Category Archives: God’s Grace

Daily Riches: Do Protestants Need to Repent? (Richard Rohr and Marcus Borg)

Posted on by under Change Yourself First, God's Grace, Humility, Loving Well, Social Justice

“Neither [Catholics or Protestants have] really let the Word of God guide their lives. …If Catholics need to be converted, Protestants need to do penance. Their shout of “sola Scriptura” (only Scripture) has left them at the mercy of their own cultures, their own limited education, their own prejudices, and their own selective reading of some texts while avoiding others. It has become laughable, as slavery, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia have lasted authoritatively into our time – by people who claim to love Jesus! I think they need to do penance for what they have often done with the Bible! They largely interpreted the Bible in a very individualistic and otherworldly way. It was an evacuation plan for the next world – and just for their group. Most of Evangelical Protestantism has no cosmic message, no social message, and little sense of social justice or care for the outsider. Both Catholics and Protestants (Orthodox, too!) found a way to do our own thing while posturing friendship with Jesus.” Richard Rohr*

“Those of my university students who have grown up outside of the church (about half of them) have a very negative stereotypical view of Christianity. When I ask them to write a short essay on their impression of Christianity, they consistently use five adjectives: Christians are literalistic, anti-intellectual, self-righteous, judgmental, and bigoted.” Marcus Borg

“If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
but do not have love,
I am nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:2

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Do you see “racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia” in yourself? …in others at church? Do you hear these evils addressed from the pulpit?
  • Are you “anti-intellectual, self-righteous, [or] judgmental?” Does your church culture encourage curiosity and learning, humility, and the practice of unconditional love towards outsiders and those who are different? Is your church a welcoming, safe place for anyone who comes?
  • Are you part of the solution or the problem in your church? What about the leaders in your church, are they part of the solution or the problem? What can change?

Abba, thank you for working through your church, in spite of many things. Please make us more like your Son.

For More: Yes, And by Richard Rohr

*Don’t worry, yesterday we looked at Catholics!

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: Your Heart Is Always Revealing Itself (Anthony de Mello, Kathleen Norris and Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Posted on by under Change Yourself First, Forgiveness, God's Grace, Learning Your Proper Place, Loving Well

Sa’di of Shiraz tells this story about himself: ‘When  I was a child I was a pious boy, fervent in prayer and devotion. One night I was keeping vigil with my father, the Holy Koran on my lap. Everyone else in the room began to slumber and soon was sound asleep, so I said to my father, “None of these sleepers opens his eyes or raises his heart to say his prayers. You would think that there were all dead.” My father replied, “My beloved son, I would rather you too were asleep like them than slandering.” Anthony de Mello

“Every time you find yourself irritated or angry with someone, the one to look at is not that person but yourself. The question to ask is not, ‘What’s wrong with this person?’ but ‘What does this irritation tell me about myself?’” Anthony de Mello

“Many desert stories speak of judgment as the worst obstacle for a monk. ‘Abba Joseph said to Abba Pastor: “Tell me how I can become a monk.” The elder replied: ”If you want to have rest here in this life and also in the next, in every conflict with another say, ‘Who am I?’ and judge no one.” Kathleen Norris

“By judging others, we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“A good person produces good things
from the treasury of a good heart,
and an evil person produces evil things
from the treasury of an evil heart.
What you say flows
from what is in your heart.”
Jesus in Luke 6:45

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • What is your response to the story about the Muslim father and son? Are you more like the father or the son?
  • What can you do to become more like the father? Can you learn to stop and ask “What does this irritation tell me about myself?”
  • If you’re more like the “slandering son”, are you aware of your “own evil?” Have you been “forgiven much?” Can you extend that grace to others like yourself who, like you, don’t deserve it?

Abba, teach me to judge no one. May my irritations with others lead me into regular self-examination, and to better self awareness.

