Christian Living on Quiet Time

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Staying Quiet in a Noisy World

Author

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 5:8, Ephesians 6:12, Proverbs 4:23, Matthew 26:41, Psalm 46:10, 1 Kings 19:11-12, John 10:10

In the Critically acclaimed 2018 horror film A Quiet Place , Earth faces an alien invasion unlike any other. In the movie, the aliens behave like merciless monsters, using their lightning-fast sp...

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Prayer of Adoration God, Almighty –

Author

Richard Herman

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Prayer of Adoration God, Almighty – holy, gracious, truthful and loving, we’re drawn by Your invitation to enjoy Your love, an invitation to feel Your touch and hear Your voice, to taste and see tha...

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Author

Eugene Peterson

Keywords

Sabbath is that uncluttered time and space in which we can distance ourselves from our own activities enough to see what God is doing.

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My First Experience of Unhurried Time with God

Author

Alan Fadling

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 5:16, John 10:null, James 5:16

I’ve often shared the story of my first experience of solitude and silence at the beginning of 1990. It was led by one of my mentors, Wayne Anderson, as part of a class I was taking at Fuller Seminary...

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Our Bodies Need Silence

Author

Rick Hamlin

Keywords

Your body knows about schedules. It gets used to those times of day when it says, Feed me right now. I’m hungry, and those times of night when it says, Get me to bed. I’m exhausted. Your body will spe...

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A Hungry/Thirsty Soul

Author

Beth Moore

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:null

The soul can also manifest physical symptoms of need. I like to think of it this way: Just like my stomach growls when I’m hungry for physical food, my spirit tends to growl when I’m in need of spirit...

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A Life Re-Defined by The Spirit of God

Author

Mark Labberton

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 8:36-38, Acts 8:29-31, Acts 10:44-46, Acts 10:3-6, Acts 10:1-48, Acts 9:17-18, Acts 9:3-6

In his excellent book on worship, The Dangerous Act of Worship , pastor and president of Fuller Seminary Mark Labberton shares a story of the transformation of one of his former congregants: Ben ...

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Baptized into Death

Author

Andy Cook

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 6:4

Some time back, a retired missionary dropped by our church. She had served faithfully in Africa, and one day, she happened upon a small baptismal service. A fellow missionary took three new converts t...

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Digital Silent Retreat

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A Digital Silent Retreat This spiritual exercise is from Laura Murray, ordained pastor, spiritual director, and TPW contributor. Laura is sharing a "Digital Silent Retreat" with us. We en...

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Listen for the Flutes

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Listening

We must tune our ears to hear God’s voice. It’s like the child who was told by his father during a symphony orchestra concert, “Listen for the flutes in this song. Don’t they sound beautiful?” The chi...

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Listen for the Flutes

Author

Stephen Macchia

Keywords

Scripture

John 10:3-5, Romans 10:17, Hebrews 5:14, 1 Kings 19:11-13, Isaiah 30:21

We must tune our ears to hear God’s voice. It’s like the child who was told by his father during a symphony orchestra concert, “Listen for the flutes in this song. Don’t they sound beautiful?” The chi...

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Sabbath-Keeping and Legalism

Author

Walter Brueggemann

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15, Mark 2:27-28, Matthew 12:8, Luke 6:5

For the most part, contemporary Christians pay little attention to the Sabbath. We more or less know that the day came to reflect, in U.S. culture, the most stringent disciplinary faith of the Puritan...

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You Are the Tree

Author

Jake Meador

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 1:null

In the film Of Gods and Men , director Xavier Beauvois tells the story of a small group of mostly French monks living in Algeria during a time of civil unrest. These monks live a life of quiet fideli...

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Withdrawing to a Lonely Place Apart

Author

Richard J. Foster

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 14:13, Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 6:12, Matthew 14:23, Mark 1:35, Mark 6:31, Luke 5:16, Matthew 17:1-9, Matthew 26:36-46

In the midst of an exceedingly busy ministry Jesus made a habit of withdrawing to “a lonely place apart” (Matt. 14:13; see also Matt. 4:1-11, Luke 6:12, Matt. 14:23, Mark 1:35, Mark 6:31, Luke 5:16, M...

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The Unhurried Word: A Devotional Practice for Pastors

Author

Alan Fadling

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 119:105, Romans 15:4, 1 Peter 2:2, Job 23:12, Psalm 119:11, Colossians 3:16, Deuteronomy 8:3, Psalm 1:2

An Unhurried Practice: Reading Scripture Slowly One of the disciplines that has been an important part of my spiritual journey over the years is reading and reflecting on Scripture. In recent years,...

