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Devotions for 9-11 from Alice Fryling’s book, As we gather with others in spiritual direction, we are journeying together toward God. Our job is not to fix each other or even to teach each other, for God is the real spiritual director and He is the one drawing. In the group it is important that…
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Richard Rohr makes this very perceptive observation about men and the women in their lives. “Women for the most part carry our feeling world.” Oh, how true this was in my home, in my church and often in my marriage. Just observe the ordinary interaction between men and women in our culture. When it comes to “the…
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In my journey to greater wholeness and continuing inner transformation of my soul, I had to come to the point of realizing that I feared the love of God. This may sound strange to some who are reading this post. but stay with me as I share more. The words of I John 4:18 are becoming…
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Most men I have known over the years have had difficulty with the idea of “unmerited favor.” As men we are wired to initiate and achieve. We get what we deserve. So it becomes a real stumbling block to come to the realization that we will never be able to earn God’s favor. This becomes exaggerated,…
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Sometime ago I read this passage in Andrew Comiskey’s book, “Strength in Weakness.” I had never run across this insight regarding the masculine soul. It spoke to something deep in my own soul. He observes, “I believe within most men lies an ancient, deep well of grief and regret. It rumbles with the ache of unexpressed…
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In my last post I talked about the need for men, “to just sit there” learning to receive the love of God. It seems to me that this is a good metaphor for wildmen. Instead of thinking more about God or doing more for him, we need to learn the practice of sitting before the Lord. If this is not your…
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In my last post, I shared the difficulty we have as men in being able to receive love and in particular the love that God has for us. Remember, first and foremost, God loves us. Men are wired in their DNA to be initiators, while women are generally more inclined to be responders. The natural…
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You might think that the title of this post is rather simplistic. But I want to tell you, men, that the ability “to receive” is very difficult for us. We are wired to accomplish and succeed. Our culture conditions us to believe that we get what we deserve. We have to earn our place. By…
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The spiritual life is one of continual coming home to the Father. Years ago I read this quote from Henri Nouwen’s little book, “Making all things new.” “The whole purpose of Jesus’ ministry is to bring us to the house of his Father….He came to lift us up into loving community with the Father.” Our coming home…
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Most of us realize that we live in a post-modern era, in which there has been a great reaction to enlightenment thinking, with its focus on rational thought. Knowledge is valued for being descriptive and instrumental. It is valued for giving information or filling a utilitarian purpose. But today “the grand rational narratives” are viewed as inadequate because we have…