The Secret to the Spiritual Life

"The good tree," Jesus said, "bears good fruit." (Matthew 7:17)

Take care of the tree and it'll naturally produce good fruit. It makes no sense to start working on the fruit -- trying to make the apples sweeter, bigger, juicier. Take care of the tree, and you'll have good fruit.

Tend to my tree, and I'll produce good fruit.

Tend to my heart and I'll live a life of love, joy, peace, patience, generosity, self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). Is Jesus saying that if I tend to my heart, I'll be generous? If I tend to my heart, I'll experience self-control? Is that right?

I know that no amount of trying to be loving will make me loving. I can act as if I love you for a while, but that's not real love. Love has to come from within and flow out into my life. I can't be mad at you, and pretend "I'm fine, I'm happy, no problem" and call that love or joy or peace. It's not. It's pretending.

Good tree -- good fruit. Jesus is looking for us to be real. Authentic. Good fruit. No pretending.

How can we accomplish this? Jesus confirmed that all of the instruction in the Scriptures can be captured in the command, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Why is that? Because, if we tend to our hearts' devotion, we'll produce good fruit. The Springs retreat is all about learning how to tend to our hearts.

How do we live the spiritual life? How do we increasingly have our thoughts, attitudes, desires transformed so that we are authentically good? Love the Lord your God...

Don't work on fixing the fruit. Tend to the tree. Good tree--good fruit. Tend to your heart.

And the second commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
First, tend to your heart -- Love the Lord your God. Then, in real, authentic ways, let the love of God overflow and in tangible ways...love others.

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Following

"I will follow you, but first let me go..." Lk 9:59, 61

I've always read this passage and been focused on why Jesus would have a problem with someone wanting to bury his father or taking the time to say good-by to his family. This morning what stood out to me was "First let me go..." Don't we always have something that we want to do first? Jesus, I'll follow, but first I need to send an email, clean the house, finish school, raise my kids. We can go through our life thinking we are following Jesus, writing books about following Jesus...but never actually following Him because there's always something that we need to do just now...then we'll follow.

Following Christ. Being on a Mission. Living with Passion -- all begin now. There's an urgency that can't be put off. First let me follow -- then everything else will be taken care of.

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Mountainside

"One of those days Jesus went out to

a mountainside

to pray,

and spent the night praying to God." Lk 6:12

Why do you think Jesus went out to a mountainside? Why not stay in the house? What did he enjoy about being outside all night? Did looking at the stars draw him closer to eternity?

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Our Hearts need Assistance

"Only the heart knows how to find what is precious."

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Is there a distinction between heart, will, spirit? Maybe philosophers can separate them, but in my experience, I think they are all words that refer to one and the same thing. Heart, will, spirit are all words that seek to express what is fundamental, the core components of all of us.

It is from our core (heart, will, spirit) that love for God arises and living in such a way that expresses our love for God takes shape. It is the formation of the core that will totally transform from the inside how I live and worship. So how do we open the door to our heart, to the core of our being, to the most fundamental aspect of who I am?

Maybe it just begins with a prayer of invitation -- welcoming the God of the universe to come in and form us. We are in desperate need.

For centuries spiritual people have known that we need to pay attention to our heart. It is who we are and leads us to what we will give our lives to pursue.

We tend to think that our heart is what it is. We tend to think that we have no control over it. But if it is our heart that leads us, then I need to pay attention to what my heart is feeling. I need to run to its assistance if it's becoming weary or I'm beginning to doubt. If I'm lacking the energy to initiate, create, pursue what I want, something is wrong. I shouldn't just press on and ignore my inner life. If a waste basket was on fire, I wouldn't shove it into the closet and go about my business. I'd drop everything to take care of that waste basket. It should be the same with my heart. If I'm growing cold, distracted, grumpy, I need to pay attention. Run to my heart's assistance. Talk to somebody. Reflect in my journal about what's going on.

Often, under all of the excuses and resistance, is a disappointment with God.

