We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
What does it mean to trust God? Swim or Float? Check out www.internetmonk.com Do it all on your own or let go and let God? Should we totally surrender or not surrender at all? I have commented on this at IM, one of my favorite blogs. You’re welcome to reply here or add your thoughts over there.
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Faithful biblical interpretation does not stop when the reader experiences the meaning of the text, but only when that experienced meaning is lived out towards the other and into the world. Once this action takes place there is then a retro movement back from other and world to the reader, who then re-engages and is re-engaged by the text, in order to prepare for a new encounter. Responsible interpretation means that readers must know what to do with the Spirit illuminated meaning on the pages, as this is not information to be stored or defended as ideology or utopia, but it is to be lived in a loving and gracious manner that gives testimony to the Crucified and Risen One.
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Flowing out of redemption, we receive a cleansed heart and a renewed mind. Therefore, we are to put away falsehood and embrace truth, receive grace and abandon malice, live in the light and discard the darkness, as we seek to learn to practice the habits of living spirituality. Habit forming takes effort and responsibility, while it also requires being attentive not to grieve, but to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
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We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
Love your neighbor as yourself. What does this mean and in what practical ways might it manifest itself?
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In the Western cultural context there is a profound loss of faith in our capacity to be, to know, and to trust. I believe this woeful state of affairs is connected to a marginalizing of God and adopting the pretensions of being a capital ‘I’. Suspicion has become absolute and cripples the ability to be deeply committed to anything or anyone. ‘I’ calls the shots and functions as an authority from nowhere, while celebrity, spin, and hype permeate church and society. These capital I’s, are left in a supposed glorious dimension of suspension, floating from one experience to another, snatching at everything, but embracing nothing. Ideas no longer have traction, nor do they matter in this world of make believe. Thankfully, God has set a rescue operation in motion through Jesus Christ, which has the ideological and experiential power to revive and renew being, knowing, and trusting, while it reshapes suspicion and gives a truer and situated self in exchange for the deceptive ‘I.’
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Following in the footsteps of the Crucified and Risen One means no less than to sacrificially embrace the fragrance of life. Being a new creation, a new self, has the distinct aroma of forgiveness, mercy, tenderheartedness, and hope. Do not lose an appropriate trust and suspicion, therefore, and remain unwavering in doing good to all.
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We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
Is it accurate to view the work of Christ on the cross as solely a spiritual triumph for us?
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Following in the footsteps of Christ will comprise a grieving of losses and a celebrating of victories. Being in community with God ebbs and flows, as our lives are deeply touched by situations and circumstances that are emotionally overwhelming. Sometimes we are seemingly clinging on with fingers slipping, as we begin to lose our grip, while at other times, we assume we are free and clear in triumph. In truth, whether we are headed high or moving low, God is with us shaping our lives in redemptive ways. What we say and do, therefore, has tremendous significance, yet it is not conclusive for ourselves or others.
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A torrent of rhetoric flows at us and we are inundated by dubious prospects of freedom, equality, and rights. Some speak of gathering behind the veil of ignorance, others of a liberty without constraint. Autonomous notions of the justice like these, however, will be unsustainable. Conversely, to be called by the Infinite One and to respond to his voice, while not supplying a perfect resolution to all our quandaries, opens up the possibility to embrace being justly loved and to love justly that which is lasting and sure. Beyond the pale of self-determination lies the Giver who situates us in being and being in a world that is not our own. Only in the light of this giveness can we truly work out a just dependent independence.
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I noticed that Amazon still has a couple of copies of Living Spirituality: Illuminating the Path at a massive discount - $1.73 - 88% off. Such a deal! If you're interested in Christian spirituality, there's no better time to purchase this book.
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We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
Do you think there is a place for self-love in the Christian life?
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When we are caught up in such fast paced lives, there is often an inability to cherish the moment. Living Spirituality is a moment by moment embrace of following in the footsteps of Christ and all that this comprises. The trajectory of living should be from being in community with God to everything else. Yet, we tend to forget the spiritual vision for all of who we are and what we do. We're too busy and enamored with that which is fleeting. Pray that God would remind us that each day is made up of precious moments, as we seek to live in a way that has a Christ configured integrity and grace.
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Self-absorption binds us to false commitments, while deceptively assuring us that an ‘I’ focus will be safe and sustainable. Insecurities, complexes, and doubts weigh all too heavily in preventing us from engaging relationality. The O(o)ther, however, calls us from both near and afar, colliding with our pretensions of self-enclosure as a viable option for the minutes, days, months and years; all that lies ahead. Tearing down the barriers and dismantling the walls of estrangement is a continual challenge, and should we refuse to embrace the O(o)other, we shall never find ourselves.
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Video: P.O Lind Music: Alexander Laughery
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We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
Do you think there is any place for self-hatred in the Christian life?
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Be realistic about, but don’t be resigned to sin. That is, in this present life we will fail to relate to God, the other, the self, and the world as we should. But this does not mean that we ought to have a status quo or laid back attitude to sin, as if ‘oh well, that’s the way it is and we’re all flawed anyway. So be it.’ This flies in the face of redemption, transformation, and destiny. Moving away from sin is to be a conscious choice and eventual desire: it’s the way of sanctification; being and being made holy. The Infinite One is out to change us and renew us into the image of Christ, so that we might live, and have a role to play in the Ultimate story that never ends.
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