Listening All the Time

The original 12 disciples had it easy. Jesus walked along and talked, and all they had to do was

It's Time to Take Off the Veil

Moses spent time with God (Exodus 34) and his his appearance was changed. He had to wear a veil to keep from scaring everyone. Jesus was changed

Taking Off the Veil, Part 2

Last week I wrote about our need to have the spiritual veil covering our eyes removed, by

Spiritual Experiences vs A Spiritual Life

The curriculum at last week's summer camp, SEP Rockies, was "Rooted" and was beautifully delivered by our chapel speaker, Anthony Mullins.  He talked about the life

The Mind and Voice of the Holy Spirit

The Lovely Joanne was trying to tell me something this morning, but I was in the other room and had noise coming in the window.  Guess what?  She didn't get through -- but it wasn't because she didn't do her part! 

Lately I've been writing about the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and who teaches us the mind of Jesus Christ because he is the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).  As we see in scripture, the goal of God from before creation is to draw us into a relationship of mutual love.  Despite our continual detours and sins, God has continued to pursue us, even sending the Son to be a human along with us and create the way back to him, and sending the Spirit to draw us toward the Father (even when we don't believe in him yet), creating and deepening that bond of love.

How does the Spirit draw us to God and build the relationship?  Jesus said in John 16:8-9, the Spirit "will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me." So the Spirit is "the advance man" so to speak, chipping away at our refusal to believe in God.  Once we believe the Spirit's message of our acceptance with the Father, we can gain a stronger bond with God by deliberately living, every day, within the Spirit's influence.  Jesus said the Spirit will "guide you into all truth...tell you about the future...bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me."  So when we can hear the Spirit, look how much God gives us! 


This morning, in order to hear Joanne, I had to go in the other room where she was standing.  So how can we hear the mind and voice of the Spirit?  By getting more serious about listening.  Sometimes, to hear the Spirit, we have to shut off the noise --turning off the TV or the XM satellite radio or the music or the video games, or the cellphone and text messages and Facebook.  Sometimes we have to stop the continual march of food and drink into our mouths, because fasting from the physical helps us focus on the spiritual, which is the only real thing anyway.  Sometimes we have to change locations, getting away from all the ordinary in order to hear God in a fresh way.  

What one thing could you do today, in the routine busyness of your life, to stop and hear the Spirit better?  What's stopping you from doing that?  Will you make the decision to change it, so you can receive all God has for you? 

The Holy Spirit's Work

Last week I wrote about the Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ, whom Jesus said would come to live in his disciples (John 14:23).  That was a new thing, because in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit rarely came upon anyone; and sometimes the Spirit left again, like in the case of Saul:  "Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear" (1 Sam. 16:14).  This may have led to David's plea "don’t take your Holy Spirit from me" later, in Psalm 51:11.

In the New Covenant, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would come to live in his disciples, and he and his Father "will come and make our home with each of them."  How is it that by one Person coming to live within us, the other two also live within us?  It's because (in ways we can agree with but not really understand) God is one, and yet God is three, Father Son and Spirit.  The three-ness of God never creates any division or separation in the one-ness of God, and the actions of either Father, Son or Spirit are always the actions of the one God.  (Like I said, we can agree, but it's hard to understand.)  

But here's the mind-boggling truth: in the Person of the Holy Spirit, the one God has come to make his home in us, as a natural next step in his love for us -- the love that he showed us in his Son, whom we know as Jesus, coming to live with us, to die for us and be resurrected for us.   And when the Spirit of God comes to live in us, being active in our minds, then we have "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16) by which we can understand the things of God.  So Peter can tell us to "be of one mind" (1 Peter 3:8) -- not that Christians are in lockstep, but that we all have the mind of God in us.  

Having the mind of God in us, then, we are able to perceive the love and intentions of God, not just for us but toward those around us also.  (One might ask, how could we have the love of God for someone, unless the mind of God resides in us?)  So the challenge is to discern and surrender to the mind of God in us, and the spiritual disciplines are an important tool.  You can learn more about applying them on this blog, or by reading from Henry Nouwen, Richard Foster, Dallas Willard and many others.  Let's keep exploring that.  Are you ready to hear from God?

