From Minds To Matters

Last night, I sat with my wife and two friends praying for, and ministering to, a wonderful young person. God met us in a beautiful and tangible way in that time.

For all our discussion about the emerging Church, it can seem to be a primarily cerebral exercise, engaging the disciplines of history, theology, philosophy and metaphysics.

Yet people will always be people, no matter their cultural milieu or -ism, and community will make us tick.

Furthermore, there will always be the need for the “tools in the tool belt” that Jesus gave to the Church — the tools of healing, deliverance, redemption and care that infuse the Kingdom into lives by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Our capacity to be strong disciples is not only based on the form of worship we choose today, or eventually choose, but rather on the content of the Kingdom being lived out in our lives. Some choices will strengthen that content within us, others will degrade it.

Let’s major on the majors as the conversation continues. Let’s read and live out the gospels — as often as we read the blogs and books.

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Sheltering Mercy: Prayers Inspired by the Psalms

Sheltering Mercy, along with its companion volume, Endless Grace, helps us rediscover the rich treasures of the Psalms—through free-verse prayer renderings of their poems and hymns—as a guide to personal devotion and meditation.

The church has always used the Psalms as part of its prayer life, and they have inspired countless other prayers. This book contains 75 prayers drawn from Psalms 1-75, providing lyrical sketches of what authors Ryan Smith and Dan Wilt have seen, heard, and felt while sojourning in the Psalms. Each prayer is a response to the Psalms written in harmony with Scripture. These prayers help us quiet our hearts before God and welcome us into a safe place amid the storms of life.

This artful, poetic, and classic devotional book features compelling custom illustrations and foil-stamped hardcover binding, offering a fresh way to reflect on and pray the Psalms.