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Thanking God for Places of Peace

Author

Cyd and Geoff Holsclaw

Keywords

Think back over your life and try to remember a place where you felt safe and at peace, a time when you felt relaxed and okay. It could be an outdoor place—like on a beach or sitting in a tree. Maybe ...

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The Pressures of Modern Life (Written Almost a Century Ago)

Author

Thomas Kelly

Keywords

The problem we face today needs very little time for its statement. Our lives in a modern city grow too complex and overcrowded. Even the necessary obligations which we feel we must meet grow overnigh...

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Book Review: Spiritual Practices in Community

Author

Kayla Zowada

Keywords

Many of us have been involved in small group ministry, and if we are honest with ourselves, there are seasons when the groups can lack the dynamism of a fully-flourishing Christian ministry. This is w...

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God of the Impossible – Father, Son and

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 32:17, Luke 1:37, Isaiah 43:25, Romans 8:38-39, Psalm 139:7-10

God of the Impossible – Father, Son and Holy Spirit: There’s nothing too hard for you to do, Nothing too complex for You to understand, No place we go that You’re not there, No sin too heinous tha...

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Into the Wilderness: Sermon Illustration Tuesday

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Wilderness

In the wilderness, life is stripped of distractions. It is quiet. The topography demands discipline, simplicity, and fierce attention. Solitude in the wilderness makes irrelevant all the people-pleasi...

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Father God: It is sometimes hard for us

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Father God: It is sometimes hard for us to understand what You do. We are in trouble. We want You to come rescue us right now, like the cavalry riding over a hill or the Lone Ranger appearing out of n...

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The Power of Silence & the Pregnant Pause

Author

Richard John Neuhaus

Keywords

For many of us, silence is something we try to avoid, both in conversations and in preaching. But as Richard John Neuhaus aptly describes in his time watching Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his sermo...

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Hanging Out in the Dark

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 1:13-14, Matthew 5:14-16, Romans 13:12, Isaiah 9:2, 1 John 1:5-7, Ephesians 5:11

A few years ago, a journalist named Joseph Blackman wrote an Op Ed on an interesting subject, “Why Clubs are Dark.” That is, why is it when you walk into a nightclub or a bar, the lights are off, or a...

liturgy

God—We’d like to have had a Hallmark

God—We’d like to have had a Hallmark card kind of week: gentle, quiet and serene, but it’s been anything but that. People died this week—and families and friends grieve. A man got bad news about cance...

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Triune and Loving God: on this

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 3:16-19, Matthew 3:16-17, Acts 4:32-35, Galatians 5:22-23, John 14:26-27, Romans 15:13, Acts 2:1-4

Triune and Loving God: on this Pentecost Sunday, we ask for the gift of Your Holy Spirit to help us pray as we ought today and always. Come, Holy Spirit: Help Us. We ask for Your Spirit’s energy an...

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Prayer Service for Peace in Israel and Palestine

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Scripture

John 1:1-5, Psalm 86:1, Psalm 22:1-2, Psalm 28:7, Psalm 65:5

Prayer Service for Peace in Israel and Palestine This service is designed as an evening, outdoor prayer vigil using handheld candles. Feel free to modify the order of worship as needed, including...

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Who Do They Think We Are?

Author

Os Guinness

Keywords

Perseverance

The day after Christmas would normally have been a quiet day in Washington, D.C., above all on Capitol Hill. But December 26, 1941, was different. It was only nineteen days after the Japanese attack o...

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What Do You Believe Doc?

Author

D. Michael Lindsay

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 1:8-9, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Mark 9:24, Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 10:17, Hebrews 11:6

In a quiet hospital room in North Carolina, an eager young doctor with a bright future evaluates his elderly patient with not much future left at all. She has a terminal heart condition, inoperable. A...

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The Topography of Discipline

Author

David Brooks

Keywords

Wilderness

In the wilderness, life is stripped of distractions. It is quiet. The topography demands discipline, simplicity, and fierce attention. Solitude in the wilderness makes irrelevant all the people-pleasi...

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The Christmas Gift

Author

Andy Cook

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 61:3, John 11:32-35, Romans 8:28, Genesis 37:50, James 1:17, Romans 6:23 , 1 Corinthians 12:28

A preaching professor at Harvard University tells the story of the year his 5-year-old son was working on an art project in his kindergarten class. It was made of plaster, resembled nothing in particu...

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