A Balanced Diet

I like hamburgers.  And ice cream.  And carrot cake.  And coffee.  I can justify eating them because after all, hamburgers supply protein, ice cream supplies calcium, and carrot cake and coffee are both made from vegetables.  Right?  Well, although that is true, these are not necessarily the most healthy way to get those nutrients in my diet, and if I only ate those, I would be unhealthy.  I have to conquer my temptations to just eat what appeals to me today, in order to have a more balanced diet. 

Isn't the same true in our spiritual diet?  It might be simpler and easier to read only books about the Bible instead of the books of the Bible. It is tempting, and easier, to read only the books of the Bible I am more familiar with, rather than working my way through genealogies or psalms or the more obscure prophets, to see the lessons they have for me.  And it's easier to read some scripture, pray a little, and pretend I've done my duty -- but that is hardly a balanced or complete diet.  

I was taught as a youth that "prayer is when we talk to God, and Bible study is when God talks to us."  But I've learned that prayer can be a time of stillness before God, and that he sometimes talks to me when I'm listening for him.  (If you want to see an example of that in the prayer life of the apostle Paul, you could read 2 Cor. 12:8-10.)  I've also learned there are many different ways to surrender myself to God's work in me than just prayer and Bible study. 

Here is a partial list of spiritual practices from the book "Spiritual Disciplines Handbook" by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun.  These are a few ways of presenting ourselves before God, so he can form us into the image of Christ:  Celebration; holy communion; rule for life; worship; contemplation; examination of consciousness; journaling; rest; retreat; self-care; simplicity; slowing; teachability; unplugging; confession; discernment; silence; solitude; submission; accountability; chastity; community; discipling; hospitality; and the list goes on and on. 

One way to expand our ways of relating to God would be to explore one new discipline a month, for the rest of this year, and see what God teaches us.  Once your personal portfolio of disciplines is expanded, you'll have a much broader way of being taught by God, or of stopping during a difficult time and regaining your spiritual footing.  Why not give it a try?  And please let me know how it changes your life.

A Little about Prayer

Many Christians think of prayer as our list of requests, worries and admissions of guilt with requests for forgiveness, given to God in a one-sided stream of words and thoughts, and we hope we get it right.  But that's only part of the Bible's teaching on prayer.  In my reading, I've found more than a dozen different types of prayer, each appropriate for a specific time or use!  Today I want to outline two of them for you.  I am grateful for the detailed descriptions given in Adele Ahlberg Calhoun's excellent work, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook:  Practices that Transform Us.  (The link will take you to christianbook.com where you can purchase it if you like, but I don't get any commission or anything.)

But first, why pray?  Jesus said "your heavenly Father already knows all your needs" in Mat. 6:34 shortly after teaching the disciples how to pray.  So prayer is not informing God of our needs or worries or fears or pain.  To paraphrase many different authors over the centuries, prayer is entering into an intimate conversation with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, where we may freely speak but where God also may freely speak to us.  It includes becoming quiet before God so he can respond to all our temporary concerns with his eternal love.  

Breath Prayer:  perhaps the simplest form of prayer, certainly the shortest.  A breath prayer might consist of breathing in while thinking of one of God's names such as "Lord of heaven's armies" or "Jesus, Son of David;" then breathing out and saying "Hear my prayer" or "You are my God forever" or another term of praise or a request.  It's helpful to do the same prayer several times in a row as a way to slow down and focus, perhaps in preparing for another spiritual activity.

Conversational prayer:  you may have experienced a prayer group, where people take turns praying, often about many topics at once.  In conversational prayer, like in a discussion among friends, everyone takes turns, briefly, praying about a specific topic and listening to one another pray.  It is like a discussion with God and one another, prompted by the Holy Spirit moving within each of us, until we feel prompted to move to a new topic. It's a type of prayer that takes sensitivity to the Holy Spirit's voice in ourselves and in one another. 

These are only two forms of prayer that you may not have practiced.  I suggest you give them a try, though, as they can enrich your prayer life and your appreciation for the Lord's intimate concern for you and others. 

Facing Jesus and Reality

Last week I wrote about spiritual reality:  that we have already been given "every spiritual blessing in Christ," and that we can learn to live in those blessings every day, by perceiving and focusing on that reality.  In this pattern of life, when God speaks to us, we actually hear his will for us and are ready to respond. 

The Triune God said "Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us" (Gen. 1:26), and we were created as relational people, so God could have a mutual relationship of love with us.  We are, at the core, spiritual beings (1 Thess. 5:23) so having a spiritual connection with God should be a natural part of life.  The Holy Spirit, who is our guide and helper (John 14:16-17) has come to help us perceive and live within that.

