By MorroBayChuck

Each life has defining moments. The moment that changed my life happened in a home for alcoholic women in 1976. I was in a discussion with Lois, another alcoholic from Brooklyn, and she was talking about her life. Midway through her talk, I felt intense warmth toward her and compassion flowed through me. The miracle was that I had had a very sheltered life and she had had a very tough life, but in that moment we were sisters and kindred spirits.

When I got up and walked outside, everything was different—trees, cars, the street—I saw everything with new eyes. It took me much searching to find out what had happened to me. In a book by William James entitled The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), I found that I had had a radical conversion.

Did I answer a calling? I don’t know what happened to me except I knew that God had given me that compassion and love that I felt that day. I know that someone with an experience is never at the mercy of someone with an argument.

From that day until today, I have tried to accept the guidance that God gives me and it has been the most amazing journey. I don’t believe that God does more for me now than He did before that day. The difference is that I now can see the daily miracles. “Once I was blind and now I see.”

By Carl Loves Somerset

When I have trouble “hearing” God’s direction, a prayer of Thomas Merton (one of my pilgrims) always helps:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Although I’ve read several books about praying techniques, I rarely have found a book as good as How to Pray for Healing. Some of the chapters include helping people stuck in difficult situations, how to get more power in prayer, how to get practice, and what to do when you’re healed. The book is available here from the author, Mark Dahle.

Some of the Dahle’s suggestions are: (1) pray at every opportunity, (2) ask for permission to touch people’s heads or shoulders ( I prefer to rub the upper middle back as this is a place where tension may be), (3) focus on God before you begin, (4) be open to intuitions from God, (5) watch for visual cues, (6) speak directly to the condition and tell it what to do, (7) have confidence even if nothing seems to happen, and (8) practice the steps that feel uncomfortable—you’ll improve.

A study guide for Christian prayer that was written to supplement Prayer for Dummies is here. This study guide is a 29 page Free PDF. It includes definition of prayer, the relationship, 24/7 prayer, dissecting your prayers, prayer techniques, roadblocks, praying with others, bookends to prayer, lost prayers, hearing God, healing prayer, and praying in tongues.

Amazon has a book description here for Prayer Power: A Program to Unlock Your Spiritual Strength.

Paths to Prayer: Finding Your Way to the Presence of God.

Prayer-10^th Anniversary Edition: Finding the Heart’s True Home.

When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayer: Insights to Keep You Praying with Greater Faith and Deeper Hope

By jelleprins

Learning to relax and enjoy the life you have is made easier by practicing mindfulness. Use the following resources to practice mindfulness:

(1)  From “Zen” from youmeworks reminds us–”Mindfulness meditation is somewhat different. There is no particular focus. It is a process of paying attention to your ongoing experience, whatever it may be at the moment. If you have a pain in your knee and that happens to be prominent in your awareness right now, you pay attention to that — not trying to concentrate, but simply noticing it and letting it be there. You don’t try to make it different. You don’t try to hold onto it. You just notice it as fully as you can, including what is going through your mind about it.”

(2) “How to do Mindfulness Meditation” by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche includes this:

“In mindfulness, or shamatha, meditation, we are trying to achieve a mind that is stable and calm. What we begin to discover is that this calmness or harmony is a natural aspect of the mind. Through mindfulness practice we are just developing and strengthening it, and eventually we are able to remain peacefully in our mind without struggling. Our mind naturally feels content.”

(3)  From Jim Hopper’s excellent site, an excerpt from “How Could Mindfulness Help Me?

“Learning to bring one’s attention back to the present moment, including the ever-present process of breathing, over and over again, involves learning to catch oneself entering into habitual patterns that prevent clear awareness of the present moment. With continued practice and increasing development of mindfulness, one becomes increasingly able to notice those habitual reactions – to unwanted and wanted but unhealthy experiences and emotions – that prevent one from responding consciously and constructively.”

“For example, instead of realizing 5-10 minutes later that you’ve been lost in bad memories or fantasies of revenge, you can catch yourself after only 30-60 seconds. Better yet, you can learn to catch yourself in the process of getting lost in a memory or fantasy. In time, you can increasingly observe these habitual responses as they arise, and choose to respond in other, more skillful ways.”

