Last week I was in Mexico leading a retreat and providing counseling for a leadership group of pastors. During our time of extended solitude with Jesus I hiked into the hills above the retreat center. I was laying down in the quiet watching hawks take turns riding on the wind currents when I noticed one…
Much of Jesus’ ministry consists of interruptions. When people interrupt him he shows us that love is patient. Here’s how we can be more like Jesus.
“Because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, [Jesus] said to [his disciples], ‘Come [away] with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” (Mark 6:31-32; “Come away” is…
Many Bible students miss the importance of Jesus’ Solitude and Silence. Every pastor, ministry leader, and caregiver — any disciple of Jesus! — needs to learn from Jesus’ example of intimacy with God. I don’t want to miss this! So I went back to the Gospel of Mark and did a Bible study on Jesus’…
To live with a single eye on Jesus we need to spend extended time with him in solitude and silence. Here’s how I began my five day retreat.
Together, by interacting with God’s grace, we can be with Jesus and become like him. Disciplines for the spiritual life help us “abide” in Jesus and bear fruit, to connect deeply with him and to become more loving like he is (John 15:1-17). There is a great variety of disciplines for life in Christ that help us to grow in the love, joy and peace of God.
“The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” (Habakkuk 2:20). Sadly silence is rare in our word today, including our Christian culture, but it is an essential discipline for the spiritual life in Christ. When was the last time you experienced even just one minute of silent worship…
Solitude is a main discipline of abstinence in which we refrain from interacting with other people for a few hours or some days in order to be alone with God and be found by him. For solitude to be effective it needs to be completed by silence. We read in the Gospels that, “Jesus often…
One of our Soul Shepherding ministries is to guide pastors, pastors’ spouses, and other leaders and caregivers in the practice of solitude and silence with Jesus. Today it’s probably the most important discipline we could practice to grow in our intimacy with Jesus and our capacity to love God and other people. We call this…
In my solitude with Jesus at a monastery I met a monk who taught me to listen to God. You might expect that. But this was a different kind of monk: a chipmunk! I met this chipmunk during a silent retreat that was part of a two-week seminary class taught by Dallas Willard. What a…