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Resistance

Why is living with passion for the Lord every day such a challenge?

Certainly having a rule of life that helps me to do what I want to do -- rather than pursue all of the things that call to me -- helps me to stay focused.

Having a prayer chair that is away from my computer helps. But if I get side-tracked and go to my desk -- why do I always need to do something (send an email, file a paper, put away a book, revise my website, prepare a Bible study, read a book, watch a video, write a note to a friend) all important, all "ministry" but none of it is really time with the Lord.

Over and over I find myself wrestling to sit down with the Lord and just be in His Presence and experience His grace and love and enjoy my relationship with Him. Today, cleaning up the bedroom, bathroom, my desk, the hall closet all called me. We have company coming. So what! Why am I so pulled everywhere else but to be with the Lord? Father, please forgive this wandering heart. I even exercised this morning! Why? Why do I resist?

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Our Purpose

Devotion.

Love of God.

Spiritually Formed.

Passionate.

Renovated.

It is the purposeful interaction, consideration and experience of the grace of God in Chrsit that transforms and shapes who I am, in the depth of my being, in my heart, in my inmost person,

so that I live everyday in his kingdom--richly,
so that in wonderful ways the Spirit is forming me,
so that I am being transformed to be like Christ,
to think and act and respond as He Himself does,
so that my focus is more on Christ,
so that I am becoming new, from the inside out.

Obedient

Submissive to Him

Dependent

Trusting

Conformed

because I am loved,
as I am ,
cared for, treasured, cherished,
sought simply because He loves me and wants me to be his
lover

his passionate lover, everyday.

"I am my beloveds and He is mine. His banner over me is love."
To know his love, to live in love--his love. Everyday.

This is our purpose.

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Call

"God calls you to the place where

your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

Frederick Buechner

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Love

St. Anthony's Retreat Center in November

"I urge you...by the mercy of God to present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual act of worship."

How can we ever present our lives as holy to the Lord? It's only through spiritual transformation of our inner being that we can begin to live this verse of Scripture.

What is "spiritual transformation"? For the Christian, it is the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human heart in such a way that it becomes more and more like the inner being of Christ. The degree to which spiritual formation in Christ is successful, is the degree to which our outer life becomes a natural expression of Jesus' teachings. The quality of our character, how we choose to conduct ourselves in public and in private, how we react to adversity, these are all external expressions of our internal spiritual transformation.

But this is where it gets tricky.

Because, if the goal of spiritual formation is obedience to Christ, and obedience to Christ is defined in terms of external expressions: what we should do (pray) and what we shouldn't do (hate)--we have a serious problem. When external behavior is the focus, the whole process is corrupted by legalism. Legalism merely increases the kind of "righteousness" that the Pharisees had; it doesn't spiritually transform us. The Pharisees' righteousness was corrupt and unacceptable to God.

True righteousness is seen in obedience that arises from an inner transformation accomplished through purposive interaction with the grace of God in Christ. It's more than an obedience that is merely focused on our external life. In fact, the external manifestations of obedience are not the point at all.

What was so offensive to Jesus about the supposed righteousness of the Pharisees was that it did not arise from a true love for HIM. Their motives were not to love the Lord and live to please Him because they were so grateful for His mercy and grace. They were motivated to look good, to have their colleagues totally impressed with their acts of righteousness, to earn God's acceptance by their stellar behavior.

The motivation underlying our obedience matters to God.

God desires genuine transformation of who I am through and through -- a transformation that begins, I believe, with hours and months of coming to know in ever deepening ways the unfathomable love of God for me, personally. I believe that at the heart of Christian spiritual formation is knowledge of how much God loves me. True spiritual formation arises from knowing his love, and then allowing our lives to be a response to his love. We love him and want to obey him--humbly aware of our need for his love and mercy, but desiring to please him as an expression of our adoration and worship.

At the Springs, we experience spiritual transformation as we open ourselves to receive the love of God, listen to Him and respond.

Heart. Soul. Mind. Strength.