For More: The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: Living Out Wholeness (Parker Palmer, Florida Scott-Maxwell, J. I. Packer, Julian of Norwich)

Posted on by under God's Grace, Humility, Wholeness and Brokenness

“I am that to which I gave short shrift and that to which I attended. I am my descent into darkness and my arising into light, my betrayals and my fidelities, my failures and my successes. I am my ignorance and my insight, my doubts and my convictions, my fears and my hopes. … Wholeness does not mean perfection: It means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.” Parker Palmer

“You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done … you are fierce with reality.” Florida Scott-Maxwell

“Having made us, he knows our weaknesses – our fear, our self-pity, our self-regarding anger, our moral paralysis, our randomness, our indiscipline, our suicidal self-loathing. As gently as a shepherd taking up a lamb out of the brambles or a mother taking her infant to her breast, he will take us up and work with us – not to indulge our egoism, however, but to cure it. We must realize that we are in the hands of the Great Physcian, who goal it is, not to make us comfortable invalids, but to restore us to moral health and wholeness. And we must understand that his principal method of treating us, his petulant patients, is hard and constant exercise in a world which under his providence becomes a moral and spiritual gymnasium for us.”  J. I. Packer

“The weakness which is serviceable is the weakness which seeks the aid of a physician.” Bernard of Clairvaux

“until we all reach unity in the faith
and in the knowledge of the Son of God
and become mature,
attaining to the whole measure
of the fullness of Christ.”
Ephesians 4:13
 .

Moving From Head to Heart

  • Do you think of yourself as a person of wholeness and integrity?
  • Either way, are you measuring by “perfection” or by “embracing [the] brokenness” that is integral to your life?
  • Can you “claim the [good and bad] events of your life”, and be a person who is “fierce with reality?” If not, what does that say about you?
  • Does your “weakness” cause you to “seek the aid of a physician” (the Great Physician)? Can you be glad for it then?

Abba, take all that I am, all I have done. Make me real, whole, and useful to you and others.

For More: “On the Brink of Everything” by Parker Palmer

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

 

Daily Riches: Fasting From Seeking God? (Dan Clendenin, Denise Levertov, Thomas Merton)

Posted on by under Asceticism, Being the Beloved, Fasting, God's Grace, Spiritual Disciplines, Striving and drivenness, The Love of God

“Jesus describes our struggle between light and dark, life and death, salvation and condemnation, belief and unbelief. … ‘All of us,’ says Paul in Ephesians, are implicated. …So, what am I to do? Double down on earnest religious effort? …A friend encouraged me last week when he described how his spiritual director told him to abstain from all his tried-n-true ways of seeking God — conversational prayer, meditation … “Christian” books, lectio divina, and the like. He’s ‘fasting’ from all that hard work he does to relate to God. …John tells a story from Numbers 21 to point the way forward. Just as Moses lifted up a bronze serpent in the desert that healed people merely by looking at it, so today we only have to look to the love of God. There’s nothing else we can or should do. In his little epistle, John strips away all pious pretense with a shocking admission: ‘In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.’ The only thing I’m asked to do is ‘to know and rely upon the love that God has for us’ (1 John 4:10, 16). Paul says the same thing. I experience God’s favor ‘by grace through faith,’ apart from any human merit. His goodness is a free gift, not a reward for my spiritual efforts. And my faith? Luther compared faith to ‘the beggar’s empty hand’ that receives a gift. God only asks me to accept his acceptance, in the words of the hymn, ‘just as I am, / without one plea.’ This Lent I want to experience what Denise Levertov describes in her poem The Avowal.

‘As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
free fall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.’

A true saint, said Merton, is not someone who has become good through strenuous disciplines, but someone who has experienced the free goodness of God.” Dan Clendenin

“Cease striving and know that I am God….”
Psalm 46:10
.
Moving From Head to Heart
  • Is your response to these words “But, but, but…?” What explains that?
  • Do you “work hard to relate to God?” Could there ever be a reason to abstain from doing that?

Abba, help me free fall into your embrace.

