Category: Just do it

Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Faith, Journal, Just do it, Listen, Music, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Worship

As One Year Ends and Another Begins

How do you worship God? Brandon Lake wrote a song with Benjamin William Hastings and Dante Brown entitled Gratitude. Part of it goes,

I’ve got one response
I’ve got just one move
With my arm stretched wide
I will worship You

So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
‘Cause all that I have is a hallelujah
Hallelujah
And I know it’s not much
But I’ve nothing else fit for a King
Except for a heart singing hallelujah
Hallelujah

Gratitude

When I awoke on the morning of December 27th in my heart I heard, “So I throw up my hands and praise You again and again.” As you might know by now if you follow this blog, the Holy Spirit often draws me and speaks to me through Christian music both contemporary and a century old. As I pondered how to complete this counting of days that we call a calendar year I realized the truth that our concept of time just folds and unfolds itself regardless of these numbers and monthly pages. So I will finish this year and begin the next praising the only One Who is going on forever.

When our son, Jeff, was little he did not always like to attend Sunday School. One week he did the Sunday School lesson as they requested, pasting arms on a cartoon child who was to be praying. The activity showed a paper child and the children were given arms that attached at the elbow. The teacher explained to me, “Oh he tried and it was so cute!” Jeff pasted the arms raised in praise instead of hands folded. There are many references in the Word about lifting our hands to God. Some say this is the highest form of prayer. Certainly a sign of surrender to the Almighty. I thought Jeff got the lesson perfectly!

Writing in Always We Begin Again John McQuiston II says

The adoption of an attitude of thankfulness to the sublime mystery that brought us into being and preserves us is at once means and end. It’s worth is beyond measure.

Remember that we are always in the presence of the sacred, but that the sacred nature of life is only apparent to these who are open to it. We are a part of the infinite which is in this moment expressing itself through us and in every facet of daily life.

Always We Begin Again

McQuiston calls this tiny booklet a paraphrase of the Benedictine Way of Living, the Benedictine rule. I did not live by the Benedictine Rule of Life, but I do return to this booklet repeatedly to regain focus on the most important.

How do you intend to spend your life in 2024? Obviously, we first have to learn to write the new number for the year! Beyond the mundane do you have a plan? Might you plan to renew your relationship with “the sublime mystery that preserves us”?

I am not one to make resolutions, but I do pursue the Living God who calls me. I pray you will be listening to the same still, small voice in your soul and follow unabashedly! I will not be posting the remainder of the week. Blessings to each of you. Thank you for taking the time to read what I write. I hope the Holy One touches you through something I write about. May you be blessed with an increased awareness of the Holy Presence.

Posted on in Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Listen, Worship

John Main

When I was first exploring contemplative prayer and Christian meditation, I was told to read works by John Main, a Benedictine monk and teacher. He was born in 1920 in London, England and died in 1982 in Montreal, Quebec.

I have found his writings inspirational and challenging. In the introduction to his “Essential Writings” he is quoted as saying that his essential teaching could be written on the back of a postage stamp. The intro goes on to state:

Because his is a spiritual teaching, indeed a mystical one, it cannot be adequately described in the way we would explain a philosophy or theology. It asks to be understood at a personal level, where thought and experience, mind and heart, converge.

John Main Essential Writings, Introduction by Laurence Freeman

Why should we care about all this? Perhaps John stated it best himself!

In contemplative prayer we seek to become the person we are called to be, not by thinking of God but by being with God

John Main

In a selection entitled Word and Silence he writes,

It is better to be silent and real that to talk and be unreal, wrote St. Ignatius of Antioch in the first century, and our contemporary situation must surely bear this out. Authority, conviction, personal verification, which are the indispensable qualities of the Christian witness, are not to be found in books, in discussion, or on cassettes {I would add or on podcasts}, but rather in an encounter with ourselves in the silence of our own spirit.

If modern people have lost their experience of spirit, pneuma, or essence, in which their own irreducible and absolute being consists, it is because they have lost their experience of and capacity for silence. There are few statements about spiritual reality that can claim a universal agreement. But this one has received the same formulation in almost all traditions, namely, that it is only in accepting silence that people can come to know their own spirit, and only in abandonment to an infinite depth of silence that they can be revealed to the source of their spirit in which multiplicity and division disappear. Modern people are often threatened by silence, what T. S. Eliot called ‘the growing terror of nothing to think about,” and everyone has to face this fear when they begin to meditate.

