Old Dog and New Trick

Olympic National Park.

This is my first experiment with putting a picture on the blog. I was able to do it from a pretty cool site named Flickr. It's a free service that allows you to post and share your own pictures and also to view the publicly shared pictures of other flickr members. You can also post your own pics to your blog. This was an awesome pic that I saw while "flickr surfing."


I am going to try to write more frequently this week so keep an eye out.

Greetings to all the new folks looking at the blog!

Have A Great Week!

Discipline 2 Part 2

Sorry so long in writing this post. A long week with lots of work kept me away.

In the chapter on the spiritual discipline of prayer, Richard Foster deals with intercession as his focus. There are many different types of prayer. But standing in the place of another who needs God's hand to move is a very special kind of praying.

We spoke about it briefly the last time. But here is a thought. Prayer that accomplishes it's goal, (an answer) is something that is taught and learned.

It is no accident that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. A strange request for Jewish men who had probably been to the temple all their lives. They saw something in Jesus' prayers which were so different from their own that they sought to attain the very power that he possessed.

We can trust Jesus to teach us this very special discipline. Invite His influence over your praying. Ask Him to reveal His heart to you so that you might pray the very prayer that He desires to answer.

1 John 5:14,15
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

Summary of the book: "Celebration of Discipline" by Richard Foster

Discipline 2, Part 1: The Proof Is In The Pudding...

Ever get uneasy when you read scriptures about prayer. It seems so simple. Seek...find. Ask...receive. Knock...door opening. Whatsoever you ask in prayer believing you shall receive. Seems very positive. Seems like it's saying that God answer's our prayers. Right? What is your actual experience? I find that there is a great chasm between my prayers and the answers to my prayers at times. How about you?

So the question really boils down to this. Are the scriptures faulty? Is there a lot more unanswered requests than the scriptures bare witness to? Is it just that the times were different then? Do we have to always give God a way out? Should we end our prayers with "if it be your will Father" so that just in case God doesn't answer so we can rest in our knowledge that it just wasn't God's will and not a problem with our praying?

Richard Foster suggests that the issue is really with us. The scripture is absolutely trustworthy. However, prayer like the other disciplines is something that we must learn.

He gives a wonderful example. Imagine you go to watch TV one night and you get no picture or sound. You go check the plug, adjust some of the knobs, maybe you give it a THUNK. But how are you really going to tell if your efforts have been successful? You will know if you get a picture and sound back! Duh...

Foster says that assessing the power of our prayers is the same. We learn from Christ Himself. He is our Teacher in the school of prayer. And we know when we have been successful when we receive the answers to the prayer that we sought out.

Sometimes it's helpful to make an asessment of where you are.

• Are you experiencing the biblical definition of successful prayer or something less?
• Do you see Prayer as a discipline that can be learned?
• How have you sought out the Teacher in this area?
• Are you in the process of learning?

Summary of the book: "Celebration of Discipline" by Richard Foster

Imagine... (Discipline 1, Part 3)

Did you ever think of your imagination as a gift from God? I mean, think about it. Some of the greatest things in life come from our imagination. Some of the greatest inventions started out as daydreams in the heads of some visionary people. Artists and musician can often see or hear their masterpieces long before they will actually physically perform them. All this because of God's gift, the immagination.

Richard Foster says this about the imagination and it's use in the spiritual discipline of meditation:

We are seeking to think God's thoughts after Him, to delight in His presence, to desire His truth and His way. And the more we live in this way, the more God utilizes our imagination for His good purposes. In fact, the common experience of those who walk with God is one of being given images of what can be.

Imagination can be especially used in meditation on the scriptures. Imagine yourself in the picture of what you are reading. Imagine hearing the words of Jesus. Feel the sun shining on your face, hear the Sea of Galilee, smell the fish as Peter takes them off the boat.

God can redeem our life, He can redeem our imagination and use it for His purposes.

Keep It Simple

Read a post today on a blog that was really insightful, especially in light of the fact that I am reading about the spiritual discipline of simplicity (I will post about this some other week). Here's the link

More is Less

Makes you think...

Discipline 1, Part 2

In my last post I spoke of a type of meditation mentioned in the book which has been quite a blessing to me of late. It is called Re-Collection or Centering. Foster describes it as:

"A time to become still, to enter the recreating silence, to allow the fragmentation of our minds to become centered."

Remember that problem with our brain? Thoughts which clutter the stillness we are trying to achieve? Re-Collection helps us silence those thoughts, put them aside, receive God's grace, and move into his inner sanctuary of peace. Sounds good , right? It is good

Here's how it works. All of the thoughts that barge their way in need to be submitted to the Father.

Count your many stressings, name them one by one...Oh, sorry. That's another song...

But that is what you do. Line them up. One after another. And present them to the Lord submitting them to Him. And then release them to his care.

Present...Release...Present...Release...Present...Release...Are you getting it?

Then, after you are finished with this, line them up again. And in faith say what grace you accept from the Father for meeting these needs.

Let's say someone's doing the ChaCha on you last nerve. Present the person and the situation and release them to the authority of God. Then say to the Father, "I receive your peace and patience to persevere in this situation." Or whatever grace you need.

You will find a stillness at the end of this practice. At this point be quiet and listen...Just listen and you will understand why this has been such a blessing to me.

Go ahead, try it for a couple of days. Ask God to show you how. Let me know how it worked for you. I like comments ;)

The original Post Discipline

Summary of the book: "Celebration of Discipline" by Richard Foster

Discipline 1: Aummmm....Aummmm...Not

That is not the meditation that I am talking about here. Meditation in the biblical sense of the word is wayyyy different than that of Eastern meditation. Eastern meditation's goal is to detach from all sense of self to meld into the cosmic consciousness (whatever that is). Biblical meditation on the other hand is to attach yourself to God Himself. Here are two fantastic quotes from Richard Foster:

"Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God's voice and obey His Word"

and,

"What happens in meditation is that we create the emotional and spiritual space which allows Christ to construct an inner sanctuary in the heart"

Our city is so noisy. And even if we hide away from it all, our minds are so noisy. It is very difficult to quiet ourselves. Our mind tends to wander towards what we have done, what we have yet to do, or a host of other musings which have nothing to do with anything. It's amazing the thoughts that can come into your head when you are trying to be quiet. Stuff that you haven't thought of in 20 years somehow come to be the most dominant thought in your head when you're trying to be still! Can I get a witness?

Meditation is not only a discipline. It is also a grace. We need it. God supplies it to us and meets us there with a portion of exactly what we need to begin, brick by brick, to create that inner sanctuary that Foster spoke of. At first it is difficult to quiet yourself. But ask the Father and He will help you do it.

I have been practicing one of the forms of meditation mentioned in the book recently and it has been a blessing to me. It is called Re-Collection. I'll speak about it next time.


The original Post Discipline

"Celebration of Discipline" by Richard Foster

Amazing Grace

I was thinking about grace this morning and came up with my very own Ed Wing definition:

"Grace is God's favorable input into our lives
to narrow the gap between what we have and what we desperately need"

- Ed Wing "Winging It", 2004

I like this definition because it reminds me that there actually is a gap. One that is actually impossible for me to fill. I liken my ability to fill it to flipping a teaspoon of dirt into the Grand Canyon. Not very effective. I can't really even fathom the width and depth of that gap. I need more than I even realize.

God inputs exactly what is needed to get the job done. And with great undeserved favor as well. He is committed to finishing the job. Even more than I am with having the job finished!

Humility recognizes our personal need and rests on the provision of the Father through Jesus. His grace is that provision. We need only ask and wait for a hearty supply daily.



Just a thought