tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979038715930579452024-02-27T06:23:48.832-08:00Deep WellsAncient Springs of Living WaterGlenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.comBlogger225125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-70192702901088734402019-03-09T09:48:00.000-08:002019-03-09T09:48:01.295-08:00Transfigured into Christ's Likeness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS-5DGTF0hvcPuE_st0Up9DuamVsL3rDoORTLV223Y-sojZtwgt5k-AzN33ABrVN-3pTh_15Ypw_n2or4iOrhX7k2Wf_dgVcC5i73rNxMYvhvU6TIPxlqtoFoBb8q2Jl0rFwEpgOYvf10L/s1600/G+016.save.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS-5DGTF0hvcPuE_st0Up9DuamVsL3rDoORTLV223Y-sojZtwgt5k-AzN33ABrVN-3pTh_15Ypw_n2or4iOrhX7k2Wf_dgVcC5i73rNxMYvhvU6TIPxlqtoFoBb8q2Jl0rFwEpgOYvf10L/s400/G+016.save.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Lent in all about being transformed--changed into the image of Christ.<br />
This week I heard a new song, "Transfigure Us, O Lord," by Bob Hurd. It has really moved me and has become my focus from the Lord for Lent.<br />
The song has been playing over and over again in my mind: this has become my prayer for Lent!<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5SQG4cX8vw">"Transfigure Us, O Lord"</a><br />
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<br />Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-66694726908978620122019-03-03T12:19:00.003-08:002019-03-03T12:30:39.293-08:00Lent: Living Out the Sermon on the Mount<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzjhOKrC8zNZ03E1bl7SpEdV5IoJ9nL9gdphRmhvisoj75YacU1P0ByIFmDlg2EN__Y4h1L-Y8w-h08uMO4_GwLEzcKiK8iA5nsBHHj5T0dGoFe5pttlUFAu_-1gi88H7m3Uqfqd6zrB8d/s1600/Wis13.G+045.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzjhOKrC8zNZ03E1bl7SpEdV5IoJ9nL9gdphRmhvisoj75YacU1P0ByIFmDlg2EN__Y4h1L-Y8w-h08uMO4_GwLEzcKiK8iA5nsBHHj5T0dGoFe5pttlUFAu_-1gi88H7m3Uqfqd6zrB8d/s400/Wis13.G+045.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“But when you give to the needy, do not let
your left hand know what your right hand is doing . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“But when you pray, go into your room, close
the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who
sees what is done in secret, will reward you. . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“But when you fast, put oil on your head and
wash your face, so that it will not be obvious
to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and
your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> -Matthew
6:3, 6, 17-18</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">In
the Sermon the on Mount, Jesus assumes his followers will be praying, fasting
and giving to the poor. He wants to guard us from self-focused hypocrisy of
doing these spiritual practices for show. Nevertheless, he expects us to be
doing these practices of righteousness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Since
the early centuries of the church, Christians began to set aside the 40 days (not
counting Sundays) leading up to Easter as a time for intentional spiritual
growth. They focused on these three practices of Matthew 6: giving alms,
praying and fasting. What a wonderful model this is for an extended time of self-examination
and the practice of purposeful spiritual disciplines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Alms,
praying and fasting provide a balanced approach to inner formation. Often one or
the other of these practices comes fairly easy to each of us, and that is
great. However, most of the greatest growth in our lives happens when we exercise
the areas of our lives that do not come so naturally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Beyond
my normal offering/financial giving to the Lord, who in need can I give some
money to this Lent?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">What
can I do special for the next 40+ days in my prayer life? Perhaps it would be
extra time of silence, going on a one- or two-day spiritual retreat, following
a Lenten devotional in addition to my normal Bible reading, or adopting a
special focus for intercessory prayer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">What
can I fast from this Lent? It could be food, desert, social media, complaining,
procrastinating, or any number of things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">As
Ash Wednesday approaches in just a few days, ask the Lord to guide you in each
of these three areas. Invite the Lord into your use of money, your activities, and
your prayer life in special way. See what he wants to do in your life and your
heart as we prepare ourselves to celebrate afresh the Resurrection of our Lord!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 9.0pt;">© 2019 Glenn E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-29554895342445867702018-12-26T10:03:00.000-08:002018-12-26T10:24:09.588-08:00Christmas: God Loves small, Insignificant Places and Little Deeds Done in Great Love<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdYdBaowm9y2LKhDhneNYUmELgvAsjcXsxoM5wDADNrEabYZdxC0uxIjV7f-wUmdPLrJEOEr6VlGOmBB8Dh3qqJRO4PxSXgJXX0Nv8vpiVPpR7tYCELbnE7DsBeZB0d7fmrNTqk72ZNjo9/s1600/G+008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdYdBaowm9y2LKhDhneNYUmELgvAsjcXsxoM5wDADNrEabYZdxC0uxIjV7f-wUmdPLrJEOEr6VlGOmBB8Dh3qqJRO4PxSXgJXX0Nv8vpiVPpR7tYCELbnE7DsBeZB0d7fmrNTqk72ZNjo9/s400/G+008.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> though
you are small among the clans of Judah,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">out of you will come for me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> one
who will be ruler over Israel,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">whose origins are from of old,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> from
ancient times.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> -Micah
5:2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“Not all of us can do great things. But we can
do small things with great love.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>-Mother
Teresa</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
year as I read and heard the familiar Scripture passages on the Nativity, I was
struck with just how often God chooses the small places for Jesus’ birth and
live. The Father could have placed Jesus anywhere but chose to place him in the
obscure little town of Bethlehem. Although it was the birth place of King
David, it had become in insignificant village by the time of the Prophet Micah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesus
grew up in Nazareth, another small town in the region of Galilee where people
had a funny accent, as far as the Jews in Judea were concerned. Jesus was
raised in an insignificant, poor laborer’s family. Not only was it humble,
Jesus’ family had a scandal—everyone knew Jesus was not really Joseph’s son.
