Category: spiritual discipline

I pray for the sermons before and during writing them as well as prior to preaching.  I have an issue with trust though.  I believe.  I have faith.  But my faith seems to work better when I’m in control of everything.  There are Sundays that I feel pretty good about the message I am about to give.  I absolutely love preaching, and some Sundays are better than others as far as feeling like I did it the way I wanted to.  However, there are some Sundays that I am really not so sure about how the message will go.  Sometimes they feel dry.  Sometimes I’m just not confident in them.  Last Sunday was one of those Sundays when I just wasn’t sure how it would go.  Continue reading “Lenten Journey – Day 38”

The physical effects of the fast are starting to get to me now.  I felt pretty good physically for a long time, but now I’m getting pretty tired and my hunger is more serious.  However, I keep thinking, maybe this is an important time to get through.  My metabolism is kind of crazy right now.  I’ll lose only a few pounds all week and then gain 4-5 pounds on the day I eat.  I’ve been crashing on the day after I eat at some point in the afternoon.  I’m not sure why, but I just get really tired and can’t stay awake.  The physical part has been an interesting experience, but it’s been different than I expected going into the fast.  Although I’m hungry, it’s different than if you are eating regularly and don’t eat all day.  As I’ve written before, not eating is normal right now, so it’s just different.  I’ve been praying for strength.  I’m ready for Easter. Continue reading “Lenten Journey – Day 37”

Today is the feast day for St. Patrick, and would be an interesting day to venture about 10 miles south to a little Irish-Catholic town nearby. Today while praying the afternoon office I added something a little different. I used an Anglican rosary that was made for me by someone from the congregation. Just having this set of beads made for me makes it pretty cool. However, one of the prayers you can pray with the beads – which are set up a bit different than the Catholic rosary I am used to – is the Breastplate of St. Patrick. Patrick lived in the 5th century (the 400’s AD), and was kidnapped around the age of 16 by Irish raiders. He endured 6 years of slavery before he escaped. Eventually he had a dream that called him to go back to the Irish, the very people who had kidnapped and enslaved him, and preach the gospel to them. In 432 AD, Patrick was named the Bishop of Ireland. His life was often in danger. He was captured several times, made many enemies, and counted many people as his converts. There is good reason that Irish folks celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick as a national holiday. As one of my favorite authors, David Bentley Hart writes, “if any man can be said to have converted an entire nation, Patrick would be that person.” Continue reading “Lenten Journey – Day 29”

I’ve obviously gotten into prayer books and things of that nature, but perhaps there are those of you who are concerned about praying in repetition. We aren’t supposed to pray in vain repetition, right? Here’s a couple of paragraphs from Scot McKnight’s book that is helpful in sorting out our thoughts.

[Some may say] “But, surely the recitation of something ancient leads to vain repetitions.”
Yes it can, but it need not. Repetition, like saying “I love you,” to someone dear to us, can become a rhythm for daily renewal just as easily as it can become a mindless routine. But let’s probe this concern about repetition in another way. This question may actually be masking another issue, one that is part of the hesitation to use prayer written by others. Our tendency is to go to the Bible for something new, to read it in the expectation of a fresh discovery of something we did not know or had not heard or had completely forgotten. As a professor who teaches the Bible, I know the experience.
But the discovery of something new is not the sole, or even the main, purpose for reading the Bible. The longer you look at the idea that we read the Bible to find new meanings, the sillier it becomes. We read and return to the Bible not (just) to find something new but to hear something old, not to discover something fresh but to be reminded of something ancient.
pp.50-51

Continue reading “Lenten Journey – Day 28”

I finished Scot McKnight’s book, “Praying with the Church,” yesterday and it was a good read. I recommend it if you are at all curious about keeping the hours of prayer, praying through prayer books – as I’ve mentioned here, or if you’re just a person who enjoys reading about prayer. One of the things McKnight writes about is something that I’ve found true during this time of fasting. It is possible to have your day and faith reordered according to prayer. Here’s what I mean: on the days I am not eating I move from breakfast time – morning prayer, to lunch or midday prayer, then vespers and finally compline (the prayer time) before bed. When you do this a few days, the rhythm of your day is affected. I go from prayer time to prayer time. But there is more. There are feast days in the church when we remember faithful Christians who have gone on before. I’ve written about this before. So this coming Wednesday is the day we remember St. Patrick, a visionary missionary to the people of Ireland. We remember his faithfulness and courage. We celebrate that God used him to bring so many people to know Christ. This year St. Patrick’s Day occurs on the 29th day of the Lenten Season (or 26th day if you do not count Sundays). One could, if one chooses, date a journal or a letter written on that day as being on the Feast Day of St. Patrick, on the 29th day of Lent in the year of our Lord 2010. Continue reading “Lenten Journey – Day 26”

I attended the Bishop’s Day on stewardship and evangelism today, and really enjoyed the things the keynote speaker, Mike Slaughter, was sharing.  He was focused on disciple making and said some challenging things, such as Jesus didn’t come to save church buildings, but to save the lost.  I appreciated his honest in moving from the church growth strategies and towards making disciples and having people be the hands and feet of Christ.  One of the things that I took from the sessions was a reminder of what our focus ought to be as church.  Our mission statement is, We are disciples of Jesus Christ who are loved by God, loving God, loving others, and serving the world.  In other words, our vocation is to make disciples of Jesus Christ through that process of evangelism, worship, small groups, and ministry.  Continue reading “Lenten Journey – Day 25”