believe?” James K. A. Smith, in Imagining the Kingdom We are in a sermon series right now at Faith called “Story.” I love this because it’s more than a sermon series. If we can get our arms around ...
"If we maintain the open-mindedness of children, we challenge fixed ideas and established structures, including our own. We listen to people in other denominations and religions. We don't find demons in those with whom we disagree. We don't cozy up to people who mouth our jargon. If we are open, we rarely resort to either-or: ...
“When Dallas Willard was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in late summer of 2012, one of his reflections was: "I think that, when I die, it might be some time until I know it. This morning Dallas Willard passed away. I'm not sure if anyone has told him yet.” John Ortberg wrote these words in his ...
Embrace. Discover. Wonder. Desire. Intentional. Encounter. Experience. Awaken. Train. These are some words that describe the dynamic process of spiritual growth. In continuing our spiritual formation ministry strategy at Faith, we recognized the need for a comprehensive “pathway” for groups and individuals to follow in keeping with our 5 Environemnts for Transformtion. We envisioned a ...
As the pastor of spiritual formation at Faith TriCities, I was tasked to develop a ministry strategy for a spiritual formation/discipleship process. This was not an easy thing! It forced me to look carefully at spiritual reality (not how we think it should be) and the context of church life. One thing I understood from ...
I have a confession. Given this is the season of Lent with its emphasis on intentional self examination and repentance, I suspect this is a good thing. Not being raised or familiar with the seasons of the Church growing up, and having been saved in the protestant tradition, the liturgical invitation into Lent was, like ...
My post for today comes out of my Lenten devotional by Henri Nouwen. It’s such a good insight into prayer when it seems it’s such a struggle. At times I find myself pushing and shoving in prayer feeling like all the work lies with me. In those times, prayer feels more like a burden and ...
*This is the forty day journey of Lent. It is marked in days but lived in grace. For much of the Christian community, the forty days begins with Ash Wednesday (though the Eastern Orthodox church counts forty days back from Palm Sunday) and continues through the Holy Week stories of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion. ...
“When we sit with a dying person, we gain two critical insights into what it means to “be alone together.” First, we realize that we must abandon the arrogance that often distorts our relationship—the arrogance of believing that we have the answer to the other person’s problem. When we sit with a dying person, we ...
"In solitude, at last we're able to let the Lord define us the way we are always supposed to be defined: by relationship, the I-thou relationship, in relation to a Presence that demands nothing of us but presence. If we've never lived in the realm of pure presence without our world of achieving, we don't ...
Gail Johnsen 