For More: “When Less Is More” Dan Clendenin

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: All Men Are Idolaters (C. S. Lewis, James Martin and Helmut Thielicke)

Posted on by under Awareness, Embracing Losses and Limits, God's Grace, Humility
“The sister walks up and down the aisles [of her first grade art class] looking at what each student has painted. She stops over the desk of one little boy. ‘What are you painting, Billy?’ she asks. Billy looks up and answers, ‘I’m painting the face of God.’ ‘That’s impossible,’ says the sister. ‘No one has seen the face of God.’ Billy turns back to his drawing and says, ‘They will in five minutes!’” James Martin
.
“He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow
When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou,
And dream of Pheidian fancies and embrace in heart
Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing Thou art.
Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme
Worshiping with frail images a folk-lore dream,
And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address
The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless
Thou in magnetic mercy to Thyself divert
Our arrows, aimed unskillfully, beyond desert;
And all men are idolaters, crying unheard
To a deaf idol, if Thou take them at their word.
Take not, O Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in thy great
Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate.”
C. S. Lewis
 .
 “I don’t believe that God is a fussy faultfinder in dealing with theological ideas. He who provides forgiveness for a sinful life will also surely be a generous judge of theological reflections. Even an orthodox theologian can be spiritually dead, while perhaps a heretic crawls on forbidden bypaths to the sources of life.” Helmut Thielicke

Moving From Head to Heart

  • Have you ever thought of your prayers as “aimed unskillfully … to a deaf idol” if not for the mercy of God?
  • Imagine the multitudes offering prayers which God can’t possibly take literally. Is this just others, or does it include your group?
  • Is there hope for heretics? What about for you and your “limping metaphors?”

Abba, thank you for all the bypaths that by your mercy become sources of life.

For More: The Pilgrim’s Regress by C.S. Lewis

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Love Turned Inward on the Self (Hannah Hurnard, Gustavo Gutierrez, John Bunyan and Julian of Norwich)

Posted on by under Forgiveness, God's Grace, Loving Well

“Holiness is a most lovely word in the Bible sense. It means to be separated and set apart; separated, in fact, from all that is not love and set apart for one purpose only, that the Spirit of Holy Love may dwell in us and think in us and express himself through us. Holy people are people in whom holy love is incarnate.  …There is no evil except in the negation of love, which is the law on which God has founded his whole universe. Sin is love turned inward to the self, instead of outward to our Creator and to all mankind whom he has created.”  Hannah Hurnard

“Liberation from sin is liberation from the refusal to love.” Gustavo Gutierrez

“Sin is the dare of God’s justice, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.” John Bunyan

“God wishes to be seen, and He wishes to be sought, and He wishes to be expected, and He wishes to be trusted.” Julian of Norwich

“… love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus, in Mathew 5:43-48

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • When you name your worst sin, is it “love turned inward upon itself?”
  • When you choose sin, do you think of it as “the dare of God’s justice, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love?”
  • Can you sense God being disappointed and hurt by your failure to reciprocate his loving overtures? by your “refusal to love?” to “seek” him?

Loving Father, the only thing more astonishing than my sin is your loving grace. The only thing more predictable than my failure is your faithfulness. My sin is new every morning, but so is your unfailing love. Thank you for drawing me to you. Thank you for holding me there.

For More:  The Winged Life by Hannah Hurnard

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

 

Daily Riches: When You Fail, As You Must (Kathleen Norris, Richard Rohr, Peter of Damascus, and John of Karpathos)

Posted on by under Desolation's Gift, Downward Mobility, Embracing Losses and Limits, God's Grace, Patience with Yourself

“When I fail, as I must, I can only recall the desert monk who told his disciple, ‘Brother, the monastic life is this: I rise up, and I fall down, I rise up and I fall down. I rise up and I fall down.” Kathleen Norris

