Conversations Journal » Classical Spiritual Exercises

How To Be Good Dirt

Jeremy Langford — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:01:15 +0000

Every moment and every event of our lives on earth plants something in our souls. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in our minds and wills. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because [...]

The Way Is Made By Walking

Jeannette A. Bakke — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:01:48 +0000

Arthur Paul Boers is an associate professor of Pastoral Theology at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana. He is the author of several books on prayer. His most recent book is The Way Is Made by Walking: A Pilgrimage Along the Camino de Santiago (Baker Books, 2007). After reading it, Jeannette suggested that our [...]

Remember Your Baptism

David DeSilva — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:02:20 +0000

The rite of baptism is a snapshot of the transformation that God seeks to work in us throughout the rest of our Christian lives. In the Christian churches, the rite of baptism is both a rite of entry and an instrument of transformation. But because we are taught that baptism is a one-time act, we [...]

The Hidden Way

Emilie Griffin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:14:58 +0000

Elijah is a stirring figure. His name, which means “Yahweh is my God,” says much about his character. Some of us, like Eugene Peterson, were influenced by Elijah from childhood and youth. Others discovered him later. Either way, he has something vital to give to us.

Elijah teaches us about the undivided heart. He is all about being God’s person, God’s servant, completely obedient to him. This single-minded character is the governing quality of Elijah’s life, and it should be ours as well.

In his book The Jesus Way, one thing that drives Peterson’s discussion of Elijah has to do with worship. Worship, it seems, is one of the ways we may lose focus in our service to God. Distracted by pomp and circumstances, we fall in with false expectations of worship. We think large congregations are more impressive than small ones. We think renowned preachers are more important than simple ones. We plan our worship to impress others and to impress God. Most of all, we fall into ways of manipulating God. We judge the worth of our worship by what we “get from God” rather than how we give ourselves to God. Yes, this is a problem today, but it was also a problem in Elijah’s time. We want to take God captive, to put him in service to our needs and wants, when in fact it should be the other way around. We should be completely surrendered to God, completely attentive to him. That is Elijah’s message. That is the Elijah way.

The Humiliation Of The Word In Our Day

Richard Foster — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:19:47 +0000

“You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.” 1 Peter 1: 23, NRSV “Anyone wishing to save humanity today must first of all save the word.” Jacque Ellul At the beginning of time the debar Yahweh, the Word of the Lord, brought the [...]