• sacred
    Featured,  Spiritual Formation,  Spiritual Growth,  Spiritual Maturity

    The Way of the Sacred

    The concept of the sacred is fuzzy in this profane world in which we live. Most people think of priests in robes intoning lengthy Latin phrases or perhaps a cathedral comes to mind. The sacred demands a solemn mindset, a long face, and soft voices. None of this is true, of course, being just an imitation of the sacred. The priests and the massive stone churches with their intricate stained glass windows may or may not participate in the sacred. The definition of sacred is ‘connected to God’. Rituals seem connected to God, but often, they are meaningless repetitions of something that mentions God at regular intervals. But the Christian,…

  • Heart
    Heart,  Holy of Holies,  Holy Place

    The Road to Jerusalem is in Your Heart

    Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.  Psalm 84:5 The heart is often under attack in the church.  It seems that one verse in Jeremiah stands for the whole of scripture’s stand on the heart.  “Your heart is deceptive and desperately wicked,” preachers tell me, but then I am told to guard my heart, for out of it comes the wellsprings of life, according to Proverbs.  Seems contradictory. The New Testament is kinder to the heart, telling me to love others from the heart, to love God with a pure heart, and not to lose heart.  And if my heart condemns…