The (not so) Easy Life

So often I just want things to be easy. I sit to pray, I want instantly to be swept up in the Spirit of prayer, caught up in God and out "work together". But it is not easy. I think it's simple, but not easy. Everyday we experience challenges that help to shape us. These challenges call us to a higher life. If a word could be given their prompting it would be: RISE!

SitD today told of the story of the preemptively freed moth. Before the moth could struggle through it's impossibly small cocoon hole, a "savior" snipped the tiny opening to ease the moth's release. This permanently disabled the moth, and led to its early death. The struggle this moth was to experience was God's design: in order to fill it's wings with fluid it had to struggle through that tiny opening, which pushes fluid from the body to the wings.

Lord Jesus, I want things to be easy, but ceaselessly I feel Your answer to this to be "NO". You will not allow me to live an aborted life. Instead preferring that I "work out my own salvation with fear and trembling... for it is God who works in me!"

Phil 2:12-13

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The Do of Potential Energy

James 4:17 New Century Version (NCV) Anyone who knows the right thing to do, but does not do it, is sinning. Romans 7:15-18 For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do . And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. The tension between my wife and I is coming to a breaking point. And that breaking point is either going to turn out for better or worse . The formula for distance is as follows: Matt (mistake) = Jess (distrust). And so it has gone for these 10 years. Notice that the formula does not include mitigation; in other words; Matt (good things) = Jess (approbation/trust) seems to be of negligible effect compared to the mistake coefficient. Thinking in terms of Gibbs free energy, the state of our relationship seems to be much more governed by mistakes (enthalpy) than be any good (entropy)....

Meditation as Rightly Concentrated Consideration | Contemplation as The Course of Right Action

Let us begin by saying that the basic difference between meditation and contemplation is that meditation is a human mode of prayer whereas contemplation is divinely infused prayer. This morning I consider, consideration. It's a term often used in the Bible, I believe in both the old and new testament. While you are going about your life, have you considered this... It's the entryway to the contemplative life. I use contemplation there, as a culminating thing, intentionally. Before I read a little bit, I might have considered using the word meditation instead, but that reveals my persuasion and error; also my inexperience. Meditation is man-initiated deep-thought. It's hope is to reach God. Contemplation, as exposed in the article below, is Spirit-breathed prayer inside of us, guiding us to right and holy actions. As I was searching consideration "vs" the other 2 terms, concentration came up. Presently, I see that as the course from consideration to meditation....

Just Wait

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles. Isaiah 40:31 I'm thinking about picking up John Mark Comer's Loveology. I'm not infatuated with his style, but he does have an uncanny knack of navigating great depths breezily. And I'm in need of reconsidering love and my relationship with my wife. This morning, feeling we are on a drought of sorts, I'm thinking "what can I do?" And as I searched (with an honest to God search) I saw how men centuries over have navigated the mystery of the inner world of their wives. I've long shared a favorite image explaining the dichotomy of men and women, showing the intricacies of turning on a woman versus, well, a man. So, what can I do? I hate to say it... wait. My wife needs to know that I can. After years of it coming pretty easy, I think it's time to get in there and turn a few knobs, flick a few switches and tweak intimacy. There's a difference betwee...

In the Morning When I Rise

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