I'm continuing to review Keith Anderson and Randy Reese's book entitled  Spiritual Mentoring.
I will go chapter by chapter sharing a short paragraph of what I
gleaned, what was important to me.

CHAPTER FIVE
The mentoree’s role is active and requires a responsiveness and teachability to the Holy Spirit and the mentor.  To grow in responsiveness the mentoree must undergo a sense of purification in order to be more united with God.  This happens as one “clears away the debris”, “removes distractions” and “avoids detours.”  This happens when we know God, ourselves and the dangers of our world better; and this happens when we respond to God, who is always initiating with us.  A wise mentor understands how to lead people through the dark night of the soul, recognizing the dark nights often mean movement toward the bright light of God’s presence.  John of the Cross gives a helpful list of “imperfections commonly found in beginners” that is worth remembering and studying:  “They develop spiritual pride; know more than they practice; though spiritually motivated, they remain unchanged; they become spiritual superior and judgmental of others; they deify the experience of God; measure their spiritual progress by their experience; compete for spiritual progress with others; lack perseverance and grow weary of spiritual disciplines; and are unwilling to ‘count the cost.’”

  Castle Falls HDR (Castlefalls-DSC_2860.jpg) 
  Originally uploaded by Larsthrows

Father hear the prayer we offer
Not for ease that prayer shall be
But for strength that we may ever
Live our lives courageously
Not for ever in green pastures
Do we ask our way to be
But the steep and rugged pathway
May we tread rejoicingly
Not for ever by still water
Would we idly rest and stay
But would smite the living fountains
From the rocks upon our way
Be our strength in hours of weakness
In our wand'rings be our guide
Through endeavour, failure, danger
Father, be Thou at our side
May our path be bright or dreary
Storm or sunshine be our share
May our souls in hope unweary
Make Thy work our ceaseless prayer

Father hear the prayer we offer
Not for ease that prayer shall be
But for strength that we may ever
Live our lives courageously
Be our strength in hours of weakness
In our wand'rings be our guide
Through endeavour, failure, danger
Father be Thou at our side

by Love Maria Willis (1824-1908)

I'm thankful to Sonja Bokhorst for sending me this prayer/song.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."  Proverbs 17:22 NLT

Today you get two Monday Morning Medicines.  If you didn't get a chance to see the superbowl ads, here is the Bud Light "Breath Fire" ad.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."  Proverbs 17:22 NLT

So today is Super Tuesday in the United States where people have the opportunity to go and vote in the primaries, helping the Democratic and Republican parties find their candidate for President.  It is called Super Tuesday because it is when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to their perspective national conventions.  From California to New York people will be lining up to vote for their favorite candidate.  This year has been a record turn out in each state that has held primaries.  The democratic race between Hillary and Obama is tight (so your vote really counts if you are voting democratic) and it seems that McCain has a significant lead in the Republican race (it is still good to vote if you are voting republican).

In light of this being Super Tuesday, I thought I would direct you to an interesting article.  It is an article written by James K.A. Smith, the author of Whose Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Dirrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church (an excellent read).  In this article he reviews Greg Boyd's book The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church.  Smith shares what he likes about the book, and he also critiques it. 

I will give you just a taste of the article.  Here is a little of what James Smith liked, "Boyd's intervention into the discussion is welcome. He is bold (1,000
members of his congregation left after hearing the sermons that gave
birth to the book), passionate, and discerning, while still attempting
to be charitable. Boyd doesn't pull punches, denouncing the
nationalistic "idolatry" of American evangelicalism, which often fuses
the cross and the flag. "Because the myth that America is a Christian
nation has led many to associate America with Christ," he writes in his
introduction, "many now hear the Good News of Jesus only as American
news, capitalistic news, imperialistic news, exploitive news, antigay
news, or Republican news. And whether justified or not, many people
want nothing to do with it."

And in the introduction to his critique of the book he says, "While there is much to appreciate in Boyd's exposure of the Religious
Right's idolatries, the question becomes: Does Boyd swing back to the
other extreme? No doubt he imagines that he is charting a third way,
but there are at least three factors of his proposal that indicate it
is simply pietism resurrected."  You will have to go to the article to read the rest.

