A Word (or two) from Mark

In the last two messages I did, I talked about knowing God.  They flowed from Daniel 11:32 which says “the people who know their God will display strength and take action.”  This past Sunday, I ended with three practical suggestions.  The first was to bag the reading plan and to slow down.  Stop thinking of maintaining some kind of over all pace (like reading through the Bible in a year.)  Instead, think of reading slowly for understanding.  It is better to read one verse deeply than it is to read a hundred without understanding a word.  The second suggestion was to pray the psalms. The third suggestion was to experiment with quiet.  In the interests of developing both of those suggestions here is an idea from the book The Practice of Prayer by Robert Warren.  (This is a great book on prayer by the way, but it is out of print.)  In the introduction he suggests repeating these two lines from a hymn slowly and carefully as a way of relaxing into a time of listening. The two lines are:

Love light up our mortal frame
Till others catch the living flame. 

Why not experiment over the next couple of weeks with these two lines as a way of entering a time of quiet and meditation.  Isn’t a part of knowing God being filled with His Love?

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Initiative is an important word. In job reviews people are praised for taking initiative. In competitive contests it is the person who takes the initiative at the right time that often “wins”. The opposite of initiative is passivity. Passivity should not be an option for a believer. We are called to care; we are called to work; we are called to our knees. Passivity is abdicating our God given responsibility to be stewards of all that has been given to us. But on the other hand any initiative that is rooted in frantic, desperate attempts at self aggrandizement will accomplish little for God’s kingdom purpose. The way to prevent this is to pattern ourselves after the prophecy in Daniel 11: 32. The people who know their God will display strength and take action. The deeper your walk with God, the greater your understanding will be of what initiatives you should take.

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