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Dedicate your life

"Dedicate your life to a cause greater than yourself,

and your life will become a glorious romance and adventure."

Mack Douglas

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Eyes on our Destination

Please pray for Betsy as she's battling with cancer. She writes: It's not too late for the miracle, but I Pet 5:10, which the Lord high-lighted for me this week, kinda leads me to believe that it's going to be a journey through chemo, rather than around it.

The only reason I can figure out is to encourage someone else. Jesus left glory, learned obedience through what He suffered, paid the ultimate price ( not even for His own well-being, but for ours). Actually if you'd like to take the route He took me through in my quiet time this morning, here it is: Ps 27:13,14; all of Ps.31; I Pet 4;12,19; I Pet5:6,7,10; Is 43:1-3a

If you come across other Scriptures or if you get an encouraging word from the Lord, I'd love to hear it.

My friend, and many of yours,Vikki, described to me what a kayak-er does as she comes upon white-water and rapids. She back-paddles for a few moments at the top of the rapids, scoping out the safest route through the course and the destination she wants to reach. She explained that if you keep your eyes on the white water, the eddies, the rocks, namely, the thing you fear, you'll go there every time. If you keep your eyes on your destination, you'll go there every time.

This graphic visual has been helping me take captive fearful thoughts. I know they won't help me if I think too long about them. Fear takes on a life of its own, and I usually lose if I let worries and fears go un-checked. Instead as I keep my eyes on Jesus, on the promises, on future good health and peaceful waters, I am able to stay calm and hopeful. Jesus did this too. Heb 12 tells us He endured the Cross, despising the shame, all because of the joy set before Him ( that would be us and Heaven and fellowship again with His Father ). So I'm copying Him! Or at least trying!

Thanks so much for being on the journey with me. It is strengthening to me in a very real way to know I'm not on this path alone.

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Devotion

Time to Contemplate the Cross and the Love of God

Everywhere you go there are reminders of the Cross,

God's demonstration of his love for us

"Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, Mind, Soul, Strength"
St. Augustine wrote: Decide to love God and do what you please because when you love God, then what you will want to do is what will please the One you love.

I know I've used this quote at The Springs, but because of my life experience this week, now I just want to say, "Maybe." Because even when I really am loving God, I can quickly want to do my Bible study preparation or work on a Christian project and totally ignore spending any time truly loving Him and experiencing his love for me.

Living passionately in love with the Lord everyday begins with putting up a hedge and not letting work creep into my devotional time. Writing on this blog, preparing a Bible discussion, working on the questions for the panel discussion for the Return Conference has a very different focus from devotional time. It's so tempting for me to give up spending time just being with the Lord and focused on loving him -- in order to work on ministry.

The focus of my quiet time is very different if my goal is to increase my devotion to the Lord. If devotion is my goal then I nurture my heartfelt love and a deep sense of gratitude for who God is and for the gifts he has blessed me with.

Devotion comes from knowing His love and choice of me, even in my brokenness.
Devotion comes from seeing the glory of the goodness of His character and focusing on His glory in wordless prayer.
Devotion comes from knowing He is with me -- filling the universe but also filling me, and being alongside of me as my companion.

When we focus our prayerful attention on these truths, we experience a love and adoration and passion for the Lord. When we don't -- we don't. My desk work in preparation for ministry does not nurture my devotion. It's amazing how in love I can be with the Lord, and then decide in the morning to work on some aspect of preparation, and then the next morning do some preparation, and before I know it...my whole devotional life is shot. I've reduced my relationship with the Lord to a business partnership. And it takes intentional work to regain my devotion.

Love God and spend time loving Him always throughout the day. Everyday. What a challenge to let work, even Christian work, come second.

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Passion. Every day

Passion for God. What does that mean? How do I nurture it? That's been the focus of my reflection for the last several weeks. I want to be passionate every day...not just sometimes, but every day.