"The situation of the one who is reading the Scripture would probably come closest to that in which I read to another person a letter from a friend.  I would not read the letter as though I had written it myself.  The distance between us would be clearly noticeable as it was read.  And yet I would also not be able to read my friend's letter as if it were no concern to me.  On the contrary, because of our close relationship, I would read it with personal interest.  Proper reading of Scripture is not a technical exercise that can be learned; it is something that grows or diminishes according to my own spiritual condition.  The ponderous, laborious reading of the Bible by many a Christian who has become seasoned through experience often far surpasses a minister's reading, no matter how perfect the latter in form."  - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  the cross 
  Originally uploaded by noe_carrillo

I've been reading the book The Church Between Gospel and Culture and found this gem of a passage.  The book is a collection of essays dealing with mission in North America.  This passage is found in an essay by David Lowes Watson entitled:  Christ All in All: The Recovery of the Gospel for Evangelism in the United States. In the second half of his essay he asks and answers four questions:

1. What is the Gospel?



2. What is Our Context?



3. What Makes the Gospel Good News in This Context?



4. How Does Contextual Response to the Gospel Further Illumine Its Good News?

Here is a passage from the first section:  What is the Gospel?  A very important question for our day and in our context.  He says, "Mortimer Arias... draws attention to the fact that there are two dimensions to the gospel: the gospel about Jesus, and the gospel of Jesus.  The gospel about Jesus is the message that gives our evangelism is personal form and includes the priestly work of Christ and the atoning grace through which we are reconciled to God.  The new life we experience through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit is pivotal to this message, which brings lost, sinful human beings to repentance and forgiveness.  It is at the very heart of the gospel.

No less at the heart of the gospel, however, is the prophetic announcement of Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth: the promise of good news for the poor, release for captives, sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed. (Luke 4:18-19).  If, however, the only aspect of the gospel with which we evangelize is the invitation to personal forgiveness and reconciliation, our message can easily become personalized to the point of gnosticism.  When this happens, the prophetic good news of Jesus Christ - his advocacy of God's justice for the poor and abused of the world - is by definition consigned to other ministries of the church, to be addressed as a consequence of evangelism (perhaps), but not as an integral part of the gospel we are commissioned to take into the world. The promise of Jesus announcing God's coming shalom are then proclaimed not as good news for the world here and now but as projections for the hereafter, thereby setting the tone for a discipleship that minimizes Christ's directive to join him at work in the world, ministering to the little ones who still suffer and starve.

This bifurcation of the gospel is at the heart of the age-old divide between evangelism and social ethics, a divide that remains theologically unbridged, albeit heavily veneered at present with collegialities of common social concern.  Until the issue is addressed hermeneutically, however, these collegialities will have little impact one the average American congregation, the hermeneutical locus of evangelism.  The question is not how to link evangelism with social ethics, but rather how to incorporate the social and systemic hope of the gospel into our evangelism at the outset.  The evangel must be the cutting edge of social and systemic, no less than personal, transformation.  If not, the prophetic tradition of the Scriptures is severed, and the social and systemic dimensions of the gospel cease to be good news from God.  They focus instead on what is wrong with the world, rather than on what God is doing to put it right.  Much more detrimental to the coming basileia tou theou, Jesus of Nazereth becomes a gnostic Christ available only to the privilaged - who are by no means always the poor, the blind, the captives or the oppressed."

This guy sums up what I wrote in a series not too long ago entitled A Holistic Gospel.  Check it out if you haven't read it yet.    

If you live in the city of Los Angeles, you have the chance to give the Mayor your thoughts on what should be some off the priorities this coming year in the budget.  The budget year for Los Angeles goes from July 1st to June 30th.  This city of Los Angeles allows all of us who live her to give budget input that impacts the entire budget development process.  So if you live in Los Angeles, please take a moment to give your input to the budget.  I just gave mine this past week. It only took about five to ten minutes.  It was helpful to work through it because it helped me to realize how difficult it must be to develop a city budget.

I'm continuing to review Keith Anderson and Randy Reese's book entitled  Spiritual Mentoring.
Here is a short paragraph of what I
gleaned, and what was important to me from chapter six.

