A changing season

A scene very similar to where I live

As with most things there are seasons that come and go. I love Autumn and Spring especially because they indicate change and are both exceptionally beautiful and colourful. So I have started to think about this blog at the moment and where it is sitting.

When I first started this particular season of the blog it was to work my way through the Devotional Classics book. This was achieved by February this year. I have started to look at a variety of other books at the moment. However because I am pausing to look and challenge a my spiritual practice there will possibly be only incremental progress. What I am doing  is not conducive to writing a weekly blog so I have decided to put it into recession until beginning of 2018. I will reevaluate at that stage.

This is not the first time this has happened. This is the third major season of this blog. There was initially an intense period initially of well over a year followed a time of recession for nearly 2 years where I would have written only a dozen blogs in that time. So this is just part of the rhythm of this blogs life.

I have truly enjoyed sharing with you my readers. I want to thank you for your faithful reading especially my international readers. It has been very exciting to have an audience in 10 different countries. I do want to especially thank my readers in New Zealand, United States and France being my largest contingents but there was another significant group in Russia. I thank you for faithfully reading week after week.

I will look at where I am in February 2018 so until then Bless you in Jesus Name.

A golden experience.

I don't know about you but when I read a "how to" book it all sounds so straight forward. You do this and it is all supposed to work out. It is often a little later in the book that you read about the possibilities of what could actually happen.

This has been my experience with silence and solitude as spiritual disciplines. Especially when in the silence and solitude your mind is all over the place. It is so hard top remain focussed on God. My mind wanders all over things of got to do you name it. But this according to a later part of the book is normal so It may be normal but it is not easy to counter or cope with. You just have to bring your thoughts back to God again, and again and again...........

The other thing I have discover as I spend time with God in this less controlled way is that as the light of a closer relationship with God comes, the more I realise my own internal darkness. I have realised my deep internal anger, well masked and to a large extent controlled, but there none the less. This came as quite a shock and to a certain extent traumatic, but the revelation will allow God to begin to work on it with me. I also discovered that internally I am greedy and self-centred, I think I may have suspicions about this. However spending this time with God as sharply brought it into focus. I have faith that he will help me deal with this now he has pointed it out my sin with such clarity.



It is bit like the old analogy of the purifying of gold. The gold must be super heated beyond melting point to allow the impurities to float to the surface. Then they can be scraped off. This is an opportunity I think, but not for the fainthearted I suspect. The book did go on to tell me that this enlightenment of my darkness was a distinct possibility. So I seem to be on track ..................I will keep you posted on my progress or maybe lack of it.

Is our ladder against the wrong wall?

 A friend and I were talking about spiritual development and he brought up a point that I not really seriously considered before. His statement was that most of us talk about body, soul and spirit but really we should look at it the other way round because whatever comes first is the most important. When we say body, soul and spirit we are saying that our body is the most important. For most of us if we are honest that is the way we live. Our body and soul get the most attention. However our spirit is actually the eternal component, so if we even only applied logic we should look at spirit, soul and body. Our spirit is the most important part of us.

The world in general understands the value of looking after our body and soul. There is a huge chunk of the modern world that devotes itself to the welfare of those two components. Our body with the medical profession, health and fitness programmes, nutritionists, personal trainers, and the list goes on. Our soul is ministered to by the counsellors, life coaches, psychologists, support groups and all minds of other people. These components are both going to disappear to a large extent.

I come back to the fact that our eternal dimension i.e. our spirit seems to be neglected to a large extent. Even the world in the early part of the 21st century is coming to realise the importance of the spirit. They are on a search for truth and we have the answer " Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life, no one gets to the Father except through me." This is a spirit statement from one spirit to another it can only be understood "in the Spirit".

If we made a decision to place our spiritual development first or even on a par with the other two. How would that change us? Let us think moving the ladder to the spirit wall first and trust that will lead us to develop the other two.

Spirit, Soul and Body: I took the "Road less Travelled" and it made all the difference. I am beginning to put my spiritual development first, how about you?

An Elusive Comodity

City Light Haze

As I write this blog I am listening to Hillsong which is quite ironic since I want to talk about the potential place of silence in the process of spiritual formation. Our society is silence averse. There seems to be constant noise, some pleasant, some not so pleasant. At any time of the day or night we can easily find a plethora of things to listen to, certainly in the western world. Much as how we are light saturated even in the dead of night in our modern cities.Check out the photo!

Yet if we hark back to the Christian Fathers of old, as well as leading members of the modern mystic and contemplative movement, they would suggest silence is an integral part of spiritual life.

There are two distinct schools of thought although they are not mutually exclusive are both quite different.
Henri suggests:
"As long as hearts and and minds are with words of our own making, there is no space for the Word to enter deeply into our hearts and bear fruit. In and through silence the Word of God descends from mind into heart, where it can ruminate on it, masticate it, digest it, and let it become flesh and blood in us. This is the meaning of meditation Without silence the Word can not become our inner guide; without meditation it can not build its home in our hearts."

There is also another school that suggests that God is so infinite that mere words can explain describe or represent him. The only way to begin to come to terms with God is to allow him to to speak to you through the Spirit in the silence. This is an imageless and wordless form of prayer. Spending time in the silence, transcends the limitations of language, rational thought and human constructed categories.

These two styles would seem to be at odds which I don't necessarily think is completely true and may both have a place in the contemplative lifestyle. But that has yet to be proven for me. I can see the silence working so well in Lectio Divina.  I am getting so much from this discipline at the  moment. After I have done the initial meditation allowing myself to soak in that word for a longer time in silence makes sense. The second type is probably more problematic and I will not even attempt that this week but I am committed to following this through after a few weeks. It would seem to need to be at a very different time from what I am describing above. Otherwise I am not sure how it will work.

