Scripture Memory | Dallas Willard

In his book, "The Great Omission", Dallas Willard writes extensively on the church's failure to actually make disciples. We have separated being a "Christian" from being a disciple, literally a student or apprentice of Jesus. To him, the spiritual disciplines are of vital importance for shaping our lives after Christ by indirect effort (since we cannot, by our own effort, simply be like Christ, we must undertake other activities which by God's grace transform us into Christ-likeness). One of those disciplines is Scripture memorization. This is what Willard writes:

God is not pushy--for now, in any case. He is not going to overwhelm you if you don't want Him. He gives you the power to put Him out of your mind. And even if you want Him, you have to seek Him. Now, I realize that there is a sense in which He is already seeking you, and I am not tring to dispose of that, but we misunderstand what is our part and what is God's part. God is ready to act. He is acting. We are not waiting on Him; and if it doesn't hurt your theology too badly, He is waiting on us to respond. And you know we have a problem here. As I often point out to folks, today we are not only saved by grace, we are paralyzed by it. We will preach to you for an hour that you can do nothing to be saved, and then sing to you for forty-five minutes trying to get you to do something to be saved. That is confusing, to say the least. We really have a rpoblem with activity and passivity in our theology. I can't being to deal with all of that here, but I simply am calling attention to it.

We have to think about working with God on the contents of our minds. David says in Psalm 16:8, "I keep the Lord always before me." I keep the Lord always before me. I keep the Lord always before me. What do we say to Daivd? Synergism! Works! "I keep the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." Here is our action at the heart of that great messianic Psalm, which I wish I had time to talk more about because it has so much to say about spiritual formation.

How then, shall we set the Lord always before us? Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to--and of course I don't have to--choose between all the disciples of the spiritual life and take only one, I would choose Bible memorization. I would not be a pastor of a church that did not have a program of Bible memorization in it, because Bible memorization is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what they need. "This book of the law shall not depart out of your moth" (Joshua 1:8). That's where we need it! In our mouth. Now, how did it get in your mouth? Memorization. I often point out to people how much trouble they would have stayed out of if they had been muttering scripture. Our friend Bill Clinton would have done much better with that. Muttering scripture. You meditate in it day and night. What does that mean? Keep it, and therefore God, before your mind all the time. Can anyone really imagine that they have anything better to keep before their mind? No!

- Dallas Willard, The Great Omission, pp. 57-59

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Communion Liturgy

Last night, Matt led us through a liturgy as we celebrated communion, receiving the body and blood of Christ through the elements of bread and wine (well, juice). As he described it, "formal" liturgy is like falling in love - dive into it, ponder it, ask questions of it, probe the meaning of the words. If the analogy is a little uncertain for you, talk to Matt about it. Either way, the liturgy is an amazing way to connect with the language and history of the saints throughout the ages of Christianity. If you want a very detailed look at the history of "liturgy", check out the liturgy entry at the Catholic Encyclopedia.

The liturgy we used is as a PDF file and can be viewed here.

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The Lord's Prayer | The Voice Translation

This Sunday at TILT, we'll be using the Lord's Prayer as found in a new translation of the Scripture entitled "The Voice". Check it out here. Here's the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6:

Your prayers, rather, should be simple, like this:
Our Father in heaven,
let Your name remain holy.
Bring about Your kingdom.
Manifest Your will here on earth,
as it is manifest in heaven.
Give us each day that day's bread, no more, no less,
And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive those who owe use something.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
But let Your kingdom be,
and let it be powerful
and glorious forever.
Amen.

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Vocation Small Group Material | April 29

This week's handout for Vocation small groups is here.

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Vocation Small Group Material | April 22

Here is this week's handout for Vocation small groups (and anyone else who may want to use it!).

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Praying with Icons

On Sunday, we made use of the long history of praying with icons. This was probably something new and different for most of us, despite its rich tradition. In a visual age, icons present an ancient practice brought to new life. Read an explanation about praying with icons here.

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The Onslaught of Busyness | Yann Martel

You may recognize the name Yann Martel from his well-known book The Life of Pi. I came across an interesting article by him on Saturday, although what interested me didn't have much to do with what he was writing about (Stephen Harper and arts funding - which is important, don't get me wrong). Here's what he wrote though:

"To read a book, one must be still. To watch a concert, a play, a movie, to look at a painting, one must be still. Religion, too, makes use of stillness, notably with prayer and meditation. Just gazing upon a still lake, upon a quiet winter scene - doesn't that lull us into contemplation? Life, it seems, favours moments of stillness to sppear on the edges of our perception and whisper to us, 'Here I am. What do you think?'