January, 2012  will be the beginning of my 35th year of experiencing being captured by the God of my understanding. The first year, I didn’t have any labels for it. If you are a mystic, you generally have to be told by someone else that you are a mystic and find out for yourself what that means. It was only after I read William James’s book, The Varieties of Religious Experience that I had a label of “radical conversion”. Soon after this, someone asked me if I knew what mysticism was and I was able to add another label. I am a Christian but have gained much insight from studying all religions and incorporating other practices into my spiritual experiences.

Mystics are found in all faiths and/or religions. Beginning the mystic journey, each pilgrim has an individual journey yet all will have some common ground with other mystics. For my 35th-year journey, I have let go of most of my earthly ties to family and friends. I felt an extreme urgency to experience and study my inner experience. So, although God’s gift is free, it isn’t cheap. I have lived without most of my family for most of the 35 year experience. I have never made a lot of money or taken the time to climb the ladder. I have driven cheap cars and owned very little materially. But I did what I wanted to do–follow the God of my understanding as best I could. My reward has been Heaven on earth–the peace, love, joy, contentment, fun is amazing. And I look forward to life’s greatest adventure–giving up this bodily burden.

Some of the spiritual techniques that my help for your spiritual journey are:

(1) centering prepares us for the Presence of God;

(2) deep breathing helps us to quiet our mind because we can only think one thought at a time–when we are counting our breaths in and out, our mind is focused on one thought relieving our anxiety;

(3) meditation and prayer;

(4) mindfulness.

According to Carl McColman, who writes The Website of Unknowing, a soul friend is a friend who provides others with coaching, support and guidance as they progress along the path toward fulfilling their spiritual and mystical potential.

“Of Mystics and Activists”  by Peter J. Leithart

‘The Challenge of Understanding Mysticism” by Richard D. Engle

“Understanding Mysticism” by Matthew Bingley

Mysticism: General Information

Photo credit.

By notsogoodphotography

Several times I have realized that concerts of any type are the largest groups of people joined together in a spiritual experience. Most people don’t recognize spiritual feelings. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, faithfulness. The fruits are from the Bible in several passages: Romans 5:3-5, I Timothy 6:11, 2 Timothy 3:10, and 2 Peter 1:5-7.

We each have a soul that needs to be directed toward goodness and away from negativity and sin in order to find peace and joy during our earthly life. We don’t have to die to find Heaven on earth.

U2 with Bono have lyrics that reflect Bono’s deep spiritual concerns and active humanitarian concerns. A group of young people in Great Britian have organized a church around those lyrics. He continues to speak out about the corruption of African nations in diverting the world’s donations to the African AIDS and extreme poverty.

Singer Songwriter Kem (Kem Owens) writes songs because he wants to get his message to everyone including the people who may not go to church. He says: “All of my success and every good thing that happens in my life are due to God’s grace.”

Much positive energy often happens at rock concerts. An example of this is on Russell Hawkins’s blog “The Original Mud Puppy”. He was positively influenced by a group called Third Day. As Russell writes, “Third Day and their music and their inspiring lyrics were the catalyst to pushing my life off the sidelines and into the game.”

My favorite music is from the 1970′s Motown musicians. So many songs from that era reflect that many of the singers grew up in gospel singing. I do my morning walking to Motown greats (Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye as well as others); the Eagles; Basia; Earth, Wind, and Fire; Abba; Norah Jones; and Sergio Mendez (Brasil ’66). Believe me they all can perk up the saddest day and turn it around to a praiseful celebration. Yes, I love my IPOD shuffle.

By gregmote

“Yeats once wrote that man is forced to choose between perfecting his life or his work. Yeats was wrong. It is only a matter of which comes first — your life or your work. If you are a stylist, the choice is as easy as it is obvious. Your life comes first. Then you inject it into your work. You bring what you are to what you do. Your job should bear the imprint of your personality, not vice versa.” Quentin Crisp and Donald Carroll

“Try to forget yourself in the service of others. For when we think too much of ourselves and our own interests we easily become despondent. But when we work for others, our efforts return to bless us.”    Sidney Powell

Callings: Finding and Following An Authentic Life

Gregg Levoy

ISBN 0-609-80370-0

Amazon link

Service may come as a result of the callings that we may listen to and may make as the central theme of our life. Gregg Levoy has written about callings and includes this:

“Primarily this force announces the need for change, and the response for which calls is an awakening of some kind. A call is only a monologue. A return call, a response, creates a dialogue. Our own unfolding requires that we be in constant dialogue with whatever is calling us. The call and one’s response to it are also a central metaphor for the spiritual life.”