“It is always possible to make a new start by means of repentance. ‘You fell … now arise’ (cf. Prov. 24:16). And if you fall again, then rise again, without despairing at all of your salvation, no matter what happens. …should we fall, we should not despair and so estrange ourselves from the Lord’s love. …we should not cut ourselves off from Him…nor should we lose heart when we fall short of our goal…let us always be ready to make a new start. If you fall, rise up. If you fall again, rise up again. Only do not abandon your Physician…. Wait on Him, and He will be merciful….”  St. Peter of Damascus

“Do all in your power not to fall, for the strong athlete should not fall. But if you do fall, get up again at once and continue the contest. Even if you fall a thousand times because of the withdrawal of God’s grace, rise up again each time, and keep on doing this until the day of your death.” John of Karpathos

“The path of descent is the path of transformation. Darkness, failure, relapse, death, and woundedness are our primary teachers, rather than ideas or doctrines.” Richard Rohr

“As a father has compassion on his children,
 so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.”
Psalm 103:13,14

Moving From Head to Heart

  • The Lord remembers that you “are dust” and need profound compassion. Do you?
  • The danger is “despairing of your salvation … estranging yourself from the Lord’s love” – from your loving Physician! – or just “losing heart.” Even when you fail the same test “a thousand times”, can you determine not to lose heart? to rise again?
  • Failure, including repeated failure, is one of God’s “primary teachers.” Sometimes healing involves a drawn out “path of transformation.” Will you submit to that? What might God be teaching you in your falling down?

Abba, a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again. May I be that man. Never let me abandon my Physician.

__________

For More: Yes, And … by Richard Rohr

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: Thirst Quenched, Thirst Increased (A. W. Tozer and Edna St. Vincent Millay) *

Posted on by under God's Grace, Prayer, The Love of God

“O God, I have tasted Your goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want You; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Your glory, I pray, so I may know You indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow You up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”  A. W. Tozer

 “I drank at every vine  The last was like the first.
I came upon no wine   So wonderful as thirst.
I gnawed at every root.   I ate of every plant.
I came upon no fruit   So wonderful as want.
Feed the grape and bean To the vintner and monger;
I will lay down lean With my thirst and my hunger.”
Edna St. Vincent Millay

“O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.”
Psalm 63:1-3

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Whose words resonate most with you, those of Tozer, Millay, or King David? Why is that?
  • We all like having our longings satisfied. Can you think of a thirst that isn’t immediately satisfied (or satisfied in this life) as a good thing?
  • Only Gods’ grace both satisfies our thirst for Him and creates in us a deeper thirst for him. He must do this for us, and does it in his love. Can you ask God now to do a “new work” in you? upsetting your status quo? replacing what may be a sense of satisfaction with unease and deep thirst instead?

Abba, I too am painfully conscious, not only of past time spent wandering (but not wasted) in the lowlands, but also of present time characterized by lack of truly deep thirst for you. Perhaps I’m even frightened, not knowing what to expect. Help me to trust your love and welcome the work of your grace in my soul.

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For More: The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: The Divine Gaze (Kathleen Norris) *

Posted on by under Being the Beloved, Contemplation, God's Grace, The Divine Gaze

Jacob’s theophany, his dream of angels on a stairway to heaven, strikes me as an appealing tale of unmerited grace. Here’s a man who has just deceived his father and cheated his brother out of an inheritance. But God’s response to finding Jacob vulnerable, sleeping all alone in open country, is not to strike him down for his sins but to give him a blessing. …Jacob’s exclamation is … a reminder that God can choose to dwell everywhere and anywhere we go. One morning this past spring I noticed a young couple with an infant at an airport departure gate. The baby was staring intently at other people, and as soon as he recognized a human face, no matter whose it was, no matter if it was young or old, pretty or ugly, bored or happy or worried-looking he would respond with absolute delight. It was beautiful to see. Our drab departure gate had become the gate of heaven. And as I watched that baby play with any adult who would allow it, I felt awe-struck as Jacob, because I realized that this is how God looks at us, staring into our faces in order to be delighted, to see the creature he made and called good, along with the rest of creation. And, as Psalm 139 puts it, darkness is as nothing to God, who can look right through whatever evil we’ve done in our lives to the creature made in the diving image.” Kathleen Norris