"I dare you, while there is still time, to have a magnificent obsession." William Danforth

Can the Lord Jesus and advancing his kingdom on earth be my magnificent obsession? Passion for God involves love, desire, an internal motivation, being driven to do something, having an obsession, having something that I want to do, that I'm eager to do. Passion involves wanting to accomplish something, to giving my life to something. How can I have passion, how can I live passionately, every day?

Thirst. Emptiness, unquenched desire, longing -- all of these seem to me to be an invitation to passion. When I'm hungry and thirsty, that's when I get to the place where I realize that nothing I'm trying to do can really satisfy me, and I turn to Jesus. "Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again." (John 4:14a)

The Lord Jesus, when we come to Him thirsty, gives us the Spirit of God Himself. He is the refreshment we are desiring. He alone quenches my soul's restlessness and emptiness. He alone satisfies. I'm freed of emptiness. Freed from the ceaseless need to find something to satisfy me. Quenched. Well-watered. No longer driven to meet unsatisfied needs to be loved. The Holy Spirit is the river flowing from the center of my life and He turns my passion to find something to satisfy my deepest longings into a passion for Himself and a passion for advancing his kingdom on earth. He is to be the focus of my passion, and the source of my passion. Every day.

We know this, but in another sense, we don't know this at all. For me, passion everyday has to do with staying focused on Jesus, and his passion, and learning to have his passion be mine.

In the chapel at St. Anthony's, a craftsman has created the Sierra Nevada mountains and placed the Cross of Christ in the center. Flowing from the Cross is a shimering mosaic - symbolizing the river of life, the Holy Spirit, flowing into the world. The river rushes down the wall and then flows onto the carpet and down the platform, out to where we sit. It's a beautiful visual image of what Jesus said to the thirsty Samaritan woman: "indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14b). Letting the Spirit of God become a spring of water welling up within my soul and flowing out into the world -- passion. Every day.

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Time for Silence and Solitude

At the Springs there is time to be alone, attending to the sounds of the birds singing, and the river rushing down below, and to enjoy "being" with the Lord.

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Solitude and Silence

Dallas Willard speaks of solitude, silence and fasting as three practices that are especially helpful in making Sabbath rest real. I thought that was interesting. It's practicing silence and solitude at the Springs that not only provides a deep sense of rest while we are at the retreat, but also then enables us to enter into that place of rest even in the midst of a very busy life.

"We strongly need to see the manifest hand of God in what we are and what we do. We need to be sure HE is pulling the load, bearing the burden--which we are all too ready to assume is up to us alone. We must understand that He is in charge of the outcome of our efforts, and that the outcome will be good, right. And all of this is encompassed in one biblical term, "Sabbath." (The Great Omission, 34)

Living with an attitude of total rest in God will not happen automatically. We must practice laying everything down and walking away from it. We have to practice not talking. We have to practice silencing the inner noise. I love that at the Springs we have opportunity to learn how to leave behind all of our work and how to quiet all of the noise so that we can truly enter into God's rest.

The challenge is: we cannot bring our work with us to the Springs. It's tempting to think that we'll use the time to write an article or complete our Bible study. If we do this, true solitude and rest will not be found. We have to get away from our work.

Take an afternoon to walk the trails. Take an hour to reflect on the beauty of a wildflower or listen to the birds. Take some time to just sit in a chair and look at the valley and be open to the Lord and just be with Him. It can be quite a shock for those of us who are so busy doing ministry to learn how to come away in order to just be with the Lord. But once we've practiced solitude and silence, they become the most precious times for us...and truly, we can learn to bring the blessedness of that rest into our busy lives.

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Time

One of the wonderful gifts of the Springs is time. Time to consider who we are in our heart before God. Time to purposefully consider and experience the grace of God in Christ. Time to let the word of Christ transform and shape who we are. I don't know why we stay so busy at home, but it just seems impossible to find long stretches of time. I really value the hours of time for me to be alone with the Lord that are built into the retreat's agenda.

