Personal Development on Spiritual Nurture

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God’s Spiritual Growth Plan

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Imagine a doctor’s office where every patient is told, “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.” If I have a headache, that is great advice, but if my appendix has just burst, I will be dead befo...

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Gracious God, forgive us today for the

Author

Austin D. Hill

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Gracious God, forgive us today for the times when we don’t trust You to help us grow. Even though You nurture us daily, we often choose to live in our own strength, ignoring the plans You have for us....

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Healing Wounds Never Spoken Can Lead to Spiritual Breakthroughs

Author

James Bryan Smith

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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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"Look at Me!"

Author

Max Lucado

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Scripture

Genesis 11:1-9, Proverbs 27:2, Isaiah 2:11-12, Matthew 6:1-4, Philippians 2:3-4, Psalm 115:1

Children have a tendency to say, “Look at me!” On the tricycle: “Look at me go!” On the trampoline: “Look at me bounce!” On the swing set: “Look at me swing!” Such behavior is acceptable for children....

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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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Author

David Whyte

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Scripture

Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Joshua 19:, 1 Kings 19:4-8, Matthew 22:37, Psalm 127:1-2

The antidote to exhaustion is not rest but wholeheartedness.

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Recognizing Her Own

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

Isaiah 49:15, John 10:14, Luke 12:6-7, Psalm 139:1-3, 2 Timothy 2:19, Isaiah 43:1, Matthew 10:29-31, Psalm 91:4, Deuteronomy 32:11, Job 39:1-2, Luke 15:4-6

The guillemot, a small Arctic seabird, nests in dense colonies on the rocky cliffs of the North Atlantic and Arctic. Thousands of these birds gather in tight spaces, with hundreds of females laying th...

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Author

Christian Smith

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The clergy profession is fundamentally self-defeating. Its stated purpose is to nurture spiritual maturity in the church - a valuable goal. In actuality, however; it accomplishes the opposite by nurtu...

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What Is Spiritual Formation?

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

Growth

What is spiritual formation? There is an outer you—your body—that is being shaped all the time by the way you eat, drink, sleep, exercise, and live. You may do this well or poorly, intentionally or no...

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The Psalmist draws us into prayer

Author

Richard Herman

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Scripture

Psalm 66:16-19, Matthew 6:6-8, 1 Peter 4:10, Matthew 5:14-16, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 103:1-5

The Psalmist draws us into prayer saying: Come and hear, all you who honor God and let me tell you what he has done for me. I cried out to him and God has surely listened and heard my prayer. Praise ...

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Heavenly Father, You give us the

Author

Austin D. Hill

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Heavenly Father, You give us the strength to grow in Your likeness. We praise You today for Your constant nurture and support. Please help us to become more like You as we experience Your almighty pre...

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Sabbath for Pastors: Why Is It So Hard to Rest?

Author

Dan Baumgartner

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If you are a pastor…this one’s for you. Sabbath. So many things have been written. Most of us have taught our people or preached about Sabbath, and underscored how busy people in our churches re...

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God of nurture and care, You seek to

Author

Austin D. Hill

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Scripture

Matthew 23:37, Psalm 91:4, Isaiah 40:11, John 14:16-17, Zephaniah 3:17, 1 Kings 19:1-18, Ruth 2:8-12

God of nurture and care, You seek to gather us together as a mother hen gathers her chicks. You seek to be our refuge in times of trouble. As we have gathered together today, draw us closer to You, de...

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Spiritual Formation: Essential to Human Existence

Author

M. Robert Mulholland Jr. and Ruth Haley Barton

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Scripture

2 Corinthians 3:18, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 1:28, Philippians 2:12-13, 2 Corinthians 4:16, 1 Timothy 64:7-8, Colossians 3:10-11

In their excellent book, Invitation to a Journey , M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton describe the foundation of life as being spiritual in nature. This means we are constantly be “form...