Some think that, if they "get more of the Holy Spirit" then they will achieve mastery over life, sort of like a Jedi in Star Wars.  But that's emphasizing our self-will, when in fact, it is God who gives us both the idea of pleasing him and the strength to follow, Phil. 2:13.  Our life with God is a matter of becoming quiet before God and surrendering our will to his; placing ourselves before God, deliberately, day by day, through practical, useable tools of spiritual development.

These tools are not mysterious matters that can only be practiced by monks in a cave somewhere in France.  They are exercises any of us can do, nearly anytime or anywhere, to experience a deeper Christian life:  "And this is the secret: Christ lives in you" (Col. 1:27).  Human life gets chaotic and broken because we neglect this spiritual journey we are on with Jesus.  Wholeness, the repair of our thinking and our emotions, can only take place as we surrender our self-will in the only truly safe place there is:  the arms and heart of the Father, as we are brought there, in Jesus, through the Holy Spirit's guidance.

We're going to continue exploring, slowly and one little piece at a time, what that spiritual journey is like.  This is not something any of us achieves in a short time, dear reader, so as we journey together with Jesus, let's allow him to lead us one step at a a time, being patient with the process and with ourselves.  I believe we will both find spiritual riches as we go.

Walking with Jesus

I've been spending a lot of time lately studying and discussing with others what it means to be a Christian.  It's a big subject, but at the same time it has a pretty simple answer.  You may not know it, but that's a big issue of discussion within the Christian world right now, and frankly, many churches in the Western world have it wrong. My denomination was certainly wrong about it, in important ways, for a lot of years, but we're a lot closer now and still growing into a better understanding of it.  To be more personal, I had it wrong all those years and I'm just now seeing it more clearly. 

Most of the time when most Christians tell you about salvation, it's all about forgiveness of your sins and going to be with God when you die.  Those two things are true, but if that's all there is, you may as well live like a pagan until two minutes before you die, then be sure to ask for salvation!  This feeds our Western consumer mentality:  God is someone who will give you forgiveness and other stuff, and salvation is a product you acquire by saying a prayer and getting baptized.  Oh, and attending church -- so choose the most attractive church around, that will make you feel good and increase your social status. 

All of that misses the point.  I wrote briefly about that on September 6, that salvation is not about location but about relationship.  Let me begin to expand on that here.


Salvation is not just a legal or accounting transaction that takes place in heaven when you say the right prayer.  It is being saved from yourself and your sins, but more than that, it's being saved into a life spent with Christ, following him.  Jesus told the twelve, "Come, follow me" and they spent the next three years walking around with him, watching the way he treated people and scratching their heads over what he had just taught.  They began to realize that what he taught related directly to the way he treated people (you might say he lived what he taught).  And they figured out eventually that what he taught and how he treated others came directly from his relationship with the Father, whom Jesus came to reveal.  Once the Holy Spirit was given to them, those relationships were clear to them, and they were able to live what Jesus taught, and teach it to others as he had taught them.

Living a Christian life is, simply, learning to walk with Jesus every hour of every day. Learning to trust him.  Surrendering control to him.  Listening to him.  Letting him do the talking instead of your old motivations. You may have been a Christian for six hours or sixty years, but quite possibly you and I both have missed out on a lot of this, and we both need it.  We'll look later at the methods that will help us, but let's begin with a quietness before God, recognizing our complete inability to make life work and surrendering it to him instead.  Will you walk with Jesus along with me?

Paint and Renovation

Yesterday, on my day off, I spent most of the day slapping paint on my house.  The siding needed paint a couple of years ago, and it got dry and cracked.  The surface of the wood soaked up the primer like a thirsty man soaks up water, but the primer is doing its job.  The surface is now sealed and looks a whole lot better.  And that's what paint is for, to weather-proof the exterior and make it look good.  But of course paint does nothing to repair the structure, seal the windows, or insulate the walls.  A good paint job can make a dilapidated house look great -- if you don't look too closely.

Some people approach Christianity the same way as painting a house.  Attending church, and taking on Christian culture and speech and dress, can make you look better on the outside -- but right below the surface, the old person still exists, unchanged.  When Jesus invited his original disciples to follow him, he started them on a process that created a change in the innermost being:  thinking, focus, emotions, and responses to other people.  He invites his disciples today to do exactly the same! 