During Jesus’ ministry, much of his care for people went unappreciated and to
everyone at first, his ultimate gift on the cross seemed to be one more scandal
and loss.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Yet
God the Father knew what he was doing. He chose to send his Son into the
obscure, unappreciated, seemingly insignificant places. This was the Father’s
perfect plan for the Incarnation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Christmas
is about the Incarnation. The Incarnation dignifies all the obscure and
scandalous areas of our life. It dignifies poor families. It dignifies all
forms of work. It dignifies those who lack education and might have funny
accents.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Moreover,
the Incarnation dignifies our little labors of love. By sending his Son, God
graced little, obscure places and unappreciated people with great love, dignity
and divinity. Thereby he dignified and indeed deified our labor given in his
name, our little deeds done with great love. He honored our acts of kindness,
even when they are unnoticed and unappreciated. He has infused those small
deeds with his Incarnation—the Divine inhabiting the earthly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Every
little act of kindness, every humble service to others, every self-emptying
done in Jesus’ name is a participation with the Incarnation. We joint the
Christmas story. We step into the grand History of Salvation. Our deeds are no
longer about us as we become one with him!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 8.0pt;">© 2017
Glenn E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-69626473993215862972018-12-15T07:30:00.001-08:002018-12-15T07:31:47.428-08:00Third Sunday of Advent—Gaudete Sunday—Hope and Rejoicing!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVfntFRD5m0cG2DZy8fxS_ZmwiyCZJTU5ScyYaC5XwEoZOZICYOJM6Ce2-LbvdTJmOtpBTN1ftlIlql6DE6KYcpE6JpAJVA4zLwVA6RGUiCb0vqfilGWQO9BVpEhChOIDwKmZonzb699dA/s1600/G+022.save.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVfntFRD5m0cG2DZy8fxS_ZmwiyCZJTU5ScyYaC5XwEoZOZICYOJM6Ce2-LbvdTJmOtpBTN1ftlIlql6DE6KYcpE6JpAJVA4zLwVA6RGUiCb0vqfilGWQO9BVpEhChOIDwKmZonzb699dA/s400/G+022.save.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“Every good thing given and every perfect gift
is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no
variation or shifting shadow.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>-James
1:17 (</span><span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 8.0pt;">NASB</span><span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Crisp,
clear—the sun crests over the eastern horizon this frosty morning, its rays
glistening on the snow-graced earth. The sun brings a song of rejoicing to my
heart. Its light reflects the Father of lights, in whom there is no turning or
shadow. It gives us hope of longer days, stronger sunshine and, in time, warmer
weather now not far away.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We
are in mid-December as we approach this, the third Sunday of Advent. For
centuries the church has call this Gaudete Sunday—Rejoice Sunday! On the advent
wreath we have a special rose-colored candle to symbolize our jubilation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We
rejoice as we look forward to the celebration of Christmas, our Savior’s birth,
just more than a week away now. Just as the sun is rising this morning with
light and warmth and hope in its rays, Jesus arises afresh in our lives with
healing in his wings:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">"But for you who fear my name, the Sun of
Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free,
leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.” (Malachi 4:2, NLT)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">At
any point in life we have sorrows and joys, some situations going well and
others seeking to overwhelm us. Whatever our circumstances right now, we can
rejoice. Our God is Light and in him is no darkness (1 John 1:5). Even if the
sunshine is not shining for us any given day, there is a cause to rejoice. Just
as the Sun of Righteousness rose in history some two thousand years ago, he
will rise afresh in our given life situation. We have hope.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
is Advent Hope and Advent Rejoicing! This is what Gaudete Sunday is all about!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 8.0pt;">© 2018
Glenn E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-37657620635797092872018-12-07T11:24:00.000-08:002018-12-07T11:25:31.411-08:00Advent: Tutoring Us in the Art of Waiting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdB3KBOZ9LcH11OkxnE3Upr7oYjVsoyxKGdQ0NfuvnceHVb3d-eYnPD8L0UnMGXaid9xfACWMbPESZvMLdqrqKpTnISuBEFK90FiL2sHxFgHwDNpqA_7Cbs6DeNLsWqdiU0I9GkSwZDneZ/s1600/G+016.save.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdB3KBOZ9LcH11OkxnE3Upr7oYjVsoyxKGdQ0NfuvnceHVb3d-eYnPD8L0UnMGXaid9xfACWMbPESZvMLdqrqKpTnISuBEFK90FiL2sHxFgHwDNpqA_7Cbs6DeNLsWqdiU0I9GkSwZDneZ/s400/G+016.save.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Advent
tutors us in the art and virtue of waiting. Waiting does not come easily to any
of us. Especially during the holiday season, any idea of waiting is discarded. Stores
pipe in Christmas carols from Thanksgiving Day (or earlier) to Christmas, to
put shoppers in the mood to buy. Marketers do not want anyone to hesitate but
rather to buy on impulse.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In
direct opposition to this atmosphere of having it all—and having it right
now—spiritual growth comes slowly. Our faith is built through the gradual
year-in and year-out walking faithfully with our God and being faithful to him
during exciting times and difficult times alike.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Indeed
the Greek word for faith, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pistos</i>,
means both faith (believing and trusting) and faithfulness (remaining constant
and true). We often see these as two separate ideas. However, in the Christian
life they are inextricably linked. To believe in Christ is to entrust one’s
life to him as Lord and to walk faithfully with him, hand-in-hand, during good
times and bad.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Sometimes
we experience growth spurts or seasons when we sense God’s presence so close.
However, in between times of marked spiritual growth or mountain top
experiences, “faith can demand long, patient waiting, when nothing seems to be
happening, and this is just as necessary to growth,” writes Maria Boulding.
Recently I read this quote and realized how true it is! Often our deepest
growth takes place during those long times of just being faithful in the
mundane things of life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Maria
Boulding then ties this idea of faithfulness with Advent. “We sometimes have to
go on doing the small, ordinary things while we wait for God, as Mary did while
she waited for the birth of Jesus; we have to wait for his moment, and wait for
his work to ripen in ourselves. It may sometimes be more fruitful in the end if
we live with a lingering question, and grow slowly towards wisdom, than if we
find a quick answer partly dictated by our own desires. The waiting changes us,
schools us, teaches us to know God.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Advent
this year—and life in general—is teaching me to wait. I want to love the
questions in my life right now. As I linger with those questions and remain
faithful in all the little responsibilities of life, God will bring about the
growth and the end results that he desires. Let me not try to prematurely
answer the questions only to end up simply following my own will. Rather, let
me like Mary, respond to the Lord: Here I am, your servant, let it be done to
me according to your word (Luke 1:38).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Maria
Boulding, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Coming of God</i>
(Conception, MO: The Printery House, Conception Abbey, Inc., 2000), 40-41.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 8.0pt;">© 2018
Glenn E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-6879765345470860122018-12-03T06:44:00.000-08:002018-12-03T06:45:42.460-08:00Advent: An Invitation to Stillness<br />
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 80%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 80%;"> The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 80%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He makes me lie down in green pastures.<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He leads me beside still waters.<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He restores my soul.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 80%; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 80%;">-Psalm
23:2-3 (<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">ESV</span>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Advent
invites us into stillness. Away from the multiplicity of demands, opportunities
and people, our mind begins to slow down. Many, if not most, of those
opportunities and relationships that we set aside for a time are good: we were
created to live full lives in this world. However, if they are only one side of
the rhythmic pendulum of a whole, healthy life. One side swings into the
many-faceted activity and interaction of the day. Then it swings back into solitude,
silence and stillness—the time necessary to be alone with self and God. Just as
day and night alternate, so we are created to flow out and back: flowing out to
the manifold interactions of the world and then back into stillness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
whole of contemporary society militates against such a practice of stillness
and simplicity. Constantly multitasking, we try to squeeze more and more into
the hours of the day. Employers want greater productivity out of us.
Organizations and churches offer programs and activities to keep us occupied.
Sports and media present unending opportunities to be entertained. Advertisers
promise us greater gratification in life if we but buy more of their products.
While none of these may be innately evil, as a whole the world system distracts
us and allures us with a false assurance of genuine purpose and fulfillment in
life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Into
such frantic busyness and multiplicity our Shepherd bids us follow him to green
pastures where we can lie down and rest. The gentle waters of a stream welcome
us to come and be restored—body, soul and spirit. A large shade tree welcomes
us to stop running long enough to enjoy the Creator’s blessings freely offered
to us. The song of a nearby bird extends an invitation to retreat from the
fragmentation of our busy world for a while and step into simplicity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Stillness
does not come spontaneously to the human heart. Since the Fall in Genesis 3, we
are worried and anxious about so many things. Jesus points us to nature to gain
a different picture of what life could be like. “Look at the birds of the air,”
instructs Jesus; “they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can
any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:26-27).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Stillness
must be cultivated. The more often we practice stillness, the more we are able
to carry it with us throughout the day. Even when things get hectic, we are
able to access that still place within and find peace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Advent
is a season to cultivate such stillness. Whether it be a devotional time each
evening of the four Advent Sundays or a day’s retreat, we are invited to still
ourselves and prepare our hearts for Christ’s fresh coming into our lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 8.0pt;">© 2018
Glenn E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-17884610618010400132018-11-11T13:08:00.002-08:002018-11-17T07:51:06.658-08:00Stillness Awaits<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx-_jvcBpOL73nnvm2wpk6Da8wMeEY4Eq5PpRgNpTPCEAjty-43d0QXt874bqGnrhEyEFd7v9U0RTt1LZA7OHHiaoP6Eb9ZzzVGULrAlBCy3dm2TxuFDSXb0Q7qFXhZHwF_SCpN0MXIxpc/s1600/IMG_3176+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx-_jvcBpOL73nnvm2wpk6Da8wMeEY4Eq5PpRgNpTPCEAjty-43d0QXt874bqGnrhEyEFd7v9U0RTt1LZA7OHHiaoP6Eb9ZzzVGULrAlBCy3dm2TxuFDSXb0Q7qFXhZHwF_SCpN0MXIxpc/s400/IMG_3176+%25281%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">“Be still—let go, cease striving—</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 80%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>and know that I am God.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 80%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>-Psalm 46:10 (</span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 8.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 80%;">NASB </span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 80%;">and
margin note)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Divine
stillness waits for us. It beckons us to come. From a distance it welcomes our
weary heart and mind to receive rest. How often we hear that invitation, and we
desire to come. But, before we do so, we want to finish one more project. As
soon as our responsibilities are fulfilled, we tell ourselves, we will take
time to be still.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Of
course once one obligation is met or one problem is solved, two more raise
their heads, and we never quite get to that much-needed pause. That place of
stillness eludes us. Like Martha in the Gospels, we are concerned about so many
things—too anxious to join Mary in Jesus’ presence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“Come
to me,” says our Lord. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I
am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew
11:28-29). Jesus continues to extend the offer of inner rest. We somehow think
that we cannot come to him until we have first unloaded our own burdens.
