Experiencing Jesus in Prayer

“Why do you Presbyterians pray with your eyes open?” I had never heard a question like that before, but my friend meant it honestly and curiously. He had noticed as he had been hanging out in our little church in my hometown that everyone seemed to offer their prayers with their eyes open, rather than closing them and folding their hands like he was used to. It was a little bit of a mystery to me,…

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Blessing Your Kids

As we’ve been talking about prayer this month, I’ve been thinking about how we might use prayer to help protect our kids. The world is a scary place – and I don’t know about you, but it feels to me like there are just so very many frightening and potentially bad things to worry about when we send our kids out on their own, whether it’s to school (nursery school or college, or anything in between),…

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The Labyrinth

You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11, NRSV)* Our spiritual growth is a journey, a path. It is rarely a straight line from point a to point b. Instead it is usually circuitous with some detours along the way, filled with joy and sorrow, fulfillment and frustration. Regardless of where our path leads and…

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Pray with your kids part two

Last week we talked about listening for God – which is not an easy thing, I’ll grant you. So – here are some possible ways to help your children listen for God. (And it’s just possible you might like these too…) The hard part of listening for God for many of us is the whole need to be quiet. Not just to stop talking (although that might be hard enough) – but also to quiet our minds. I don’t know about you – b…

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Prayer as breath

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full (Matthew 6:5) Occasionally, I break out of Westminster on Sunday mornings to preach or lead worship at another congregation who is in need of a sub. Sometimes, when I’m out at other churches, I h…

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