Category Archives: spirituality
[Sermon] The Holiness Tradition
Mt Hawthorn Community Church, 9 January 2010 We are working our way slowly through a series based on Richard Foster’s book Streams of Living Water. Let me reorientate you to the idea of the streams. Foster describes six streams or … Continue reading
Filed under history, Richard Foster, sermons, spirituality
Tuning into God
If we want to die well, to die into God, so to speak, we need to start working on our relationship with God (and with others) while we are young and healthy, rather than waiting until death is knocking at … Continue reading
Filed under quotes, spirituality
Discovering the Sabbath
Here’s the text of the sermon I gave yesterday, also posted on the Network Vineyard blog. You can also listen to it here. Today I want to talk about discovering the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the weekly day of celebration … Continue reading
Filed under sermons, spirituality
Change?
We had an interesting conversation at our house church last night about spiritual growth. Some of us have been Christians a long time and feel like we haven’t grown at all, that we still struggle with the same sins, that … Continue reading
Filed under my spiritual journey, spirituality
Acedia: why I can’t make my bed
In Christian Century magazine, I came across an extract from Kathleen Norris’s new book, Acedia and me : a marriage, monks and a writer’s life. I had to look up acedia. It means spiritual sloth. Her take on acedia is … Continue reading
Filed under my spiritual journey, spirituality
Our corrupted consciences
I like to think I have a good sense of right and wrong and when my conscience screams at me, I really am doing something wrong. But I have this fear – indeed, knowledge – that our consciences are conditioned … Continue reading
Filed under spirituality
quote about angst
George Maloney writes in Inward Stillness p. 131: Man’s instinct does not tell him, as animal’s instinct does, what he must do. Because he has to cut himself off from the roots of his past by throwing away traditions, he … Continue reading
Filed under quotes, spirituality
Celebration of Discipline #3 : Fasting
This is a series of posts about my reactions to each of the disciplines in Richard Foster’s book. I dread the idea of fasting. I don’t like denying myself. And I know, each time I read this chapter, I am … Continue reading
Filed under book review, spirituality
Richard Foster’s Celebration of discipline #2: Prayer
I think what surprises me about this chapter is Foster’s expectancy that prayer will, basically, work. I realise I was expecting cautious explanations of how if we look for our prayers to come true, we’ll be sorely disappointed.Of course, the … Continue reading
Filed under book review, Richard Foster, spirituality
Growing with the Bible in the New Year
A sermon I gave yesterday at Agape Chinese Baptist Church. New Year’s resolutions A New Year feels like a fresh start. We have a whole year ahead of us, not yet spoilt by mistakes or our old ways of doing things. Of course, … Continue reading
Filed under Bible, Richard Foster, sermons, spirituality