However, it is precisely while those burdens weigh on us that we need to come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Entering
the place of stillness necessitates that we pause from our frenetic activity,
even for five or ten minutes. Often we are afraid to do so. We are fearful of
releasing our grip.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">If
we relinquish those fears and concerns to our loving God, however, we can find
rest for our souls. Such a pause can make the difference for our whole day. Our
hearts are renewed, our souls refreshed. The whole momentum of our day becomes
refocused, and we reenter our responsibilities on the right foot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Stillness
awaits. I don’t want to ignore the Good Shepherd’s invitation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 7.0pt;">©
2018 Glenn E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-6995407182694067172018-09-10T11:09:00.000-07:002018-09-10T11:12:12.480-07:00Long-Ago Christians Passionately Pursuing Christ<img alt="Christian History Magazine #127 - Medieval Lay Mystics" height="640" src="https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/img/product/large/C4895.jpg" width="454" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What was
it like being a Christian when no one had a copy of the Bible? Well into the
Middle Ages, the only copies of the Bible were in churches and monasteries.
Laypeople had very little available to them before the year 1200. But from that
time on, there were some great spiritual renewal across Europe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Christian
History Magazine just came out with an issue of Medieval Lay Mystics. These are
laypeople who lived before 1500 who wanted to have a personal walk with the
Lord. Many had a deep prayer life. Two of the items in this issue I wrote. You
can copy and paste the links from here or just go to the sidebar and click!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/spiritual-awakening-for-the-laity"><span style="color: windowtext;">https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/spiritual-awakening-for-the-laity</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/everyone-a-bride-of-christ-ch127"><span style="color: windowtext;">https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/everyone-a-bride-of-christ-ch127</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-88546385634622438642018-03-03T06:16:00.000-08:002018-03-03T06:21:28.290-08:00Lent: Fasting to Confront our Destructive Passions<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZ-Z8zPeuqWuUqyGGItYm0sQJw_5uXBgLoGMw0-IBjRdzFZ9M9QqiSIH_7PdglHYlMB8G_gwttoD0mSSMYJEjxbFvY4oVZJqH2ORJzB2SWV8Dd5Ui__wZhCdRD5_582867aP7_WxUuh_w/s1600/Sp12+011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZ-Z8zPeuqWuUqyGGItYm0sQJw_5uXBgLoGMw0-IBjRdzFZ9M9QqiSIH_7PdglHYlMB8G_gwttoD0mSSMYJEjxbFvY4oVZJqH2ORJzB2SWV8Dd5Ui__wZhCdRD5_582867aP7_WxUuh_w/s400/Sp12+011.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“Therefore consider the members of
your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and greed, which amounts to idolatry.” -Colossians 3:5 (</span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 8.0pt;">NASB</span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The
Apostle Paul calls us to consider ourselves dead our passions. Passions are
things that drive us, that cause us to suffer (the basic meaning of “passion”).
In our day we often employ the term “passion” in a positive sense—a passion for
reaching the hungry, a passion for Jesus. These are the things that motivate our
lives and drive us to seek and serve and the Lord.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">At
the time of the writing of the New Testament and the early centuries of the
Church, however, “passion” referred primarily to the negative things that drive
us. These are the destructive compulsions and addictions of our lives. The
early theologian, Evagrius Ponticus, highlighted eight of these compulsions
that can take control of our lives: gluttony, lust, greed, anger, inordinate
sadness, bored laziness, vanity and pride.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The
practices of fasting, giving alms, and prayer confront these destructive
passions in our lives. Fasting, in particular, confronts gluttony, lust and
greed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">First
on the list of destructive passions is gluttony. When gluttony has a hold on
us, we eat not just what we need or should properly enjoy in life. Instead, we
keep on eating, trying to get more and more pleasure or attempting to fill an
empty place in our hearts. Ironically, when we are driven by gluttony, we often
eat so quickly that we fail to savor the food in our mouths. Instead, our focus
is on “getting more.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Because
eating is essential to life, gaining self-control over the passion of gluttony
is foundational to gaining victory over all the destructive passions that seek
to control us, asserts Evagrius.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Along
with gluttony, lust is a powerful passion in our lives. Both of these are
compulsions of desire—we want something, not only to satisfy our physical needs
but to try to satisfy an inner compulsion that craves for more and more. Gluttony
and lust go hand-in-hand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Greed
is a third passion of desire—concupiscence. God created us to desire, for
desire is what draws us out of ourselves to reach out in love toward our
Creator and other people. Because of the Fall, however, our desiring faculty (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">concupiscentia</i> in Latin) has become twisted
in on ourselves. Our desiring becomes self-focused and is never satisfied. Our
gluttony, lust and greed spring from our inner concupiscence that craves incessantly.
Like an addiction, no matter how much we feed it, we grasp for more in order to
get our “fix.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">If
we can gain victory over food—a basic need of life—we can become free from lust
and greed and the underlying bottomless craving of the passions and their
demands. Fasting is therefore so important in our lives. It is not that we
ourselves gain victory by our will power. Rather, fasting exposes the inner
passions. Foregoing food brings the concupiscence to the surface where it can
be dealt with. Then we call upon God’s mercy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Lent
is all about acknowledging our fallen nature and crying out for God’s mercy. We
can never defeat gluttony, lust and greed by fasting alone. Instead, Lenten
fasting helps us face those driving compulsions—those controlling passions—that
must be taken to the cross. As they die with Christ on the cross (Romans
6:1-14), we are raised to new life and the Holy Spirit bears the fruit of
self-control in us (Galatians 5:1-23). This is the Paschal Mystery of new life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">May
we 0pen ourselves anew this Lent to the practice of fasting so that our hidden
passions may be exposed and brought to Christ’s passion on the cross. May we
than rise with Christ to a transformed life, no longer controlled by inner
compulsions but instead free to enjoy God’s blessings, such as food, and free
to live our lives fully for our Lord!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 7.0pt;">©
2018 Glenn E. Myers</span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-65549852562425540002018-02-08T11:35:00.001-08:002018-02-14T07:03:41.818-08:00Lent: Ash Wednesday as a Call to Return to the Lord with All our Heart<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb-MAVvg7VUQjjmwPqXhkZUgMTzyCYdMeFM8v1yw0-p_okt45pptDAWK5kYCe_eqHCf1kxsLMqP1ZMOIfl2WbeQPrLHU1MC_a_yTnFbvE9NYx7mci1PpC9q0ajaM5qm2bw7zFs-Ur0iu59/s1600/002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb-MAVvg7VUQjjmwPqXhkZUgMTzyCYdMeFM8v1yw0-p_okt45pptDAWK5kYCe_eqHCf1kxsLMqP1ZMOIfl2WbeQPrLHU1MC_a_yTnFbvE9NYx7mci1PpC9q0ajaM5qm2bw7zFs-Ur0iu59/s400/002.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Return to me with your whole heart,</span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">with fasting and weeping and mourning. </span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">–Joel
2:12</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">You will seek me and find me </span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">when you seek me with all your heart. </span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">-Jeremiah
29:13</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Traveling
through the daily challenges of life, we readily become preoccupied and
distracted. Our spiritual focus is easy to lose, especially because we cannot
see it with our physical eyes, while everything around us, calling for our
attention, is so tangible. Taking our eyes off the goal, we often
drift—sometimes just a little, other times quite far—from the path of pursuing
the Lord.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">God’s
words through the Prophet Joel come crashing into our lives as we begin Lent:
“Return to me with your whole heart!” Ash Wednesday is a call to conversion.
All we like sheep have gone astray, as Isaiah 53:6 reminds us. So, as we begin
Lent, we must ask ourselves: Where have I wandered from the Lord? Have I
dwindled in prayer? How have I ceased loving others as I should? Has my focus
shifted from Jesus to myself?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Wherever
we have gone astray, we need to return to God with all our heart. Sorrowful for
our erring ways, we are called to return with fasting and weeping and mourning.
