Daily/Weekly Practices

On Wednesday, we discussed some of the daily/weekly practices that are already part of some of our lives that help us to stay connected to God. Several people in our group mentioned resources that have been part of their spiritual practice for some time. Among them were:

Jesus Calling by Sarah Young - This is a devotional book, which is available in paper, ebook, and app formats! This devotional has been mentioned and shared at our group so many times, it's definitely worth a special mention. Here is a brief bio about Sarah Young from the above link:

Sarah is biblically conservative in her faith and reformed in her doctrine. She earned a master’s degree in biblical studies and counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), where her husband, Stephen, is an ordained minister. Stephen and Sarah continue to be missionaries with Mission to the World, the PCA mission board.

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers is a true classic and is available entirely for free online at the link posted here. From the linked website:

Chambers was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1874, the youngest son of a Baptist minister. He spent his boyhood years in Perth; then his family moved to London when Oswald was fifteen....

While studying at the University of Edinburgh (1895-96), he decided, after an agonizing internal battle, to study for the ministry. He left the university and entered Dunoon College, near Glasgow, where he remained as a student, then a tutor for nine years.
In 1906 he traveled to the United States, spending six months teaching at God’s Bible School in Cincinnati, Ohio. From there, he went to Japan, visiting the Tokyo Bible School, founded by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cowman. This journey around the world in 1906-1907 marked his transition from Dunoon College to fulltime work with the Pentecostal League of Prayer.

She Reads Truth is an online community of women, who read the Bible together online daily. Daily devotionals are available on their website or their app, OR you can subscribe to get them in your email inbox. Currently, the site has an Advent study available online for free. Here's what they have to say:

God’s Word is a gift, and reading it is a privilege. She Reads Truth cheers on ministries whose mission is to reach the unreached with their very first Bibles. Our mission is to invite the already-reached to reach for their Bibles—every day.

Discovering the Bible: Your Daily Bible Reading Companion by Gordon Addington takes the reader through the Bible in a year. (The link to this book will take you to a website that gives a portion of their book sale proceeds to charity. A drop down menu when you make a purchase allows you to select a charity of your choice!) About the book:

A respected Bible teacher, Gordon L. Addington, both a medical doctor and a doctor of ministry, wants to take you through this journey in one year. InDiscovering the Bible, he gives insightful notes and the historical background for each day’s reading. See how God unfolds His amazing plan of redemption throughout the entire Bible.

Checklist for Life for Moms is a book specifically for moms and the challenges moms face:

In addition to a brief narrative, each chapter of this interactive handbook features:

• An "I Will" checklist of heart and attitude reinforcements.
• A "Things to Do" checklist of action points.
• A "Things to Remember" section of Scripture verses and applicable quotes from famous and not-so-famous people

For more resources for practicing "Daily Offices" or Fixed Hour Prayer...or whatever you want to call your daily practice of prayer...see this previous blog post: The Daily Office, Contemplative Spirituality, and Fixed Hour Prayer.

If you have more to add, just add a comment. I'll also be adding as things come in to my email! 

Edited to add: Tesha asked about the book our family used a number of years ago. It was called A Contemporary Celtic Prayer Book  by William John Fitzgerald and Joyce Rupp. This book offers a week's worth of morning, midday, and evening meditations following a repeating format. The meditations include traditional liturgical prayers (The Lord's Prayer, The Magnificat, etc...), as well as poems, hymns, and some guided meditations. The latter portion of the book includes prayers for special occasions and holidays. Aurora loved this book as a young child because she learned the format quickly and knew what to expect. She also had many of the prayers and poems memorized in a relatively short period of time! Without prompting, she asked me about this book just a few weeks ago and expressed interest in going back to it!

More Genogram Resources

I stumbled across the article on Wiki How for creating a genogram, and I thought it was brilliant! If you haven't taken the time to draw a genogram yet, now's the time! And this article will help you with the basics for how to keep everything straight in your "family tree." Check it out here: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Genogram

You'll do yourself a big favor by using the standard genogram symbols when you draw your "family tree" because the symbols help you keep track of what's what without having to write all the actual words. Charts of all the symbols can be found in the above article. 

What is The Wall, the Dark Night of the Soul?

I shared these two articles last week, but I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to look at them. They pertain to the discussion on The Wall/The Dark Night of the Soul...

