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Book Review – God In My Everything by Ken Shigematsu

God In My EverythingSometimes, the best way to grow in your spiritual disciplines is to take an idea or two from those who have gone before. The early Church Fathers, the aesthetics, and others had a solid grasp on the spiritual disciplines that we seem to have lost in the struggle to survive our modern, busy, chaotic, day to day existence.

Fortunately, much of what our spiritual ancestors have written still survives. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of time (or won’t take it) to wade through all of this material to glean some nuggets of value out of it all to help our daily lives.

But Ken Shigematsu did.

After a trip to Ireland, where he toured some ancient monasteries, he began to study the life and writings of St. Benedict, and the Benedictine order that he started, and has found practical application for those ancient practices in our hectic, twenty-first century lives.

Here is the video trailer that describes the concept of God In My Everything.

In God In My Everything, Shigematsu has built a spiritual trellis, just like the ones that flowers grow on in our yards, and uses it as an illustration of how it allows certain spiritual disciplines to grow in our lives.

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Coffee Break – 09.16.2013

Coffee Break

The 4 Best Coffee Pairings For Autumn – I love a good cup of coffee. But when you pair that cup with a great little bite to eat that goes well with it, you create an explosion of taste in your mouth. The Roasterie lists the top four pairings for the fall, three of which sound incredible.

Adrift – Time lapse photography has become almost ordinary. It seems like everyone has created one. But this one is stunning.

Time Warp – Ever wonder why time seems to speed up or slow down, depending on circumstances? This article gives a nice explanation of the theories involved in our understanding and comprehension of time.

Traffic Ghost Hunting – I hate it when all of a sudden, traffic slows down to almost a stop, for no apparent reason. Apparently, there is a whole field of study trying to figure out how and why this swarm mentality behavior happens.

(End Of) Summer Life Hacks – Even though summer is almost over, the weather should be nice enough to employ most of these for a few more weeks. Regardless, they are fascinating enough to be aware of for next year.

But He’s Not My Neighbor – Sometimes, the one with the smaller need is just as “in need” as the huge need like the one in the parable of the Good Samaritan. this article gives a good reminder of that.

If you do not die to sin, you shall die for sin. If you do not slay sin, sin will slay you. – C. H. Spurgeon

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Memorize Scripture: 1 Timothy 5:9-10

Paul continues his discourse on the treatment of widows as he instructs Timothy on this matter. This discussion of widows is as lengthy as his passages on leaders earlier in the letter.

Widows frequently need assistance. Paul gives some specification for how and when that is to happen. Take a look at this week’s passage in 1 Timothy 5:9-10:

1 Timothy 5:9-10

Paul begins this paragraph by stating that a widow must not be put on the list unless she is over sixty years old. There has been some debate over just what this means. Some have taken it to mean “to count.” In other words, unless she is old enough she isn’t a concern for the church. However, due to the technical nature of the word used in the original Greek, it seems more likely that there was an official list in the Ephesian church of widows who needed some help.

Whether this is just a list of ladies who needed some financial help because of their situation, or if there was actually some sort of organized ministry, where these women would serve with specific spiritual or charitable duties for compensation has also been a topic of discussion. This stems from the fact that there is a list of qualifications given, much like the ones provided for elders and deacons.

Regardless of which description may have been the case, there were widows in need, and Paul gives Timothy some insight on how best to help them. In these verses, he gives three basic requirements that a widow must meet in order to be helped by the church.

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Coffee Break – 09.09.2013

Coffee Break

The Five Best Coffee Tourism Spots – It would be nice to structure all of my travel and vacations around the best locations to get coffee. Not only do I have a few places in the US I’d like to visit, but now around the world as well.

Bizarre Borders: Canada & The US – Ever wonder why our borders are the way they are? This YouTube video takes a brief and fun look at the border we share with Canada. I found it entertaining and informative.

23 Best Wildlife Photos From National Geographic Traveler – The National Geographic sponsors a photo contest every year, and the images submitted are simply stunning. Here is a post with the top images. Incredible shots!

8 Email Mistakes You Make – I’ve been convicted lately about my use of time. I want to be as effective as possible, while at the same time realizing that I can’t accomplish everything. One of the biggest drains in my day can be email, and this post has some helpful hints on how to manage that behemoth better.

Get Rid Of These Six Things – Along with email, Tim Challies has written this post encouraging me to eliminate distracting things from my life. While I’m not sure I can do all that he suggests, the underlying principles here are helpful for maintaining a healthy plugged in life. However, if you want to unplug, either temporarily or for good, these are six ares to start with.

Dates, Doctrines, And Dead People – One of the areas lacking in American Christianity is our understanding of church history. Our history classes don’t touch much on the church, and even those in Bible college only get a couple of semesters. But understanding where we came from is important to understanding where we are going. This post explains why, and continues into part two at the end.

Christian giving is to be marked by self-sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, not by self-congratulation. – John Stott

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Memorize Scripture: 1 Timothy 5:7-8

In much of chapter five, Paul deals with relationship issues, and the first half of the chapter deals primarily with family responsibilities concerning widows. As he gives these instructions, he lays the responsibility for care upon the family, if family is available.

But he has some harsh statements for those families that refuse to care for their widows. You can see his statements in 1 Timothy 5:7-8:

1 Timothy 5:7-8

Our society has trended away from caring for our families in some significant ways. We show little concern for our very young and our very old. We place our children in daycares and school settings where we only have to deal with them for a few hours a day. And we place our elderly in nursing homes or assisted care facilities as well.

I’m not saying there isn’t a need for both of these. But too often we neglect both of these categories of our culture because of our own need for convenience.

There was apparently a similar situation in Paul and Timothy’s culture. Members of the church were not accepting the responsibility to care for widows in their immediate families. Paul tells Timothy that these individuals were worse than unbelievers, because even the pagan and unbelieving would acknowledge the responsibility of children toward their parents.