I’m away on holiday for the week, and won’t be able to post until I return. In the mean time, here are some notes from Hearing God by Dallas Willard.

Are you seeking guidance from God?

Willard quotes advice from James Dobson (p199) “ I get down on my knees and say, ‘Lord I need to know what you want me to do, and I’m listening, please speak to me through my friends, books magazines I pick up and read, and through circumstances.’”

Dallas Willard’s recommendation having done this is then to go and do some kind of activity for the next hour that neither engrosses his attention nor forces him to be intensely focussed on the matter in question.

Dallas Willard’s foundational steps in seeking God’s guidance:

1. Plan to do what we know to be morally right and commanded by God.
2. We seek the fullness of the new life in Christ and venture in the proclamation of Christ and his kingdom.
3. We meditate on the word of God.
4. We are alert and attentive to what is happening in our lives
5. We pray and speak to God constantly and specifically about the matters that concern us.
6. Seek his guidance especially in those things you already understand.
7. Using a plan listen carefully and deliberately to God

What if God does not speak?

1. Ask God to inform you if there is a hindrance in you.
2. Take counsel from two people.

If you find a cause – correct it mercilessly. If not – do what seems best.

And a final quote:

We will be spiritually safe in all use of the Bible if we followed a simple rule. Read with a submissive attitude. Read with a readiness to surrender all you are – all your plans, opinions possessions positions. Study as intelligently as possible with all available means but never study merely to find the truth. especially not just to prove something. Subordinate your desire to find the truth to your desire to do it,! Page 161

Check my eikon ministry site for a new article publlished today and entitled; “What’s pot and what’s not pot.”

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 131 ESV

If you want to walk more closely with Jesus, and if you want to be found more in the image of Jesus, then sooner or later you will need to make time to be in silence and stillness.

For many of us the first forays into silence can be terrifying. The noise and clamor of the world normally drowns out the anxious voices that cry from within. The routine and demand of daily life assures us that we are needed and valued, and silence can bestow a kind of nakedness of vulnerability, where voices within us cry out unmuted by the noisy world.

When I am silent I hear the cries from within myself “I desire.” “I want.” “I need.” “I worry.” “What next?” “Where to?” “How can I?”

Uncomfortable it may be, but necessary none-the-less. In a sense I am coming to suspect that these insistent voices must be first heard before they can be silenced and I can be still before God.

We know that God commands us to “Be still and know that I am God.” But do we know how that process of stilling occurs so that we can be obedient to his call?

The Psalm above describes a child of God in a place of stillness and contentment before God. He has “calmed and quieted his soul.” Here is a process that we need from time in order that we might be still. It’s a process of seeking God’s help to silence the internal nagging voices.

Does something within me cry out “I worry” then I must confess this to God and seek his help that it’s nagging tone might be replaced with the gentler note of “I trust.”

Does something within me cry out “I want!” then I must seek divine help that it in turn is replaced with “I am content”

The danger is of course that these noisy internal voices will, if allowed to remain un-silenced dominate any time of silence and the “still small voice” will be drowned out and unheard.

As I said silence can be uncomfortable, forcing us to confront who we are and what we are, but the reward of stillness is precious indeed. “Like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me” The reward of Christ focused stillness is nothing less than loving communion with God.

If you look to the right…

I’ve added a Google search facility to the page. Someone was kind enough to say that they thought eikon would be worth having as their home page if there was a search facility. After scratching around for a while, I found out how to do it and there it is. If you do want to make eikon your home page and you are using Internet explorer, click on the “Tools” menu at the top of the screen, select “Internet Options” and click “Use Current” in the Home page section.

I also added an Amazon search box a week or so ago. For the sake of transparency, here is the deal. If you buy stuff at Amazon and you do it through my site, Amazon pays me 5%. Obviously I’m not going to get rich if people buy a few books, but I will spend any income on eikon. For example, it would be easier to promote the site if it had a proper URL rather than www.eikonhome.blogspot.com but that kind of thing costs cash so…

Obviously if I was out to make money I would be recommending items of higher value like the rather excellent Nikon D70 which is the finest digital camera… Whoops!

The following is quoted in Dallas Willard’s “Renovation of the heart.” A.W.Tozer was one of the greatest writers on practical spirituality of the previous century. I think it’s a quote that deserves slow reading, reflection and application!

