Soul Sister Time

              I am writing this week’s Tea Time devotion from the airport in Houston, Texas.  When I set out my travel plans months earlier, I never expected to use the Houston International airport at all.  I’ve been here two times in the last three days, and the last time it was for about six hours due to weather at my destination!  In fact, for the last four days I have been traveling back and forth from two different Central American countries, and only one of my four days of flying proceeded as planned.  I’ve had a lot of time to ponder airline practices; and I can come up with a multitude of suggestions for what they could do better, but that is not my job.  The long, strenuous, and unexpected travel has driven home the instructions Peter gives to Christians in his two letters:   But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: Be holy, because I a...

            Even though I am at the mercy of God every day of my life, I often lose touch with this reality.  I’m pretty good at accepting God’s boundaries and living within the freedom they bring to my life.  I consistently follow the commands of Christ and have ordered up my daily life according to what God asks of us for basic living.  You know the phrase: I don’t dance and I don’t chew and I don’t go with girls who do -type living.              So, I need the Word of God to break me out of my mirage that I am not desperately dependent on His mercy day and night.  In my devotional reading, God broke into my delusional spiritual space by stunning me with James 3:2: We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check .          ...

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.   Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.   Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you . (James 5:1-6)             No one would want to be rich if they read this advice from James the leader of the church in Jerusalem.  These are harsh words that make the steak you may have eaten last night sour in your stomach.  How do you define if you are rich anyw...

            I spend my life trying to follow Jesus and teach others how to follow Him also.  I love to hear how unique each person’s story of transformation in Christ becomes.  There are no instant formulas to transformation and Christlikeness.  I stopped looking for the formula long ago.  There is a pattern of transformation.  Christians for centuries have been talking about spiritual growth using three stages—purgative, illuminative and unitive.  I have recognized these patterns in my own transformation and in the lives of others.  I find them helpful to understand what is really happening to our souls.             I am astounded when I find myself at peace in a storm or not fuming at someone who has acted against me.  That is not me!  I know that it is Christ living in me.  How does that happen?  How do we open ours...

              Did you hear the one about when the tax collector and the Pharisee prayed at the temple?   It may sound like a joke, but there is nothing funny about it.   In this story both did some heartfelt praying, but one went home justified and the other when home further away from God than he was when he came.   The story is recorded in Luke 18:9-14. 9  To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’   13  “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast ...

            I rarely like to obey what I feel God is asking of me, especially when it comes to humbling myself and not demanding justice my way.   If He asks me to go on a long vacation or enjoy a wonderful prize, I’m eager to obey.             Obedience starts with a mustard seed of faith.   I believe that God is good and that He would not ask me to do something that is not good for me, even though I cannot see the goodness of the proposal.   My pattern is to get started on obedience reluctantly.   I don’t like it one bit, but I do it anyway, just not with all my heart, mind and spirit.   That kind of obedience is an invitation for the enemy of my soul to double up efforts to show me the insanity of doing it God’s way.   It leaves me open to consider all the myriad of ways I could handle the same situation and leads me to daydreams of the option...

            They don’t call it faith for nothing .   My proof readers will want to change that sentence…but it is the best way to say what I need to say.   I’m not God, but even I’m a little fed up with the weak-willed faith I hear coming from the hearts of Christians.   Faith does not mean that you pray, and you get your own way!   Faith is not about getting the things you want out of life!   Where’s the faith in that?             Rather faith is trusting that what you can see isn’t all that is going on in any particular situation.   Faith is about believing what you can’t see. Hebrews 11:1 defines it:   Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.   It involves believing that when the opposite of what you prayed for happens that there is something hopeful going on in heaven that you cannot see....

If you are serious about knowing God, then you need to get serious about not knowing.  One result of the fall is that we are all basically prone to illusion.  This makes one wonder why we should even attempt to know God. The only answer is because God wants to be known, and He will teach us. I have to admit that the more I feel that I know God, the more I know that He is past finding out.  Rather than discourage me, it actually amazes me.  I am humbled by the fact that despite how magnificent He is in relation to how fallen I am He still wants me to know Him. He blesses all my attempts to seek Him, even my failures.  In fact, my failure to know Him is a backwards way of helping me to know Him more because I must learn humility to know God. My pride keeps me determined to look at life my own way and ignore that my way is a sure sign that my view of God is most inaccurate.  I naturally blame Him when things go wrong or expect that I have to beg Him ...

            In the fourth century Evagrius Ponticus described three levels of spiritual growth which is the basis of all orthodox Christian spiritual direction.   These are commonly known as Purgative, Illuminative and Unitive.             I have found the three ways helpful guides as I long to grow closer to God.   They help me recognize spiritual growth in my life as well as explain spiritual progress to others.   These three ways point me to God and show me how to detach from the world. They remind me that the goal of my Christian life is to be one with God.             In the Purgative, souls purge themselves from the world.   Along with humility, losing interest in the world’s offerings is the real beginning of the spiritual journey.   Finally the world pales in comparison to knowing t...

  From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, We are his offspring ( Acts 17:26-28).   (Underlined are quotes from philosophers.) God has been unpacking so many truths from this scripture that I would never be able to share all that I have been learning in a weekly devotion.   This part of Paul’s sermon to the philosopher’s in Athens was brilliant.   He was able to quote some of the famous thinkers of the day and explain how they were touching on the reality of God’s love for them.   You will see here that all the nations are vitally important to God.   Never far from His heart are the nations that completely ignore ...

            Lately I have been thinking of the spiritual life as climbing a ladder.   The rungs of the ladder support you and take you above to a place that is higher than earth’s gravity (the world) will allow you to reach.   You are grounded by the rungs of the ladder; however, the rungs are held firm as a place for you to stand by two poles.   Spiritual progress is like climbing a ladder: you need the rungs and the poles in order to climb higher.               The rungs on the ladder can be thought of as formed from the cross of Christ.     Jesus, sent from the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit, is the firm foundation that we stand on as we progress towards our ultimate destination, which is intimacy with the Trinity.   The outcome of spiritual progress is oneness with God.   Sometimes we lose track of this purpose, but...

            Turning the other cheek has become a Christian cliché.   These beautiful and penetrating words of Jesus are minimized when we humans try to apply them without God.   The best we can do to achieve Jesus’ description in our power is repress our anger about the way someone sins against us.   This only serves to make us look stupid to the world, creates ulcers, or causes an unplanned, embarrassing, public explosion of anger.   Jesus spoke these words and many others like them to invoke the spiritual understanding that it is impossible to live out His directions for our lives without Him.   He has no intention of our trying to take His work on in our flesh.             It happens all the time in marriages and other relationships where one person who thinks they need to be a certain way to please God centers his or her relationships around k...