These three activities go together throughout the Old Testament. When the
nation of Israel mourned for their sin, it virtually always included fasting to
demonstrate their sorrow. These activities flesh out what it means to repent—to
turn around and return to the Lord.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">However,
fasting, weeping and mourning are very counter-cultural. Contemporary society
says: “Eat, drink and be merry! If it feels good, do it!” Lent, to the
contrary, says: “Fast, if you are serious about seeking God. Give up what feels
good and tastes good.” Today’s world promotes a “Life’s good!” approach to
everything: “Let’s be entertained; let’s be happy all the time.” Lent, however,
reminds us that there is a time to mourn—to actively be sorry for our sin. As
Jesus said: Blessed are those who mourn, for they are the ones who will be
comforted (Matthew 5:4).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">As
we enter Lent this year, let us embrace the three spiritual rhythms that
Christians have practiced since the early centuries of the Church.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">First,
let us fast because fasting allows us to focus and sets us free from the
physical desires and temporal things that tend to control us. Second, let us
pray with a renewed intensity and commitment. In particular, let us seek God
afresh in prayer and wait expectantly on God to move in our lives. Third, let
us give to others. Giving alms, as it has traditionally been titled, gets the
focus off of self and gives us opportunity to become “cheerful givers.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Returning
to God with our whole heart is what Lent is all about. Too often we simply make
superficial change and so-called conversion that is only skin deep. When,
however, we are serious enough to fast and weep and mourn, we have begun truly to
seek God. When we do that, God promises in Jeremiah 29 that we will indeed find
him: “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 7.0pt;">©
2018 Glenn E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-54928669764812149122018-01-20T07:14:00.000-08:002018-01-20T07:18:15.367-08:00Faithful in Little Things in the New Year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mUOeuEpNyJpXKhF86LjhHXC6u96xwoXVgQjeRJdcEA51eNojx8xGmM_pcgNiknShGJsBkNmMXu2vw_OfVcC7x_cKsT1mUb1bIfaLcM2PMeHCAr2_hDRoOaBZNTwlHVJM5cw55AvT9Qvq/s1600/19.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mUOeuEpNyJpXKhF86LjhHXC6u96xwoXVgQjeRJdcEA51eNojx8xGmM_pcgNiknShGJsBkNmMXu2vw_OfVcC7x_cKsT1mUb1bIfaLcM2PMeHCAr2_hDRoOaBZNTwlHVJM5cw55AvT9Qvq/s400/19.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Tempus Sans ITC"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“There are many people
who can do big things,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Tempus Sans ITC"; font-size: 11.0pt;">but there are very few
people who will do the small things.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Tempus Sans ITC"; font-size: 11.0pt;">–Mother Teresa<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">As
the New Year is underway, I am reminded of Mother Teresa’s words. How true they
are! I am always ready to take on challenging new tasks and serve in great
ways. Great accomplishments receive recognition and honor. Of course we want
God to be praised through what we have done, yet we know that we almost always
get bit of the recognition and praise ourselves. That feels so good and feeds
our ego.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Faithfulness
to little things, to the contrary, is generally overlooked. We do not feel like
we have accomplished much. Others seldom notice, let alone give recognition.
That, I believe, is at the heart of the issue: being attentive to the little
ways of serving has no reward . . .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">No
reward, that is, until we leave behind our worldly way of thinking. When we
begin to see with spiritual eyes, we find a different picture. Little things
count. “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much,”
states our Lord in Luke 16:10, “and he who is unrighteous in a very little
thing is unrighteous also in much.” The little things reveal our true inner
attitude.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Moreover,
little things affect other people. Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, whatever you
did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”
(Matthew 25:40). The little acts of kindness count. The extra mile—when no one
is there to see—is indeed seen by the Lord. Others may not recognize our
faithfulness, but God does. Sometimes those we serve do not even appreciate it,
but Jesus does!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
year I want to walk in vibrant faithfulness—faithfulness in fulfilling daily
responsibilities, in serving others, in honoring the Lord even when no one
seems to notice. Whatever I have done for the least of the people in my life, I
have ultimately done for Jesus!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 8.0pt;">© Glenn E.
Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-73498027159962847712018-01-06T10:43:00.003-08:002018-01-06T10:48:58.449-08:00Epiphany: Beginning the New Year with Open Hands of Prayer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ahQsA6WQLKunRD7bLPErDH9cfuSiZLF2KYmWEC6VQw-FmZrCS2uiSMl2yVcaaEMJ5AvV03uG7G91AHVkzzEsQicv8vt-jY9-8_AQlyh3i85kUgXLXoHDf1vBVbsV9aAjIf6fnr8wl3k_/s1600/Crown+winter+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ahQsA6WQLKunRD7bLPErDH9cfuSiZLF2KYmWEC6VQw-FmZrCS2uiSMl2yVcaaEMJ5AvV03uG7G91AHVkzzEsQicv8vt-jY9-8_AQlyh3i85kUgXLXoHDf1vBVbsV9aAjIf6fnr8wl3k_/s400/Crown+winter+001.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b> <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Open, Receptive and Free</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Free from demands</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Others’ agendas</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Pressure to perform</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>My own self-serving dreams</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Even my inner unvoiced expectations</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Yet open to expectancy</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Without constraints or limits</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Ready to be surprised</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hidden hand of God</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Divine purposes beyond my comprehension</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Open hands in prayer</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Asking sincerely</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Knocking loudly</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Seeking with all that is in me</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But not clinging</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Then waiting</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Always seems so long</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Yet keeping hands open</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Remaining confident</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Never giving up</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Receptive</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hopeful expectancy</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Secret excitement</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Ready to accept</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Kairos: heaven’s timing</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Epiphany—</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Almighty’s sudden appearance!</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Light</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Spirit’s breath</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Divine intervention</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God’s goodness—pure goodness</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Whether leading me forward</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Or keeping me here</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I’m ready for either</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Free in God’s will!</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"></span></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b>© Glenn E. Myers</b></span></span></div>
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Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-44855359667380649452017-12-28T07:51:00.000-08:002017-12-28T08:07:27.359-08:00Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring: Christmas Invitation to Soar to Uncreated Heights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio70wn9VRULBRnP5hjRNyEqu85FNeOo5lux1TZ_LULuehsqOPb9nRg6eF3-9ze9S2utoHNaGJkfPPN-45dE39pz0NQXHFPK4g7FVUB7a_pl0pFN2kdSzASmKX3L4FVi3OdvOi13UzTjHtd/s1600/King%2527s+House+014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio70wn9VRULBRnP5hjRNyEqu85FNeOo5lux1TZ_LULuehsqOPb9nRg6eF3-9ze9S2utoHNaGJkfPPN-45dE39pz0NQXHFPK4g7FVUB7a_pl0pFN2kdSzASmKX3L4FVi3OdvOi13UzTjHtd/s400/King%2527s+House+014.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“Prayer
is the ascent of the spirit to God” –Evagrius Ponticus</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
Christmas season Sharon and I have been listening to the new CD <u>Jesu, Joy of
Man’s Desiring</u>, published by the Dominican Sisters of Mary. What a joy it
is! This is the first time in some years that I’ve listened to the words of the
song by the same name:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesu, joy of man's desiring,<br />
Holy wisdom, love most bright;<br />
Drawn by Thee, our souls aspiring<br />
Soar to uncreated light.<br />
<br />
Word of God, our flesh that fashioned,<br />
With the fire of life impassioned,<br />
Striving still to truth unknown,<br />
Soaring, dying round Thy throne.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What
an invitation this is! Our soul’s desires are drawn to Jesus who is himself
Holy Wisdom—the Logos, the Word (John 1:1-2). That Word is true light (v. 9),
uncreated and pure. Then that “Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us”
in order to reveal God the Father to us (vv. 14, 18). Ultimately he came to
lift us up to the Father, so that we might experience that glory and grace upon
grace (v. 16).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesu
is indeed Love Most Bright, come to earth. That event was not just the
Incarnation over two millennia ago: it is a fresh invitation for us to soar
anew in devotion to God’s Uncreated Light!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">These
twelve days of Christmas, especially as most of us have a few more days of
leisure from work, let us set aside some of that time for unhurried devotion to
the Lord. May our hearts be renewed “with the fire of life impassioned” as we prayer,
worship and contemplate in silence. May we allow our souls to soar to the
Throne of God and pass into his very Presence!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Link:
https://www.sistersofmary.org/</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 8.0pt;">© 2017
