I was at the library today to pick up a book and as I was searching for the book I went for another books' title jumped out at me "Spotting the Sacred" by Bruce Main. I've only read the introduction but sense a similar stirring of hearts, as the subtitle is Noticing God in the Most Unlikely Places. Also on the back of his book Tony Campolo has written an endorsement and I happen to work at Eastern University in St Davids, PA for the Counseling Psychology Department at the Campolo College of Graduate and Professional Studies. In addition to this blog I have also created a Squidoo lens entitled www.best.godsitings.ever.com, here I am compiling a list of websites and resources where I see God at work in everyday people and their stories.
Bruce has collected stories in a book and I am spotting and collecting glimples of the 'sacred' and putting them in a Squidoo Lens.
Bruce's website is www.spottingthesacred.com I hope you will visit his site and get a copy of his book
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Sacred
Sacred means holy, blessed, set apart, consecrated.
This little space on the internet has been set apart as a sacred place consecrated to God the Father, to be used to bless those who wander through this new frontier called cyber-space, that continues to expand and grow ever more complex every nano-second.
Have you ever considered your body as a sacred place? A Sacred space? If you believe that the Spirit of God dwells in you, then indeed your body is a holy, living sanctuary, a sacred place.
This is really something to think about...
"With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them - living and breathing God!
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells - even though you still experience all the limitations of sin - you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's! So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children."
Romans 8:1,2,9-16 The Message
Do you recognize the Spirit alive in you?
This little space on the internet has been set apart as a sacred place consecrated to God the Father, to be used to bless those who wander through this new frontier called cyber-space, that continues to expand and grow ever more complex every nano-second.
Have you ever considered your body as a sacred place? A Sacred space? If you believe that the Spirit of God dwells in you, then indeed your body is a holy, living sanctuary, a sacred place.
This is really something to think about...
"With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them - living and breathing God!
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells - even though you still experience all the limitations of sin - you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's! So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children."
Romans 8:1,2,9-16 The Message
Do you recognize the Spirit alive in you?
Saturday, April 12, 2008
A Place to Come Away and Be-Loved
The definition of an 'oasis' is "A well surrounded by vegetation" or "a quiet place surrounded by busy or noisy places". It can mean a retreat, refuge, haven, sanctuary, safe place, shelter, asylum, a safe place to live, somewhere to stay, retreat, hideaway, accommodation, protect, shelter, defend harbor.
Has life ever become so overwhelming that you ever felt the need to get away from it all? Has life ever become so difficult that you didn't know what to do or where to go but you knew you didn't want to be where you are? You didn't want to have to make one more decision? You just wanted to find a place to go and hide?
I've felt like that more than once in my life. When my brother died, when my daughter died, when my marriage and all my dreams died. When my daughter died we lived only 2 or 3 miles from the state hospital. Many days I thought of getting in my car and driving that short distance and checking myself in. I was tired and worn out. I just wanted a place to go - to be left alone. I wanted someone to look after me without making any demands on me.
I never did check myself in, I had 3 young sons to look after. We can't always physically remove ourselves from the circumstances we find our selves in. But an OASIS is what I had longed for - what I felt I needed. Not forever. But for 24 - 48 hours, what a difference it could have made during the desert journeys of my life.
I still long for the Oasis, not just for me but as a place to share community. A place of fellowship with other travelers. To share their stories and mine. To learn the wisdom God has taught them in the desert and to share how he has led me through mine. We live our lives as nomads here on this earth, traveling from one story to another, and together they somehow becomes our life's history. Along the way we stop at the oasis. The oasis is not where we live though, it is a 'rest stop' where we 'fill our tank' so we can travel to our next destination.
The Sacred Oasis is a quiet place to come away - to rest - to draw from the well - the living water that God in his love provides for each of us. It is a place to come away from the stress and the pain we all experience at times in our lives and just be-loved by our Father. The Sacred Oasis is a place to deepen our relationship with our heavenly Father and draw from the well that never will run dry. My desire is that this Sacred Oasis, in the midst of this busy and noisy virtual world we now share, will be a place where you can come away and experience the Fathers love.
Dear Father, we come to you broken people, crushed by the weight of our own wrongs and those who have wronged us. We come to you expecting to find a father who wants to scold us and punish us but instead we are surprised. Why? because we discover out that your heart is so different then ours, so different from what we expected. "You reached down from on high and took hold of me; you drew me out of deep waters. You rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. You brought me out into a spacious place; you rescued me because you delighted in me." Wow! Amazing God! You delight in me? You delight in me! It's not what I expected to hear. Thank you father, thank you for delighting in me, may I find my true delight in you. Amen
Has life ever become so overwhelming that you ever felt the need to get away from it all? Has life ever become so difficult that you didn't know what to do or where to go but you knew you didn't want to be where you are? You didn't want to have to make one more decision? You just wanted to find a place to go and hide?
I've felt like that more than once in my life. When my brother died, when my daughter died, when my marriage and all my dreams died. When my daughter died we lived only 2 or 3 miles from the state hospital. Many days I thought of getting in my car and driving that short distance and checking myself in. I was tired and worn out. I just wanted a place to go - to be left alone. I wanted someone to look after me without making any demands on me.
I never did check myself in, I had 3 young sons to look after. We can't always physically remove ourselves from the circumstances we find our selves in. But an OASIS is what I had longed for - what I felt I needed. Not forever. But for 24 - 48 hours, what a difference it could have made during the desert journeys of my life.
I still long for the Oasis, not just for me but as a place to share community. A place of fellowship with other travelers. To share their stories and mine. To learn the wisdom God has taught them in the desert and to share how he has led me through mine. We live our lives as nomads here on this earth, traveling from one story to another, and together they somehow becomes our life's history. Along the way we stop at the oasis. The oasis is not where we live though, it is a 'rest stop' where we 'fill our tank' so we can travel to our next destination.
The Sacred Oasis is a quiet place to come away - to rest - to draw from the well - the living water that God in his love provides for each of us. It is a place to come away from the stress and the pain we all experience at times in our lives and just be-loved by our Father. The Sacred Oasis is a place to deepen our relationship with our heavenly Father and draw from the well that never will run dry. My desire is that this Sacred Oasis, in the midst of this busy and noisy virtual world we now share, will be a place where you can come away and experience the Fathers love.
Dear Father, we come to you broken people, crushed by the weight of our own wrongs and those who have wronged us. We come to you expecting to find a father who wants to scold us and punish us but instead we are surprised. Why? because we discover out that your heart is so different then ours, so different from what we expected. "You reached down from on high and took hold of me; you drew me out of deep waters. You rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. You brought me out into a spacious place; you rescued me because you delighted in me." Wow! Amazing God! You delight in me? You delight in me! It's not what I expected to hear. Thank you father, thank you for delighting in me, may I find my true delight in you. Amen
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