Faith and Work on Spiritual Dryness

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Restoring Love for Scripture

Author

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Scripture

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 , 1 Kings 19:11-13 , Nehemiah 8:1-12, Luke 24:13-35 , Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 119:9-16

After I graduated from seminary, I stopped reading the Bible. It’s been said that for all the gain that comes from dissecting a frog, all the hands-on knowledge one amasses from cutting out the organs...

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Author

Rainer Maria Rilke

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Scripture

Isaiah 55:1-3, 1 Kings 19:11-13, Exodus 3:1-6, John 7:37-38, Luke 24:13-32, Psalm 63:1-3

But you take pleasure in the faces Of those who know they thirst.

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Don’t Professionalize Pastoral Ministry

Author

Frederick Buechner

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Scripture

1 Kings 19:4, Jeremiah 12:1-3, Matthew 11:28-30, 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, Psalm 42:1-5

Ministers run the awful risk . . . of ceasing to be witnesses to the presence in their own lives — let alone in the lives of the people they are trying to minister to — of a living God who transcends ...

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Spiritual Food Belongs in the Heart

Author

Dane C. Ortlund

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Scripture

Matthew 23:25-26, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Colossians 2:6-7, Jeremiah 31:33

Spiritual nourishment cannot be seen purely in our outward behavior. The process of sanctification is a deeply internal process. Outside growth is merely a symptom, and acting better does not mean our...

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The Wisdom of Dormancy

Author

Wayne Muller

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:8-11, Leviticus 25:4-5, Mark 2:27, Isaiah 40:30-31

Sabbath honors the necessary wisdom of dormancy. If certain plant species, for example, do not lie dormant for winter, they will not bear fruit in the spring. If this continues for more than a season,...

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Author

Abraham J. Heschel

Keywords

Sabbath

Six days a week the spirit is alone, disregarded, forsaken, forgotten. Working under strain, beset with worries, enmeshed in anxieties, man has no mind for ethereal beauty. But the spirit is waiting f...

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The Aroma of that Room

Author

Dallas Willard

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:1-6, Isaiah 6:1-8, Acts 9:1-9, Matthew 4:18-22, 1 Samuel 3:1-10

Sometimes, of course, the sense of God with us becomes much more distinct. My oldest brother, J. I. Willard, served for over thirty years as a minister under the blessing of God. But his entry into th...

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Spirit of the Living God—Fall afresh on

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Philippians 4:6-7, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Romans 8:26-27, John 14:26-27, Psalm 51:10-12

Spirit of the Living God—Fall afresh on us this day. Spirit of God present and powerful, Spirit of God fruitful and faithful, Spirit of God filling and fulfilling us as children of the Father and foll...

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Doing Rather Than Being

Author

A. J. Swoboda

Keywords

Sabbath is that ancient idea and practice of intentional rest that has long been discarded by much of the church and our world. Sabbath is not new. Sabbath is just new to us. Historically, Christians ...

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Tell us about Being a Christian

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 12:1-2, Matthew 5:14-16, 1 Corinthians 1:25, Micah 6:8, Colossians 3:16, James 3:17

In Soul-Making , Allen Jones shares an intriguing visit to the Coptic Monastery of St. Macarius out in the Egyptian desert. There, he meets Father Jeremiah, a monk who spins tales of the desert fathe...

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Author

Andrew Sullivan

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Modernity slowly weakened spirituality, by design and accident, in favor of commerce; it downplayed silence and mere being in favor of noise and constant action. The reason we live in a culture increa...

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Are People in the West Abandoning Faith or Just the Church?

Author

David Zahl

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 32:1-4 , 1 Kings 18:21, Jeremiah 2:13, Romans 1:25, Psalm 115:4-8, Acts 17:22-23

In this excerpt, author David Zahl challenges the common belief that religion is “in decline.” He argues that while Westerners, particularly younger generations, may be distancing themselves from the ...

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Spiritual Battles on the Journey of Faith

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:1–7, 1 Kings 3:5–12, Daniel 1:8–17, Matthew 4:1–11, 2 Corinthians 1:13–15, Psalm 119:105

While I am not one to see a demon behind every bush or spiritual warfare in every difficulty, the fact is that we are regularly engaged in the struggle against good and evil—whether we know it or not....

