'faith' Tagged Posts
Faith
“The life of faith, and the instinct of faith are one and the same. It is an enjoyment of the goods of God, and a confidence founded on the expectation of God’s protection, making everything pleasant and received with a good grace. It is indifference to, and at the same time a preparation for every place, state, or person. Faith is never unhappy even when the senses are most desolate. This lively faith is always in God, always in God’s action…
Toward Sunday
We continue our five-week worship series this Sunday called How Deep? This worship series invites reflection on the significance of our Baptismal identities. The United Methodist Book of Worship states, “Baptism is an act that looks back with gratitude on what God’s grace has already accomplished, it is here and now an act of God’s grace, and it looks forward to what God’s grace will accomplish in the future….Baptism anticipates a lifetime of…deeper experiences of God, acts of Christian commitment,…
Sanctification
In “Beauty and the Beast,” it is only when the Beast discovers that Beauty really loves him in all his ugliness that he himself becomes beautiful. In the experience of Saint Paul, it is only when we discover that God really loves us in all our unloveliness that we ourselves start to become godlike. Paul’s word for this gradual transformation of a sow’s ear into a silk purse is sanctification, and he sees it as the second stage in the…
Picnics are process
“The picnic philosophy is one of flexibility, of leisure, of carpe diem. The sun is shining. Pack up, head out, give in. Heed the Slow Food manifesto: ‘savor suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure.’ And for goodness sake, enjoy. Picnics are process, or should be.” (from Urban Picnic by John Burns & Elisabeth Caton) What is your faith process? Do you savor suitable doses of doing good, doing no harm and practicing the spiritual disciplines?
Born to Farming
The Man Born to Farming by Wendell Berry The grower of trees, the gardener, the man born to farming, whose hands reach into the ground and sprout, to him the soil is a divine drug. He enters into death yearly, and comes back rejoicing. He has seen the light lie down in the dung heap, and rise again in the corn. His thought passes along the row ends like a mole. What miraculous seed has he swallowed that the unending…
Breath prayer
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/23569694] Did you know there is a way of praying known as “The Breath Prayer”? When you breathe in you say “Lord Jesus” and when you breathe out you say “have mercy”. You may choose your own words, but the point is that prayer can be as natural and necessary as breathing in and out. With few syllables you may express your hope, your desire, your need, your love…to grow in faith. Here are a few examples: “Holy one”…