myopic pilgrim

NavPress sells the Gospel of John in The Message paraphrase for $1.19. If a seeker wants to read the Bible and asks you where to start, I like the idea of handing them a single book out of the Bible–John’s gospel version being a classic choice for first time Bible readers.

Some people have a low view of paraphrases, but for me (I come from a Roman Catholic family; I spent the last dozen years in denomination that highly exalts the Scriptures) it’s that big a deal if you know you’re reading a paraphrase. And I seem to recall Jesus, at least once, quotes from an Aramaic paraphrase.

Pat Loughery from Mt. Si Vineyard put out a question: How do you cultivate in others the spiritual discipline of listening? By listening, he means listening to others and their stories, asking about their life.

The short answer is, I don’t cultivate that in others. On the other hand, I was part of a service where the preacher talked about being in the image of God. He brought up the news story about a woman who hit a homeless person. She drove home and parked her car in the garage for three days while the man, stuck in her windshield, slowly bled out. He eventually died after friends of hers dumped the body.

The preacher maintained that this was so horrible because it disgraces the fact that this man was created in the image of God. He finished his sermon early enough so that we could talk to one another. And he exhorted us, “Remember as you talk to the people around you, getting to know them, that they–just like you, are made in God’s image.”

I thought it was beautiful. Whenever I remember the image of God imprinted is imprinted on us, I treat the other person with value, respect, and a bit of awe.

imago Dei
I see Your face in every face I see
imago Dei
Creator, You have left Your mark on me

My wife and I are in a marriage class based on Gil Stieglitz book How To Be a Godly Husband. We were asked what is something our wives do that makes us (the men) really feel loved (and appreciated and respected). I said I love it when my wife brags about me. I mulled this over a bit more and then I leaned forward and whispered into my wife’s ear:

When you say something nice about me to me, it’s good; when you say something nice about me to others, it’s true.

I was thinking more about spiritual practices I can do as I go about my life (here life means driving around town and waiting in line. And I really like the idea of prayer beads. Here is something physical you can do help you focus. It also helps one to pray without ceasing because you can do it on the spot. I think rosaries are beautiful, but I’m not that thrilled with praying the Hail Mary. So I began looking for other types of prayer beads, knowing many religions, including those outside of Christianity, use them. I found a few links that I thought other people might find useful.

Martin Watt made a downloadable video in various formats showing how to tie an Orthodox prayer rope. Apparently, it’s very involved, but his instruction is very detailed. The final product wasn’t quite what I was looking for.

Another page on how to make prayer beads, this time rocking it Anglican style. This is courtesy King of Peace Episcopal Church. They also have a page on how to use the prayer beads with suggested prayers like the Trisagion or the Jesus Prayer, plus a few more.

You can also find prayer beads or ropes to purchase by looking on ebay.com. There are plenty of non-Christian varieties which I wouldn’t have a problem using, but if you would like to look for specifically Christian prayer ropes or beads you may try adding the word “Orthodox” (as in Easter Orthodox) to your search.

[tags] prayer, prayer beads, worship, worship ideas[tags]

Many of us already understand that people learn by doing as well as seeing and hearing. For about $35 Wannado City will let kids experience a wide variety of jobs including pizza maker, broadcast anchor, and (the old standby) firefighter. If she wants to be a doctor she’ll go through some training before scrubbing up for surgery or delivering a baby. The idea is let kids “do and be” different jobs.

I can’t help trying to put this into a spiritual context. Is this what we do in discipleship? Do we show people how to do and be as followers of Christ? Or do we keep folks in the classroom lecture allowing them to believe that just knowing how to make a pizza is enough even if there are people waiting hungrily.

Sometimes in discipleship and accountability groups we teach a subject or section of the Bible (e.g. the good Samaritan parable) and even give a life application. Then next week we either don’t check to see if the disciples put it into practice or even worse, we go on to the next thing without asking about it all. What about staying on subject until we begin obeying it before moving on to the next bit of knowledge?

[tags]discipleship[/tags]