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Showing posts from February, 2011

Silence

After a long, hard day of work I love to retire to the refuge of my home. Not! I love my home and my family, but there is usually a meal to make, mail to sort, dishes to clean, and so forth. Hardly a refuge. You know the drill. You change from one set of expectations to another. Different activities, but the same pace and relentless demands. It seems like the world doesn’t slow down. Only the scenery changes. There is an antidote for this, you know. But it involves sacrifice and swimming upstream against the ubiquitous din of our culture. The answer is silence. Silence is the white space that gives the text its meaning. We often think it is the words, but you would only be able to distinguish the shape of the letters when they are in contrast to the white space around them. Silence gives meaning to our thoughts and words. Our world runs at a frantic pace in which one thing after another bombards us and call out for our immediate and full attention. Cell phones, text messages, bi...

still not a Calvinist, but I love these brothers

Why would this non-reformed pastor go to a conference for reformed pastors? For several years I attended the Desiring God Pastor's Conference faithfully when it was held at Bethlehem Baptist. I loved the fellowship of the pastors, the stirring worship, and the challenging messages of the speakers. But then something happened. I'm not entirely sure why I missed a year, but then I missed the next one and the one after that. Before long, I realized that I've probably missed most of the last decade. I went back this year because of the theme of prayer. My heart needs to be warmed again by hearing others talk about prayer. Prayer is often such an intensely private experience. There is nothing in all the world like connecting personally to God. Even in silence I am warmed by his love and communion with him. But at times I fall into a pattern (rut, really) that drains the joy out prayer. I needed to be reminded again how incredible this gift is. I needed to hear from others in...