What is a Dark Night of the Soul? and The Dark Night of the Soul by R.C. Sproul. 

The first deals with the history of the the "Dark Night of the Soul" concept: 

The phrase “dark night of the soul” comes from a poem by St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), a Spanish Carmelite monk and mystic...  The monk taught that one seeking God will cast off all attachments to this world and live a life of austerity. Before attaining union with God, however, the soul must pass through a personal experience of Christ’s passion. This time of testing and agony is accompanied by confusion, fear, and uncertainty—including doubts of God—but on the other side are Christ’s glory, serenity, and a mystical union with God.

The second deals with the concept of the Dark Night as it might be understood in the wider Christian community: 

This phenomenon describes a malady that the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time. It was the malady that provoked David to soak his pillow with tears. It was the malady that earned for Jeremiah the sobriquet, “The Weeping Prophet.” It was the malady that so afflicted Martin Luther that his melancholy threatened to destroy him. This is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a feeling of abandonment by Him.

God in the Struggle

I found this lovely sermon by Maren Sonstegard-Spray from First Presbyterian Church in Winchester, Virginia: "Struggle and Change," on the topic of the presence of God "in the dark." So often, when we do the work of identifying family generational patterns, we find ourselves pressed up against the Wall of darkness and pain that Peter Scazzero describes in his book. Sonstegard-Spray speaks to how our moments of emotional darkness often surface in those vulnerable moments of literal, physical darkness, when we are quiet and alone. 

Awake, in the dark, I can tell you that I am not alone.  In the dark I wrestle my small worries and big fears, in the dark I meet good memories and painful regrets, in the dark old wounds are opened up again, in the dark I make lists of should dos and should have dones. 

Fortunately, awake, in the dark, there is also prayer and God.

Fortunately. ...And also: 

...we get a different picture of God’s character in the dark night of the soul.  There God is in the struggle and is the struggle.  There God doesn’t give easy answers, but God is still there. 

When God gives Jacob a new name, Israel, the beauty of the Hebrew is that it can read as “the one who struggles with God” or “God struggles.”

Family Genogram Resources & Peter Scazzero Sermon Links

Check out this free resource on the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality website: Genogram Your Family: 

This FREE resource includes a downloadable Genogram Your Family worksheet along with a video training from Emotionally Healthy Skills 2.0.

Also, if you'd like to check out sermons by Peter Scazzero, several are available on the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality website here: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/tools/sermons/.

Breaking Generational Cycles and Patterns

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality gives us a jumping-off point for discussing and thinking about how to break the generational patterns that hold us captive. The foremost tool presented by Peter Scazzero in chapter 4 is the genogram, which is a type of family tree that focuses on relationship and behavior patterns. The genogram helps to bring the patterns into our awareness so that we can do the work of changing them. Scazerro mentions in the final paragraphs of chapter 4 the importance of not doing all the work alone:

"Going back in order to go forward is something we must do in the context of community - with mature friends, a mentor, spiritual director, counselor or therapist."

Significantly, the tools Scazzero mentions are the very things supported by research: becoming aware of the patterns, finding support, and getting help when necessary. From an abstract online regarding a study of Breaking the Intergenerational Transmission of Child Abuse: 

Non-abusers have several factors in common. For instance: they have extensive emotional and social support from significant others. They are aware of what happened to them as children and are openly angry about their abuse. And many of them received (psycho)therapy as adolescents or young adults. 

And here's a very forthright article from Psychology Today by psychiatrist David Allen about finding that healthy place of differentiation where we deal with family problems, rather than cutting people off, telling them off, stuffing it down: "Stop Running Away From Your Family Problems." I especially appreciate his honesty about the difficulty of facing the truth about our families...and his encouragement that we can do it:

When you talk about the relationships that make you depressed and anxious, there is no way to avoid temporarily feeling even more depressed and more anxious. I wish I knew a way around that, but I do not. I do know that most of you can take it. You are more resilient than you think.

Many similar tools for breaking generational cycles are repeated in this article: 8 Steps to Break a Cycle of Family Dysfunction by Tim Sanford, a professional counselor and Christian. I especially love Step 8, which is such an exhale of relief after reading up on the pain of dealing with unhealthy generational patterns:

8. Be patient with yourself and others. Patience is one of the functional ways of dealing with the world.

"But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children—with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts" (Psalm 103:17, emphasis added).