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Healing Wounds Never Spoken Can Lead to Spiritual Breakthroughs

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 16:7-13, Isaiah 49:15-16 , Jeremiah 1:5, John 9:1-3 , Romans 8:15-16, Psalm 27:10

Dawn grew up in a family in which she felt she had a fairly happy childhood. But in her adult years she struggled greatly with emotional, psychological, and physical maladies. She never felt a sense o...

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Acknowledging the Pain: Thoughts From the Founders Desk

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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This past week I have been at a reunion with college friends (this is the main reason I missed last week's update). It's been significant for a number of reasons. I hope to unpack a few other ...

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Author

Matthew Henry

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Sabbath

The streams of religion run deep or shallow, according as the banks of the Sabbath are kept up or neglected.

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Author

Thomas Merton

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If we want to be spiritual, then let us first of all live out lives. Let us not fear the responsibilities and the inevitable distractions of the work appointed for us by the will of God. Let us embrac...

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The Frustrating Unpredictability of Faith

Author

Don Everts and Doug Schaupp

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 6:9, John 3:8, Ecclesiastes 11:5, Isaiah 55:10-11, John 6:44

Writing about ministering to postmodern skeptics, Don Everts and Doug Schaupp share a helpful insight into the mystery of God's movement: The first lesson they have taught us about the path to f...

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The Gift of Tears

Author

Irene Hausherr

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 45:1–15 , 1 Samuel 1:9–18, Lamentations 2:18–19, Luke 7:36–50, 2 Corinthians 7:9–10, Psalm 56:8

The “gift of tears” written about by the desert elders and several centuries later by St. Ignatius of Loyola are not about finding meaning in our pain and suffering. They do not give answers but inste...

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Author

Gene Edward Veith Jr.

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Thus a Christian finds himself called to drab and lowly tasks, which seem less remarkable than monastic life, mortifications, and other distractions from our vocations. For him who heeds his vocation,...

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Three Images for Retreat

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 6:30, Luke 4:, Hosea 2:14-15, Hosea 11:1-2, Psalm 23:1–3, Luke 4:1–13

Ron Roheiser points out three images for retreat used in Scripture that meet us in our yearning; all of them apply in different ways at different times. ● There is the lonely place to which Jesus ...

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It’d Be Easier Without People

Author

Chuck DeGroat

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 15:1, Exodus 18:13-26, Matthew 18:15-17, 2 Timothy 4:2, Psalm 121:1-2

Statistics show that 80 percent of new pastors leave the ministry within five years. A friend once remarked, “If they were able to pastor churches without people, they might last ten years.” Most past...

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Divine Do-Overs: God's Renewable Compassion

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

John 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Revelation 21:5, Lamentations 3:22–23, Jonah 3:1–10 , Isaiah 1:18, Luke 15:11–32, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Psalm 103:10–12

Hope remains possible even amid our failures—whether we disappoint God, let down our families, or fall short of our own expectations—because divine compassion operates like an inexhaustible well. Each...

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Adapted from the Parable of the Sower

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:18-23, Jeremiah 17:8, Colossians 3:16, Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 119:11

Pastor: “Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what wa...

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The Perfect Soil for Winemaking

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

My first call to ministry was in Eastern Washington state. It turned out to be one of the most prolific winemaking regions in the country. One of the things I learned from a local winery was really qu...

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Author

Emile Griffin

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[A time comes] when we yearn for more of God than our schedules will allow.

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Finding the Right Pastoral Work–Life Balance: A Few Unbalanced Thoughts

Author

Dan Baumgartner

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:null

I might not be the best person to be writing this. After an eleven-year career in business in my twenties and early thirties, I’ve been an ordained pastor now for nearly twenty-seven years. There are...

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The Wild Soul

Author

Parker J. Palmer

Keywords

The soul is like a wild animal—tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, self-sufficient. It knows how to survive in hard places. But it is also shy. Just like a wild animal, it seeks safety in the dense ...

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Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

I cannot transform myself, or anyone else for that matter. What I can do is create the conditions in which spiritual transformation can take place, by developing and maintaining a rhythm of spiritual ...

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Author

George MacDonald

Keywords

Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness.

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