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I was looking through some old copies of Anthony Buzzard’s “Focus on the Kingdom” newsletter today and re-read an article in it that I enjoyed reading all over again (though it has been over six years since I first read it).  The following is from a woman who attended the 2004 Theological Conference in Atlanta GA and presented the story of her own personal faith journey during the yearly segment that centers on that subject and allows people in attendance to tell the audience their own stories. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

My Spiritual Journey

by Diane M.

This is a revised version of a presentation made at the 2004 Theological Conference.

Here’s another 1960’s old-school sermon from minister J. Ronald Schoolcraft. And even a near half-century later, this message still has words of truth to help us in the year 2009 and beyond!

“To Scare the Devil”

By J. Ronald Schoolcraft

A young warehouse worker took his customer’s order and started down one of the long aisles of the warehouse to get the desired parts. As he went he was whistling gaily the tune “Just Whistle While You Work” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. “My, he’s a happy fellow!” the customer remarked. One of the girls looked up from her stack of records and said “He says he does that to keep the devils out of his mind!”

For some time now I have been incorporating written prayers into my morning prayer time. I have been using prayers which I believe come from the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) which was nicely laid out day by day for the summer in the prayer manual Phyllis Tickle compiled called Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime. Most of the liturgy/written prayers are actually direct quotations from the Psalms. Furthermore, there is a daily reading of just a few verses from the Gospels and then there are two extra-biblical prayers at the end. I have found that by incorporating this structure it has actually really helped me to be disciplined and enjoy a certain freedom. I still pray “spontaneously” or “from the heart” during my prayer time as well. In fact, with many things, I think this is a case where it might be helpful to take a “bothand” policy rather than “either/or.” Here is a short video clip, I just found, where N.T. Wright speaks on the matter.

I thought this article had some interesting insight. What do you think?

Ideas on what to do when your “quiet time” goes silent.

Most of us know we’re “supposed” to do devotions every day. And so we slog along, crack open our Bible every day and hope to pick something up by osmosis before we forget what we’ve read. Why do devotions seem so … pointless? What do you do when you know you should be doing them, but it just feels empty and insincere to do them? Do devotions even matter?

Monday was orientation for me (and JohnO) at Boston University. It was a long day starting at 8:30 am and not ending until 4:30 pm. At the end of the day one of the facilitators led us in the prayer of examen. This prayer was made popular by Ignatius of Loyola (the founder of the Jesuits in the 16th century). The prayer of examen is simply a way of reviewing your day and offering God thanks, confession, or petitions as you feel led. I had first come across this prayer technique when I went to Rob Bell’s impressive website (Rob Bell is the pastor of a large church in Grand Rapids, MI, called Mars Hill). Here is a link to the description that he put together. For the upcoming Royal Family Reunion I’ll be leading a workshop called prayer and meditation during which I will be introducing people to this particular prayer along with some others. In light of that I recently put together the following instructions:

1 Thessalonians 5:17 - pray without ceasing

Surely Paul doesn’t mean “pray and don’t ever stop” does he? How could this be? What is Paul saying here? Is this an impossible verse?

I grew up being taught to pray to God our heavenly Father and to always close (as the NT instructs us to) with a “in Jesus’ name” tag.  However I’ve heard others pray directly to Jesus.  Of course our Catholic friends tend to pray to Mary.  And I’m sure others in the overall Christian-based extended family may very well even pray to someone else.  But what is the correct way?  Does Scripture clearly indicate whom we should be directing our prayers to?

The following article (from fellow Biblical Unitarian - Ivan Maddox’s web site) by Richard Winstead gives some good Bible-based answers on this very subject.  Below is the article in its entirety.  After, be sure to post your thoughts and any other points of Scripture on the subject.  Thanks.

Often times, men like Moses, Elijah, and Daniel end up falling into the shadow cast by Jesus the Messiah. In one sense this is appropriate because Jesus is the preeminent, forerunner of the new creation of God, the savior of the world, the lord of our lives, the sacrifice for sin, and the coming victor. Even so, this should not in any way diminish our understanding of the great figures of the Hebrew Bible. In particular, I would like to focus on the greatest man in Judaism–Moses–and the special relationship he enjoyed with God. To start, remember with me what it was like when God first came down on Mt. Sinai.

Isaiah 65: 24
It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.

This outstanding indicator of unlimited access to God in prayer is part of the description of future millennial glory of which God declares that He will create “new heavens and a new earth.” This renovation will be a work of gladness to such a degree that there will no longer be heard in Jerusalem “the voice of weeping and the sound of crying.” The time described is not yet the time when death itself will be abolished (I Corinthians 15:26, Revelation 20: 14), but a blessing of extreme longevity seems to anticipate the abolishment of death (Isaiah 65: 20, part of v. 22):

This sermon was preached by Keith Daniel an evangelist from Cape Town, South Africa. I’m not really sure what his denominational affiliation is but he associates with various holiness movements. This particular sermon is all about spending time with God. How well do you guard the quiet time you have with God? Keith asserts that this one Christian practice is the determining factor to living a holy life. The text for the sermon is taken from the parable of the vine given in John 15.