In church we're preaching through the Beatitudes (Matthew. 5:3-10).  Those sayings of Jesus have brought up uncomfortable realities about how we, no matter how long we've gone to church, haven't "arrived" -- we are still on the journey of learning to think and be as Jesus taught.  Jesus meant these sayings to shake us, to wake us up to his new Kingdom reality, and to challenge us to surrender our thinking and emotions to him. 

Paul was concerned for his flock in the same way.  He wrote the epistle to the churches in Galatia to warn people not to get caught up in empty religious forms (in this case, the Old Covenant law -- but it could have been anything) because those had no power to change the inner person.  In Galatians 4:19 Paul tells them his goal for them, that "Christ is fully developed in your lives" and in chapters 5 and 6 he emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in change.  That lifelong process of learning about Jesus and letting him change us is what we call "discipleship" or "spiritual formation."  Spiritual formation, for ourselves first of all, is the foundational job of church pastors and leaders.  It's a major part of what we continue to teach and emphasize to all Christ-followers.

Following Jesus isn't a surface-level paint job.  It's a back-to-the-foundation renovation project.  He is exceedingly patient and kind while he works us through this process, but he is exceedingly thorough and persistent, too.  So he asks us to listen carefully to him, to surrender our wills to him and to ask the Holy Spirit's constant help in revising our thinking and our emotions.  And when that happens, something else results -- the outside becomes beautiful.  Let's determine to take on the lifelong work of following Jesus, and see what he wants us to look like!

Getting Simple

Some time back I wrote about "Keeping it Simple," trying to point out some reasons our lives get too complicated and some examples of complication that hurt us.  But how to simplify life in a way that matters?

Here's an idea I read recently:  "Does it bring you closer to Jesus Christ?  Throw out everything that doesn't."  (From "Measuring What Matters" at www.BuildingChurchLeaders.com.)  That could make a lot of sense.  How would outright sin bring us closer to Jesus?  Or when we think in ways that lead to sin, or let movies or music or books or friends influence us in ways that lead to sin?  But if we're trying to be diligent, how do we avoid everything that might not lead us closer to Jesus?  If we wrap ourselves in bubble-wrap and never answer the phone or go outside, how can we have a productive life?  If we deny everything, what's left?

Being a disciples of Jesus Christ is like being an apprentice - learning how to do what the Master does.  We can find his example in Scripture, and try to do what he did.  But more than that, he's alive and busy even today, so we should look for him in everything and try to contribute.  So Christian life is more than not doing things, it's doing right things.

Paul describes old life/new life as like taking off old, dirty clothes and putting on fresh new ones, in  Colossians 3:8-10:  "But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him."  And in Romans 12:2 Paul writes "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

Christian discipleship isn't like living in bubble wrap -- it's more like putting on a pair of gloves and getting to work.  If our lives are full of activities that help us follow Jesus, like prayer, meditation and the other spiritual disciplines, those will draw us into his will and help us see him in everything.  This is not a frantic effort to jam every minute with activity -- it is deliberately setting out to serve our Master, which draws us away from those things that don't.  Confused about which is which?  Reading scriptures describing Christlike behavior, and praying for guidance, helps a lot.  Still confused?  Maybe I can help!

Keeping it Simple (Part 1)

Sometimes I wonder where all the 'stuff' in my life came from.  It's everywhere - in the house, in the closets, in the garage, in the yard.  I don't even remember where some of these things came from, but here they are, and because I have to store them and maintain them and repair them, it seems like they own me!  Yikes!  Is that how this is supposed to work?

In a word, no.  The Message Bible says in Eccl. 7:29, "God made men and women true and upright; we're the ones who've made a mess of things." James says in 4:2-3 that every kind of conflict comes from evil desires for more, more, more:  "You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure."  Adam and Eve messed things up when they wanted more, and we're still doing it!

Jesus gave us our priorities in Matt. 6:33 -- "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."   Earlier, in verse 24, he said we cannot succeed by having two gods:  "You cannot serve both God and money."  So do we give all our stuff away so we can just live simply?  Richard Foster, in his classic book Celebration of Discipline, quotes Kirkegaard commenting on this passage, 'no, we must first seek God's kingdom.'  Shall we spend all our time preaching the Gospel so our lives will be properly simple?  No, we must first seek God's kingdom.  In other words, we have to get our inward life right, then we will find the right outward expression of what is true inwardly. 

