Big thanks to Len Hjalmarson of NextReformation for his warm review of Embodying Our Faith.  I’m always blessed to know the book has struck a chord, especially among fellow practitioners.  Thanks for sharing your thoughts Len, and Lord bless you as you serve him -

My spiritual life is a little ADHD, or to put it more charitably, I like variety.  Every month or so I switch up my practices – different ways of meditating on Scripture, different devotional books, etc.  Introduction to the Devout Life was great, and now the devotional book du jour is Hearing God through the Year by Dallas Willard.  This is a rich book (his classic Hearing God broken down into bite sized daily readings), and a great way to begin reading Willard if you have wanted to learn from him but (appropriately) find his work a bit intimidating.

Thought of the day:

“People are meant to live in an ongoing conversation with God, speaking and being spoken to by him . . . [biblical stories of people communicating with God] are examples of the normal human life God intended for us: God’s indwelling his people through personal presence and fellowship.”

Had a great interview about the book and the upcoming Origins Event with blogger/pastor Jesse Giglio.  You can check it out here . . .

(you’ve got to appreciate a man who will rock a fake ‘stache in their profile picture)

On spiritual consolations [by which Francis means a palpable sense of God’s presence]:

1. God sometimes makes himself more evident to those who are young in the faith.  St. Francis likens these sensory experiences to “sugarplums” – sweets which have limited nutritional value but taste great!  “Let us count ourselves as little children, having need of milk, and believe that these sugarplums are only given us to lead us on to the love of God.  But as a general rule, we shall do well to receive all such graces and favors humbly, making much of them, not for their own importance, but rather because it is God’s hand which fills our hearts with them, as a mother coaxes her child with one sugarplum after another.”

2. Enjoy rich sensory spiritual experiences, but do not overestimate their spiritual benefit.  “No, my child, this is not the same as devotion, for you will find many persons who do experience these consolations, yet who, nevertheless, are evil-minded, and consequently are devoid of all true love of God, still more of all true devotion.”

John Ortberg is one of those authors that always blesses me.  Check out a couple of his reflections on spiritual growth as a communal project:

“It's a good thing to discuss the spiritual formation of individuals. What is badly needed alongside of that is a thoughtful, concrete way of discerning and addressing the spiritual formation of congregations. For we are not just a collection of bobble-head saints.”

“Ironically, if we speak about spiritual formation purely in individual terms, we will not even be able to form individuals well. Part of what is needed for our formation is membership in and submission to and compassion for a community larger than our individual selves. If you love the body of Christ, you are concerned for the health of the whole body. It does no good to have a thriving kidney if the heart is a time bomb.”

Full article in Leadership Journal.

This is the conference I’ve most looked forward to this year.  If you have a chance to come, it’s going to be great -

[this post originally appeared on The Burner, a great blog out of Fuller Seminary]

We live in a culture of notorious non-joiners, and I am one of them. Way back when, while thinking about what the hypothetical church I might someday start would look like, I was dead set against having “church membership.” What could be more useless? I knew I was committed, God knew I was committed, and even if I wasn’t, what good would attending a class and signing on the dotted line do? It just seemed to me a waste of time and effort.