“They may be calls to do something (become self-employed, go back to school leave or start a relationship, move to the country, change careers, have a child) or calls to be something (more creative, less judgmental, more loving, less fearful). They may be calls toward something or away from something; calls to change something, review our commitment to it, or come back to it in an entirely new way; calls toward whatever we’ve dared and double-dared ourselves to do for as long as we can remember.”

“Saying yes to the calls tend to place you on a path that half of yourself thinks doesn’t make a bit of sense, but the other half knows that your life won’t make sense without.”

mckaysavage

When I feel that God hasn’t answered my prayers and/or desires, I know that I may just not be ready for the answers at this time. So I have a list of other things to do to get out of His Way and/or to spend the waiting time in peace.

Having faith in God has rarely been a problem for these 30 years that I’ve been surrendering myself on a daily basis. Even the two years that I suffered from clinical depression, I never once felt that God was punishing me or had deserted me. I knew that I just had to be patient and continue to surrender.

Do I believe that God waited two years to tell me that I needed to see a psychiatrist? No, I believe He answers prayer immediately. But I was 10 years sober from alcohol and had learned in AA that drugs were a crutch. Eventually I did go to the doctor. (Actually I worked in a psychiatric hospital as a marketing specialist, so I told one of the doctors there that I needed to see him ASAP).

The waiting for the answer is the hardest teaching of the dedicated spiritual journey. I know that the waiting is like being a trapeze artist. When I let go of one bar and before I catch the next bar, there is a void. That void is where I am when I am waiting. During this time, I practice removing myself from fear and anxiety.

Having faith in myself to hear the answers has been a slow lesson to learn. I tend to forget that He created me in His image. I also have a battle sometimes to accept that I deserve all of God’s blessings.

Being the oldest child in a home dominated by alcoholism, I learned to not ask for anything and, worse, I taught myself to not expect much. I have shut out so many of God’s blessings by thinking I didn’t deserve them.  I started working at 12 making potholders for sale and did a lot of business. Then through high school, I worked every evening in a drug store. Working hard made me feel better about myself. I believe that these experiences made me stronger. The biggest problem for children in this type of home situation is the shame of feeling as if the home situation is only happening to him/her.

By rkramer62

This Christmas 2008 week, we will be posting about waiting for God. Certainly no other holiday is so full of unrealistic expectations than Christmas. It is a time of giving but why do we feel we aren’t giving enough. Why do we want to be able to satisfy everyone’s desires? Why do we try to drag God into this cycle of frustration and desire and blame Him for not satisfying our senseless cravings? Is it because this season allows us to appear to be more like—God?

Waiting for God as defined by several bloggers will be this week’s theme here at Changemaker. God is our partner in reinventing ourselves because He gives us a clean slate everyday to start over and recreate our life.

(1)  From allaboutprayer.org, the author reminds us during this times of waiting for God’s answers:

“As you are waiting for God, He strengthens you. “But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).”

“What does it mean to be blessed by God while we wait on Him? As we wait on God and His timing, He can accomplish so much in our hearts. Often we find new purpose in life, receive answers to prayer, see God work, increase our faith, and most often we see God’s perfect plan fulfilled in our situation. Remember, waiting is not wasted time!”

(2)  foundationsforfreedom.net reminds us that these waiting periods can include these three steps: trust–turning to God rather than from Him; rejection–turning away from other empty resources; and pray–pray only for God’s will for our life and the power to carry His will out (12 steps of recovery).

