At the Intersection of Theology, Nature, and the Arts
“Ask for a confirming sign from the Lord your God. You can even ask for something miraculous”--Isaiah 7:11 (NIV) Ahab went out to meet Elijah. The moment Ahab saw Elijah he said, “So it’s you, old troublemaker!” “It’s not I who has caused trouble in Israel,” said Elijah, “but you and your government—you’ve dumped God’s ways and …
Oh, how I enjoy being gently wakened by a soft breeze and a sound river of birdsong just as the sun is rising! Our Creator knit us together in our mothers' wombs and He knows us better than we know ourselves. He delights in bringing this treat of peace and pleasure for our senses before …
In celebration of all that blossoms in May, I’m posting paintings by the American Impressionist Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939) alongside “flowery” quotes from Emerson, O’Keefe, Okakura and Heine along with a Tennyson poem punctuated by a listening larkspur and a whispering lily. “The earth laughs in flowers.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson “Nobody sees a flower – …
“The greatest problems of our time are not technological, for these we handle fairly well. They are not even political or economic, because the difficulties in these areas, glaring as they may be, are largely derivative. The greatest problems are moral and spiritual, and unless we can make some progress in these realms, we may …
Continue reading "Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth"
“Rise, let us be going” (Matthew 26:46). In the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples went to sleep when they should have stayed awake, and once they realized what they had done it produced despair. The sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair. We say, “Well, it’s all over and ruined now; …
Luke 11:33-36 Richard Rolle (1290-1349) writes, in his The Fire of Love, about the spiritual flame that feeds the soul: “I cannot tell you how surprised I was the first time I felt my heart begin to warm. It was real warmth, too, not imaginary, and it felt as if it were actually on fire. …
Christ is building His kingdom with earth’s broken things. Human beings want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms; but God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth’s broken lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot take …
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Father in Heaven! Hold not our sins up against us but hold us up against our sins so that the thought of You when it wakens in our soul, and each time it wakens, should not remind us of what we have committed but of what You did forgive, not of how we went astray …
From Douglas Steere’s book, Prayer and Worship, comes this excerpt on intercessory prayer: When we hold up the life of another before God, when we expose it to God’s love, when we pray for its release from drowsiness, for the quickening of its inner health, for the power to throw off a destructive habit, for …
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Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626) is cherished for his prayers that have been preserved for us from his own private devotions. Here is a selection that we might use this week as a call from our own hearts. I believe in you, O God, Father, Word, Spirit—one God. I believe that by your Fatherly love all things …
Continue reading "Lancelot Andrewes: Prayers that Lift the Mind Up to God"
DFG Hailson 