That our idea of God correspond as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us. Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.

A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.

From “The knowledge of the Holy” Notes: “Systematic theology” is basically what we believe about God. Ignoble basically means worthless.

It’s not fashionable to suggest that at least some of the problems of our world are down to the evil that comes from within us, but the Bible insists that there is a mucky well of evil inside each of us.

Yesterday morning we listened to the challenge of Romans 12:21 “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

There is a great tendency in the human heart to use the evil that is done to us to legitimise the evil that we do, but when I snap back at the rudeness of another, I am overcome by evil. When I angrily gossip the hurtful sin of another, I am overcome by evil. When I allow my woundedness to express itself in anger or resentment, I am overcome by evil. When I allow the wrong done to me by others to legitimise my character flaws, I am overcome by evil. When I allow the sin of others to cause me to distrust and hurt others by pushing them away, I am overcome by evil. To these behaviours, and to others, God says “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

In the later verses of Romans 12, there are, outlined for those who would be Jesus’ followers, a number of areas in which we will be particularly tempted to be overcome by evil rather than overcoming evil with good. Here are a few notes on them:

1. We are urged to “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” V14 We might be faced by a temptation to despise and to hate. For many of us it will be internal and not expressed in physical violence but we will be tempted to cherish resentment and hurt.
2. We are told “Repay no one evil for evil” v17 There is a great temptation to get your own back, and to seek revenge. For many of us the tools of revenge are quite sophisticated. We are tempted to use gossip, spite, or attempts to hurt emotionally.
3. Paul continues; “but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.” v17 When we confront evil, we should never be tempted to use evil to overcome. Instead we have to do what is right if we desire to honour Jesus. When we are wounded, we need to be especially careful because we can be tempted to justify actions that we would clearly recognise as morally dubious at other times.
4. “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” v18 One of the temptations we may face, is the temptation to schism. When we loose the sense of the importance to God of unity, we are entering spiritually perilous territory.
5. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” v19 When, on the receiving end of another’s sin, we are tempted to be overcome by evil, there is a parallel temptation to rely on our own capacity to seek justice and in so doing to implicitly distrust that God will ultimately see that justice is done. We need to trust that there is a day coming when all that is wrong will be made right.

So how do you overcome evil with good? Romans 12 quotes the Old Testament book of Proverbs and says: “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” v20 cf. Prov 25:21 I’ve always found this a bit of a paradoxical verse. Pouring burning coals on another’s head is not a very loving act, however kind the means employed to do so! I think the point is that evil is overcome when it is responded to with unexpected love. Instead of indulging in vengeful and hateful acts God’s people are to overcome evil by showing practical acts of love and kindness to their enemies.

Are there areas where we have been overcome by evil, and where we need to seek God’s forgiveness and help to be people who overcome evil with good?

(All scripture quotations from the ESV)

I’m currently reading Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ By Dallas Willard. Here he is quoting Tolstoy:

There is the God that people generally believe in – a God who has to serve them (sometimes in very refined ways, say by merely giving them peace of mind). This God does not exist. But the God whom people forget – the God whom we all have to serve – exists, and is the prime cause of our existence and of all that we perceive. (p44)

I want to be completely freed from any area of darkness where your light and life have not yet shone.
I turn away from all wrongdoing, and I will avoid everything that leads me into wrongdoing.

It’s wonderful how, as you walk with Jesus fragments of life that seem to lack meaning in themselves come together to form a meaningful whole.

I’ve been watching “The Monastery” (Tuesday evenings 9pm. BBC 2) The show tells the story of a group of men subject themselves to a 40 day period of following the monastic rule of life in the Benedictine Worth Abbey.

Let me make something clear, I’m not a monk, nor do I want to be a monk, but the program has stirred something inside deep me in a sense of the need for the contemplative way of life that can be lacking in our busy and hurried world. That was one fragment.

The other day, looking for some space and quiet to think and pray I walked into a local woodland. I didn’t at the time think it was a great time of prayer, but I think God taught me something, and the experience became another fragment that fitted with the first.

It wasn’t a great time of prayer, because I was distracted. As I stood in silence, the woodland came to life around me, and I became aware of a level of life and existence in the woods that I would never have experienced if I were with my (noisy) children, walking a dog, or just tramping along the pathways.