Glenn E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-47794290410469593992017-12-13T13:50:00.002-08:002017-12-15T08:03:41.957-08:00Third Sunday of Advent: From Fragmentation to Holy Wholeness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqSUTHVNB2Fdb5jyD_AW2E6fokhZoV897AtFKjy2qknf3RVIMZBEhOKGLEvVgkXclmNHEnRIhWpZ6RRrh9qQCqG3J4-PUWXP9ipoUPCqr10Ma7oAM6rhygTD_lzU9SqAITJiipIO1CXm-Q/s1600/King%2527s+House+016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqSUTHVNB2Fdb5jyD_AW2E6fokhZoV897AtFKjy2qknf3RVIMZBEhOKGLEvVgkXclmNHEnRIhWpZ6RRrh9qQCqG3J4-PUWXP9ipoUPCqr10Ma7oAM6rhygTD_lzU9SqAITJiipIO1CXm-Q/s400/King%2527s+House+016.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” -Hebrews 13:8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Advent
points us to the past, present and future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">First,
the four weeks leading up to the Nativity focus our attention on the event of
the Incarnation some 2000 years ago. The Son of God, the Logos, came to earth and took on flesh—as a fetus in Mary’s womb, developing and growing until Mary
was “great with child” as she rode the donkey en route to Bethlehem with her
finance Joseph.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Advent
likewise points us to the future. Christ not only came to earth as a baby those
two millennia ago, he will return at the end of the age as King of kings and
Lord of lords. The time-space world in which we live has a </span><i style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">telos</i><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">—a goal, fulfillment, completion—toward which the centuries
run. God will roll up the heavens and earth “like a robe; like a garment they
will be changed” (Hebrews 1:12). We will receive a new heavens and earth,
beyond our earthly language to describe. We will join the wedding feast of the
Son and be joined forever with Christ, our Bridegroom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Between
these two advents of Christ, we exist today. Just as Jesus broke into the past
and will come again with surprise in the future, he wants to break into our everyday
lives. He is Emmanuel—God with us—in our human existence. We must live in light
of Christ’s present-day presence, else we will be consumed by the materialism
of the world and cave in on ourselves in self-focused preoccupation. The
secular shopping season contributes all the more to the material fixation that steals
our attention from active and living presence among us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">We
must resist the temptation of materialism, however, in order to find our
meaning by discovering our place in the larger Story. The past anchors us in
the concrete events of God’s redemptive act of salvation as we celebrate the
Incarnation. The future offers us hope as we wait for the consummation of this
age and the consummation of the wedding feast of Christ as we pray, “Come, Lord
Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">The
present, then, is a time of both remembering and waiting. Such is the message
of Advent. He is here with us, as he promised, “I am with you always” (Matthew
28:20). The season of Advent tutors us in how to live during this time. It
attunes us to God’s divine action and his desire to come into the ups and downs
of our earthly existence. We embrace the here and now, discovering the divine
in the midst of daily life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">This
Advent season we can ask ourselves: How is Jesus breaking into our day? Where
is his glory filling the earth? How is he Emmanuel right here and right now?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Such
a three-fold focus is difficult to maintain; it can even be unsettling.
However, we must not neglect any of the three: past, present or future. Advent
instructs us as it helps us to integrate all three into a meaningful whole—not
only the overview of the ages but also a personal reality for each of us
existentially. By juxtaposing past and future, Advent calls us to wait in
present. Advent causes us to see Salvation History as a whole, and, doing so,
helps to make our lives more whole as it invites us to see how our lives fit in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 8pt;">© 2017
Glenn E. Myers</span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-41892553416005031252017-12-09T10:13:00.003-08:002017-12-09T10:14:03.631-08:00Second Sunday of Advent: From Impatience to Holy Waiting<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjch6ViNHu3ieMeZQNGWUwAy2nm-tdE15KHbucyn7xOiaq8oQv42gflZ0H6BolaUhOrxypwm_68OCFv5si3uESpXK3EQPoqK6OD8qPKvppy3DbjHv28PyUAjWHez8llPGP2ql0GHp_hhtfY/s1600/King%2527s+House+007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjch6ViNHu3ieMeZQNGWUwAy2nm-tdE15KHbucyn7xOiaq8oQv42gflZ0H6BolaUhOrxypwm_68OCFv5si3uESpXK3EQPoqK6OD8qPKvppy3DbjHv28PyUAjWHez8llPGP2ql0GHp_hhtfY/s400/King%2527s+House+007.JPG" width="400" /></a></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "papyrus";"> </span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“Wait for the Lord;</span><b><span style="font-family: "papyrus";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> be
strong and take heart<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> and wait for the Lord.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> -Psalm 27:14</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Waiting.
No one that I know likes to wait. Whether it is standing in a long checkout
line during Christmas shopping or finding oneself stuck in a traffic jam, we
usually find ourselves in a waiting situation much against our plans. If
possible, we try to distract ourselves while the minutes tick away—texting being
the most common method these days. If we are not able to find a suitable
distraction, we simply go numb. Waiting, so often, is what we do against our
will.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But
what if waiting were a spiritual activity? What if waiting turned out to be
God’s plan for our lives—not only for character development but for greater
purposes than we are aware of at the time?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This
is holy waiting. As well as cultivating patience in our lives, holy waiting
molds us into God’s timing and purposes. Advent is a wonderful opportunity for
such waiting. By following the church calendar we step out of the rush of our
contemporary culture—with all its materialism and catering to immediate
desires—and enter a holy rhythm. That rhythm of the church year begins the
first Sunday of Advent, which continues for three more Sundays, preparing our
hearts as we anticipate Christmas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Instead
of an instant but shallow satisfaction of singing Christmas carols on the first
Sunday of Advent, we are called to again take the journey to Bethlehem, asking
God to do whatever work he chooses in us in order to form us for fresh inner
growth. The four-week wait of Advent stirs longing deep within us, so we
appreciate the coming of Emmanuel on a whole new level.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Waiting
is not easy. Our natural passions want fulfillment as soon as possible. Waiting
enables us to deny those desires—at least for a time—so that our attention can
move from the material to spiritual, from the outward-ness of our existence to
the inner life of the soul. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This
Advent invites you and me to holy waiting. Will we embrace the discomfort to
waiting in order to grow deeper in faith? Will we step away from busy
distraction into a holy rhythm of anticipating Christ’s coming afresh into our
lives?</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 8.0pt;">© 2017
Glenn E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-81179892750445649622017-11-26T14:15:00.001-08:002017-12-01T14:56:27.299-08:00First Sunday of Advent: From Ordinary Time to Holy Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpoxeQEc9NhwHvSA-JOoR_TrI7DIZhduq75HXyWmkYQGic3NyZlOabNSZDxPYUqauA5U_etsWCgrK6Mv_DqJGrgFzpXmZEoIICRdWmvqG3s_aS8n1AHoiJYLhc0zHoHwmObn1DG5ExJA2O/s1600/King%2527s+House+010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpoxeQEc9NhwHvSA-JOoR_TrI7DIZhduq75HXyWmkYQGic3NyZlOabNSZDxPYUqauA5U_etsWCgrK6Mv_DqJGrgFzpXmZEoIICRdWmvqG3s_aS8n1AHoiJYLhc0zHoHwmObn1DG5ExJA2O/s400/King%2527s+House+010.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Advent—the
arrival of something new.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The
four Sundays leading up to the feast of Christ’s birth are set aside to prepare
our hearts for the arrival of the Son of God come to earth—Emmanuel, God with
us. Historically this event took place some 2000 years ago, but we are invited
to participate afresh in our Lord’s coming, as we join Christians around the
world and over the centuries to observe Advent each year. We have the
opportunity to personalize the events of holy history—Heilsgeschichte—as we
prepare our hearts anew to embrace the Lord in our lives.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The
first Sunday of Advent moves us from ordinary time into holy time. Two-thirds
of the church year are lived in ordinary time. That is as it should be—for the
majority of life is lived with daily chores, normal jobs and school, and
commonplace pleasures and challenges of existence. We serve the Lord in
everyday relationships and responsibilities. We love God and others through our
unnoticed faithfulness to our calling in life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">With
the upcoming first Sunday of Advent, however, we move into holy time—“holy
days” that have often become in our culture mere “holidays.” Yet, we can
reclaim their significance in the life of faith. We can regain their original
purpose in this season of the church.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“Holy”—Latin
“sanctus”—means to set aside or consecrate to God. Rather than simply a season
for shopping, Advent is a time set aside for the Lord. These weeks are an
opportunity for us to recommit ourselves to lives of faith, focused on our
relationship with our loving Creator. They are an invitation to prepare our
hearts for a fresh encounter with Christ—the Eternal Logos, God’s Word—who
condescended to come into our world, our lives, our suffering, our struggle
with sin, our shame, our human situation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">As
we enter Advent, we move out of mere chronological time—that simply ticks by
the minutes, hours and days—and we step into kairos time. The Greek term kairos
refers to the appointed time for something. As Galatians 5:6 asserts, “For
while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Advent
is the appointed time for dedicating ourselves anew to the Lord. Advent is the
appointed time for setting aside some special time of devotion, whether a
weekend retreat, a daily devotional or some extra time of silent listening to
God. Advent is the appointed time for stillness, stepping back from the bustle
of buying gifts and baking cookies to still our hearts. Advent is the appointed
time for attentive waiting, as we anticipate the celebration of Christ’s birth
on Christmas day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 8.0pt;">© 2017
Glenn E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-10593732138518300462017-07-09T12:01:00.000-07:002017-07-09T12:01:02.443-07:00Surveying the Garden by Listening to Our Lives<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">In
the stillness of the garden we are given space to take an honest look at our
life. Here we observe our activities, relationships, attitudes, frustrations
and inner longings. We pause to listen to our own life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">If
setting aside time for solitude is difficult in contemporary culture, listening
is even more so. It is much easier to keep busy and avoid looking too closely.
