Meditation
Spiritual freedom
Read Luke 16:1-13. Do you like to run? Do you love to get out there, pound the pavement, feel the wind in your hair, see the world flow by, breathe the fresh air, sweat away the stress of the day? Read more…
Meditation
Worship without images
In the 14th century, when Ruysbroeck lived, there was no doubt a great deal of illiteracy, especially if that is understood to mean the inability to read and write Latin, the language of the church. Therefore images and rituals were Read more…
Meditation
Hate your family?
Read Luke 14:25-33. Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26) So therefore, none of you can become my disciple Read more…
Meditation
Three groups of Christians
Jan van Ruysbroeck (or Ruusbroec; 1293 or 1294-1381) was a great fourteenth-century contemplative of the Low Countries. He wrote in the vernacular, middle Dutch, rather than Latin. He was a proponent of a “common” or mixed active and contemplative life. Read more…
Meditation
Our God is a consuming fire
Read Exodus 20:9-24 and Hebrews 12:18-29. When the Israelites were at Mt Sinai, Moses told them that the Lord would come down from the mountain in the sight of all the people. They were not to draw near: people and Read more…
Meditation
God is intolerant and illiberal
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a Read more…
Meditation
Sell your possessions, and give alms
Read Luke 12:32-40. In fact, just read all of Luke 12 up to verse 40. Sell your possessions, and give alms. (Luke 12:33a) What drives you to do what you do? Why do you get up in the morning and Read more…
Meditation
Hidden with Christ in God
Read Colossians 3:1-17. NT Wright reminds us that the Christian hope is not for escaping this world of conflict and getting into a disembodied “heaven,” but for a resurrection of the body into a new heaven and a new earth. Read more…
Meditation
Ask, and it will be given you
Read Luke 11:1-13 So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. (Luke 11:9) When I was growing up, sitting in a long, Read more…
Meditation
The mystery of the ages
Read Colossians 1:15-28. I became the servant [of the church] according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations Read more…