Then we become busy and the stillness vanishes, yet we hardly notice, because we fall so easily for the delusion of busyness, whereby what keeps us busy must be important, and the busier we are with it, the more important it must be. And so we work, work, work, rush, rush, rush. On occasion, we say to ourselves, panting, 'Gosh, life is racing by.' But that's not it at all, it's the contrary: Life is still. It is we who are racing by."

It made me recall Greg's challenge about God's call to Sabbath rest. What struck me in particular was how busyness is often linked to our worth. The busier we are, the more important we feel. What does God say to this? Any thoughts?

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Vocation Small Group Material | April 8

The material for Vocation small groups can be found here this week. We'll be talking about the significance of the Resurrection, what it means in our individual lives and our life as a community of faith.

Post any thoughts!

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Vocation Small Group Material | March 25

You will find the small group "weekly" on the web here. As we meet, reflect on Sunday's commissioning - what it means as individuals, as a small group and as a corporate community at TILT.

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The Desert Fathers | Abba Achilles Story

On Sunday night, we used the stories of the Desert Fathers as part of our intentional time of silence and listening. We have done this once before and you can go to the last time we read them. There is also a document which explains the historical practice of reading these stores in monasteries. Here is the story:

Three old men, one of whom had a bad reputation, came one day to Abba Achilles.
The first old man asked him, "Father, make me a fishing net."
"I will not make you one," Abba replied.
Then the second said, "Of your charity make one, so that we have a souvenir of you in the monastery."
But Abba Achilles said, "I do not have time."
Then the third one, who had the bad reputation, said, "Make me a fishing net, Father."
Abba Achilles answered him at once, "For you, I will make one."

Then the two other old men asked him privately, "Why did you not want to do what we asked you, but you promised to do what he asked?"

Abba Achilles gave them this answer: "I told you I would not make one, and you were not disappointed, since you thought that I had no time. But if I had not made one for him, he would have said, 'The old man has heard about my sin, and that is why he does not want to make me anything,' and so our relationship would have broken down. But now I have cheered his soul, so that he will not be overcome with grief."

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Poverty

The Toronto Star has a great resource for information about those who go without in our city and in our country. The page "War on Poverty" is here.

What do you think of the recently released budget? Why do all budgets seem to target the middle-class? Should we, as followers of Christ, support that kind of budget? Here is one opinion. If you think the budget should be focusing more on helping those in real, desperate need, write your MP. You can find your MP on this site, with contact details included.

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Movies & Faith | Stranger than Fiction

Maybe I'm taking The Daily in a direction we don't want to go in...but I just finished watching Stranger than Fiction with our dear friend Dan from Victoria (now in Toronto...again...) and I couldn't help seeing some massive underlying Gospel parallels. Has anyone else seen it? What do you think?

I may have been seeing it through the lens of my course "Theology of the Human Person", but I'd love to hear what people thought. What does the movie say about the power of story? What is our story as Christians? How does the story influence our lives? Anyhow...see the movie if you haven't!! Post some comments...

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Reconstructing God's Call | COMMISSIONING!

On Sunday March 11 March 25, we're going to have an evening dedicated to commissioning the TILT community to their vocation. We'll be using a model based on a book called "Faith Goes To Work". It relates our vocation to God's character and work in this world. As the Church, we are the Body of Christ, and so we thought it most suitable that we commission one another based on how we reflect God's character in our work.

Read the summary through and reflect upon which type of work in which God has placed you.

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Lenten Reflections | From Spring and Nouwen

Lent has begun! If you are interested in doing some specific reflections through the Lent season, here are two options:
A booklet by Henri Nouwen which is excerpted from his book entitled "Bread for the Journey" (click on the picture to see info about the book). Read the booklet here.



Rick Wukasch has also put together some reflections stemming from the Earthkeeping course. Read the booklet here with attached song lyrics.
The Earthkeeping exercises for week two can be read here.

