Leading people to a more intimate friendship with God
“Now I’m not a very good formal pray-er — I don’t do well at closing my eyes and reciting prayers. I’ve always found it hard to set a regular time each day to pray. But I can think passionately about people and their lives. So I do. I begin by imagining them wrapped in God’s …
“Before Friends called themselves Friends they referred to themselves as the ‘Children of Light.’ They warmed to the spiritual idea of the immediacy of Christ’s presence preached by a young man named George Fox. He spoke of ‘Christ within’ each person, a presence he called the ‘Inner Light.’ That’s based on John’s saying that ‘the …
“When we discover the secret of being inwardly at worship while outwardly at work, we find that the soul’s silence brings us to God and God to us. Silence takes us beyond the limits of consciousness and into the heart and mind and will of God.” — J. Brent Bill, “Holy Silence”, p 74 Why …
“Thomas Kelly asks a hard question — ‘Do you want to live in such an amazing divine Presence that life is transformed and transfigured and transmuted into peace and power and glory and miracle? If you do, you can. But if you say you haven’t the time to go down into recreating silences, I can …
“While our goal, as people seeking the holy, is to be in constant communion with God, there are times that holy silence calls for a specific space and time. When that’s the case, we will be drawn to make a place where that can happen. You may need to be creative… Only you know where …
“Mark’s Gospel opens with a flurry of messianic activity… Then, tucked away in a verse just before the chapter closes, we read, ‘Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.’” “Most of us miss that verse… Jesus …
“Silence begins with expectation — the expectation of encountering God. Holy silence is just not an exercise in clearing your thoughts or finding a little peace and quiet. Peace and quiet may come, but they will come as a result of having been in the presence of the ever-living, ever-loving Christ. One incentive for getting …
“As we learn the way of holy silence — a silence that expects to encounter and hear God — we begin finding our spirits in continuous communion with God. This can be true even when life rushes around us… We can be outwardly busy, while inwardly talking and listening to God.” — J. Brent Bill, …
“So how do you begin the practice of holding silence? One way to begin is to start by either sitting or lying down; whichever is more comfortable and appropriate… Then close your eyes and take a deep breath. Inhale and exhale slowly. Then do it even more slowly. It will seem forced at first… Feel …
“When we really want to hear, and be heard by, someone we love, we do not go rushing into noisy crowds. Silence is a form of intimacy. That’s how we experience it with our friends and lovers. As relationships grow deeper and more intimate, we spend more and more quiet time alone with our lover. …