Often we have an inner sense that we will not like all that we see. We do not
really want to hear what our life, our bodies, our friendships, our hearts are
telling us. Yet, listen we must, if we want to grow spiritually.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2du1cDBFvfm0lgjZsu_fm-X7Wdws9L9pEEEANb1CyJTsf2mqT0h0a-8ZgAhFRFYKOrRI-6BIAfNJbZKDFckz9pwEzyT3yUytJbSf8T6W0nwmis-rAoQiNUkJFTYIMOzCjtUWhTuTi2g49/s1600/IMG_4303.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2du1cDBFvfm0lgjZsu_fm-X7Wdws9L9pEEEANb1CyJTsf2mqT0h0a-8ZgAhFRFYKOrRI-6BIAfNJbZKDFckz9pwEzyT3yUytJbSf8T6W0nwmis-rAoQiNUkJFTYIMOzCjtUWhTuTi2g49/s320/IMG_4303.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">In
order to listen to our lives, we must take the time to stand back and observe.
Observation needs to be objective. I must be willing to look at reality, not
what I would like reality to be. What do I see when I look at my life?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Where
are the activities of my day life-giving? What situations or commitments are
life-draining for me?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Where
do I sense hope? In what areas do I feel stuck, disappointed or in despair?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Who
are the friends in my life with whom I can share my hopes and dreams and
disappointment? Do I feel safe and secure? Where are there lonely holes in my
life?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">What
is our physical body saying to us? It might be a simple message of the need to
take more time for exercise or sleep. Or, perhaps the weight we have gained is
pointing to an inner ache that we are trying to medicate by eating too much
comfort food. What does the pain tell us? Maybe we are pushing too hard, trying
to find fulfillment—or approval from someone—by our accomplishments. Maybe the
physical pain is a manifestation of inner grief that we have suppressed too
long.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">As
we ask these questions, we sometimes discover that we are alienated from
ourselves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Here
we listen to our own life, our own heart. If we are silent and attentive, we
will begin to hear what is inside us—sometimes joyful cries of thanksgiving,
other times loud cries of anger, still other times silent cries for help.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2017 © Glenn
E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This series is
Creation Proclaiming God’s Divine Nature, as Romans 1:20 declares, “For since
the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-57554597217483681262017-07-03T08:26:00.000-07:002017-07-03T08:28:34.549-07:00Nurturing Stillness in our Inner Garden<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZQjZtK-EjPAF9Wp5IshxQFKjVAYvDDheQbpizx6YhIu_soi1cp-o4EjAZmKhm6f4NONx5iq-_tWDtrZHg1uTXzkBGem2ZMSr4Gd8R2AzcfAxejmgKWYP74-zs6Z1qAR3jkXyiwrNVVT98/s1600/IMG_4279.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZQjZtK-EjPAF9Wp5IshxQFKjVAYvDDheQbpizx6YhIu_soi1cp-o4EjAZmKhm6f4NONx5iq-_tWDtrZHg1uTXzkBGem2ZMSr4Gd8R2AzcfAxejmgKWYP74-zs6Z1qAR3jkXyiwrNVVT98/s400/IMG_4279.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“Very early in the morning, while it was
still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place,
where he prayed.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> -Mark 1:35</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .3in;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places
and prayed.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> -Luke 5:16</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Physical
gardens offer us unique doorway into the secret garden of our souls—that inner
sanctuary where our true relationship with God blossoms. Physical gardens offer
external stillness, which in turn helps us to enter a still place within. Like
any garden, however, our inner garden must be nurtured.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">One
way we nurture the inner garden is by cultivating stillness. Stillness
seldom happens on its own. In our hyperactive world, we must give ourselves
permission to pull apart from what we consider to me a more productive use of
our time. We disconnect from technology of any kind. We settle our racing
thoughts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">To
do so, we must truly value our time alone with God and be intentional about
setting such time apart in the midst of our hectic days.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Without
sufficient stillness, our spiritual growth will always remain superficial. If
Jesus needed regular solitude and stillness for prayer in his life and ministry,
how much more do we? Only by cultivating the deep soil of stillness can our
roots reach down.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">2017 © Glenn
E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">This series is
Creation Proclaiming God’s Divine Nature, as Romans 1:20 declares, “For since
the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-79410237880410589092017-06-18T13:28:00.003-07:002017-06-18T13:28:51.578-07:00Clearing the Path to the Inner Gard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBXVSmTGhd5A3mTC1IsKYYvh1IdcFoY0EmZGanvS51CTXulUL72o-842B8rMFGphYtCCvcgdHGbksvX8634vxec5RzRNnc1eqI9b5HdwdYrcu7XgMB0TGbiM4EfjCGlLURd61yPuODLKDH/s1600/IMG_4295.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBXVSmTGhd5A3mTC1IsKYYvh1IdcFoY0EmZGanvS51CTXulUL72o-842B8rMFGphYtCCvcgdHGbksvX8634vxec5RzRNnc1eqI9b5HdwdYrcu7XgMB0TGbiM4EfjCGlLURd61yPuODLKDH/s640/IMG_4295.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“They will come and shout for joy on the
heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD— the grain, the
new wine and the olive oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be
like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> -Jeremiah 31:12</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Literal
gardens can be a doorway into the inner garden of our soul. We discover that
the greenness and growth things around us lead us down the narrow path to the
hidden garden within.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">That
narrow path, however, can easily become overgrown with the thorns and weeds of
this world’s cares. When that happens, we becomes difficult to find our way
back to the inner garden of our spiritual life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Therefore,
on a regular basis we need to clear the path to that hidden garden. Cutting
down some of the underbrush of life’s busyness and clutter, pulling out weeds of
bad attitudes that have sprung up in our hearts, we free up our footpath to the
garden. Even more, as we walk that path on a daily basis, we keep it untangled
and unclogged.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">As
we open the door to the enclosed garden, we step into a space set aside for
God. In this inner garden, we find that we are content simply to “be.” We are
living to the fullest right here and right now. At least for a few moments we
are in a place where time and eternity have become one!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2017 © Glenn
E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This series is
Creation Proclaiming God’s Divine Nature, as Romans 1:20 declares, “For since
the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-42119763169012698162017-06-11T14:17:00.000-07:002017-06-11T14:17:21.813-07:00Garden of the Soul: Entering a Different Inner Space<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7AWhkq4PfhvBvWCMQV_WC-ha5fCh5SBrlYXW6eY_oEqo1qAZQm8gYnHnnHmWnTe6CSVq9JiLjd90AlTPd3-JkSTpLEqZ3WejDG-QHA0A-q_4_bn4_8Dse_bbWpphddiyKWGs0yk5xnJc/s1600/IMG_4287.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7AWhkq4PfhvBvWCMQV_WC-ha5fCh5SBrlYXW6eY_oEqo1qAZQm8gYnHnnHmWnTe6CSVq9JiLjd90AlTPd3-JkSTpLEqZ3WejDG-QHA0A-q_4_bn4_8Dse_bbWpphddiyKWGs0yk5xnJc/s400/IMG_4287.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: .3in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“The LORD will guide you always; he will
satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You
will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> -Isaiah 58:11</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The
