Image via author, unnamed lake, Wallowa Mountains, Oregon The book, "A Guide to True Peace," was published in its current form in 1815 by two Quakers, William Backhouse and James Janson. Since that time, the book has been an enormous influence in the lives of untold numbers of true seekers of the deeper life. It …
Continue reading Notable and Quotable “A Guide to True Peace”
Image via author, Moose Lake, Boundary Waters, MN. True faith does not rely on “common sense.” Every time you venture out in your life of faith, you will encounter something that will seem foolish from a commonsense standpoint. But common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense. In fact, they are as …
"Let the peace of Christ, to which you were indeed called in one body, rule in your hearts; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do …
Image via author, unnamed lake, Wallowa Mountains, Oregon. Julian of Norwich (1342-1416) is known mostly through her book, The Revelations of Divine Love, which is one of the great classics of the spiritual life. This may be the first book written by a woman in English which has survived. A non-conforming Anchorite, she lived in …
Image via author, Ice Lake, Wallowa Mountains, Oregon In our last post on true faith, we learned that Paul says works without faith is dead. James says faith without works is dead, but faith that produces obedience is a justifying faith. How shall we measure the truth of our faith? We can do so against …
Image via author, White Cloud Peaks, Idaho The writer of Hebrews stated that "...without faith it is impossible to please God...." But how shall we understand the nature of true faith? Some argue that faith requires no action, that belief in the facts is sufficient to count as true faith. These will point to Romans …
"It is when this Lamb of God, by giving Himself within us, has brought forth a real birth of His own meekness, patience, and full resignation to God in our souls that our virgin hearts are made ready for the marriage feast - the highest state of union between God and the soul that can …
Image via author, Emigrant Wilderness, Sierra Nevada In the previous post entitled, "I'm Hatin' Life Right Now," I posed this question: "What would bring people to “hate this life,” meaning to forsake all to be inhabited fully by His life?" And the answer is love. "When one gives oneself over to loving our God above …
Image via author, unnamed lake, Wallowa Mountains, Oregon Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910), an English non-conformist minister who was born in Scotland. “Love is the foundation of all obedience.” “You have nothing to do but to receive the things that are freely given to you of God—the forgiveness, the cleansing, the life, that come from Christ by …
Image via author, Bighorn Range, Wyoming Among my wilderness partners of years gone by were several people who had this interesting response to the question, “How is it going?” If things were not going well, the answer was a kind of code that let you know times were difficult. I heard it most often when …
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