First, we must confront with some shame the chaotic din of a mind ravaged by so much exposure to trivia and distraction.

Word and Silence, John Main

I think it is no wonder that if we attend a candlelight service and sing Silent Night we are in awe and amazement. We need more silence and we need the Light of Christ, especially in this season that can so very chaotic. I pray you will allow yourself a period of silence this December. Time just to be with God, to listen, to learn about your heart and His.

As you give yourself as the gift that Jesus asks for this year, I pray you will spend some time in silence with Him. Be with Him. Listen, learn and experience His Presence. His light will illuminate your darkness and show you a bright path into 2024.

Posted on in Aging, Challenge, Faith, Illness and Health, Just do it, medical treatment, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth

Why Get RSV Immunization?

My adult niece, (under 50 years old) has been sick for 2-1/2 weeks. Truly could not get out of bed. She did not have a cold. She had RSV that went to pneumonia.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes infections of the lungs and respiratory tract. It’s so common that most children have been infected with the virus by age 2. Respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-ul) virus can also infect adults.

In adults and older, healthy children, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) symptoms are mild and typically mimic the common cold. Self-care measures are usually all that’s needed to relieve any discomfort.

RSV can cause severe infection in some people, including babies 12 months and younger (infants), especially premature infants, older adults, people with heart and lung disease, or anyone with a weak immune system (immunocompromised).

Mayo Clinic

RSV is on the rise in Ohio. Modern medicine has provided us with an immunization against this virus. My husband already had his immunization as his lungs are compromised. I did not get mine at the same time due to my immune system being in an uproar with many contributing factors. I got mine last weekend. This disease is viral, so antibiotics do not help if you get the illness.

Again, another respiratory illness we do not need to mess with. If my niece could be so ill she took to her bed for over a week, I do not want to imagine what would happen to us old folks if we should catch it. Please, get your shot!

My niece is on a course of steroids to help her lungs recover.

Please don’t mess around with this.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Journal, Just do it, Listen, Music, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Yield

Light of The World

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1: 1-5 RSV

This time of year as the wintry sky brings less sunlight where we live and the earlier sunset brings on the darkness, this verse comes to mind. As the Advent and Christmas messages ring out, again and again I remember the LIGHT of Christ shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot put it out, has never extinguished it, darkness cannot comprehend the light, darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it [and is unreceptive to it], darkness has not suppressed it … You can read translation after translation and continuously find that the Light conquers the darkness.

For many years we sang this song in our church. I could not help but bow at the waist when we hit certain parts of the song.

So in this season as we celebrate the Light of Christ coming into the world how do you respond? I pray you are taking time to worship and remember Whose Birthday we celebrate. The indwelling Christ can bring you joy in this hectic season. Just slow down, breathe His name, center on His love again.

Posted on in Book quotes, Collection of Quotes, Faith, Just do it, Listen, Memories, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Worship, Yield

Sunday, December 17

In the Monday zoom group we are reading and discussing Richard Rohr’s book entitled Eager to Love, The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi. Reading Chapter 6, “An Alternative Orthodoxy” I came across this statement by Rohr.

For example, I often change the wording of many of the official orations of the Catholic Mass, after I find myself praying for my or our own salvation 65 percent of the time (Count them yourself.)

Page 90, Eager to Love by R. Rohr

If you have ever attended a liturgical church this might be true of you, also. I know there are things I added to my prayer book when we regularly attended the Episcopal church. I will give you an example.

A portion of The General Thanksgiving

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.

Morning Prayer 2, Page 101
Christ in you, the hope of glory Colossians 1:27

I prayed this most every morning when I was a Third Order Franciscan. I eventually added:

…but above all for the means of grace, for the hope of glory and for the glory of hope.

Hope can be elusive and I find it glorious when I can grasp it! These are the things I often ponder with my prayers.

How about you? The hope of glory is a wondrous, majestic thing that only the Holy One can pull off for us. What about the glory of hope? Have you found holding on to it difficult in your life, too?

I have a clear blown-glass woman which I just love. Yes, I could live without it, but she reminds me of how I am to live before the Father as stated in the beginning of the Holy Eucharist.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your Holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

BCP, Holy Eucharist: Rite Two, Page 355

Many people think they have to clean themselves up before they come to God. We each know we have fallen short of his calling. What we often fail to realize is that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is sent to show us how to get cleaned up!