greenness, beauty and stillness of a garden help us enter a different space
within. They help us access a good place mentally and spiritually—a place where
we are at peace. Here there is no rush, no hurry to produce.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">In
each of us is an inner space where prayer resides and poetry springs forth. This
inner garden is fruitful with creativity, connected-ness, prayer and inner
peace.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Creativity
comes forth from our inner garden. That creativity may bubble up in the form of
poetry or photography. It might be a unique idea of how we can serve someone in
our life. It could take the form of arranging flowers or painting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This
inner place is a space where we are relational. Often in the stress of life we
become alienated from ourselves, and we need some room to reconnect with who we
truly are. The solitude of the inner garden offers us just such an opportunity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Prayer
likewise grows in our inner garden. Here we reconnect with God in this inner
sanctuary of the soul. “Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary
of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may
continuously return,” writes Thomas Kelley. It is “a holy sanctuary of
adoration and of self-oblation, where we are kept in perfect peace, if our mind
be stayed on Him who has found us in the inward springs of our life.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"> [1]</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Finally,
the place of our inner garden offers us peace. Entering the garden of our soul
is so essential for each of us. When we enter that mental space, that inner
place, we step away from stress and worry. Our minds stop spinning with lists
of things to do and decisions to make, and we find some stillness. This hidden
place within is where our true self resides. This is not the self we try to
project to the world or the self of achievement and activism; rather, it is
where we are free to simply be.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Thus
when we step into the garden mentality—away from the pressure to produce—we
ironically find that this garden is bursting with produce! That produce,
however, cannot be manufactured in an efficient production line—it can only be
cultivated in peace.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 9.0pt;">[1]
Thomas R. Kelley, <i>A Testament of Devotion</i>
(San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1941, 1992), pp. 3-4.</span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2017 © Glenn
E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This series is
Creation Proclaiming God’s Divine Nature, as Romans 1:20 declares, “For since
the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-74578476948262561322017-06-01T12:55:00.001-07:002017-06-01T12:56:13.731-07:00Taking Time for the Garden<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheKEUXpV_fQAldKWXGY4X2n6pmY7PUbdEknbZ98cyEObIDnwotvJ930WT6uQ37M6LxqhfWAoDYb8s5WiipVnd9Hpzs9iA9uP5tQR6akPd04JAnnyTFD4jHkh8VUKrqK_e9Azs98Ufoc2dw/s1600/IMG_4282.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheKEUXpV_fQAldKWXGY4X2n6pmY7PUbdEknbZ98cyEObIDnwotvJ930WT6uQ37M6LxqhfWAoDYb8s5WiipVnd9Hpzs9iA9uP5tQR6akPd04JAnnyTFD4jHkh8VUKrqK_e9Azs98Ufoc2dw/s320/IMG_4282.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: .3in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will
look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her
wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the sound of singing.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> -Isaiah 51:3</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Gardens
are so important in life. They welcome us to set aside the work-a-day world in
which we live—even if only for a few minutes—in order to see life and creation
and God’s goodness afresh.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">However,
we must be intentional about taking time for the gardens in our lives. The
pervading busyness and multitasking of our everyday life militates against the
nurturing of gardens. We are so preoccupied with all our activities and keeping
up with all the media and information that are available to us that we fail to
take time to “smell the roses.” That sad reality makes the gardens in our lives
all the more important.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Gardens
come in all shapes and sizes. From a vegetable patch in the back yard to a
manicured rose garden, from a sprawling park in the city to a small collection
of green plants in front of an apartment window, spaces set aside for growing
things can constitute a garden. They offer us a place to retreat from buildings
and bricks in order to refocus ourselves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Strolling
through a garden and smelling the flowers—or sitting for a while on a bench,
noticing the shades of green and smelling bouquets of blossoms—slows us down
and focuses our lives on the truly important. It sensitizes us to the reality
of stillness, relationship and beauty. Such tangible gardens become the doorway
into our own inner garden.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">2017 © Glenn
E. Myers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">This series is
Creation Proclaiming God’s Divine Nature, as Romans 1:20 declares, “For since
the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-80458520031173315572017-04-29T10:00:00.000-07:002017-04-29T10:01:13.576-07:00Beauty Draws us Out and Lifts us Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_x8ivcoly73mW2MYtTM8jHJI4-bhBwOe9NUaghM__aRWKRDthS0S5f-7DbDUApJzjGo17kH0lw2QjnApppstcx9voSwxQNGz2X6-BrdWTVbVprCajEDjaWdm1NZhKtBPvet_awteu8V0a/s1600/May2013+037.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_x8ivcoly73mW2MYtTM8jHJI4-bhBwOe9NUaghM__aRWKRDthS0S5f-7DbDUApJzjGo17kH0lw2QjnApppstcx9voSwxQNGz2X6-BrdWTVbVprCajEDjaWdm1NZhKtBPvet_awteu8V0a/s400/May2013+037.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“He
has made everything beautiful in its time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">He
has also set eternity in the human heart”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">-Ecclesiastes
3:11</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Beauty
invites us to step out of ourselves. Much of each day, our thoughts are
centered on issues in our lives, solving problems, worrying about the future,
stressing about this and that. In our fallen nature we are all prone to cave in
on ourselves. On an ongoing basis, we need to be freed from such self-focus. We
all need to get out of ourselves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">God
pours out the grace needed for our deliverance from self-absorption. One key
way that God gives us that grace is through beauty. When we see the splendor of
a brilliant sunrise on our drive to work in the morning, we are invited to step
out of our anxious thoughts of the day. We are welcomed to lay aside our
all-too-often obsession regarding the frustrations awaiting us on our job.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">In
that glimpse of God’s glory, we are shown a bigger picture of reality than our
daily grind: the Lord is in control of the universe, and he has jammed it with
magnificence!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">To
behold this scene on the way to work is to step out of my little world and all
its petty problems and anxieties. To hold on to the scene throughout the day is
to allow my mind to be transformed so that it gains God’s perspective on life.
The Lord is in control, he has filled the earth with beauty, and the life that
he has given me is pure gift!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">After
drawing us out of ourselves, beauty draws us upward toward God. Whenever we see
beauty, it lifts our hearts. Even if temporarily, we are able to let go of all
that weighs on us and pulls us down. It lifts our minds from the mundane, and
helps us see a much greater reality.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The
great spiritual writer of the early sixth century, Pseudo-Dionysius, describes
how God uses beauty and light as natural aids in lifting us up toward him.