You're not condemned to repeat how your parents parented. You don't have to be a 25-year veteran of healthy living before you pass functional relationship patterns on to the next generation. All you need to be is one step ahead of where they are.

It takes one generation to turn the tide from God's punishment to one of God's love being passed down. That's all — just one. Start here. Start now. It's never too late to move from dysfunction to function. Never.

Beth Moore on Generational Sin

In light of our conversation this past week about the family patterns come down through the generations, I thought I'd pass on this article by a familiar voice, Beth Moore: "Is There a Generational Curse for Sin?" From the article:

Exodus 20:5 says, "You shall not bow down to [idols] or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me."

The word punishing in this verse proves a stumbling block for some people. The King James Version translates this as visiting, which is more reflective of the original Hebrew word paqadh, meaning to inspect, review, number, deposit, or visit in the sense of making a call. It's also used for taking a census.

 Click the title of the article above to read the whole thing.

The Daily Office, Contemplative Spirituality, and Fixed Hour Prayer

For the past several weeks I have been reading from Day By Day by Peter Scazzero at the start of each of our Morning Blend sessions. This is a devotional or daily "office" book written by Scazzero to assist the reader in practicing contemplative spirituality in a rhythmic, twice-a-day manner. To hear more about the premise of this book, you can watch Scazzero's video introduction here:

If you like the idea of introducing this ancient Christian practice into your own life and want to check out more resources, you might take a look at some of the works of Phyllis Tickle, who was a speaker in the Animate: Bible series we studied a few years ago. You can read several excerpts from her book and read more about Daily Offices/Divine Hours by following this link: The Divine Hours.  Tickle includes an article on her own website, About Fixed Hour Prayer, where she also recommends a book by Shane Claiborne, who is part of the Animate: Practices series that we may be studying in the spring. On his website, you can find daily prayers online: Common Prayer.

Video Introduction to Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

The video repeats a fair amount of what you'll find in the book, but if you're looking for an audio-visual intro to the study, here it is!!

Who is Peter Scazzero?

Our upcoming study, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality is by Peter Scazzero:

Pete Scazzero is the Founder of New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, NYC, a large, multiracial, international church with seventy-three countries represented. After serving as Senior Pastor for twenty-six years, Pete now serves as a Teaching Pastor/Pastor at Large. He is the author of two best-selling books: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and The Emotionally Healthy Church (Zondervan, 2010) and most recently released The Emotionally Healthy Leader (Zondervan, 2015). He is also the author of The EHS Course (Zondervan, 2014) and Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day by Day (Zondervan, 2013).

Pete and his wife Geri are the founders of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, a groundbreaking ministry that equips churches in a deep, beneath-the-surface spiritual formation paradigm that integrates emotional health and contemplative spirituality. They have four lovely daughters.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

What's brewing at Morning Blend? Starting September 9th, we will be studying Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, an 8-session series by Peter Scazzero. A synopsis from the website says this,

Pete Scazzero learned the hard way: you can’t be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. Even though he was a pastor of a growing church, he did what most people do:

• Avoid conflict in the name of Christianity
• Ignore his anger, sadness, and fear
• Use God to run from God
• Live without boundaries

Eventually God awakened him to a biblical integration of emotional health, a relationship with Jesus, and the classic practices of contemplative spirituality. It created nothing short of a spiritual revolution, utterly transforming him and his church.

In this best-selling book Pete Scazzero outlines his journey and the signs of emotionally unhealthy spirituality. Then he provides seven biblical, reality-tested ways to break through to the revolutionary life Christ meant for you. “The combination of emotional health and contemplative spirituality,” he says, “unleashes the Holy Spirit inside us so that we might experientially know the power of an authentic life in Christ.”

It's a new year! We're looking forward to being challenged to learn and grow!

Young Adults, Megachurches, and Meaning

Last week we discussed the third session of Ray Vander Laan's series, Dust of the Rabbi, and we had a conversation about how young people, especially young adults, feel lost in the current church culture. We talked about megachurches and the various technologies that churches are using to draw the younger generation...and how that fits into the context of making disciples. We talked a little about what we imagine the church "should" be and what it might have been at its beginning.