Christian society has decided that certain sins are worse than others, though no where in Scripture is one stated as being worse than others. Rohr wrote, “Organized religion has paid much attention to some things that Jesus never once mentioned and rather totally ignored others that he stated with utter clarity.” (God help us all!) “No pope, priest, or parishioner has ever been excommunicated for living too rich a lifestyle, or for being ambitious, greedy or prideful, even though Jesus condemned these things much more directly and openly than for what most (religions) usually excommunicate people.” Just like we sometimes try to clean ourselves up in our own strength, the Holy Spirit can show us the actual root of our unrighteousness and help us cleanse the thoughts of our hearts. “That we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name.”

As some of you know, I collect handmade cotton washcloths for Empower Youth, a ministry to underprivileged children in our county. Each year they hold a “Winterfest” where the kids get various blessings, a gift, a stocking and breakfast. This blog opens with a photo of some of the washcloths. We wrap them around a bar of soap and tie them with leftover yarn. The kids can use them in the bathtub or moms and grandmas can use them in the kitchen sink. Generous volunteers donated 300 this year! Cleansing is the idea.

So this Advent season leading into Christmas I pray you will let the Holy Spirit inspire you to stay open to God and learn how to let him cleanse the thoughts of your hearts that, indeed, “we may perfectly love God and worthily magnify His holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” To God be the glory!

Posted on in Faith, Just do it, Listen, Music, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Worship, Yield

He is Worthy of It All

In case you are not familiar with the song I referenced yesterday, here it is!

So is it Immanuel or Emmanuel? One answer is at https://www.christianity.com/wiki/holidays/is-it-immanuel-or-emmanuel-biblical-meaning-and-significance.html

Immanuel and Emmanuel point to the same meaning with two different spellings. Think of how we do this with modern names. For example, Cathy, Cathie, Kathy, and Kathi, or Alexander, Alexandre, Aleksander, and Aleksandr.

Christianty.com, Danielle Bernock

Regardless of our spelling, He is worthy. And we are created to have fellowship with Him and to praise Him. May your hands be lifted high in thanksgiving to Heaven!

Posted on in Art, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Listen, Music, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Worship, Yield

Last Week My Christmas Worship Began …

…with this song. I cannot hear it too many times because it leads me into the Throne Room with praise and worship. What is it about Chandler Moore? Must be the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He knows how to enter the Presence of the Throne Room and lead us there with him. Twelve minutes is NOT too long to spend worshiping the Presence of the Mighty God.

One of my fondest memories is singing this refrain at Women’s Aglow as a way to enter into praise and His Presence. I was unfamiliar with Jekalyn. Watching this video gives me more perspective on her style. You have to be strong to sing peacefully with Chandler. He has such power !

Yes, Lord, we give You all the glory and praise, adoration and blessing! And the transition to another song, “You are worthy of it all!” How masterful! Yes, He deserves the glory!

Please listen to it prayerfully and worship Immanuel. “Born in the dirt and sitting on the Throne.”

Posted on in Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks

Puritan Prayers

My friend Dan gave me book entitled The Valley of Vision, Puritan Prayers and Devotions a few years ago. I pick it up occasionally, but regularly. While praying this morning about the blog posts for this week I came to this prayer. The editor, Arthur Bennett, has extracted the prayers and devotions from Puritan literature. The Preface says “The editor is thus responsible for the structure of the prayers as here printed.” First printed in 1975 the work is copyrighted by Arthur Bennett but says nothing about reproducing the prayers in other places. So, here is the one I read this morning and I pray I am not violating any laws by sharing it with you. I suggest you read it through to become acquainted with the older English and then read it again prayerfully, applying the phrases to your own life. I have even thought about adapting the prayers to modern English but have not done that so far!

O Christ,
All thy ways of mercy tend to and end in my delight.

Thou didst weep, sorrow, suffer that I might rejoice.
For my joy thou hast sent the Comforter,
multiplied thy promises,
shown me my future happiness,
given me a living fountain.

Thou art preparing joy for me and me for joy;
I pray for joy, wait for joy, long for joy;
give me more than I can hold, desire, or think of.
Measure out to me my times and degrees of joy,
at my work, business, duties.
If I weep at night, give me joy in the morning.
Let me rest in the thought of thy love,
pardon for sin, my title to heaven,
my future unspotted state.

I am an unworthy recipient of thy grace.
I often disesteem thy blood and slight thy love,
but can in repentance draw water
from the wells of thy forgiveness.