“Hence, any thinking person realizes that the appearances of beauty are signs
of an invisible loveliness,” says Dionysius. “Material lights are images of the
outpouring of an immaterial gift of light.”<a href="file:///E:/Sp.Blog/Creation%20Proclaims.Beauty.Light..docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Beauty
is something transcendent, and it draws us toward transcendence. Because all
beauty is a reflection of the Creator, when we see the loveliness of creation,
it draws us toward God. Ultimately, beauty lifts our spirits to the One who is
Uncreated Beauty!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">2017 © Glenn
E. Myers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">This series is
Creation Proclaiming God’s Divine Nature, as Romans 1:20 declares, “For since
the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”</span></div>
<div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///E:/Sp.Blog/Creation%20Proclaims.Beauty.Light..docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <i><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Celestial
Hierarchy</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, 121C-D, in <i>Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works</i>, translated by Colm Luibheid,
Classics of Western Spirituality (New York/Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1987), 146.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-31933136928656162642017-04-12T13:04:00.000-07:002017-04-12T13:04:56.850-07:00Holy Week & Triduum: Participating in Salvation History and Eternity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe1YdwHI12306MP16ax6wxd6slGRdq8c8iYhte78Joz_OT3f3cbpRoRfg38V-GYf7Qd1dCNzkzuFidqSvE7qhQPMo8kTG0EmdKItuO2LaF9VdBSx1kDEwb89gwALylGzcSM2EXTnOnaexx/s1600/IMG_3806.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe1YdwHI12306MP16ax6wxd6slGRdq8c8iYhte78Joz_OT3f3cbpRoRfg38V-GYf7Qd1dCNzkzuFidqSvE7qhQPMo8kTG0EmdKItuO2LaF9VdBSx1kDEwb89gwALylGzcSM2EXTnOnaexx/s400/IMG_3806.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11pt;">“I
have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">-Galatians 2:20</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In
Holy Week we participate in the event of our Lord’s triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, his Last Supper, his Passion and Resurrection. These are not simply
past events to be remembered, nor are we simply “reenacting” episodes from
Jesus’ life. Rather, they are spiritual realities—eternal realities—in which we
are invited to participate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">As
we celebrate Palm Sunday and then the three days (Latin: Triduum) from the
evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Easter Sunday, we participate
in—indeed, partake of—these central events in Salvation History. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
Christian life is all about our participating in Christ. Even toward the end of
his life, the Apostle Paul prays “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power
of his resurrection and <i>participation in
his sufferings</i>, becoming like him in his death,<b> </b>and so, somehow,
attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10, emphasis
added). The New Testament calls us to such participate in—share in—the saving
work of God.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">During
Holy Week we participate in Salvation History. On Palm Sunday we participate in
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna! Perhaps these were shouts
of praise, but “Hosanna” ultimately is a prayer, a cry to God for help: “Save
us!” Jesus, of course, will save them and us but in a way far different—are far
more painful—than they expected.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">On
Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday we participate in the Lord’s Supper. On Good
Friday we join Mary and the Apostle John around the cross and mystically share
in Jesus’ dying. Beginning with baptism all believers participate in Jesus’
suffering, for we are “baptized into his death,” states Romans 6. “We were
therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may
live a new life.” Dying to our old fallen nature and rising from the waters
that buried that old self, we are called to live every day only for Christ.
Along with Paul each of us is invited to say, “I have been crucified with
Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). How
clear this reality becomes as we enter into that death with our Lord again each
Good Friday!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Finally
on Easter, we join with all the hosts of heaven as we sing, “Christ the Lord is
risen today!” As we do so, we join afresh in the Resurrection. This is not
simply a commemoration of the past, nor is it simply looking toward our future
resurrection. It is both, but beyond that we truly share with Christ. We
participate in this the central event of Salvation History. Moreover we share
in eternity as, the last of Charles Wesley declares: “Ours the cross, the
grave, the skies!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 7.0pt;">© </span><span style="font-family: "tempus sans itc"; font-size: 9.0pt;">2017 Glenn E. Myers <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-39429361487747194552017-03-29T14:44:00.001-07:002017-03-29T14:45:36.595-07:00Lent: Inviting Us to Special Times of Prayer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-c4HssATCd4Lh-rFwFpXB-Qji9tzRK4k98ipobU06Oo55Jfh-ceaHMsBtVBNhn4hct6HeuARl52krm0M1A1WQSsQ0iVqz6qYVQLS-La3y5OG_fJcYVA4vLb-1AaHus_-9rojk_LSJ4Pv/s1600/IMG_3978.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-c4HssATCd4Lh-rFwFpXB-Qji9tzRK4k98ipobU06Oo55Jfh-ceaHMsBtVBNhn4hct6HeuARl52krm0M1A1WQSsQ0iVqz6qYVQLS-La3y5OG_fJcYVA4vLb-1AaHus_-9rojk_LSJ4Pv/s400/IMG_3978.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .3in;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“When you pray, go into your room, close the
door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees
what is done in secret, will reward you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> -Matthew 6:6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Lent
is an invitation to set aside some extra time for prayer. Not out of obligation,
but rather receiving it as a gift, Lent bids us to put our roots deeper in the
Lord through prayer and devotion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Yet,
as soon as we determine to go into our room—or church or wherever we can get
alone to pray—everything breaks loose. Something needs our attention at home,
or we think about the project(s) that we have wanted to do. Resistance will
always confront us as soon as we purpose ourselves to pursue God afresh.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">The
greatest resistance almost always comes from within. We have divided hearts.
Part of us truly wants solitude with the Lord. Another part of us does not want
to give up the time. Indeed, time is often more limited for us than money.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Trying
to set aside time for prayer—which, at least to the naked eye, produces
nothing—exposes our hearts. We can be very greedy with our time. Often, by the
time we fulfill all our obligations in life, we have a rather short amount of
time that is our own. We either want to simply relax, or we want to get to a
project that will help us “get ahead.” How reluctant we are to give up that
little time we have for prayer!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Just
as the practices of fasting and giving alms reveal the clinging in our hearts,
so does prayer. In order to pray, we must give God some of our precious time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Yet,
what a privilege we have to focus on prayer during Lent! Perhaps it is going on
a Lenten retreat. Or, if we cannot go away for a weekend retreat during this
season, we can bring a bit of retreat into our own homes. Each evening we can stop
everything we are doing a half hour earlier in order to read some Scripture and
a Lenten devotional. Or we can get up half an hour earlier each morning for
some extended time with the Lord during Lent. Maybe we can talk half of a day
on Saturday or Sunday to go apart for some extended time of solitude and
silence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">However
it works for you, try setting aside some intentional time of prayer for the
remainder of Lent. We will never regret the time we give to God in prayer!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 7pt;">©
2016 Glenn E. Myers</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 7pt;">For
Lent the church has always emphasized fasting, prayer and giving alms. See
Matthew 6: 2,6,17, “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with
trumpets . . . when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to
your Father, who is unseen . . . when you fast. . . .”</span>Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97903871593057945.post-39500650526731337662017-03-18T07:30:00.000-07:002017-03-18T07:31:05.606-07:00Lent: Clinging or Giving?<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA-1kCYIYCiiRk3X3Wx2dl3rTp02oCFCy2Ep3CMLu3lN_1QngfjiarO_55NQBVl5tH9xw0s5Q-YQStxKM9BdwXmf1UHCNSLpn5BE0Nk4rGf55iUFhhca8hd0F5h5shVFASG5UXxphHIqRm/s1600/16.blog+2017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA-1kCYIYCiiRk3X3Wx2dl3rTp02oCFCy2Ep3CMLu3lN_1QngfjiarO_55NQBVl5tH9xw0s5Q-YQStxKM9BdwXmf1UHCNSLpn5BE0Nk4rGf55iUFhhca8hd0F5h5shVFASG5UXxphHIqRm/s400/16.blog+2017.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .3in;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will
also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap
generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to
give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful
giver.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> -2 Corinthians 9:6-7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Giving
to those in need has always been a central practice of Lent. Referred to as
“giving alms,” it helps to meet the need of the poor, the homeless, and those
without work.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Nothing
is as “worldly” as money. Materialism of today’s culture is based on a money
economy. Yet, ironically, few things are as spiritual as what we do with our
money.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Giving—or
more precisely, our reluctance to give—exposes the clinging in our hearts. Certainly
we must be wise and keep a certain reserve of finances. Yet, under the guise of
wisdom, we can easily slip into hoarding. Proverbs 11:24, however, exposes the
folly of hording: “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another
withholds what he should give, and only suffers want” (</span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">esv</span><span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Like
fasting and prayer, the Lenten discipline of giving helps us to grow
spiritually by shedding light on some hidden, even dark, places within. We are
all called to give to that there be greater equity for those who have less.
“See that you excel in the grace of giving,” writes Paul. “Our desire is not
that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might
be equality” (2 Corinthians 8:7, 13).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">Jesus
assumes that all his followers will be giving alms. He just commands us not to
do so in order to receive recognition. Again, our inner attitudes are so often
exposed by what we do with the resources that have been given us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .3in;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10.0pt;">“When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet
before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to
win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their
reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your
right is doing.” (Matthew 6:2-3, <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">nabre</span>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 10pt;">If
I am to grow deeper in God during Lent, I need to do more than pray and fast.
Giving puts legs on my prayer and devotion. It exposes any clinging to material
things that resides in my heart. Then—if I give with a joyful heart—it sets me
free to experience joy, friendship and fresh spiritual life!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 7pt;">©
2016 Glenn E. Myers</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "lucida calligraphy"; font-size: 7pt;">For
Lent the church has always emphasized fasting, prayer and giving alms. See
Matthew 6: 2,6,17, “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with
trumpets . . . when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to
your Father, who is unseen . . . when you fast. . . .”</span>Glenn Myers Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14054641408843284739noreply@blogger.com0