On Saturday I witnessed a profound change in our junior-high-age nephew. He’s not usually the friendliest kid, so I was caught off guard when he saw me in the crowd and came right up and gave me a hug. “Uncle Tim I’ve been going to church,” were his first words. “This is my friend who’s been taking me” (we’ve been praying for such a friend for a long time). As we talked and I looked at the gentleness in his face and sensed the softness of his heart, I felt like I was meeting him for the first time.

How do people change? More specifically, how do we move from being like we currently are to being like Jesus? The short answer is this: we spend time in the presence of God. Travis put this well on Sunday night when he told us we become like what we worship. Worship, committing ourselves to a community of believers, personal prayer and Bible reading, receiving teaching, serving others – these are all spiritual disciplines, and all have this in common: they are ways in which we place ourselves in God’s presence, and open ourselves to his work of shaping our hearts to look more and more like his.

This Saturday we’ll be diving deep into this topic, exploring what the spiritual disciplines are and are not, learning fourteen or fifteen of the “classic” disciplines that saints through the ages have made part of their lives, and spending time in God’s presence working through which of these disciplines each of us most needs and which best suit us as individuals.

If you are looking to jumpstart your spiritual life, feel like you need to go deeper but aren’t sure how, or even are just bored with your spiritual routine, I think you’ll find this seminar/day retreat to be a real blessing. Reply to this email if you plan to come but have not yet signed up so we can be sure to have enough materials and food. Our time will go from 8:30am – 3:30pm at Delthorne Park, and $10 covers both food and materials.

Lord bless you my friends, and we’ll see you this weekend –

Tim
Mt 6:33