discipline – Page 4 – Jesus @ 2 am blogs and podcast

Loving God 301, Part 2: Expressing Praise – Psalm 150

February 3, 2016January 29, 2016Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

The great gift of the psalms is that they give us the words to pray from the depth of our soul, to give words to our experience. We pray them not because they are the “approved” prayers of the church, but because they help us articulate (and thus feel) what is most true about ourselves and our relationship with God. And in that light, it is very much worth noting that the psalms both begin and end with expressions of delight and praise!

In this episode our pal, Jon Saur, takes us through a short look at Psalm 150 – the concluding poem in the collection and the ultimate declaration of praise to God for his unending goodness.

Loving God 301, Part 1: Verbal Prayer and the Psalms

January 31, 2016January 29, 2016Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

Prayer is not a duty. It is not the means of gaining favor with God or demonstrating devotion. Rather, prayer is the means of making genuine contact with the Father who loves us. And the ultimate fruit of prayer is…happiness. (Note that the opening word of the Psalms is “Happy!”)

In this continuing look at the classical tradition of Christian spiritual formation we turn to the practice of prayer, particularly verbal prayer (i.e., prayer that uses words). This is where prayer starts – with words (spoken or in the silence of our mind). And the first step is learning a vocabulary of prayer, how we put to words our experience of life and our need for God (and something of the words by which God responds).

In this episode we open where the anthology of the Psalms does – with Psalm 1. In it we discover the joy of a life in connection with God and the hope it brings even amidst the inevitable hardships of life.

If you want to learn to pray, there is no better school that the Psalms.

Loving God 201, Part 6: An Easy Way to Pray -The Daily Office

January 29, 2016January 29, 2016Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

What if I told you, you could build a life of meaningful connection to God in a matter of minutes a day? Really! I know it sounds like a cheap hook for a diet pill, but it happens in this case to be true. You can build a habit of prayer in minutes a day by using one of the most classic tools in the history of the church: the daily office.

In this episode we continue our introduction to prayer by looking at one of the most basic – and most helpful – practices of the church: the daily office (as in the “official” prayer for the day).

The daily office dates to prayer practices of pre-Christian Judaism and is a set of biblical readings, psalms and short prayers that allow the community of faith to pray together, no matter where we are.

If you already know the daily office(s), this will be a look at the theory behind why it works. If you are you’ve never experienced praying the office (or praying the hours), here is a link to a quick start guide to the daily office a wrote a few months ago.

Praying the office changed my spiritual life forever, and I strongly encourage you to give it a go!