Prayer Life The Pilgrim Life

Is it possible to live a life of prayer in our crazy, busy, noisy lives?

On the brink of entering the Promised Land after forty years of wandering, God commanded Joshua and the twelve tribes of Israel to collect stones from the Jordan River and to stack them as a reminder for future generations of where they had been and of God’s constant and present provision. I’d like to believe looking back at those old markers kept the Israelites grounded, reminded them of what was true when they were faltering…

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As we wander in transition Learn by Paradox

Letting Go Without Control: Leaving China

I am not much of an adventurist. I don’t take many risks and honestly, I’m scared of more than I’d like to admit. I don’t ski because I fear heights. To ski, you have to jump off the lift to go down the mountain. I can never let go. I’d rather ride the lift around until I accidentally plop into a mound of snow. In summary, anything involving letting go without control is not my…

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Prayer Life The Pilgrim Life

Prayer is “Spooky”

Prayer Series: Part 2 The results of prayer can be scary.  Prayer involves a spiritual realm we struggle to understand. In the west we don’t hear too many stories of miraculous healings, people rising from the dead or people freed from demon possession. If we do, we first speculate on their authenticity and quickly discredit them. However, for many of our brothers and sisters across the globe, these are present-day implications of prayer and life…

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Reflections & Ponderings Spiritual Formation

Culture Shift through Mindfulness of Others

Creating a culture shift is like moving a boulder by hand–nearly impossible. Though Jesus’ teachings were subtle, they were poignantly a force of nature changing culture toward the inclusiveness of all peoples to attain salvation. Re-Read Matthew 15: 21-28 Remember the passage of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15. The one who cried out before God on behalf of her daughter. Not only does it reveal how God guides us in prayer toward his intentionality,…

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Devotionals Prayer Life

Jesus’ lesson in prayer

Read Matthew 15: 21-28 In Matthew 15 we have a Canaanite woman: a Gentile, unclean, unworthy of any Israelite. Despite her shameful status and out of the desperation of a mother’s cry for her daughters’ life, she pleads for help. She has an inkling of hope from likely observing or hearing about previous healings. In this short engagement, four things unfold.  She cries out. “Have mercy on me!” Christ ignores her. The disciples mock her…

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