Simplicity, as a spiritual tool, is a huge topic.  Foster writes a chapter on it, and barely begins to outline it.  But simplicity begins, and continues, with having our hearts and energies and lives focused on the will of God.  Studying the life and teachings of Jesus, and how those were expounded by the rest of the New Testament, is our best view of 'the will of God.'  As Jesus himself said in John 6:28-29: They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”  Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

Focus on what he said just there, and we will find simplicity.  More on this idea next time. 

Thinking About It

I'm basically a lazy person, especially in the area of physical exercise.  But as I get older, regular workouts become more necessary to keep me strong and able to move around.  The same is true with the human brain:  if it receives regular workouts, it stays more limber, focuses better and keeps its memory better. Clear thinking is also important to a clear path in life; without it, we can't know how to conduct ourselves, or where we might need to change our actions.

Thinking clearly, especially about God, is work. But without it, we can't hear from God.  One of the spiritual disciplines we find practiced in the Bible is meditation, which sounds to some like daydreaming and to others like a weird practice bordering on the occult.  But the real definition of it, according to Richard Foster in his classic book Celebration of Discipline, is "the ability to hear God's voice and obey his word" (p.17).  The references in the Bible refer to placing ourselves humbly before God in repentance and submission, and "changed behavior as a result of our encounter with the living God" (p. 15). 

Jesus practiced meditation as part of his spiritual life. That guidance was crucial to him:  in John 5:19, he says "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does."  One of many places he is described as seeking time alone with the Father is Matt. 14:13.  Being away from the crowds gave him the time and freedom from distractions to hear from his Father.  And though Jesus no longer is physically present on earth, he is still active through his followers and expects us to seek him, as shown many times in the book of Acts.  

Individually, meditation is a growing, familiar relationship with God through his son Jesus, as led by the Holy Spirit's work.  It's a divine-human encounter; God-centered, not me-centered.  It is a driving force behind a healthy daily experience of God's presence and will for us.  If we don't stop to ask God "what should I do?" for our daily routine or for our emergencies and puzzles, how will we know his will?  Stopping to have an internal conversation with God about our lives is one way we can be led and corrected by God.


We can meditate while we are reading scripture; looking at the wonders of Creation; thinking over a problem we face -- and stopping to ask God's direction; during prayer, when we've said all we can say and pause for God's prompting; and many other times and ways.  It's best to avoid distractions, so we could predict that meditating in a quiet place would be more helpful than while driving!  A good way to practice meditating is to start by reading scripture and then humbly praying for God's guidance in applying it.  That's similar to what Luke says about Jesus's mother in Luke 2:19:  "Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often."

Not familiar with meditation?  Today is a good time to start. Worried you won't be good at it?  Nobody is, at first; but as we practice meditation, it becomes more a part of our daily habits and gives us strength for the day's journey.  It's worth the trouble and will give you many spiritual rewards.  Why not start today?

Gardening and Eternity

Since buying our house, The Amazing Joanne and I have been trying to grow things outside -- some to look at, and some to eat -- with different amounts of success.  It's no secret that our soil needs to be improved (I wrote about that awhile back) and here in Colorado, one of the biggest tricks is knowing when to plant which thing.  But one fact is sure:  to get something to grow, you have to actually plant it. 

Paul knew that was a fact in spiritual life too.  In Galatians 6:7-8, he writes "You cannot fool God, so don't make a fool of yourself! You will harvest what you plant. If you follow your selfish desires, you will harvest destruction, but if you follow the Spirit, you will harvest eternal life."  He wrote this in the context of selfishness versus generosity, but I think it applies pretty much across the board.

What's important, then, is to find ways to 'follow the Spirit' as a habit -- to put ourselves in the position of being able to hear the Spirit's voice of guidance, so we can respond.  From earliest Christian practice, people have used spiritual tools called "Discipines" to help them hear from the Spirit.  Earlier in Galatians, (5:16) Paul wrote "So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves."  In verse 19, he says "When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear" and then he goes on to list the kind of sins and addictions that are all around us -- the kind of sins we have all been guilty of!  Then he says "the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."  Which of these lists would you rather have characterize your life?  Whether we like it or not, that will depend on what we invest our time and effort in.

