I have fond memories of the music of Ken Medema from my high school and college days. One of his songs, Mr Simon, is a modern day paraphrase of Luke 18:9-14. Very cool!
The parable is very poignant because it speaks to the most common complaint about the church over the centuries: hypocrites! We have all seen them. We are hypocrites at times as well! Ouch! The truth hurts! My favorite line in the devotional is the quote from CS Lewis:
A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you” (Mere Christianity).
That quote is an answer to prayer -- what book to read next! I have the book and the study guide on my desk at home!
Lord, please help us all look up instead of looking down!
Teaching Tuesday
I finally finished the book The Mountain of Silence over the weekend. It only took me two years to read its 240 pages! I believe that the material had to "bake" in my silly head and heart for a while before I could finish it. It was not time for me to understand some of the things that I learned in the past ten days! God's timing is not always our timing!
The major concepts I learned:
- Trust God, even if "conventional" wisdom tells you do something different
- Mystery: the ways of our God are mysterious and beyond our understanding many times
- There is more: there is more to spirituality than what we are traditionally taught in the Western Christian churches. So much more.
- Put aside our filters and presuppositions. God wants to commune with us. God wants to work through us. Don't limit him because we don't understand.
- Confide in a trusted spiritual friend. There are times when we need to talk things out with a trusted spiritual friend to ensure that we are discerning things correctly.
- Keep pushing. It doesn't matter where we are on our spiritual journey compared to others. Keep pressing forward to get even closer to God.
- Most important: Humility is the ultimate key to a close relationship with God. It opens the doors to our hearts and minds.
The book is pretty intense. Take time to pray about the things you read and don't just dismiss them since they are unfamiliar or radical!
***************************************
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit - Romans 15:13
No comments:
Post a Comment