CHAPTER SIX
If a mentoree is going to persevere and experience empowerment to live a Christ-like life, this means that the mentor and mentoree need a kind of relationship in which the mentor helps the mentoree engage in spiritual exercises in such a way that allows the Holy Spirit to fill the sails of the mentoree and blow them past the finish line well.  These exercises include the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius that I have mentioned earlier as well as the lectio divina and as Dallas Willard prescribes, solitude and silence as well as study and worship.

  Grounded In The Basement 
  Originally uploaded by Nicolas Alary

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."  Proverbs 17:22 NLT

In our lives there are balcony people and basement people.  Balcony people are those who stand to cheer you on in life, they breathe live into you.  We all need balcony people in our life.

But there are also basement people.  People who pull us down to where area the ugly appliances are kept. Who suck the energy and life out of us.

John Ortberg tells this story.  A guy has a basement person, and it’s his barber.  Every time he goes to his barber, his barber complains – he’s always negative, always deflates him.  He goes in one time, and he’s every excited ‘cause he’s going to go to Italy.  And he says, “It’s going to be very exciting for me.  I’ve always wanted to go there.”  And the barber, is just his typical negative self, “Oh the hotels are overrated, the food’s overpriced, it’s not very good; Italians are very rude to Americans, and it’s going to be a lousy time.

The guy says, “No, it’s going to be wonderful – I’m gonna stay at great hotels, eat at great restaurants, and I’m even gonna get to see the Pope.”  The Barber says, “No, it’s not going to happen.  He’s too busy.  You’ll never see him.”  Well the guy goes to Italy, comes back all fired up:  “It was wonderful.  Stayed at great hotels, ate tremendous food, had marvelous times with Italian people.  The sights were beautiful – and I got to see the Pope.  I was going through a line, and he called me over, and I had a private audience with him.”

And the barber, for the first time in his life, is actually impressed.  And the guy says, “I knelt down.  He stuck out his hand.  I kissed the ring.  And the barber says, “What did the Pope say?”  The guy says, “Where’d you get that lousy haircut?” 

Of course I doubt the Pope every really said that.

I am finishing my review Keith Anderson and Randy Reese's book entitled  Spiritual Mentoring.
Here is a short paragraph of what I
gleaned, and what was important to me from the last chapter. 

CHAPTER SEVEN
The goal of Spiritual Mentoring is Empowerment, which is a transformed life, that comes when we “understand the relationship between ultimate identity and ultimate purpose.”,,  Like Julian’s cell, which had a window facing inward to the sanctuary and outward to the world, a well-formed person grows inward and outward and they focus on the upward.   Growing closer to God (upward), understanding we are His beloved children (inward) and learning to find and live out our unique calling in the world (outward) is reflective of a life lived well. 

So I am currently at the Ecclesia Network Conference, a gathering taking place in the Washington D.C. area.  Ecclesia is a network of churches helping each other nurture churches that embody the good news in the neighborhood.  Our guest speakers are David Fitch, and Alan and Deb Hirsch. They have been sharing a bit from their various books that are out and some that are forth coming.

Here are a few quotes that I thought would be great to reflect on.  Today I will share some thoughts from Fitch  Fitch shared the first few messages, here was a quote or two from him:

"The primary task is to shepherd communities of character, that can embody witness of who we are in Christ within the world." 

Quoting some philosopher whose name I forgot, "When knowledge is viewed as a story, it is proclaimed.  When knowledge is viewed as universal fact it must be proved."

Elements of a Proclamation/Narrative Sermon
e-Story Fitch likes to start with a story that describes an experience that people are going through, making the truth absolutely clear so you can experience and live out of it.  Mostly he uses a current film story, sometimes a novel, a story in the congregation or personal story.
Scripture as the Center - hone in on the text and proclaim it over that experience.
Rhetorical Phrase - craft a rhetorical phrase, since we tend to only remember one thing.
Historical Exegesis is Chastened - A brief thought on a word, if helpful.
Liturgical Response - Confession of sin, affirmation of truth, responding to the gospel right there.  Act of submission to God in prayer.  Give some time of silence.
Enter into the New Reality - helping people experience the new creation.
Personal Redirection - people redirecting their desire.

There was other great thoughts as well. 