Richard Foster defines some of these spiritual disciplines as "Inward"; that is, dealing with our thoughts:  meditation, prayer, fasting, and study of God's word.  Outward disciplines he notes are:  simplicity, solitude, submission, and service.  Corporate disciplines, those that we can practice together, include confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.  Jesus used spiritual disciplines, and so should we.  I'll be writing on these disciplines as a series, and hope that they will help you as well as me.

What we put in the ground determines what kind of garden we grow.  What we invest our time and energies in, determines the shape of our lives.  I suggest we invest in the disciplines to allow the Spirit to shape our lives in the way he wants to.

Cleaning & Maintenance

The Lovely Joanne came home from a business trip, walked into our bedroom and started sneezing.  I knew she hadn't become allergic to me (and I'd had a shower that day) so it had to be something in that room.  Out came the vacuum, furniture cleaner and window cleaner, and the room got cleaned out. We found dust bunnies under the bed and behind the furniture, and a lot of dust from places we had forgotten we had.  But a week later, it was coming back, so we've had to do it again. And again. The lawn needs mowing, weeds keep growing, and the house needs different repairs -- it seems impossible to keep ahead of it all. 

Isn't it like that with our spiritual lives too?  We just get one thing under control -- so we think -- and something else pops up.  Like dandelions in green grass, we seem to have problems popping up one after another, and they sometimes get ahead of us.  Just when we think our anger is defeated, lust pops up, or envy or resentment.  And when we work on those, anger makes a comeback. 

David prayed in Psalm 51: "For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night."  He had learned what he was like, and he felt helpless against the power of sin in his life.  David's release from guilt was through repenting, throwing himself on God's mercy and leaving his guilt behind through the forgiveness God gives. 

But he also knew that sin would never leave him alone.  He prayed "How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults." (Psalm 19:12).  Part of David's spiritual life was maintenance work -- stopping to ask God to show him what he needed to know about himself, looking in the deeper corners of his thoughts and emotions, and asking for forgiveness from sins he hadn't recognized before. 

Prayer, study, meditation, fasting, solitude and silence, simplicity, service, confession, worship and other spiritual disciplines are the 'maintenance tools' of our spiritual lives.  Like the extension wand on the vacuum, they help us to get into the recesses, the little-seen parts of our lives that accumulate sin and bad habits.  Like window cleaner, they help us see better.  Like cleaning and oiling a bicycle, they help us function as we were designed to, walking alongside God and hearing from him all the time.  On the other hand, if we neglect these disciplines, then the dust and rust, and the sin and guilt and shame and pain build up in our lives, and we start falling apart.

A couple of highly useful books in this area are Richard Foster's "Celebration of Discipline" and Dallas Willard's "The Spirit of the Disciplines."  A daily devotional, either in book form or as an online tool coming to your phone or email inbox, can also help keep us in front of God.  (Biblegateway.com and Crosswalk.com are two of hundreds of online resources.)  Whatever way we do it, spiritual maintenance is a necessary, not optional, part of life with God.  So if you don't have such a plan, now is a good time to start one.  Need help designing one?  Just ask.

Leaves

The Lovely Joanne and I have spent parts of our day off, the last couple of weeks, raking leaves. (It's that time of year!) We only have a few medium-sized trees in our yard, but the lady down the street has this enormous maple that has shed about 20 bags so far and still going strong.

So who cares about leaves? I mean, won't they just decompose and add to the soil? That's what they do in the forest, right? We could all save a lot of effort. True, but surburbia isn't a forest. We have this thing about green grass, and lots of it; and lawns that look like the top of a billiard table don't grow in the middle of a forest. Those take lots of water, fertilizer and sunlight, which means keeping the leaves off. Besides that, there are sidewalks and mail carriers and neighbors to consider. Wet leaves get slippery, and there's no sense getting your ankle twisted when there's all that snow to shovel this winter.

Those who have followed this series for long know there's a spiritual point in here somewhere. And you'd be right! The scriptures show that we should 'be careful where we walk' (Psa. 119:59, Prov. 14:15, etc). They also show that God directs our steps (Prov. 15:9, 20:24) and that we should also follow the example of Jesus himself (1 Pet. 2:21) and 'walk as he walked' (1 John 1:6-7). So one could argue that keeping 'spiritual slippery leaves off the sidewalk' would be a good course of action. Watching out for sin, and actively putting God's word into our minds would help us avoid the buildup of sin.

And keeping an eye out for the dead leaves of sin or wasteful habits building up in our lives would be helpful too. Consider a similar thought in Mark 4:18-19 in the parable of the Sower: "The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced."