(3)  Jon in stuffchristianslike.blogspot.com offers three stories to complete his understanding of waiting for God: (a) the silent bush–Moses explored the burning bush (Exodus 3); (b) the great goat parade–Genesis 43–“Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.”; and (c) “After Elijah goes up to heaven and Elisha takes up his mantle he’s forced with a decision. He can sit and pray and wait or he can strike out on his own campaign for God. Here’s what happens in 2 Kings 2: He (Elisha) picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. I love that. He didn’t test the waters with his toe, he parted them. He basically said, “God if you’re down, let’s do this thing.” And then he did it.”b

By Vince Alongi

(1)  Andrew Murray writes about waiting for God by posting:

“If salvation indeed comes from God, and is entirely His work, just as creation was, it follows, as a matter of course, that our first and highest duty is to wait on Him to do the work that pleases Him. Waiting becomes then the only way to the experience of a full salvation, the only way, truly, to know God as the God of our salvation. All the difficulties that are brought forward as keeping us back from full salvation, have their cause in this one thing: the defective knowledge and practice of waiting upon God.”

This is a very powerful statement. He continues: “

“Truly my soul waiteth upon God; from Him cometh my salvation.” First we wait on God for salvation. Then we learn that salvation is only to bring us to God, and teach us to wait on Him. Then we find what is better still, that waiting on God is itself the highest salvation. It is the ascribing to Him the glory of being All; it is the experiencing that He is All to us.”

“May God teach us the blessedness of waiting on Him.”

(2)  Ron Julian posts about patience in “Waiting for God”.

“It is only appropriate to conclude by reminding ourselves where such a profound change of heart comes from. Not for nothing is patience called a fruit of the Spirit. Nothing less than the Spirit of God Himself could bring us to the place where we respond with that kind of patience. Paul prays that we might be “strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all perseverance and patience” (Colossians 1:11). It takes the glorious might of God, the same power that hung the stars in the sky, to overcome the inertia of the human heart and bring us to patience.”

“Patience is a Christian virtue because it is intimately tied to our faith itself. We continue in the face of heartache and suffering because we believe that our rescuer is coming. We put up with each other’s failures because we know that everything will finally be resolved; both justice and mercy will prevail. We do not give up on God or on each other, because we believe that God will not give up on us. “

(3)  Lillian Penner asks if we “Are You Waiting in God’s Waiting Room?”:

“Recently my husband and I were waiting for a connecting flight in a large airport. Our first flight arrived early enough to be able to request an earlier “standby flight” for our last leg of the trip home. We had already been in the airport about five hours and we were anxiously waiting for our “standby status” to be cleared. As weary travelers, we didn’t want to wait three more hours for our reserved flight. We prayed and waited while we watched the monitor for our “stand-by” clearance. Finally, the agent gave us clearance to board the plane.”

“This scenario reminded me of my prayer life. Many times, I have to wait and “standby” for God’s answer. God doesn’t always answer my prayers immediately when I pray and I have to wait in God’s waiting room for a while. Our society has conditioned us to expect immediate results. We find it very difficult to wait for anything.”

By Hamed Saber

In this fourth post about waiting for God, the site we will be posting from is preachingtoday.com. Preaching Today is a resource center for ideas about sermons and writings.

The search results for “waiting for God” include the following results:

(1)  Sermon Outlines–all of the 13 outlines are here. They include–

Yet I Will Praise Thee–http://www.preachingtoday.com/30316

God’s Marshmallow Test–http://www.preachingtoday.com/30738

Sense Out of Nonsense–http://www.preachingtoday.com/49828

Doubters Anonymous–http://www.preachingtoday.com/53496

The Christian’s Happiness–http://www.preachingtoday.com/56017

(2) There are 31 sermons on “Waiting for God” and are here. Some of them are:

Preparing for Adversity–http://www.preachingtoday.com/31592

Praying Through God’s Silence–http://www.preachingtoday.com/33194

The Hardest Part of the Journey–http://www.preachingtoday.com/45572

Preparing for Adversity–http://www.preachingtoday.com/31592

(3)  There are 10 series builders here. Some of these are:

The Best Christmas Tree–http://www.preachingtoday.com/51875

Descent Into Darkness–http://www.preachingtoday.com/40789

Embracing the Grinder: Letting the Wilderness Shape You–

http://www.preachingtoday.com/34789

(4) 9 ideas are here–

James: A Faith That Perseveres–http://www.preachingtoday.com/32093

Streams of Life: How Jesus Changes Lives–http://www.preachingtoday.com/33805

Real Spirituality: Prayer and Beyond–http://www.preachingtoday.com/52009

I’ll Be Healed for Christmas–http://www.preachingtoday.com/52110