Don’t Vote…

Watch this video.

western spaghetti…

prayer, part four.

once again this morning i got quiet and still and waited for god to speak. i prayed and told god i would like for him to speak to me, but ultimately it was his choice to speak or not. this morning you did not speak. i am still not discouraged for now. i understand that listening takes time to learn how to do and i am only a beginner (maybe i always will be!).

after some thinking, maybe you did speak and i could not or would not hear it. this is probably closer to the truth than i would like to admit. even though i did not hear you speak, i did however “feel” the stillness of my body. it is rare and has been a long time since i felt my body getting still. usually the only time my body gets still is when i am sleeping and then i am not awake to experience it.

to feel this stillness was very, very peaceful and relaxing. even though i had to get up and go to the bathroom while i was walking this stillness stayed with me even though i was moving. thank you master.

please keep me on your path. amen and amen.

prayer, part three.

i sat again this morning getting still before god. i had no goal or purpose for my “silent time”. i prayed to god that he would have his way with me this morning. it did not matter what did or did not happen. i was just silent before my creator. this morning during this time i was at rest in a way that i have never experienced before in my lifetime. it was so good.

thank you YHWH, you have started to show me the deeper life… or rather i have gotten still and quiet long enough to “see” and “hear” the deeper life. amen and amen.

prayer, part two.

today, instead of starting with talking or writing i started with listening. i always thought that when i listened to god in prayer that i was “supposed” to “hear” the holy spirit speaking to me or that i would get some fascinating words of deep wisdom. today it wasn’t like that. it was like experiencing a great calm or being drenched with a great peace. did i “get” anything? did i walk away with some words of truth to help me through my day?

no. maybe i am not supposed to.

for the next several days i will not pray to “get” something… i will continue to be still and quiet before god and not speak at all.

*as i look back on the day i did this the calm and peace that i experienced in prayer that morning did stay with me for quite awhile that day. i was better able to deal with people in my everyday life with more compassion and understanding… that alone is worth more than all the “stuff” in the world.

prayer, part one.

on my quest to deepen my spirituality i keep a journal of my thoughts. some call it a prayer journal… to me it is both of those things and more. in the last few days i have been experimenting with trying different techniques during my prayer time. i have struck upon one that seems to appeal to me and so i am going to have a few more entries after this describing my experiences during this prayer time.

having tried lots and lots of types of prayers i am kind of cynical about how they “work”. in no way am i saying that doing prayer a certain way will produce a certain outcome and therefore if you are not doing it right then nothing happens. the “results” of prayer are totally dependant upon god. a human being cannot force any result from prayer no matter what way he/she prays. so, whether you lay on your face, sit in a chair, stand up, raise hands, rock back and forth, recite prayers from memory, speak in “tongues”, cry, laugh or scream… it is not the way that produces the outcome it is god that handles the outcome part.

before this i usually started my prayer with reading a little scripture and then reading out of some kind of devotional book. then i would start to speak to god and talk about what was happening in my life and talk about my parishoners, talk about my wife and kids, my job, etc… this would go on for awhile, me talking and god listening. then i would have a few seconds of quiet and that was it. i stopped, got up and went about my day. until one day reading “celebration of discipline” by foster i read about how it is important to listen to god. so, pondering how to do this i decided that i would try to just listen to god for awhile. i would not tell god what i needed (as if god’s needs me to reveal my needs, NOT!), i would not talk about what was happening in my life… none of that.

i decided i would just sit and close my eyes and listen. so, i did and the next few posts will tell you the interesting results from the few days i have tried this so far.

vacation & update…

yesterday (monday) was the first day of my vacation for to weeks. i have never been able to take off two weeks in a row at any job i have ever had! well, it is not as “sweet” as it could be because i still have to work for the realtor part-time, BUT this is still the longest vacation i have ever had.

i haven’t written anything personal in awhile. well, for the past four years i have been really focused on theological & biblical education and having finished all of that to the satisfaction of my presbytery i now am unrestricted in doing all of the sacraments.

also, one day i was thinking about focusing on my spirituality and so i turned to my personal library to find a book about spirituality and i looked and then i looked some  more and i found out that i don’t have any books on spirituality! i couldn’t believe that! i mean i am a pastor for god’s sake, you would think i would have a book or two, but i did not.

so, i started looking up books on spirituality and i ran across one that is a good classic, it is “celebration of discipline” by foster. i also found a book by peterson called “a long obedience in the same direction”. i have read about half of fosters’ book and i haven’t started petersons yet. but, i can say that fosters’ book is really, really, really, really good. oh, by the way did i mention that fosters’ book was also really good.

after opening the book, i started with the foreward… and of course there was something absolutely awesome in just the foreward. it said: “a genuine culture revolution would ensue if considerable numbers were to obey the trenchant command, ‘de-accumulate’”.

now, this may seem simple and it is not as if i had not considered this advice before, but for some reason the holy spirit made it much more meaningful and applicable to my life at this time. i would encourage you to take that statement and really think about it and look around in your house at your stuff and see what you could easily “de-accumulate”… maybe it will mean something to you, maybe not.

the second and single most important thing that i learned had to do with prayer. as a person of faith i struggle with consistency in prayer (as does ALL persons of faith). i could never figure out the obstacles to “good and consistent” prayer before. i always chalked it up to laziness… but it was something much more deep and much more serious. foster said: “to pray is to change. prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. if we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characterisitc of our lives”. now, maybe this does not seem such a big deal to you, but when you have been wanting to be a better “pray-er” for as long as i have and if you have been struggling with that for as long as i have… then this is a great breakthrough in understanding myself.

anyway… i suggest you get fosters’ book, you will NOT regret it. blessings on you all and i hope we talk again soon.

new book… well, new old book.

i was shopping in this flea market last weekend and they had a bunch of used books and in the process i stumbled upon a book of gold! well, not literally gold… but worth it’s weight in gold. it is a book  by Henri Nouwen called: “A Cry for Mercy”.

if you ever get a chance to read this book, i highly suggest you do so. the prayers are awesome!

this is a book you will not regret reading.

Another quick one…

here is another quick post. i am at a small church retreat all this weekend. they have a bookstore set up and they know that most presbyterians are book junkies! so, being a presbyterian and a book junkie, i bought this little book. awesome little book, some of these prayers made me cry.  

Three parts…

i know some of you know that i have been reading gordon atkinson’s blog for many years now. he recently did a dramatized version, what he calls a “RLPDV” (click here to read what a RLPDV is) of jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. this is great and you will love it. read them in order or the story and the details won’t make sense.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three