“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said,
‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.
…How awesome is this place!
This is none other than the house of God,
and this is the gate of heaven.”
Genesis 28:16-17

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • The “God of Jacob” is, of necessity, a God of grace. What feelings arise when you consider that “the God of Jacob” is your God? (Psalm 46)
  • God gazes “into our faces in order to be delighted.” What feelings does God intend for you as you ponder this?
  • Imagine how an infant gazes at you, or your child going off to war, or your spouse as you’re taken into surgery. Now imagine God gazing at you. Feel it, don’t analyse it.

Abba, please never hide from me the light of your face.

__________

For More:  Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

 

Daily Riches: Failure is Normal and Essential (John Ortberg)

Posted on by under Embracing Losses and Limits, God's Grace, Patience with Yourself, Spiritual Formation

“Experts in the learning field sometimes talk about the J-curve, a graph measuring performance, in which someone initially does worse before they start improving….

J-curve

The J-curve is normal: We do worse for a season before we do better. If you have been hitting tennis backhands the wrong way, when someone teaches you the correct grip, proper form, and right footwork, when you begin to try to hit them the right way — you will actually hit them worse than when you were trying the wrong way! If you stick with it, however, eventually your backhand will be far better than before. But you have to accept that at first it will be worse. When the disciple Peter first exercised enough faith to get out of the boat, he sank and looked worse than any of the other disciples. When he tried to defend Jesus, he cut off a man’s ear. When he promised to be loyal, he fell flat on his faith. When he tried to advise Jesus, he was a devil’s advocate. Eventually, though, Peter’s faith and boldness and loyalty and wisdom enabled him to become a leader of the church. But he got worse before he got better. Notice that this did not surprise or discourage Jesus. In fact, Jesus was so patient with his disciples that we might think of the J-curve as the Jesus-curve. He will never stop helping a follower of his who is sincerely seeking to grow. Jesus will always lead us toward growth, and growth always requires risk, and risk always means failure. So Jesus is always leading us into failure. But he never gives up on a student just because he or she fails. …Go ahead and stumble. Failure isn’t falling down; failure is refusing to try. We ought to celebrate failure. We are living on the J-curve.” John Ortberg

“My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart….”
Psalm 73:26

Moving From the Head to the Heart

Even the J-curve is misleading. There’s no steady uphill line. Think about the zig-zag that would represent Peter’s life!

  • Are you afraid of risking? of failing?
  • Can you be as patient with yourself as Jesus is?
  • Are you determined to keep getting back up when you fail?

Abba, use my failures to make me wiser, strong, better.

__________

For More: The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: The Suffering of Jesus (Amphilochius of Iconium and Fulton Sheen)

Posted on by under Awareness, Being the Beloved, God's Grace, Jesus the Savior, The Love of God

“Yesterday, on the Cross, He darkened the sun’s light, and behold in full day it was as night; today death has lost its dominion, suffering itself a kind of death. Yesterday the earth mourned … and in sadness clothed itself in a garment of darkness. Today, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. … O new and unheard of happening! He is stretched out upon a Cross Who by His word stretched out the heavens. He is held fast in bonds Who has set the sand a bound for the sea. He is given gall to drink Who has given us wells of honey. He is crowned with thorns Who has crowned the earth with flowers. With a reed they struck His Head Who of old struck Egypt with ten plagues, and submerged the head of Pharaoh in the waves. That countenance was spat upon at which the Cherubim dare not gaze. Yet, while suffering these things He prayed for His tormentors, saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He overcame evil by goodness. Christ undertook the defense of those who put Him to death: eager to gather them into His net; annulling the charge, and pleading their ignorance. Made the sport of their drunken frenzy, He submitted without bitterness. He suffered their drunkenness, and in His love for mankind called them to repentance. What more could He do?” Amphilochius of Iconium

