Spiritual Life~

To know God is to love God. How could there be any other response to God who is perfect love? And please be assured that I mean "love" in the gushy romantic sense.

We can know a fish in the scientific sense. The fish can be measured. We can dissect the fish and examine its organs. The skeleton of that fish can be diagrammed and analyzed. But this kind of knowing imparts no sense of love whatsoever. You just get a cold fish.

If God has any chance at becoming the lover of your soul, then you must engage God in a dance of courtship. Get to know God as a living being who has an identity and a personality. Behold God and become enraptured. Let yourself be known in return. Indeed, get naked with God.

God deeply desires a romantic embrace with every human being. God doesn't need analysis. Let God be your lover and enjoy an eternity of romantic bliss!

TAGS: Spiritual Life, Christian Spirituality, Contemplative Prayer

Christian Living~

The heart of simplicity is an uncompromising devotion to Jesus. It is to love him more than anything else. Jesus puts it like this, "Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it (Matthew 10:39 TNIV)."

We enter the gateway to simplicity with a decision to give up the unnecessary stuff and the needless activity for Jesus. Then we are free to focus on the one needful thing.

Simplicity of life is an inward lack of concern for possessions and activities that are available to us in our day-to-day world. It's a point of view more than an action. Such is the simplicity of Christ.

The Son of God was able to keep it simple. Jesus only said what he heard the Father saying and only did what he saw the Father doing. He did nothing more and nothing less. The kingdom of heaven was his only concern. Where are your priorities?


Check out the Living for God spiritual life study download, Simplicity - To Be Free, here.

TAGS: Christian Living, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Life

Christian Discipleship~

This is the Incarnation, "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth (John 1:14 NRSV)." Jesus is the only Word of God. He was born of a mother, like any other human; he is God, being of the same substance with the Father.

Jesus reveals the love of the Father in a world where not everyone is prepared to see God. Some people read the Bible, calling it, "The Word," searching its pages, hoping to find truth, as though it could be defined with legal precision, but they are so blind they do not see.

God is love. If you look for anything else, then you will not find Jesus. His meaning was love. The Word of God became human so that humans might become God. To become like Jesus is to become love in the flesh, full of grace and truth.

TAGS: Christian Discipleship, Reflecting Christ, Kingdom of God

Spiritual Formation~

Jesus is very near, closer than your next breath, beside you on the way, with you as a mother, closer than a brother. There has never been a time when Jesus was very far from you. But there have been times when you have felt far from Jesus.

The distant times are distressing, feeling so alone, being outside his presence, searching in the wilderness, like a mother looking for her lost child. Then we remember our great yearning for God. It is a yearning that swells up inside your soul, a place so incomplete.

We have this yearning for his presence, a seed in the heart, longing of the soul, anticipating his appearance, as an acorn carries inside itself a great oak tree. We are born with this yearning. We wait breathlessly for the lover of souls. Jesus is very near. We need only wait to awaken and see that we are like him.

TAGS: Spiritual Formation, Kingdom of God, Reflecting Christ

Christian Prayer~

TAGS: Christian Prayer, Contemplative Prayer, Christian Meditation

Spiritual Life~

Quiet time alone with God, a peaceful space to rest, moments to ponder, meditations to reflect, contemplations to savor, solitary walks, night falls in silence, prayers without words, angelic visitations, refreshing, I like retreats.

How long has it been since you had that kind of retreat? They take intentional planning, you know. Block out time on your calendar, book a room at a retreat house, leave your daily life behind, a good retreat requires good planning. You are the only person who can do it.

I plan a three or four night retreat, to be all by myself, once a year. I plan very little activity, maybe a theme or issue to gently and quietly explore with God. That is what makes my retreat a special occasion when God has permission to intrude on my time.

Are you ready for a retreat?

TAGS: Spiritual Life, Christian Spirituality, Silence and Solitude

Food is on my mind way too much. I imagine the next mealtime. I get hungry and start to plan what will taste good when it is finally time to eat. My Desert Father friends would call my obsession with food gluttony.

"Keep watch over yourself early in the morning, at midday, and for an hour before taking food, and you will realize the value of fasting," wrote John Climacus in the 7th century. That is amazing wisdom from a spiritual father who knew the desert well. He pointed to all the times when we are susceptible to thinking about food.

Fasting takes away our usual meal times and frees our minds to deny the spirit of gluttony. We need a head fast as much as we need a food fast. By denying these thoughts about food, we break our passion for eating that distracts us from our passion for God.

Try a head fast next time you obsess about eating.


To read an article about fasting from Living for God, click here.

TAGS: Spiritual Struggles, Spiritual Disciplines, Fasting

Spiritual Struggles~

Eating is a spiritual matter. I have struggled with overeating all my adult life. So I recently turned to my Desert Father friends for some ancient guidance.

Believe it or not, the 4th and 5th century monks living in the desert regions of Egypt needed strict regulation in order to defeat the Spirit of Gluttony. One of the first lessons these monks would learn was abstinence regarding food. These three rules may sound familiar.

Eat only at the appointed times; no snacks between meals. Eat a quality of food that satisfies to curb hunger. Eat a quantity of food that meets the body's needs based on the individual's strength. That amounts to a diet for some of us. Fasting comes later in the program.

The spiritual part has to do with focus. Do we focus on food to satisfy our physical desires or do we delight in the beauty of heavenly things. If the spiritual focus is right, then eating becomes a necessary drudgery.

TAGS: Spiritual Struggles, Christian Discipleship, Spiritual Guidance

Spiritual Formation~

A picturesque scene reflected on a quiet pond has a beauty all its own. It offers color and perspective that often enhances the splendor of the original. We have the same kind of experience when we meditate on scripture.

We read or hear the original script that resonates with a deeper understanding of the heart. The word of God comes alive as the soul ruminates on the echoing words and phrases of the text.

As we ponder the scripture, we may see a vision or receive interpretations and insights that are very personal. We intentionally set our own thoughts and desires out of the way so that we can receive what God has for us from the written word.

So take another look into your Bible. Read slowly and reflectively to obtain formation for your heart rather than information for your mind. Try the Christian discipline of meditation on scripture.

TAGS: Spiritual Formation, Christian Meditation, Spiritual Disciplines

Spiritual Journey~

Turning inward begins with a decision to leave the world that exists outside yourself. It begins a journey into the heart and soul of who you really are. That can be frightening, but let me assure you that the first few steps are the most difficult part of the journey.

It is a deliberate choice to be alone in a quiet place where you can recollect the lost and fragmented parts of your life. It is a time for recollecting the treasures that were left along the way of years. There is spiritual strength in leaving your outer world and retreating into your inner world.

Some places will be a way of tears as you collect the sorrow, the disappointments and the pain. Other palaces will collect times of joy along the way. Take no effort to make sense of it. Let Christ show you his meaning. You are recollecting God's image within. Let him show you.

TAGS: Spiritual Journey, Spiritual Struggles, Spiritual Guidance