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The Practical Disciple » Entries tagged with "prayer"

Ghost Dose #4, The Spirit of Love

Verse: “For God did not give you a spirit of timidity but of power, love and self discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7 Mediation: Jesus told us “love your neighbor as yourself.” I know what he means. He means that he wants us to love others the way we would want to be loved. Did you ever stop to think though that you probably are loving your neighbor as yourself right now but not in a good way? Here’s what I mean by that. It’s is difficult if not impossible to love others more than we love ourselves. If you are unrelentingly judgmental of yourself, you will have a difficult time being anything but judgmental of others. If you only care for yourself when you accomplish great … Read entire article »

Filed under: prayer

Ghost Dose #3, A Spirit of Power

Verse: For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity , but of power and love and discipline. 1 Timothy 1:6-7 Meditation:      There are multiple truths offered to us in today’s verse, but our focus will be upon one truth.  The gift of the Spirit is a gift of power.  The Greek word used here for power is “dunemaos”, from which we get the word “dynamite”.  I once witnessed dynamite exploding.  I was at a 4th of July celebration and sticks of dynamite were laid out on the surface of a dam and ignited.  We were in a canoe easily a couple of hundred yards away.  I … Read entire article »

Filed under: prayer

Ghost Dose #2, The Spirit Teaches

Verse: “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your rememberance all that I have said to you.”   Meditation: Two truths are given to us in today’s verse. First, the Holy Spirit will teach us all things. God will directly give to us the things we must know. The Helper, the Holy Spirit will educate us. I am reminded of the Jeremiah 31:33-34 where God describes the future covenant that God will have with his people. “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall … Read entire article »

Filed under: prayer

A Protestant Novena, A Dose of the Ghost

A Protestant Novena, A Dose of the Ghost

“Protestant novena” may be an oxymoron, because as far as I  know a novena is a totally catholic thing.  I wonder how many people reading this have even heard of a novena.  I never had until this morning.  Or, at least I don’t recall knowing about it.  I was researching the church holiday  ”Ascension of the Lord” this morning and came across the term.  A novena is a nine day prayer commitment focused upon a … Read entire article »

Filed under: prayer, Uncategorized

Learning to trust

Sunday, I was having one of those days where you just seem off step. The whole morning I found myself moving from room to room either forgetting to bring something I needed or not being able to remember why I had entered in the first place. The whole morning felt that way and truth be told it began before then. As I had worked on my sermon during the week and as the clock kept ticking and I started working even harder, nothing was really flowing. Saturday I went to bed with a whole lot of knowledgeable wonderful things to say about the history of kings in Israel and how Christ fulfilled the duties of what a king was meant to be. However, truth be … Read entire article »

Filed under: discernment

New downloads on the resource page

New downloads on the resource page

Yesterday, PD reader Jacob F., left a comment that lectio divina, a prayerful practice of reading scriptures is another meaningful method of encountering God’s Word.  I wrote a post on lectio divina last August and if you are not familiar with this time-honored practice, I highly recommend you explore it.  You can read my prior post by clicking here.  For your convenience today I added a downloadable handout about lectio divina on The Practical Disciple … Read entire article »

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