Tag Archives: peace
The Clutch of Death (part 5)
Look at the ravens, Jesus said. They’re free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description. They’re care-free in the care of God… And you! You count far more.
As we’re considering how to experience the freedom and connection to Divine Life Jesus taught was ours to have, we are considering how to dismantle the faulty narratives that run our lives. Jesus teaches us to be present to each moment, not borrowing troubles from tomorrow, nor borrowing regrets from yesterday.
In this lesson I’ll continue to encourage you to keep asking questions. When negative emotions surface, ask yourself what belief is driving your reaction. When positive emotions are your experience, ask yourself if you could live without the thing that has given you the good feeling.
And in the end, our framing narratives become truer and truer, and we live in greater and greater degrees of love, Divine Life, peace, and freedom. Continue reading
Posted in The Clutch of Death
Tagged afflictive emotions, beliefs, happiness, insecurity, peace
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Soul-Training: The Welcoming Prayer
In this lesson we look at a very practical way to turn our prayer less into words, and more into awakening to the awareness of what God is already up to. It’s a contemplative practice for daily use called The Welcoming Prayer. Continue reading
Thinking About Thinking About Jesus (part 1)
This would be a continuation of the “Two Views” series of lessons, and we would call it “Two Views of Jesus.” However, over the course of this lesson, we’ll encounter at least five historical views of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
We could have called it “Five Views of Jesus,” but where’s the symmetry in that?
In this introductory message, we do some background thinking about God and love, and retell Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard. Continue reading
Posted in Two Views...
Tagged Love, peace, Rethinking Religion, salvation, value/worth
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Overcoming Spiritual Helplessness
The Theory of Learned Helplessness is a “theory in psychology which alludes to a human condition in which one has learned to behave helplessly even when the opportunity is restored for one to help oneself ”. Some of us have brought these tendencies into our Christian walk. We can unlearn these tendencies by recognizing them and by receiving God’s blessing by giving ourselves the gift of controlled and focused thoughts. Continue reading
Relaxing Our Ego Desires (Part 2)
We’re spending these days looking at some ancient spiritual practice that challenge the tyranny of desire. This week we continue looking at how to effectively challenge the power of ego-desire, specifically by using the power of our imagination. Continue reading
Posted in Inner Peace
Tagged ancient spiritual paths, desire, freedom, imagination, inner rest, peace
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Relaxing Our Ego Desires (Part 1)
We’re spending these days looking at some ancient spiritual practice that challenge the tyranny of desire. This week we look at how to effectively challenge the power of ego-desire. Continue reading
Relaxing Our Sense Desires
Last week we saw how the ancient spiritual practice of silence challenges the tyranny of desire. This week we look at how we can fare well when we challenge the powerful desires of our senses. Continue reading
Posted in Inner Peace
Tagged ancient spiritual paths, desire, growth, inner rest, peace, surrender
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The Discipline of NOT Talking
Extended silence makes us uncomfortable for a lot of reasons, several of which we examine in this lesson. However, the ancients touted it as one of the classical spiritual disciplines, designed to awaken us to the Divine Life and Light inside each of us. Have a listen! Continue reading
Posted in Inner Peace
Tagged ancient spiritual paths, destiny, growth, inner rest, inner voice, loneliness, peace, silence, virtue
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Sabbath Consciousness: Our Descriptive Selves (part 4)
As we’ve seen these last two weeks, “the descriptive self” is a faulty and inadequate way of seeing ourselves. In this final lesson in the series we consider how our sense of self keeps us from remaining present to the moment, keeps us from peace, keeps us from inner tranquility. Continue reading
Posted in Sabbath Consciousness
Tagged envy, inner rest, inner voice, peace, peculiar people, true/false self
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Sabbath Consciousness: Our Descriptive Selves (part 3)
Continuing our discussion of sabbath-consciousness… Continue reading
Posted in Sabbath Consciousness
Tagged busyness, community, inner rest, inner voice, peace, peculiar people, sin, true/false self, value/worth
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