Let my heart leap towards the eternal sabbath,
where the work of redemption, sanctification,
preservation, glorification is finished
and perfected for ever,
where thou wilt rejoice over me with joy.
There is no joy like the joy of heaven,
for in that state are no sad divisions,
unchristian quarrels,
contentions, evil designs,
weariness, hunger, cold,
sadness, sin, suffering,
persecutions, toils of duty.

O healthful place where none are sick!
O happy land where all are kings!
O holy assembly where all are priests!
How free a state where none are servants except to thee!
Bring me speedily to the land of joy.

If you are Bible literate you likely recognize phrases in the prayer taken directly from Scripture. I began to look up some of the references for you and there were just too many to list. I did place a few of them in the tag line.

As the pressure of the holiday traditions crowd about you, I challenge you to pray this often in the remaining weeks of December. Remind yourself of joy and mercy Christ brought to us. Look forward to the new heaven and earth, the ‘land of joy’ where we are headed! Fill you bucket at the fountain of living water God offers you. May you be blessed with an increased awareness of His Presence with you!

Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Faith, Family, Humor, Just do it, medical treatment, Music, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Writing Life, Yield

Oi, Yoi, Yoi

Urban dictionary says of this Hebrew phrase: “A reduplicative diminutive of oy expressing frustration or exasperation.”

The best laid plans for a schedule get blown to pieces by doc and dentist this week. Yep, Monday and Tuesday mornings have been my inviolable times to write. Dentist could see me at 11:40. Dermatologist can see me at 11 AM (her only opening all week), so I called dentist to take his 2PM opening, so guess what? This is my few minutes. Yep, I really need a new schedule. Especially if I am to continue being a volunteer to help sort and stock food stuff at Inter Parish Ministry on Tuesdays when Bob goes to work in their parking lot directing traffic. Drawing from my reading this morning …

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ name. Amen

A W Tozer The Pursuit of God

“Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.” To be drawn anew into His love by mercy. What an enormous gift! Oh yes, readers, yield to Him and ask for a new work of love within you.

He is never more delighted than when we yield to His work of love within us.

God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.

Tozer Pursuit of God

“The throbbing heart of New Testament religion,” I just love that! The church we currently attend places huge emphasis on how many are baptized each year. Tozer emphasizes “continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed person” as the HEART of the New Testament. Where is that taught? Once baptized what happens to those souls? Is their growth in knowing Him as celebrated as their decision for baptism?

This time of year we are many times seeking the perfect gift for another. Are we seeking the heart of the New Testament for ourselves? Continuous and unembarrassed interchange with the Holy One. Oh yes, Lord help me to make that our gift exchange this year!

What do you think God would want the most?

Nope, not something necessarily in a box. I think what He most desires is our unhindered yieldedness to Him. Our ears open to listen. Our wills yielded to obey. Giving Him our all because He gave all for us. Each one of us. Individually. Unreservedly.

I think God is amused by the following song written by Woody Guthrie and sung by Pete Seeger. If God has a mailbox this is what He wants in it the most!

Of course, you must find a box you fit in, someone to help you with the stamps on top of your head, etc. I hope the song plants the idea firmly in your mind that most of all God desires all of you as His gift.

Posted on in Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Listen, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Worship, Yield

The Cry of the Deer continued

I mentioned a while ago that I am re-reading David Adam’s book The Cry of the Deer. This chapter is entitled ‘Let Loose in the World.’ Those of us who know the Risen Christ have been echoing this message for many centuries.

I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Colossians 1:25-27 NIV

“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” He lives in you, walks with you,etc. He is let loose in the world, not just in one body, but in the bodies of those who believe in Him and yield to His indwelling. David Adam wrote: “In many ways the Celtic Church took the Resurrection for granted, because they experienced in their lives and worship the real Presence of the Risen Lord. When we are faced with the Risen Lord, to spend our time looking into an empty grave is a foolishness. Christ the Risen Lord wants us to walk with Him in the fullness of life. He is not a theory about death and survival, He is a Person to be encountered, a Presence to meet. He is the Resurrection. He is let loose in the world.”

Have you yielded to His Spirit, that He might indwell you wherever you go? Do you practice the Garden Song in your everyday life? “And He walks with me, and He talks with me”? Is Jesus let loose in the world through you? My mother taught my sister and me this song as we rode in the car. She always made me sing the alto part so we could harmonize. To this day I love this song and practice the sentiment it portrays. Maybe A. W. Tozer said it best?

Brandon Lake understands the concept!