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Parker Palmer has argued that it is important to listen to our life rather than living on the surface of life, never paying attention to the inconsistencies between our inner life and outer life. Instead of determining the shape of our spiritual journey, we need to pay attention to all of the factors that are influencing the way we choose to respond to…
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Devotions based on Juliet Benner’s book, Contemplative vision After reading Juliet’s book, I am beginning to think we are all visually challenged as we miss so much of what is around us and in front of us. Our spiritual seeing is also conditioned by our physical seeing. When we are oblivious to the things our…
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Devotions based on Juliet Benner’s book, Contemplative Vision “Contemplative prayer is simply a receptive form of prayer in which we open ourselves to God in stillness and silence.” It is a time of being with God and just allowing the Holy Spirit freedom to move in our lives. This means we need to make space…
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Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God As we truly open ourselves to God it has a great potential for transforming our inner life and bringing new freedom to us. When we are still before God we often find that He reorganizes our inner landscape in ways that we can not imagine. Sometimes…
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Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God Haven’t we all longed for a relationship with God that would be a part of our experience throughout the day regardless of what we are doing? Regardless of whether or not we happened to be thinking of Him praying,or doing something else. Jesus calls us friends…
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Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God There is a prayer beyond doing and it is prayer of BEING. This is a prayer of simply being with God. It is an experiential knowing and resting in His presence. Usually this is called contemplative prayer and it is a way of opening our selves…
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Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God Prayer is always personal and it is an expression of our heart and mind that is open to God in trust. Most of us pray worded prayers and that is a good beginning point. The words we use will usually fit somewhere in the categories of…
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Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God In prayer we bring the mind and the heart to God in openness. Mary, the mother of Jesus did this when she was told by the angel she was going to bear the Christ child. She received the news with her heart at first and then…
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Here is a quote from Augustine that I read some years ago. At the time I know it was speaking to my spiritual condition, but I did not quite know how to make the application to my walk with God. Here is the quote. “My soul is like a house, small for you to enter,…
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Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God Often we think of prayer only as talking to God. But “ Pondering prayer is talking with God about our thoughts, our wonderings, and our reflections on life experiences or challenges.” When we ponder something we hold it lightly and give it space. We ruminate on…