SOUL CrossTraining

This week we're stopping to set our heart right as we "right size" God. The root idea of Sabbath – all living things thrive only by an ample measure of stillness. Stillness like rest, requires a settling of the heart, a calming of the spirit. Sabbath keeping requires two orientations. 1. One is God-ward. 2. The other is time-ward. To keep Sabbath well--both as a day and attitude--we have to think clearly about God and freshly about time. We likely, at some, level, need to change our minds about both. Unless we trust God's sovereignty, we won't dare risk Sabbath. And unless we receive time as abundance and gift, not as rations and burden, we'll never develop a capacity to savor Sabbath. The first orientation for good Sabbath-keeping, the God ward one, takes practice, mostly through thankfulness. Thankfulness invites and acknowledges the presence of God until you are utterly convinced of his goodness and sovereignty, until he's bigger, and you find your res...

This is God's love letter to you. watch read listen

But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless …. You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more. Psalm 10:14, 17-18 Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds—his name is the LORD—and rejoice before him. A father to the fatherless , defender of widows , is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing;... Psalms 68:4-6a Go to God Father God, You are my heavenly Father, my true Father…that has been one of the huge things I have come to realize over these past five years. You are so great and powerful, yet You are a Father to Your children, defender of the widow, setting the lonely in families, and leading prisoners with song. You are so righteous, grea...

I love to read. I enjoy hearing what others are thinking and processing. I go through spurts of reading fiction and honestly I don't read very much christian fiction. BUT, a few years ago I read a book called Room of Marvels and just recently picked up a copy of the book, The Shack . Both books are fiction. Both books press in on really hard subjects of pain and loss. Both books profoundly impacted my view of God, our world, and eternity. Any readers out there? Have you read either of these books? Would love to hear your thoughts?

Interesting how our childhood experiences have a significant impact on our view of God and our world. After thinking about the practice of gratitude, I realized how much my upbringing has framed my thoughts and behavior. What kind of picture of God do you recall growing up with? How has this picture impacted your faith over the years? How has this picture changed?