“I wonder maybe if our Lord doesn’t suffer more from our indifference, than he did from the crucifixion.” Fulton Sheen

“When they hurled their insults at him,
he did not retaliate;
when he suffered, he made no threats.
Instead, he entrusted himself
to him who judges justly.”
1 Peter 2:23

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • From the cross, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Do you think those who killed Jesus fathomed the magnitude of their crime?
  • Imagine how often this is true of us as well – not only in our obvious sins, but in our “indifference.” Can you admit this about yourself?
  • Can you nevertheless believe that you are loved by God, just as you are? Sit with that and see what emotions arise.

Abba, thank you for your unfailing love – and for not revealing to me the full magnitude of my sin.

__________

For More: The Lives of the Saints by Bert Bhezzi

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: Don’t Try Harder (John Ortberg and Richard Rohr)

Posted on by under God's Grace, Striving and drivenness

“When you stretch, you don’t make it happen simply by trying harder. You must let go and let gravity do its work. You give permission, opening yourself to another, greater force. This is not just true when it comes to stretching. As a general rule, the harder you work to control things, the more you lose control. The harder you try to hit a fast serve in tennis, the more your muscles tense up. The harder you try to impress someone on a date or while making a sale, the more you force the conversation and come across as pushy. The harder you cling to people, the more apt they are to push you away. … for deeper change, I need a greater power than simply ‘trying harder’ can provide. Imagine someone advising you, ‘Try harder to relax. Try harder to go to sleep. Try harder to be graceful. Try harder to not worry. Try harder to be joyful.’ There are limits on what trying harder can accomplish. Often the people in the Gospels who got into the most trouble with Jesus were the ones who thought they were working hardest on their spiritual life. They were trying so hard to be good that they could not stop thinking about how hard they were trying. That got in the way of their loving other people. …here is an alternative: Try softer. Try better. Try different. A river of living water is now available, but the river is the Spirit. It is not you. … Don’t push the river.” John Ortberg

“Faith does not need to push the river because faith is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing. We are in it.” Richard Rohr

“… rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  John 7:38

    __________

       Moving From Head to Heart

  • Is “trying harder” your default mode – are you constantly “pushing the river?” Is that working?
  • What exactly would it look like for you to “try softer?”
  • What might you discover by trying softer?

Abba, help me stop pushing and striving and trust the river to do it’s work.

For More: The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

 

Daily Riches: Exquisitely Tender Jesus (Brennan Manning and Gregory Boyle) *

Posted on by under Being the Beloved, God's Grace, Loving Well, The Love of God

“This passage of exquisite tenderness [Mt. 9:36, below] offers a remarkable glimpse into the human soul of Jesus. It tells how He feels about human beings. It reveals His way of looking out on the world, His nonjudgmental attitude toward people who were looking for love in wrong places and seeking happiness in wrong pursuits.” Brennan Manning

“When he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them
because they were harassed and dejected,
like sheep without a shepherd.”
(Matthew 9:36)

“… whenever I allow anything but tenderness and compassion to dictate my response to life–be it self-righteous anger, moralizing, defensiveness, the pressing need to change others, carping criticism, frustration at others’ blindness, a sense of spiritual superiority, a gnawing hunger of vindication–I am alienated from my true self. My identity as Abba’s child becomes ambiguous, tentative, and confused.” Brennan Manning

“Good and upright is Yahweh,
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.”
Psalm 25:8

“… we’re so used to a God – a ‘one-false-move God’ and so we’re not really accustomed to the ‘no-matter-whatness’ of God – to the God who’s just plain old too busy loving us to be disappointed in us. That is, I think, the hardest thing to believe, but everybody in this space knows it’s the truest thing you can say about God.” Gregory Boyle

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • When you look upon a crowd – at the mall, a concert, the DMV, a school-board meeting, a block party, a football game, on a city street or in a church service – do you do so with “exquisite tenderness?” If not, what happens instead? Why does that happen?
  • Is your “response to life” often “self-righteous anger, moralizing, defensiveness, the pressing need to change others, carping criticism, frustration at others’ blindness, a sense of spiritual superiority, [and/or] a gnawing hunger of vindication?”
  • How can you train yourself to allow “tenderness and compassion to dictate your response to life?”