Standing still and silent in a woodland, I heard, and then saw, snakes and voles and squirrels, the normal life of the woods, normally hidden from the noisy.

I guess the two fragments together say something along these lines; In our noisy world we miss so much. Tramping through life at a pace, how many of the whispers of God pass us by unheard? How much more aware of him and his work would I be if from time to time I were to stand in stillness and quietness and just listen? Sometimes perhaps, I might hear nothing, but then at other times I might hear his whisper and know his presence and discern his voice. The question is will I seek him? Will I be still?

A final fragment…

Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” ESV.

I’ve been giving thought to this verse recently. The stillness that I have commended is not an end in itself. God is the reason for stillness. One repeated injunction of scripture is “Be still”

The very nature of seeking is that for a time at least the object of the search is not found. There will be times when the search seems unfruitful, but faith insists that He rewards those who seek him.

What is the book?

The book is: “A Hunger for God” by John Piper published by IVP in the UK; Crossway in the US.

Where did I buy it?

At Pilgrim Discount Books in Portland Oregon. If that’s too far to go you can get it from Amazon see above Or you can read it on line here.

Why did I buy it?

Having read “Desiring God” (Amazon/Online) surely one of the most significant Christian books of our age, I was eager to find out what the author had to say on the subject of fasting.

Who should read it?

Anyone who wants to understand the meaning of fasting better. Anyone who wants to grow in their delight of God. I highly recommend this one!

What did you underline?

Amongst other things:

Half of Christian fasting is that our physical appetite is lost because our homesickness for God is so intense. The other half is that our homesickness for God is threatened because our physical appetites are so intense. p14

Quoting Richard Foster… More than any other discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other things. p 19

The danger of eating is that we fall in love with the gift; the danger of fasting is that we belittle the gift and glory in our willpower. p 21

…is the physical exclamation mark at the end of the sentence: This much, O God, I long for you and for the manifestation of your glory in the world. p 22

In other words in this age there is an ache inside every Christian that Jesus is not here as fully and intimately and as powerfully and as gloriously as we want him to be. We hunger for so much more. That is why we fast. p 38

We have tasted the powers of the age to come, and our fasting is not because we are hungry for something we have not experienced, but because the new wine of Christ’s presence is so real and so satisfying. We must have all that it is possible to have. The newness of our fasting is this: its intensity comes not because we have never tasted the wine of Christ’s presence, but because we have tasted it so wonderfully by his Spirit, and cannot now be satisfied until the consummation of joy arrives. p 42

The Son of God began his earthly ministry with a forty-day fast. This should give us pause. Especially we – who are not God – have moved into ministry heedless of the battle we may have to fight. Why did Jesus do this? Why did God lead him to it? And what about us? Can we really face the superhuman hazards of life and ministry without walking with Jesus through the wilderness of fasting. p 51

Fasting is a periodic – and sometimes decisive – declaration that we would rather feast at God’s table in the kingdom of heaven than feed on the finest delicacies of the this world. p 61

…how can I maximize my enjoyment of him when every moment of my life I am tempted to make a god out of his good gifts? p 62

We fast out of longing for God’s name to be known and cherished and honored, and out of longing for his kingly rule to be extended and the consummated in history, and out of longing for his will to be done everywhere with the same devotion and energy that the indefatigable angels do it sleeplessly in heaven forever and ever. p 78

Jesus connects Christian fasting with our longing for the return of the Bridegroom. Therefore, one of the most important meanings of Christian fasting is to express the hunger of our hearts for the coming of our king. p84

…we are less sensitive to spiritual appetites when we are in the bondage of physical ones. This means that fasting is a way of awakening us to latent spiritual appetites by pushing the domination of physical forces from the centre of our lives. p 90

…most of us run the risk of being overly ’sensualised’ simply by having every craving satisfied and rarely pausing for a moment of self-denial to discover if there are alive within us spiritual appetites that could satisfy us at a much deeper level than food, and that are designed for he honor of God. Such is the appetite for the coming of King Jesus. p91

The absence of fasting is the measure of our contentment with the absence of Christ. p 93

But I see a danger. The danger is that we will subtlety slip from loving God in these moments into loving loving God…….. ….. in other words we begin to savor not the glory of God but the atmosphere created by worship. p 132

Therefore He (God) rewards acts that confess human helplessness and express hope in God because these acts call attention to his glory. p 180