There are a number of social networks around, but so far I have found facebook to be one of the more meaningful and helpful ones.  I spend more time blogging than on any social network, but I have found facebook helpful in many ways.  It has helped me to keep up with old friends, help local friends know about upcoming events and other friends about good causes to be aware of.  Here is my profile and a number of faces of my friends.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."  Proverbs 17:22 NLT

If you have a puritanical sense of humor then you may not appreciate the humor in this video, or if you don't want to see guys sitting on a toilet and having a practical joke played on them, then again, it would be best for you to forgo watching this video.  I hope this is sufficient warning for those who probably won't appreciate this video.  But for the rest of you, this may lighten your day.  All the way from Japan. Peace.

  Scenic* 
  Originally uploaded by imapix

So, as I share with you my rhythm of life or this year in the various categories, I am also encouraging you to work through developing your own rhythm of life in regards to habits that can help shape you into the kind of person that God is calling you to become.

Farrington mentions, "Many of the ancient rules, and even some of the contemporary ones, include very detailed descriptions of various requirements of the rule: the specific hours for prayers, the exact number of Psalms to be read, the amount of bread to be eaten, the number of hours spent in reading, and hundreds of other details.  Other rules, such as St. Augustine's, provide only broad guidelines that are subject to individual interpretation, rather than detailed schedules and procedures.  How much structure you require in your rule is up to you; each of us operates differently."

So for example, perhaps you consider yourself a morning person there are certain habits that you prefer to engage in during the early hours of the day.  If this is the case, then you could reflect that in your rhythm of life.  Perhaps you operate best on a regular schedule, if so, being more specific could be really helpful.  Maybe you are the more spontaneous type, then being more general might be good.

What I would suggest is that you have some general and specific practices that you engage in.  Try it out for a month, and then see what is working for you.  Develop a rhythm of life ought to have some fluidity to it. 

One of the rules for a new "brother" in the way of St. Francis was, "You want to seek God with all your life, and love Him with all your heart... To choose God is to realize that you are known and loved in a way surpassing anything one can imagine, loved before anyone had thought of you or spoken of your name."

One last bit of advice for today when it comes to developing a rhythm in life, before I share with you my first category - God.  Farrington says, "Two things are important to consider in setting a rule for yourself:  paying attention to your heart’s desires and being realistic.  Taking both of these into account through prayer, meditation, and conversation with others, and using both of them to discern your rule, will help you develop a rule you can live with for a lifetime.” 

GOD

• Start and the day with God through a Psalm of the day.  Here are the Psalms of the day for this year:  Sunday: Ps. 24 Monday: Ps. 19, Tuesday: Ps. 82, Wednesday: Ps. 139 Thursday: Ps. 23, Friday: Ps. 40 Saturday: Ps. 63.  I desire to let the Psalmist teach me how to pray more honestly and about everything

• Throughout the day remember all of the good gifts that God has given me through prayer and thanking people verbally as well as in written form

• End the day with a simplified version of Ignatius practice:  Stop, Look and Listen.  To stop is to slow down in order pay attention to what God is doing.  To look is relive the day, looking at what God is doing around me.  Thinking about what was life giving and life draining, where I walked with Christ and where I didn't.     To listen is to allow the Spirit to speak to me, to encourage me, guide me, or admonish me

• A couple times a month seek God through prayer and fasting

So take the time to think about this area and what practices you want to engage in when it comes to your relationship with God.  Our next category will be prayer, which like most other areas, is vitally connecting to God as well, but focused on prayer in particular.

"When the mouths of the world's rulers remain silent about injustice, their hands invariably commit acts of violence.  This language of human hands where no justice exists is terrible.  It is there that the distress and pain of the human body originates.  It is there that the persecuted, captive, beaten church longs for deliverance from this body!  Do we still hear it?  Christ is speaking here!  He experienced the unrighteous judgment, he fell into the hands of men.  Innocence is accusing the unrighteous world. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  the cross 
  Originally uploaded by noe_carrillo

"The political novelty that God brings into the world as a community of those who serve instead of ruling, who suffer instead of inflicting suffering, whose fellowship crosses social lines instead of reinforcing them.  This new Christian community in which the walls are broken down not by human idealism or democratic legalism but by the work of Christ is not only a vehicle of the gospel or only a fruit of the gospel; it is the good news.  It is not merely the agent of mission or the constituency of a mission agency.  This is the mission."  - John Howard Yoder The Royal Priesthood