Living for God Blog
Passionately Pursuing Christ in Everyday Life
Living for God Blog
SENSE OF BEING - By Calvin Wulf
Spiritual Formation
A Facebook friend named Dorwin wrote this on my wall, commenting on my blog post called SPIRITUAL EYES. "To be in constant communion with God, not so much a feeling but a sense of being."
God is present. My struggle is to stay present with him. I was surprised how hard it was for me to remain present in the moment even in a place of solitude just a few months ago. When I had finished a meditation, I thought, "That would make a good blog post." Boom, I was NOT present in the moment with God, but looking ahead to a future activity.
Dorwin, you nailed it. God is encountered in a place of contemplation in daily life. It's good to spend twenty or thirty minutes in contemplation but it is greater to carry the sense of being in contemplation, beholding God, into the rest of the day. Note to self: work on that!
TAGS: Spiritual Formation,Christian Living,Spiritual Struggles
SPIRITUAL EYES - By Calvin Wulf
Spiritual Formation
Our eyes have been trained to see natural things. Spiritual things usually go unseen by most people. The eyes see a pink flower and the mind interprets the image to be a rose. Personally, I enjoy the fragrance of roses.
Spiritual things are beyond the range of the spectrum of sight for untrained eyes. Even what is seen in the Spirit is often hard to interpret and understand. Our eyes need spiritual exercises that make them receptive to spiritual matters. Spiritual disciplines like contemplation, silence and solitude, fasting, and meditation on scripture can help open our natural eyes to spiritual things.
These ancient spiritual disciplines help Christians advance from a diet of milk to the consumption of meat. The apostle Paul was able to experience the third heaven because he had spent many years practicing these same disciplines that are handed down to us. Why would anyone be satisfied with milk?
TAGS: Spiritual Formation,Christian Spirituality,Spiritual Life
SPIRITUAL MATH - by Lisa Are Wulf
Faith in God
"I stepped out in faith in my job search and God blessed me with a huge salary." Have you ever heard a similar remark? Or maybe someone has said this to you. "We started our ministry on faith and God took care of everything because that's how he works." If these were math equations we'd say that our faith plus God's blessing equals God doing something big.
But what about when the picture isn't so rosy? I remember a young pastor who lost a child to a devastating illness. Other Christians said that if his faith was stronger, the child would have lived.
So is the equation valid? Not really. It casts God as the cosmic vending machine who simply blesses whatever we want. Plus everything hinges on us so we might feel inadequate and unspiritual if great things don't happen. How about a different equation? Try this - faith plus God equals obedience.
What do you think?
Tags: Faith in God, Christian LIving, Trusting God
LOOK AND SEE - by Lisa Are Wulf
Christian Community
I ran across a quote the other day that made me think. J. Oswald Sanders, who used to run a large missionary organization in China, had this to say: "Eyes that look are common but eyes that see are rare." How true!
How many times have you talked with someone who looked at you but didn't see you - the real you? Perhaps you've even done this yourself. So many of us are either too busy or too tied up in our own worlds to really see deeply into the heart of another. So those who need our care and understanding walk sadly away, unconnected and alone.
But I don't remember Jesus doing this. Actually, he looked profoundly into the eyes and souls of those he met. I can only imagine the riveting effect of locking eyes with him. So if we're called to be like Jesus, maybe it's time to stop looking and actually see.
What do you think?
Tags: Christian Community, Christian Relationships, Reflecting Christ
DWELLING IN PRAYER - By Calvin Wulf
Christian Prayer
We are as one with God when we meet with him standing in prayer. It can be a direct mystical encounter with the Divine Presence around his throne for those who are open to such intimacy with Christ. As the Son dwells in the Father, we are invited to dwell in him.
Jesus promises, "All who eat my flesh and drink my blood remain in me, and I in them." (John 6:56 NLT) We become one flesh with Christ in his holy communion and realize our divine image when we enter his reality in prayer. Abide in Christ and he will abide in you.
One key to prayer without ceasing is intentional and constant abiding in Jesus. The Father has caused his name to dwell in you through his Son. Practice your awareness of the Divine Presence as you go through your day and walk in his sanctuary. Are you dwelling in prayer?