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Fasting

It's interesting to me that I find so much value in silence and solitude but only once a year or so fast...and I never fast at the Springs. In fact, I always find that I want to snack all of the time at the Springs. We laugh about chocolate being an essential part of spiritual retreating, but it's so nice to have a hot cup of coffee in the morning and good food. Maybe I should try fasting.

Willard talks about the purpose of fasting is so that "we may consciously experience the direct sustenance of God to our body and our whole person."

He says: Fasting is feasting. When we have learned to fast it will bring strength and joy, we won't be miserable (which is why Jesus told us not to look miserable--Jesus doesn't ever tell us to fake it). Fasting is a way of seeking and finding the actual Kingdom of God present and active in our lives. Fasting can give us a deeper sense of dependency and closeness to the Lord.

Maybe I should try fasting at the Springs sometime.

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Solitude, Silence, Reflection, Prayer

Come join a small group of women from diverse backgrounds and various Christian churches on a spiritual retreat.

We will have times of coming together for Biblical teaching, worship and prayer and then times when we will have lovely stretches of solitude for our personal devotional practices and prayer.

The Springs offers 3 tracks. In the first track, the leaders will walk you through how to have a personal retreat. There will be times of coming together as a group and then long stretches of time for you to spend time on your own with the Lord. The second track offers less structured program and more time for us to be alone with the Lord. The third track is totally on your own. It's for women who want to have three days with the Lord at a retreat center where other women are also retreating.

Women from all of the tracks are invited to chapel times where we have a short devotional thought from the Word and time to sing and worship together. Chapels move us from community times to times of solitude and silence. We meet for chapel the first thing in the morning (as we break our evening silence), at lunchtime, before dinner and as we end our day.

The retreat is held at a retreat center. We each have a private room and private bath so we can rest, take a nap, pray, and spend time with the Lord without interruption. There are lovely grounds at the retreat center, statues for contemplation and trails to walk, chair set about in lovely places to give us opportunity to be in nature, to reflect and read.

I hope you will consider joining us.

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St. Anthony's in April

We had a wonderful time at St. Anthony's once again. The wildflowers were in full bloom and I so enjoyed walking the grounds.
I arrived a day early so that I could personally retreat before the other women arrived. What a wonderful time for me to reconnect with the Lord.

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Spiritually dry

Sometimes we get to the point where we are really dry. We have worked so hard in ministry, but we feel strangely disconnected from the Lord. How do we re-connect?
How do we remind ourselves that we are living in His presence? What can we do to deepen our understanding of God's love for us?

We talk about all of these questions at The Springs Retreat -- and we have the privilege of leading women in experiencing some of the protestant spiritual exercises that have been so helpful like journaling, reflection, lectio divina, rule of life, prayers of confession and relinquishment, silence, and solitude.

In chapter 58, Isaiah tells the people that God doesn't want all of their religious exercises -- he wants their heart -- he wants their love for him to be demonstrated in a true fast -- acts of compassion and social justice. Then, he says, "their light will rise in the darkness." The theme verse for The Springs is the next verse (Isaiah 58:11)."The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." It's amazing how refreshed we feel when we stop all of our "religious" activity, spend time letting the truth of God's love soak into our heart, falling in love with Him all over again, seeing his hand in our lives and hearing his call, and simply attending, listening to Him.

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Reflection

I just learned that the stations of the cross come to us from the early Christians living in Jerusalem at the time of Christ's crucifixion. Obviously, the people who were there that day talked about what happened and each of them saw Jesus' procession from where he was sentenced to where he was crucified. As pilgrims came to Jerusalem, people would walk them down the route and tell their stories. Christians weren't allowed to publically worship along the route, but in twos and threes they would walk the route on Easter and remember. Over the years, Christian pilgrims would come to Jerusalem and would want to be shown the sites,so the monks would show them. Travel was expensive and as Muslims controlled the city, worship of Christ wasn't easy. Finally, someone got the idea to recreate the sites in Europe...and the stations of the Cross were born. St. Anthony's has lovely statues and place to reflect on Christ's life and passion.

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