Coincidentally, I found that Rachel Held-Evans was on Minnestoa Public Radio speaking about this very topic just the day before our conversation! If you were with us at Morning Blend last year, you will recognize Rachel Held-Evans. She was part of the Animate:Bible series that we studied (see more about her by clicking her name in the right sidebar). You can hear the 11 minute podcast or read the transcript here: Where Church Goes Wrong for Many Millennials.

The MPR interview resulted from an article that Rachel Held-Evans wrote, which was featured in the Washington Post: Want Millennials Back in the Pews? Stop Trying to Make Church 'Cool.' Evan points out:

"According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, among those of us who came of age around the year 2000, a solid quarter claim no religious affiliation at all..."

The church has responded by...

 "...focusing on style points: cooler bands, hipper worship, edgier programming, impressive technology." 

However,

"Recent research from Barna Group and the Cornerstone Knowledge Network found that 67 percent of millennials prefer a “classic” church over a “trendy” one, and 77 percent would choose a “sanctuary” over an “auditorium.”

And, perhaps, my favorite quote from the whole article:

"You can get a cup of coffee with your friends anywhere, but church is the only place you can get ashes smudged on your forehead as a reminder of your mortality. You can be dazzled by a light show at a concert on any given weekend, but church is the only place that fills a sanctuary with candlelight and hymns on Christmas Eve. You can snag all sorts of free swag for brand loyalty online, but church is the only place where you are named a beloved child of God with a cold plunge into the water. You can share food with the hungry at any homeless shelter, but only the church teaches that a shared meal brings us into the very presence of God. "

 I highly recommend checking out both the article and the podcast. Enjoy!

Dust of the Rabbi - Additional Resources

Ray Vander Laan has an excellent website with additional articles about the people and places mentioned in the study. You can browse through addtional articles on this page:

https://www.thattheworldmayknow.com/in-the-dust-of-the-rabbi

Obedience & Biblical Commands

We had a discussion last week about obedience, and it came up that the New Testament scriptures actually have more commands than the Old Testament scriptures. Here are some links if you're interested in reading more:

613 Commandments of Torah (meaning the first five books of the Old Testament) - If you scroll down the page, you'll see all 613 Commandments listed with their scripture references. You may notice that some commandments are very similar or nearly the same. They are still counted toward the total number by the rabbis.

1050 New Testament Commands - The 1,050 commands are divided into 69 categories on this website. Other sites put them into 800 categories. Again, you'll notice a certain amount of repetition of similar, nearly identical commands. You'll also notice that several are repetitious of commands from the Torah.

This statement by Jim Garrish in his article The Commands of the New Testament seems to echo some of Ray Vander Laan's thoughts on the subject of obedience:

In the past, the church has often avoided the subject of God’s commands and laws in fear of leaning too far in the direction of legalism. Unfortunately, by so doing the church has now leaned too far in the direction of antinomianism. It has become lawless, disobedient and sinful in the process.  Jesus reproves such a church, saying, “Why do you call me, `Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say” (Lk.6:46)?  It is amazing that the modern church has diligently carried out part of the Lord’s great command.  She has gone into all to the world to make disciples. Yet, she has often ignored the last part of the same Great Commission, that is in teaching those disciples to do all that the Lord has instructed (Mt. 28:19-20).

The Jim Garrish article also attempts to list all the New Testament commands, which he describes as no easy task:

This is a difficult task. I have first tried to eliminate all those commands that were given to specific individuals, unless those commands seem to have a direct application to the church in general. I have also omitted the many statements and teachings of Jesus and his disciples which are given in a manner that they may almost be construed as commands.  These ‘implied commands’ could become the subject of another study entirely.  Here I have listed only those statements that seem to be clearly given as commandments. 

 

Walking on Water

In Session 2 of In the Dust of the Rabbi, Ray Vander Laan tells the story from the Bible of  Jesus...and then Peter...walking on water.  For some further thoughts on this story, I enjoyed this sermon by Nadia Bolz Weber: Jesus Walking on the Water - A Sermon Sarcastic and Serious:

We might see the moral of the story as “you should have so much faith that you can walk on water toward Jesus” but the truth of this story is that Jesus walks toward us. The truth of the story is that my abundance of faith or lack of faith does not deter God from drawing close.  That even if you are scared to death you can say Lord Save Me and the hand of God will find you in even the darkest waters.  Because this is a story not of morals but of movement. Not of heros of the faith making their way to Christ but of Christ drawing near to you in the midst of fear. 

