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Archive for the ‘Fine Lines’ Category

To Will One Thing

Posted in Fine Lines, Questions from the Journey on October 31, 2005| Leave a Comment »

In the past month, I’ve really begun to feel the weight of the responsibilities in my life…..I just want God to make my life better – not super or even great – just plain steady and peaceful – of course I want it right now too.

J.H.

This is from a dear friend of mine, a generous, beautiful man who will gladly give you everything he has if you need it and expect nothing in return. So my friend, let’s see if The Practical Mystic can be of any help to you….in five minutes or less, preferably.
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Drawing Near to God

Posted in Fine Lines, Questions from the Journey on October 30, 2005| Leave a Comment »

I have seen much confusion about prayer based in misinterpretations of the following verse from the Bible:

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours Mark 11:24

Often taken out of context, this has led many to ask me: “Is my belief just not good enough? Why doesn’t God give me what I ask for?”

Here.s what I have learned: Prayer is not anything like wish-full thinking. Prayer is neither easy nor reflexive. Prayer, the sort of prayer that God hears and longs for, changes us. It is a discipline we grow into and grow from and we need a life time to learn it.
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A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Posted in Fine Lines, Resources on October 28, 2005| Leave a Comment »

When I was a college student, a wise man told me: “All truth is God’s truth.” The current mind-set of our government would lead us to be suspicious of science and to embrace a literal view of scripture, as if the Bible were a book of science or history rather than sacred scripture. When I’m not totally shocked that such a mind-set has seemingly taken over our government, our seminaries, and our churches, I am angry and frightened. Mostly, I tell myself, “this too shall pass” and hope it once again becomes fashionable to have a brain and use it.

Recently, I saw a video of pictures from the Hubble Telescope set to music. The beauty was so powerful that I was moved to tears. God creation is generously beautiful, wastefully so if it is just for us. And it is science that makes it possible to view this creation.

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God.what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 11:33 12:3 NRSV

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Mysticism and the Paranormal

Posted in Fine Lines, Questions from the Journey on October 27, 2005| 1 Comment »

We are cautioned to be wary of paranormal phenomena throughout scripture. The Powers Triolgy by Walter Wink and the People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck give deep insight into these matters. I do not trust phenomena. Magicians and fakirs, mood-altering drugs, and some types of deep meditation can create phenomena that divert us from our divine calling. Things like “speaking in tongues” from the charismatic tradtion, or the use of mediums to speak to the dead in occult practices can feed our ego’s need for attention and create a psuedo-spirituality.

Paranormal activity is NOT evidence of spiritual maturity or even of being a “spiritual” person. We are all, according to the divine image, spiritual beings living in these mortal bodies. This is not to say that paranormal activity isn’t real but it isn’t necessarily of Christ, the Divine Light. Beware of such things.
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Liberating Faith

Posted in Fine Lines, Grace in Unanswered Prayer on October 26, 2005| Leave a Comment »

“…faith in God can actually be a liberating thing, a breaker down of barriers, a refusal to accept fragmentation as the last word, a stimulus to look beyond understanding, a promise held out to us that truth is one, and truth is great and will prevail.”

John Habgood, Confessions of a Conservative Liberal

Such faith, in my experience, requires spiritual disciplines of prayer, scripture reading, silence, worship (even when we know the church is totally messed up), serving others, and practicing the presence of God through the Jesus Prayer. Without these things, confusion can easily prevail.
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Returning Home to Ourselves

Posted in Fine Lines, The Purpose of Relationship on October 25, 2005| Leave a Comment »

Turning ourselves over to God is in reality returning to our original self. As the Christian faith moved across the globe toward the East and toward the West, there developed a theological division in understanding of our true nature in the 11th century. The church to the West, under the authority of the Roman papacy, took the path of emphasizing “original sin” . The church in the east, which we now know as the Orthodox Churches, knew none of this. This church considered the doctrine of original nature, known also as Imago Dei as foundational to understanding our relationship to God.
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Bearing the Holy

Posted in Fine Lines, Grace in Unanswered Prayer on October 24, 2005| 1 Comment »

From the prayers of the Desert Fathers:

Just sit there.
Sit here right now.
Rest.

For our separation from God
Is the hardest
Work of all.

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What is a mystic?

Posted in Fine Lines, The Purpose of Relationship on October 21, 2005| Leave a Comment »

I cannot remember a time when I did not know the presence of God. In fact, it was quite a shock to me to realize that many people seem to have no awareness of the reality of God’s presence. My desire to share the experience turned me into an evangelist – I remember baptizing my little brother Dale in our backyard pool when I was 9 years old. Dale just couldn.t seem to get the whole God thing. He still doesn.t! My evangelistic efforts seem to have come to naught but at least he didn.t drown.

This joy I know .in my bones. I have come to understand is a form of mysticism. I understand this to simply mean living in the light of God’s presence. For a more complete definition see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_mysticism

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Cajun German

Posted in Fine Lines, People I Meet on May 30, 2005| Leave a Comment »

One of the most frequent things I heard my mother say was “I met the most interesting person.” I seem to have inherited both her curiosity and ability. On Saturday night, we went to a free concert in a former church in the middle of Pennsylvania. The call it the Old Lynn church. No longer used for worship, it has become a place for free folk concerts. The group Four Shillings Short was wonderful but even more interesting was the couple next to us. They looked to be about 70 and were RV’ers from Virginia. They met each other just after WWII when she was hitch-hiking in NYC in a snow storm. She was a city person and he was a German-born US soldier who learned to speak English from his Louisiana Army unit. I never head anyone speak Cajun with a German accent. He gratefulness for our country and his patriotism to it was heartwarming. He didn’t appreciate the anti-war lyrics of the singers but his Democratic NYC wife did!

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Psalm 62

Posted in Fine Lines, Praying the Psalms on January 25, 2005| Leave a Comment »

“For God alone my soul waits in silence…Trust in God at all times, O people, pour out your heart before him, God is a refuge for us. Those of low estate are but a breath,those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.” I read this and then hear the news. The news of the day frightens me. The powerful, as righteous as they may intend to be, know nothing of poverty, nothing of making a life out of one’s own resources, no friendship with anyone born in poverty or disabled by a force of nature. And yet, thier decisions, the laws they pass and the programs they slash offend and anger the very God to which they pray thier pious prayers.
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