Abba, thank you for the example of your son. May his love for me, and my love for him, inform my response to life. Help me practice exquisite tenderness.

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For More: Abba’s Child by Brennan Manning

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Hospitality to the Spirit Within (David G. Benner)

Posted on by under Awareness, Faith and Doubt, God's Grace, Loving Union with God, Spiritual Formation, Stillness

“If transformation is not an accomplishment and is something that must come from beyond the small self that we presently are, where does it come from? I have no better answer than that it comes from God. God, who is both within and beyond us, constantly calls us to be more than we are. All growth, healing and transformation are mediated by this outpouring of the Divine Self. They come to us as gifts, but there is something we must do to accept them. That something is responding to life with a “YES” of openness, acceptance and gratitude and then living with the inner stillness and presence that is part of being a good host to the Spirit of God who dwells within. In a word, it is faith. But remember – faith is much, much more than beliefs. Faith as belief – this being how it has commonly been understood in Christianity since the Enlightenment – is far too weak to transform anything. However, faith involves much more than giving cognitive assent to propositions. It is a whole-person orientation of trusting openness. Faith in God is leaning into life with openness and trust. This is why genuine openness to life is openness to God – and openness to God is openness to life.” David G. Benner

“…let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” Romans 12 2

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Does your faith in God include responding to him and to life “with a ‘YES’ of openness, acceptance and gratitude?” Consider each of these three traits.
  • Are you “living with the inner stillness and presence that is part of being a good host to the Spirit of God who dwells within?”
  • Is your approach to the Christian life working for you? Is it more and more a moving from “head to heart?” an entering into a kind of spaciousness?

Abba,  I will stop and look for your gracious work of transformation in me and my world today. Help me to move from my head to my heart. Help me to live in openness to you and to life.

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For More: Spirituality and the Awakening Self by David G. Benner

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Thomas Merton expresses my heart for Daily Riches: “If I dare, in these few words, to ask you some direct and personal questions, it is because I address them as much to myself as to you. It is because I am still able to hope that a civil exchange of ideas can take place between two persons — that we have not yet reached the stage where we are all hermetically sealed, each one in the collective arrogance and despair of his own herd.” I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. (Psalm 90:14) . I appreciate your interest! – Bill

 

Daily Riches: Patience with Yourself (Paul Tillich) *

Posted on by under God's Grace, Patience with Yourself, Suffering and Grace

“Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. …It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: ‘You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything, do not perform anything, do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.’ If that happens to us, we experience grace.”   Paul Tillich

“God’s law was given
so that all people could see how sinful they were.
But as people sinned more and more,
God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.
So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death,
now God’s wonderful grace rules instead….”
Romans 5:20,21a

“Out of his fullness we have all received grace…”
John 1:16

From the Head to the Heart

  • Is God’s grace enough for you when “the longed-for perfection does not appear” in your life?  when “despair destroys all joy and courage?”
  • Can you keep from trying to seek for anything or perform anything or intend anything just now, and simply “accept the fact that you are accepted?”
  • The Apostle Paul says that “as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant….” I’m one of those “people”, and so are you. “Out of his riches, we have all received grace….” Can you thank God now for his grace that works in you at your lowest, most undeserving moments?

Abba, all I can do is depend on your ever-present grace.

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For More: The Shaking of the Foundations by Paul Tillich

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek God, and as he seeks you. My goal is to provide you with something of uncommon value each day in 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)