Make no mistake: our best efforts to understand and follow God in his word do not create or maintain our salvation. But the mind of Christ, the person of the Holy Spirit in us, helps us be aware of what's coming into our minds, and what's coming out of our mouths and in our actions. We ought to be responsive to that Spirit. We can have a truly fruitful spiritual life, and a happy one, or we can get lazy and let the leaves build up all over the place -- using leaves as the analogy for sin and unhealthy spiritual habits -- which leads to problems in our lives instead of the fruit God would have us bear.

God will sometimes get out the leaf rake of discipline (Heb 12:5-11) to help us see where we've slacked off in following Jesus. That just clears the way for more growth, even though at the time it's painful. If you want to meditate on that whole idea while you rake some leaves, I have a rake you can borrow.

More than These

Jesus said some tough things -- things we don't always like to remember, or teach. Like when he said we have to hate our relatives if we want to be his disciples: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26, NIV) And being his disciple is what he has called all of us to do; so we should take his words seriously.

Hate, meaning really despise and be angry with? No, what Jesus said, in the lingo of the day, was that, in order to be his disciples, we have to love him so much that everything else fades into the background and doesn't mean anything to us, compared to him. The Message version reads this as "let go of" his family. So if you aren't willing to let go of even what is closest to you, you aren't really a disciple, because you're not paying enough attention to the Master.

Dallas Willard, in his classic book The Divine Conspiracy, explains this idea. He uses the analogy of a math teacher to his student: unless you learn addition and subtraction, fractions and decimals, no way are you going to learn algebra or trigonometry. If you don't have even the basics, how will you learn the real stuff?

Unless we are so focused on the Master that he is, without question, the most important issue in our lives, we won't really be discipled -- taught, instructed, led -- by him. Multi-tasking just isn't gonna make it with him. Being less than devoted won't work with Jesus. Focusing on temporary-life matters so much that eternal-life matters don't get much attention, means that Jesus doesn't matter as much as he should.

Okay, we still have to eat, and pay our taxes, and all that stuff. Living in a monastery isn't necessary for spiritual maturity. But here's a measure of focus: what's on your mind most often? For example, which thoughts are most frequent: ideas of self-protection and getting ahead, or hearing the Holy Spirit tell you how to love someone? Anger at someone who has offended you, or forgiveness and seeking God's wisdom in responding? Convinced of your own rightness, or seriously asking the Lord for correction?

Do you love Jesus more than these other people/things? I know I need to clean out some of the mental and emotional clutter, and focus on him, because I want to go deeper with the Master. Wanna go along?

Jesus: Present or Absent?

Did Jesus contradict himself? In Matthew 28:20 he says "I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age." Then in Acts 1:9, Luke records that "After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him."

How could he keep his promise to be with them "day after day after day" but no longer be visible? Acts 1:2 says he was with them visibly "until the day he was taken up to heaven" but that was "after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit." Now, that's interesting. He was visibly with them, teaching, but he taught through the Holy Spirit. Why?

Two reasons, I think. First, Luke records the Holy Spirit's work many times in the book of Acts, so he notes here that Jesus taught, but not just by his own words but "through the Holy Spirit." Was this something they could somehow sense? It's possible, but not likely -- we don't see any visible or audible signs of the Spirit until Acts 2:2-4. Instead, it's probably a note that the Spirit was there, already working to prepare them for what was shortly to follow.

Second, the Holy Spirit continued to teach and lead the apostles on through the New Testament record, both in Acts and in the epistles. But let's remember that God is one (Mark 12:29) not three separate beings who happen to be united. The Spirit is called "the Spirit of Christ" in Romans 8:9 and "the mind of Christ" in 1 Cor. 2:16. So the risen Son of God, Jesus, continued to be with them in the person of the Holy Spirit. And he was teaching them at this point in the same way -- not just with his audible words and his visible facial expression and gestures, but in the work of the Spirit.

How about us, today? Since we haven't seen him with our physical eyes, we 'see' Jesus through the eyes of the Spirit. 1 Cor. 2:10 says "But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets."

So Jesus is with us, "day by day by day" through the Spirit. That means a large part of being his disciples is seeing him, hearing him and following him through the Spirit. How do you do that? Something called the Spiritual Disciplines, (also called the Holy Habits) which help us hear and follow. We'll keep talking about those.