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Vocation Small Group Material

Here is the small group handout for this week for Vocation. Of course, anyone is welcome to use it as further study, meditation and discussion stemming from Sunday's TILT on "God's Call on Your Life".

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Lent is upon us...

The season of Lent which precedes Easter begins tomorrow (I think!) [correction: it begins Thursday - read Cheryl's explanation by clicking on comments]. If you are interested in reading more about Lent, check out the "Lent" entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Typically, the Sabbath day is a day 'off' from whatever you are fasting from throughout Lent. If you consider Sunday your Sabbath, we would love to provide whatever you are fasting from! For example, if you are fasting from chocolate for Lent, it would be great to have chocolate for snacks at TILT for your Sabbath enjoyment! So, either post a comment here or let us know at TILT!

Spring Garden will also have a labyrinth walk available for public use throughout the Lent season. Read a bit about labyrinths here. Here are the weekly days, times and locations:

• Mondays | 12noon- 4pm | Cloakroom, multi-purpose room
• Tuesdays | 9am- 4pm | Lounge, multi-purpose room
• Thursdays | 12 noon- 9 pm | Boardroom
• Fridays | 9am-3pm | Boardroom, multi-purpose room
• Saturdays | 1pm-4pm | Boardroom, multi-purpose room
• Sundays | 1pm-8:30 pm | Boardroom, Cloakroom

Photo by trafoo

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Green Resources

There seems to be a growing awareness and momentum among the Church at large towards preserving and caring for the creation. Obviously, we do not want this become an all-consuming endeavour (and thus a form of religion), but rather a response to our coming to know the heart of God. My dear friend from Victoria, James Kingsley has highlighted several great resources, including a movement he is trying to start himself.
Check out James' Small(er) Blog. Pass this site on to your friends at other churches!
The Anglican Church of Canada has also created a great initiative at greeningspirit.ca.

Are you remodelling your bathroom? The City of Toronto has a bunch of rebates for water-saving measures. Check out the city's website.

I haven't fully checked out this site, but it seems interesting - http://whatwouldjesusdrive.org/.

An article high in rhetoric, but challenging nonetheless from Geez Magazine, entitled "High efficiency Worship".

Check out greenopolis.ca. It is a simple and great site for helpful tips to easily live a little greener. Find the closest location to recycle your ink cartridges. "There are over 100 million printer cartridges used in Canada each year. Only 5-10% of these are presently recycled" - from greenopolis.ca. Spring Garden also has a box in the side entrance where you can drop off your ink cartridges to be recycled or reused.

The weather network also has some good resources on the science of climate change.

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Called to Creation | Someone to learn from!

A major thing we want to be clear on is that we cannot all instantly change every earth-damaging decision we make. Change is a process, and being concerned about God's creation shouldn't be burdening. Yes, it takes work, but it becomes a burden when we do it out of guilt or duty rather than in response to God's leading. So, prayer through your every day decisions and ask God for just one or two small changes you can make. Start small!

With the above in mind, a couple of months ago the Globe had an article about a couple in Toronto that was going through a year without producing any household waste (last year they had only one bag of garbage). Reading their story is quite amazing and it sure is hard work. Read the blog here. It also provides some places to short at if you feel so inclined. Obviously, I'm not expecting us to all produce no garbage - at this point in time, that's simply not sustainable anyhow! Nevertheless, reading the blog makes you aware of all the little decisions we make every day and we aren't aware of their consequences...

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Reading the Desert Fathers

Last week (Feb. 4), Gene introduced us to a traditional monastic practice of reading the stories of the Desert Fathers aloud. For an explanation of the practice, read this document (which includes links to more resources). Here is the story Gene read to us:

Anthony's life after he had emerged from his period of total isolation was blessed by a rich and varied ministry. People from many walks of life came to him and asked for advice. The solitude that at first had required physical isolation had now become a quality of his heart, an inner disposition that could no longer be disturbed by those who needed his guidance. Somehow his solitude had become an infinite space into which anyone could be invited. His advice was simple, direct, and concrete: "Someone asked him: 'What must one do in order to please God?' The old man replied, 'Pay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.'"

- from Henri Nouwen, "The Way of the Heart", page 32-33

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Small Group Material: Called to Community

Vocation, as a collection of small groups, bases its discussion and journeying together out of what is going on at TILT. I thought I would make this a resource to any who might be interested. The "weekly" is available here.

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