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Showing posts from November, 2017

How Body Prayer and Biology Enhance Our Prayer Life

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What is Body Prayer? I recently spent some time at a monastery . At the monastery, they had a labyrinth that I walked through. A labyrinth, unlike a maze, has no false turns . It is a continuous single path that leads to a centre (as pictured below). Image from Labyrinth Builders It is said that you enter a maze to lose yourself and a labyrinth to find yourself. At the time of walking the labyrinth, I was at a great crossroads in my life. As I walked I prayed about the direction of my life. Was I heading in the right direction? Walking and praying I began to move further away from the centre of the labyrinth. I began to wonder if I had gone wrong somewhere or started in the wrong place. I stuck to my course and eventually reached the centre of the labyrinth. I felt a great sense of peace, that even though I was not where I expected to be at this point in my life, I was on a good course and one that God was using. This is body prayer.

3 Reasons Jesus Stopped at a Sacred Well in John’s Gospel

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Jesus didn’t have to stop at a sacred well on his way from Jerusalem to Galilee. He could have taken a different route. He could have gone with his disciples into town to buy food. Why did Jesus stop at a sacred well in Samaria? Over the past few blogs, we have been looking at Jesus’s reactions to several Jewish institutions in John’s Gospel: A wedding, the Temple, and a rabbi . We have looked at how each of these institutions points towards Jesus as their true fulfillment .* The wedding representing the ushering in of the Kingdom ofGod, through Jesus. The Temple representing Jesus as the ultimate touch-point between heaven and earth . The rabbi representing Jesus as the ultimate teacher – but much more than a teacher – a bringer of a new life . In this post, we are going to look at a sacred well and how Jesus uses this imagery to reveal something about Himself. The story in Brief Jesus and His disciples are heading from Jerusalem to Galilee

5 Things That Help Us Understand The Phrase ‘Born Again’ In John 3

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What does it mean to be born again? For many, the term has come to mean adherence to a particular geographical and political movement. For many others the term is just as confusing as it was for Nicodemus 2000 years ago. My last 2 posts have covered Jesus’ reaction to 2 integral Jewish institutions in Johns Gospel: A wedding , and the Temple . We looked at how Jesus took those institutions and showed that He is the reality to which these institutions point* . The water into wine representing the coming Kingdom of God – through Jesus. The clearing of the Temple representing Jesus as the true touchpoint between heaven and earth. In this post, we look at Jesus’ reaction to another Jewish Institution: The Rabbi . And how this helps us understand the term ‘born again’. The Story In Brief The story in question takes place at night, when Nicodemus, a religious leader approaches Jesus. Nicodemus starts with assertions about who he believes Jesus is: a teacher fr