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Special time with our granddaughters in Minnesota  We enjoyed a whirlwind of activity in the states,and we continue to be grateful for many wonderful friends and for our family. Of course the highlight was spending time with our precious granddaughters and our son and daughter-in-law. We are thankful for dear friends who encourage us and support us in prayer--it was great to catch up with many of them. In addition, we are very thankful for special people who care for our home and concerns that arise there. I really appreciated Matthew's recent blog--"It Takes a Village..." I was reminded of how thankful we are for the many people in the church who contributed to the spiritual development of our three sons. I don't dare start to give names because I would inevitably leave out someone important, but how heartwarming to see their pictures on the desk of one the church staff at Berean. He told me that he still prays daily for our sons. I was able to share about this when I talked at our first Children's Ministry retreat a couple of weeks after we returned. We all know that the Bible gives primary responsibility for spiritual training of children and the modeling of God's truth to parents. However, it is true that as a church we come alongside parents to reinforce and affirm what the parents teach. I know many in our church served as role models and mentors of our sons' faith--and was so glad Matthew mentioned it in his blog. Thankfully we didn't have to do it alone.  
Sunday School Retreat Activity
    Our children's ministry retreat (first ever) was a huge success. Nearly 40 people gathered to share and fellowship together as teachers of children inSunday school. We are very thankful for a wonderful lady heading up this ministry who is very efficient and organized. It was good for all of us to get to know each other better and have a chance to interact about goals and procedures. 2 Peter 1:56, 8 LB "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, botherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yes, faith must be more than belief in certain facts. It must result in action, growth in Christian character and the practice of moral discipline, or it will die away. (James 2:14-17) How do we, as long-time Christians, continue in growth and maturity of our faith--in our walk with God? I have been deeply influenced lately by a book by Dallas Willard The Spirit of the Disciplines. We don't especially like that word "discipline," but these disciplines of the spiritual life are what enable us to get to the point of maturity in Christ that we all strive to accomplish. We're saved through faith--there's nothing we can do to obtain our salvation. However, there is much we can do to advance in our faith walk with Christ. Sometimes I tell God how sorry I am that it has taken me to this point in my life to really get some of these truths He has been pressing into me for many years--and others--well, He's still working on. Dallas Willard says, "The disciplines for the spiritual life are available, concrete activities designed to render bodily beings such as we ever more sensitive and receptive to the Kingdom of Heaven brought to us in Christ,even while living in a world set against God. Lovingly practiced, they join with grace to enable us matter-of-factly to come boldly to the the throne of God." I was especially impressed by the discipline of solitude. In this discipline, Dallas says that the normal course of day-to-day human interaction locks us into patterns of feeling, thought and action that are geared to a world set against God. "In stark aloneness it is possible to have silence, to be still, and to know that Yahweh indeed is God (Ps. 46:10),to set the Lord before our minds with sufficient intensity and duration that we stay centered upon Him--our hearts fixed, established in trust--even when back in the office, shop, or home." Jesus led as an example in this when He constantly retreated away from people--from the many demands placed upon Him. He also called the disciples to come away and rest. Solitude is the most fundamental in the beginning of the spiritual life and it must be returned to again and again as that life develops. "In solitude," says Willard, "you will find yourself and God will find you in new ways." Isn't this the desire--the longing of our hearts? "Joy and peace," Dallas continues, "will begin to bubble up within you...praise and prayer will come to you and from within you. With practice, the soul established in solitude will remain solid when you return to your ordinary life with others." In this world of noise and activity--of technology-driven lives, it is difficult to find solitude, but I am convinced it is where we find God, and when we come away from times of solitude with God, we tend to look and act more like Him.   
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Sunday, August 26, 2018
The Spirit of the Disciplines--The richness of Solitude/ August 2018
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