Tags: Christian Prayer, Contemplative Prayer, Daily Prayer
SMALL BLESSINGS - By Calvin Wulf
Living for God
There are Christians these days who say, "We are wealthy and powerful because God has blessed us." Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them." So who is right?
The Pharisees of Jesus' day looked down their noses at the poor. They assumed that if you are rich then you are blessed by God for your righteousness. Poverty, they say, is the result of sin. Jesus didn't like their attitude.
Jesus is affirming the kind of people whom the Pharisees treated like trash. In the kingdom of heaven, love and mercy are the currency that carries the day. Now, there's nothing wrong with money and influence unless they are a cause for self-righteousness.
Love your neighbor and even the aliens who live in our land. This is the righteousness of God. Would you deny mercy to even the least of these? Beware of selfish pride.
Tags: Living for God, Christian Living, Will of God
HEAVY LIFTING - by Lisa Are Wulf
Spiritual Struggles
News flash! We're all spiritually broken. Some of us are only slightly dented while others are in pieces on the floor. But we all bear the scars of life. So whose responsibility is it to heal us? Our pastor? A counselor? Or maybe it's ours - at least according to the can-do American spirit.
Actually, the real answer is Christ. He does the heavy lifting for us. But we have to cooperate. Recently I heard a pastor sharing the story about Jesus healing the blind man and telling him to go wash in the pool. What if the man didn't? Would he have been healed?
Jesus as the heavy lifter reminds me of my first City Council campaign. In my TV commercial a group of people were straining to push a stalled car. When I appeared on the scene, the car began to move. This may be a silly example. But without our "heavy lifter," true healing remains elusive at best.
Tags: Christian Living, Spiritual Struggles, Spiritual Growth
THEY'RE WATCHING! - by Lisa Are Wulf
Spiritual Journey
Recently I saw a documentary about Franklin Roosevelt. As we know today, he suffered from polio and spent years in a wheelchair, including several terms as president of the United States.
The film focused on his early struggles with the disease, including several visits to a health spa. He was consumed with anger and self-pity because his political aspirations were in shambles. Unfortunately he was blind to the plight of the other polio patients watching him at the spa. When a series of events opened his eyes, he began to show compassion to his fellow sufferers. In time his ability to rise above his infirmities became an inspiration to all.
And so it is with our spiritual lives. How many times do we obsess over our own issues and just can't relate to the similar struggles of someone else? But if we focus instead on becoming Christ to that person, real healing begins - for both of us.
What's your experience?
Tags: Spiritual Journey, Reflecting Christ, Spiritual Struggles
IMAGES OF CHRIST - By Calvin Wulf
Christian Prayer
I am blessed to have images of Christ all around me. In fact, there are some on the wall beside my workstation. My favorites are the icons that are above the altar where I stand in prayer in my prayer room. That's where I seek his face and enter into the presence of the resurrected Jesus who is God in flesh and bone.
So, in agreement with John of Damascus, a monk and priest from Damascus, Syria writing in 730 A.D., "I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake, and lowered himself to inhabit matter, who worked out my salvation through matter." God alone is worthy of my worship.
My icons are not Jesus, but they are windows onto heaven where I meet with God who sits between the cherubim. This is how I pray, standing face-to-face with God. That's where I am whenever I pray. Who wants to join me?
TAGS: Christian Prayer,Christian Spirituality,Spiritual Path
TRUE PRAYER - By Calvin Wulf
Christian Prayer
"When you stand in prayer and feel that no other joy can be compared to it, then you have indeed discovered true prayer." Evagrios of Pontus, a Christian sage, wrote this in the 4th century A.D. He became known as the greatest monastic teacher in Egypt.
This kind of prayer is experienced with the direct and intimate consciousness of the Divine Presence. It may be that such prayers are uttered at a kind of altar found only in heavenly places. It's like the experience of Moses who talked with God face-to-face between the cherubim.
I enter the fullness of God's presence through the portal of his grace. Even before then, however, I must prepare to experience him. I will not experience this fullness of joy if I am preoccupied with myself and the concerns of the world. These distractions must be left behind. I will know how to pray when I get there. What do you say?
TAGS: Christian Prayer,Contemplative Prayer,Daily Prayer