It is becoming more obvious that "less is more" and I must attempt less in my time. Maybe even getting rid of my traditional devotional books to allow God to speak. While I am filling my heart and spirit with the thoughts of another person through a devotional book, am I missing God? Well maybe not missing God, but not gaining all I could through a more personal relationship with the Trinity! I mean my devotions have worked okay for the last 25 years but maybe there is just more to be had!!!!

I will continue to refine my journey and keep you posted. I have had my first couple of tries and it is very positive so far!

A New Tutor

To keep up with the modern age we need to be continually in learning mode. There always appears to be something new to know. Now I am very pro learning having spent 34 working in education! The question remains who are my tutors and mentors.

As Christians we are to certain extent faced with an expectancy of learning seeing as we are called disciples. Disciples in the Greek means learner. In the Hebrew it also adds the connotation of teacher as well.

As we start look at disciplines that may add to our learning and ultimately our spiritual formation. Lectio Divina starts to come into focus. Lectio Divina is about "sacred or devotional reading" of the Bible. This is where our present story and God's story meeting under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit. This means that I read the Bible slowly and intently with an expectation that God is going to say something that is tailor made for me right now!

I must say in the last month I have changed my devotional pattern to; one Psalm, one chapter of Proverbs and using Lectio Divina through the Gospel of John. I read very slowly and gently through the Gospel of John until something arrests me and God starts to reveal things that matter in my life right now. I must say this has revolutionised my devotions over the last month. It has brought such depth.


I do not have time to walk completely through Lectio Divina but "Uncle Google" will help you work it out if you want to know!

I firmly suggest it is worth taking a look at!

Our hearts and Times

We are constantly being formed by the spiritual activities we take part in and the occurrences of everyday life. This will include our attitudes our activities and our thought life. As I said last week I believe there will be some ebb and flow closer to God and again moving away from God. As we make advances and also struggle with the things of God we aren't quite coming to grips with easily. When we are in the waiting zone, either waiting for God to do something or waiting to hear from him. I do believe however the we may ebb and flow a little or even a lot at times, but we are still travelling either towards God or away from God as a basic trend.

I love this basic paragraph from Henri Nouwen.
"The authentic spiritual life finds its basis in the human condition. The spiritual life is not lived outside, before, after, or beyond everyday existence. No, the spiritual life can be real only as it is lived in the midst of the pains and joys of the here and now. Therefore, we need to begin with a careful look at the way we think, speak and act from hour to hour, day to day, week to week and year to year, in order to become more fully aware of our hunger for the Spirit."

Based on this we start to see the necessity of the examined life. I am not sure that Henri would have us paralysed by "navel gazing" at what we are doing, but he would have us spend time time each day reflecting on our actions, thoughts and feelings. Questions arise what activities are we involved with on a regular basis? Is there a spiritual component to these activities? For some types of activities the answer would seem to be no, but others are a distinct yes, these have distinct spiritual influence.

What are watching on television?
What are we reading or listening to?
Do we read our Bible or Pray?

All of these activities do have a spiritual connection they will either take you towards God or away from him. The ebbs and flows of spiritual life may change on a daily basis, but it about the trend.

One of the things I do on a daily basis is work with pornography addicts and programmes. This is definitely a growth industry and the Christian world is certainly not exempt. Because of the huge shame and guilt factors associated with this type of activity it tends to be one of those that is taking both men and women away from God, although they are trying with all their might to love God.

So it is good to examine our habits and work out where we are and decide is change necessary?

Moving to the dark side!

I am a great Star Wars fan, having been to open day midnight sessions of the movies for all 4 of the last movies including 1,2,3 and last years latest offering. As I was reading  chapter one in the Good and Beautiful Life the opposite sides of the force came to mind.

It is often easy to assume that Spiritual Formation is about moving towards God. But is that the case?

Using Romans 1:18-32 James Bryan Smith points out is easier to move away from God than towards him on some occasions. Now there is food for thought because you are still becoming spiritually formed whether you know it or not.
He uses the scripture to outline six basic stages on a journey away from God into a very different type of spiritual formation. One that is prevalent in the time that we live in.

So what are these steps?
Turn away and want to be God: How many times are we told to take control of our own destiny. We can do anything if we put our mind to it. Refusing to acknowledge God.

The Mind Darkens: We develop a contra reality: By not acknowledging God we move into a darkening form. We deny the truth and the universal principles of God.

Idolatry: We must fill the vacuum with something else in the centre. It may be ourselves or many of the  myriad of spiritual offerings on hand. There are so many people looking for spiritual awakening where they retain control of there own destiny or are trying to find out what might happen to them or for them.

God leaves us alone to our own devices: This is sometimes called wrath. God basically just allows us to pursue whatever it is that we are pursuing.................... unless we turn back towards his direction.

We seek pleasure at all costs: Sometimes for the sake of pleasure sometimes as answer to the pain and suffering we feel. The pleasure becomes an answer although it does not work long term and becomes more depraved and less and less effective.

Sin Reigns: The sin in our lives and continues to separate us from God.

I can so identify with this process because we are being spiritually formed in this process as much as any other. This is indeed can be the DARK SIDE of the FORCE! This was my story too! I was moving further and further from God. But as Darth Vader found out in the end of Episode Three, no one is beyond redemption. If we make the slightest move towards God the Father he moves towards us.This was my story, as I made small steps toward God he was moving towards me. So Spiritual formation is never static we can move mainly in one particular direction but there is an ebb and flow.

Even as I travel toward God today there are ebbs and flows as I move in the spiritual realm. They may not be huge but they are there .

.........And I don't believe God would have it any other way, after all he gave us free will.