It is an important contrast, a tension we have to hold as believers - that our faith compels us to act but that our actions do not save us.

Women in Judaism

Last week we briefly mentioned how, unlike many other cultures throughout history, Jewish girls were educated alongside boys in Beth/Bet Sefer until they were 12 or 13, meaning that girls and women were often just as educated as their male counterparts. Only some boys/men went on to study more in Beth/Bet Midrash after finishing Bet Sefer. Given that discussion, I thought you all might appreciate an article from Judaism 101 about the "Role of Women" in Judaism. Here are some interesting snippets:

The position of women is not nearly as lowly as many modern people think; in fact, the position of women in halakhah (Jewish Law) that dates back to the biblical period is in many ways better than the position of women under American civil law as recently as a century ago.

The equality of men and women begins at the highest possible level: G-d. In Judaism, unlike traditional Christianity, G-d has never been viewed as exclusively male or masculine. Judaism has always maintained that G-d has both masculine and feminine qualities.

The rights of women in traditional Judaism are much greater than they were in the rest of Western civilization until the 20th century. Women had the right to buy, sell, and own property, and make their own contracts, rights which women in Western countries (including America) did not have until about 100 years ago. In fact, Proverbs 31:10-31, which is traditionally read at Jewish weddings, speaks repeatedly of business acumen as a trait to be prized in women (v. 11, 13, 16, and 18 especially).

The following passage is perhaps the best explanation for why it was so important for girls and women to be educated in the Torah:

There is no question that in traditional Judaism, the primary role of a woman is as wife and mother, keeper of the household. However, Judaism has great respect for the importance of that role and the spiritual influence that the woman has over her family. The Talmud says that when a pious man marries a wicked woman, the man becomes wicked, but when a wicked man marries a pious woman, the man becomes pious.

The entire article can be read here: http://www.jewfaq.org/women.htm.

Who is Ray Vander Laan?

Our upcoming study, In the Dust of the Rabbi, is by Ray Vander Laan:

Since receiving his Master’s of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1976, Ray Vander Laan has been actively involved in studying and teaching Jewish culture using the methods of Jewish education. He has continued graduate studies in Jewish Studies in the United States, Israel, Turkey and Egypt. He has been a teacher for 35 years and is an ordained minister with the Christian Reformed Church. He has also authored a book entitled Echoes of His Presence, published by Focus on the Family. Vander Laan founded That the World May Know Ministries in 1998. Ray has taken over 10,000 people with him on his study tours of Israel, Turkey and Egypt.

For more information on Ray Vander Laan, including podcasts of his teachings and discussion forums, visit his website at: http://www.rvl-on.com/about/

In the Dust of the Rabbi

What's brewing at Morning Blend? Starting April 8th, we will be studying In the Dust of the Rabbi, a 5-session series by Ray Vander Laan. A synopsis from the website says this,

Sixth in the Faith Lessons series. “Follow the rabbi, drink in his words, and be covered with the dust of his feet,” says the ancient Jewish proverb. Disciples followed so closely that they would be covered with the dust kicked up by the rabbi’s feet. Come, discover how to follow Jesus as you walk with teacher and historian Ray Vander Laan through the breathtaking terrain of Israel and Turkey and explore what it really means to be a disciple.

 We look forward to a new study and to new growth and learning together!

Fresh Perspective on the Fruit of the Spirit

An email from Julie with some words to share about the fruits of the spirit...

Hello Everyone, 

I read a letter written by Charles Stanley and I want to share part of it with you.

"Galatians 5:22-23 lists nine aspects of the 'fruit of the Spirit', the first of which is love. In essence, we could say that all the others are descriptions of it: Joy is love delighting, peace is love resting, patience is love waiting, kindness is love reacting, goodness is love choosing, faithfulness is love keeping its word, gentleness is love empathizing, and self-control is love resisting temptation. And as we grow in faith, love becomes more deeply ingrained in us. 

No matter how gifted, strong, or successful we are, without this essential emotion, life is empty and meaningless. If we never give it, we'll become self-centered and demanding. If we never receive it, we'll constantly strive for acceptance and approval. But when God's love flows in and through us, we become more like His Son. And when others observe us, they will be drawn to the Savior, because God's love never fails."

I just had to share this with you because it's another beautiful way to talk about the fruit of the Spirit. Have a wonderful evening. 

Julie