“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”
Luke 9:25
It may seem to you
That I pick a nit
Yet still I must ask
What my soul’s for-fit?
Tag Archives: worship
11/22 Poem: Expansive Praise
StandardIf gates of Hell we would raze
We must learn to weaponize praise
Sex 307: Home-be-coming
StandardContinued from Sex 306: Losing Face
Some One: Stand and face me.
To my surprise, I can.
Continue readingPoem: Nailing it!
StandardWhen it came to sin
Christ nailed it!
Yet on my own
I failed it!
We’re called to love
Each other
Yet I can’t stand
My brother
We like to say
We’re nice
But pain makes us
Think twice
If you touch on
My trauma
Prepare to feel
The drama
I call my soul
To worship
So He can turn
This warship
Dissolving sin’s
Dividing
Through gracious Re-
Conciling
Let Him rewrite
My story
So all can see
His glory
WADACAM! Men’s Weekend (Fall 2022)
StandardDetails TBD: Probably Labor Day Weekend somewhere in Northern California
WADACAM! Weekend Workshop is a mashup spiritual retreat and boot camp. The goal is to equip men to succeed in their most important and difficult challenges (i.e., relationships). We do this by tapping into the power of the cross via an innovative small group process known as Rings of Reconciling (pronounced “RoR!”).
Continue readingThe Rogue Dialogues: Inner Healing for Leadership
StandardEnd Notes
The Rogue Dialogues (aka “Diarogues“) are a series of stream-of-consciousness narratives I wrote while alone in my room from July 3-6, 2022, unemployed and quarantined with COVID-19. This was my attempt to make peace with the “part” of me that had an unfortunate history of sabotaging my relationships with authority figures.
Continue readingRE: Gifted
StandardToday
is a Gift from God
Waiting
For me to open
The Challenge
is the Wrapping
is Suffering
My One Thing: Keep Growing Closer to Jesus
StandardAt this point in my Christian life my one aspiration is for all of us to Keep Growing Closer to Jesus (KGCJ), in terms of:
- Love: Relationship with Jesus (Worship)
- Likeness: Resemblance to Jesus (Character)
- Living: Real-World Impact for Jesus (Mission)
Previously I had used the phrase “Loving More Like Jesus.” However — while I still agree with that goal in principle — in practice it was starting feel more like Law than Grace. Hence the shift from “loving like” to “growing closer”
Continue readingSpiritual Kreb’s Cycle
StandardHuman bodies run on carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins & minerals, water, and oxygen.
What powers the Body of Christ?
Continue readingAnjali’s Catechism: A Childlike Invitation to Spiritual Christianity
StandardAnjali’s Catechism: The Book is coming in Summer 2019. Preview now.
The Invitation
Are you ready to:
- Embrace the One who created the universe as the Heavenly Father who loves you like Jesus?
- Submit your awareness, values, and goals to becoming more like Christ’s?
- Receive God’s Spirit, Word, and Body to reveal and heal the wounds in your spirit that hinder you from becoming like Jesus?
- Value God’s happiness, glory, and relationships more than your own?
- Practice generosity and vulnerability so others can see Christ in you?
- Surrender childlike happiness for the grown-up joy of loving like Jesus?
Lessons
He’s Worth It: Worship in Three Syllables
StandardPart 4 of 6 in the series Childlike Theology
Discipleship is hard. It requires facing ugly truths about ourselves, letting go of coping strategies that served us well in the past, and taking responsibility for larger dysfunctions that really aren’t our fault.
Continue reading
LEAD! C.10 World-Changing Worship
StandardIn Which We Give Up the World for God, So We Can Give God to the World
Worship is simultaneously the most personal and the most all-encompassing of all human experiences. True worship is to encounter the Divine Presence in the very depths of our being, in a posture of absolute stillness and submission.
Yet such an encounter doesn’t merely empower and inspire us; it also requires us to manifest that same Presence amidst the frenzy and confusion of this present darkness (cf. Ephesians 6:12). Even to those we think least likely to respond…
Memory Verse: “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”” — John 4:24 (NKJV)
Assigned Reading
-
Richard Foster: Celebration of Discipline
- 11. Worship
-
Donald Whitney: Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
- 5. Worship
- 6. Evangelism
-
Eugene Peterson: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
- 4. Worship: “Let’s Go to the House of God!”
- 16. Blessing: “Lift Your Praising Hands”
LEAD! C.7 Silence and Solitude
StandardIn Which We Withdraw From The World To Draw Near To God
The modern world considers solitary confinement and enforced silence as among the worst long-term punishments — with good reason; it is a terrifying thing to be cut off from the consolations and diversions of society. And yet, the very severity of that terror hints at the fertile spiritual soil to be uncovered when we deliberately cultivate time away from the distractions of ordinary human life…
Memory Verse: “Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them; but He said to them, ‘I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.’ “ — Luke 4:42-43 (NKJV)
Assigned Reading
-
Richard Foster: Celebration of Discipline
- 7. Solitude
-
Donald Whitney: Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
- 10. Silence and Solitude
-
Eugene Peterson: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
- 7. Security: “God Encircles His People”
-
Ruth Haley Barton: Sacred Rhythms
- 2. Solitude: Creating Space for God
Radically Happy 