"Fasting is an opportunity for feasting on God."

This past Sunday, we watched the video portion for the lesson concerning Christian "fasting". Next Sunday, June 7th, we will continue with the chapter on fasting by doing the suggested Bible Study in your participant's guide. You might want to consider reading the daily suggested Bible readings in your guide and perhaps practice one of Foster's "Ideas for Fasting" found on page 40 and 41 of our guide.

Richard's recommendations for other things to read include:
Something old: Sermon #27, Discourse on the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 6-16-18 by John Wesley; and
Something New: God's Chosen Fast by Arthur Wallis

Here are some of the questions we discussed this past Sunday if you would like to reflect before our next meeting:

How does Christian fasting differ from a hunger strike and fasting for health?
What does it mean to you to learn to feast on God?
What have you learned from your failures with fasting?
What have you learned from your successes?

Hope to see you all this Sunday!

Forms of Meditation

Today, in class we talked about the four forms of meditation outlined in Foster's book. The video dealt with two types and specifically the first one below:

1. meditation Scripturarum, the meditation upon scripture centering on the internalization and personalization of the scripture passage where the Word is allowed to become a message from God to you
2. re-collection (Middle Age contemplatives) or centering down (Quakers), a time to become still and enter the "recreating" silence, to center the mind ("palms down, palms up")
3. meditation upon the creation, giving attention to the created order, listening for the messengers of God
4. meditation upon events of our time; the attempt through meditation to find the meaning within today's events, to find "prophetic perspective"

In your participant's guide, Richard Foster provides four short steps to prepare for meditation. Take an opportunity to follow these steps at least once (hopefully more) before our next meeting. You may want to start your meditation by again practicing the lectio divina with the scripture passages provided on page 19 of your guide.

Foster also recommends the following resources for meditaion:

Some Fruits of Solitude by William Penn, 1644-1718. (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 2003)

Meditative Prayer by Richard Foster, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1983)

"Palms down, palms up" meditation technique

Begin by placing your palms down as a symbolic indicaton of your desire to turn over any concerns you may have to God. Inwardly, you may pray, "Lord, I give to you me anger toward John. I release my fear ofmy dentist appointment this morning. I surrender my anxiety over not having enough money to pay the bills this month. I release my frustration over trying to find a baby-sitter for tonight." Whatever it is that weighs on you mind or is concer to you, just say, "palms down". Release it. You may even feel a certain sense of release in your hands. After several momemts of surrender, turn you palms up as a symbol of your desire to receive from the Lord. Perhaps you will pray silently: "Lord, I would like to receive your divine love for John, your peace about the dentist appointment, your patienc, your joy." Whatever you need, you say, "palms up." Having centered down, spend the remaining moments in complete silence. Do not ask for anything. Allow the Lord to commune with you, to love you. If impressions or directions come, fine; if not, fine.
-from Celebration of Discipline (p. 31)
by Richard Foster

Celebration of Discipline

We have started our new study. After watching the introductory video, here is a little blurb from the "Leader's Insight" portion of the leaders guide:

In this passage (Colossians 2: 20-23) Paul is offering the insight that it is impossible to confront ingrained habits of sin head-on and win. We cannot control sin, no matter how tight our grip or how white our knuckles. Human will power is no match for sin. In fact, our will has the same deficiencies as the law: both are able to deal with only surface-level problems.

But we should use our pain. When on the journey of Christian formation we come to the end of ourselves, despairing over our inability to control the process of inner transformation through effort, we are most open to surrender to the indwelling presence of Christ and to the golden revelation that inner righteousness is a gift from God to be graciously received.
--Richard Foster

Please try during this week to read the daily scripture readings and practice the "Lectio Divina". This link may help: Lectio Divina

Celebration of Discipline

Well, we have finished our study of Lewis' Mere Christianity. We decided in class that a great way to continue where Lewis left off is to do a study of the Christian disciplines and how we can better incorporate them into our lives. I have added a YouTube video here to the blog which is just a sample of what the video curriculum contains. I sent a link earlier to everyone via email to the Renovare site where the curriculum is available. We have ordered the materials so we should be able to start with the new curriculum in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we will watch a couple of our Nooma DVDs.

The final questions that we did not discuss at our last meeting with regard to Mere Christianity I think I will just leave you with to think about and hopefully include in all of our intentions in this journey of faith:

Did Lewis' arguments in Mere Christianity convince you that the claims of Christianity are true?

Did reading this book make you view what it means to be a Christian in a new light?

Have you taken that step of faith personally? Have you publicly acknowledged it?

Sunday, February 15th

This coming Sunday, we will be discussing the remaining chapters of Book 3 in Mere Christianity. These chapters deal with hope and faith. There are two really important questions to consider when reading the "faith" chapters especially:

"Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods." Would you agree with this definition of faith?

"If you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. Buty trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. " How does this understanding of salvation conflict with popular ideas of what Christianity means?

What's happening this Sunday, the 8th

This Sunday, we will be discussing the rest of chapter 7, Book 3, and chapters 8 and 9. Chapter 7 deals with forgiveness, chapter 8 with what Lewis calls the "great sin", and chapter 9 with charity. Since we have decided to keep things going a little slower, I will try to keep everyone updated as to what sections we will be dealing with each Sunday.

I think we should all be really thinking about how we feel with this statement of Lewis' in chapter 8:
"According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind."

Try to highlight some of the text in these chapters that you would like to discuss and maybe we should all be thinking about how Pride affects us and our relationship with God.

New Schedule

Well, we've decided to slow things down a bit. Next Sunday, Feb. 1st, we will only be discussing chapters 6, 7 & 8 of Book 3. Specifically, we will be dealing with Christian Marriage, Forgiveness & The Great Sin. That's probably enough for fifty minutes or so.

This past Sunday we worked on some aspects of the virtues, morality and psychoanalysis and sexual morality. There is still plenty of time to catch up on the reading since we are slowing down.

Summa Theologica

Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas

Beginning our new study...

We have started our new study which should take us about six weeks. We will be reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. You will notice to the right that I have inserted a link to the study guide we will be using for our Sunday school class meetings so everyone should be able to keep up if you aren't able to attend. By next Sunday, January 11th, you should have read Book 1 which is about 30 pages or so. Please take the time to highlight passages that speak to you or you have questions about. If you want to, you can post a comment to this posting or a question and we'll see if we can get the discussion started before Sunday! Make use of of the study guide questions on the link to help you to start thinking about what you want to talk about.

This is the video I found with the audio of C.S. Lewis doing part of one of his broadcasts. There is also a link to some BBC audio where one of the only surviving broadcasts. I thought the whole thing was available but apparently not.

C.S. Lewis on Youtube

BBC audio