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When Rest is Radical: Why the Sabbath Matters for Christian Leaders

Author

Jason Jensen

Keywords

What Eric Liddell Did Not Do Scottish athlete and missionary Eric Liddell, whose story is told in the movie Chariots of Fire , was a favorite to win the hundred-meter sprint in the 1924 Paris Olym...

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Gracious God–who opens Your arms wide

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Matthew 6:10, Romans 12:10, Philippians 4:6-7, Isaiah 61:1, Matthew 11:28-30

Gracious God–who opens Your arms wide to welcome us just as we are but who’s too loving leave us that way: in response to Your invitation we come humbly and boldly with our broken hearts and weak hand...

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The Care and Cure of Souls

Author

David G. Benner

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 61:1, James 5:14-15, Psalm 147:3, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Matthew 11:28-30

Gary Moon and David Benner, visionary leaders in contemporary Christian soul care, provide a helpful background on the origin of this phrase: The English phrase “care of souls” has its origins in th...

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Gracious God, for the goodness and

Author

Mark D. Roberts

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Gracious God, for the goodness and beauty of creation we thank you. For the way your creation nurtures and inspires us, we are grateful. Yet, the more we pay attention to the world, the more we see i...

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Spiritual Growth & Physical Growth

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Growth

Spiritual growth is, in large measure, patterned on the nature of physical growth. We do not expect to put an infant into its crib at night and in the morning find a child, an adolescent or yet an adu...

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Lord—we’re so anxious we can’t

Author

Richard Herman

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Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 27:14, Romans 12:2, Matthew 1:23, John 11:25-26, Hebrews 13:3

Lord—we’re so anxious we can’t wait! Some of us can’t wait for Christmas to come, while (honestly) some others of us can’t wait for it to be over. We’re not proud of it—but that’s just the way it is ...

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The Most Radical Discipline

Author

Dallas Willard

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Scripture

Matthew 26:38-42

Solitude is the most radical of the disciplines for life in the spirit. In penal institutions, solitary confinement is used to break the strongest of wills. It is capable of this because it excludes i...

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Author

Norman Wirzba

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Gardening, besides being a practical, life-nurturing task, is also always a spiritual activity. In it people attempt to make visible and tasty what is good, beautiful, and even holy. Every act of gard...

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God of calling, you called Abraham and

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Scripture

Genesis 12:1, Matthew 9:9

God of calling, you called Abraham and Matthew and gave them the strength they needed to follow you. You also called a people and cared for and nurtured that people so that they could live life in you...

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Developing an Anthropological Foundation for the Spiritual Disciplines

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:26-27 , Deuteronomy 6:4-6, Jeremiah 31:33, Matthew 23:25-26 , Romans 12:2 , Psalm 51:10

Before my mentor, Dallas Willard, passed over to glory, I asked him what he thought about the rapid rise of the Christian spiritual formation movement. He said, “It is a wonderful thing, but my fear i...

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Author

Richard Rohr

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Without transformation, you can assume you're at a high moral, spiritual level just because you call yourself Lutheran or Methodist or Catholic. I think my great disappointment as a priest has bee...

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Being Formed in Christ’s Image

Author

Robert Mulholland Jr.

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In their excellent book Invitation to a Journey, M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton describe the Biblical understanding of the process of spiritual formation over and against the “self-help” p...

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Author

Michael Horton

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The key to maturity is time and community. Discernment and godly wisdom develop in a community that spans generations. The church is called to be this place where the [God's] Spirit uses normal pa...

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Author

Mark Batterson

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To me, growing into spiritual maturity is becoming less self-conscious and more God-conscious.

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Author

Andy Stanley

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Spiritual maturity is measured in terms of persevering faith, not perfect behavior.

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Author

Richard J. Foster

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The Spiritual Disciplines are things that we do. We must never lose sight of this fact. It is one thing to talk piously about 'the solitude of the heart,' but if that does not somehow work its...

personal development on Spiritual Nurture

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