Tag: Thomas R Kelly (Page 1 of 2)

Today’s Bible Reading and an Excerpt

2 John

Greetings from the children of your sister, chosen by God.

More thoughts for meditation

There is a great deal of turmoil in our country and around the world right now, especially politically. When chaos abounds we may momentarily lose our center in Christ. This week let’s use the simple letter from John the Elder to remind us of who we are.

“…this total Instruction proceeds in two opposing directions at once. We are torn loose from earthly attachments and ambitions – contemptus mundi. And we are quickened to a divine but painful concern for the world – ador mundi. He plucks the world out of our hearts, loosening the chains of attachment. And He hurls the world into our hearts, where we and He together carry it in infinitely tender love.

Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion

The depths of the Water stage aren’t always new, profound truths previously unknown. Rather, they are often simple truths more deeply experienced. Try reading the whole book (it’s just one chapter) every day this week. Focus in on the excerpt above. Read it several times and take an extended rest with these words. Read them slowly. Let them sit in you as you sit with them.

Suggestion for Action

Finally, receive the words from John the Elder as words from someone who experienced “water” himself. Receive this promise as you enter your day.

Greetings from the children of your sister, chosen by God.

Today’s Bible Reading and an Excerpt

2 John

I have much more to say to you, but I don’t want to do it with paper and ink. For I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face. Then our joy will be complete.

More thoughts for meditation

There is a great deal of turmoil in our country and around the world right now, especially politically. When chaos abounds we may momentarily lose our center in Christ. This week let’s use the simple letter from John the Elder to remind us of who we are.

“Guidance of life by the Light within is not exhausted as is too frequently supposed, in special leadings toward particular tasks. It begins first of all in a mass revision of our total reaction to the world. Worshiping in the light we become new creatures, making wholly new and astonishing responses to the entire outer setting of life. These responses are not reasoned out. They are, in large measure, spontaneous reactions of felt incompatibility between ‘the world’s’ judgements of value and the Supreme Value we adore deep in the Center. There is a total Instruction as well as specific instructions from the Light within. The dynamic illumination from the deeper level is shed upon the judgements of the surface level, and lo, the “former things are passed away, behold, they are become new.”

Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion

The depths of the Water stage aren’t always new, profound truths previously unknown. Rather, they are often simple truths more deeply experienced. Try reading the whole book (it’s just one chapter) every day this week. Focus in on the excerpt above. Read it several times and take an extended rest with these words. Read them slowly. Let them sit in you as you sit with them.

Suggestion for Action

Finally, receive the words from John the Elder as words from someone who experienced “water” himself. Receive this promise as you enter your day. What is your plan for the joy of talking face to face with your spiritual friend?

For I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face.

Today’s Bible Reading and an Excerpt

2 John

If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement. Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work.

More thoughts for meditation

There is a great deal of turmoil in our country and around the world right now, especially politically. When chaos abounds we may momentarily lose our center in Christ. This week let’s use the simple letter from John the Elder to remind us of who we are.

“There is no new technique for entrance upon this stage where the soul in its deeper levels is continuously at Home in Him. The process of inward prayer does not grow more complex, but more simple. In the early weeks we begin with simple, whispered words. Formulate them spontaneously, “Thine only. Thine only.” Or seize upon a fragment of the Psalms: “so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.” Repeat them inwardly, over and over again. For the conscious cooperation of the surface level is needed at first, before prayer sinks into the second level as habitual divine orientation. Change the phrase, as you feel led, from hour to hour or from forenoon to afternoon. If you wander, return and begin again. But the time will come when verbalization is not so imperative, and yields place to the attitudes of soul which you meant the words to express, attitudes of humble bowing before God, attributes of lifting high your while being before God that the Light may shine into the last crevice and drive away all darkness, attitudes of approach and nestling in the covert of God’s wings, attitudes of amazement and marvel at God’s transcendent glory, attitudes of self-abandonment, attitudes of feeding in an inward Holy Supper upon the Bread of Life. If you find, after a time, that these attitudes become diffused and vague, no longer firm-textured, then return to verbalizations and thus restore their solidity.”

Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion

The process of inward prayer does not grow more complex, but more simple. The depths of the Water stage aren’t always new, profound truths previously unknown. Rather, they are often simple truths more deeply experienced. Try reading the whole book (it’s just one chapter) every day this week. Focus in on the excerpt above. Read it several times and take an extended rest with these words. Read them slowly. Let them sit in you as you sit with them.

Suggestion for Action

Finally, receive the words from John the Elder as words from someone who experienced “water” himself. Receive this promise as you enter your day. Are you a protector of the church? Are you mindful as an elder would be?

If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement.

Walk today with these words on your heart: “Thine only. Thine only.”

Today’s Bible Reading and an Excerpt

2 John

Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.

More thoughts for meditation

There is a great deal of turmoil in our country and around the world right now, especially politically. When chaos abounds we may momentarily lose our center in Christ. This week let’s use the simple letter from John the Elder to remind us of who we are.

“At first the practice of inward prayer is a process of alternation of attention between outer things and the Inner Light. Preoccupation with either brings the loss of the other. Yet what is sought is not alternation, but simultaneity, worship undergirding every moment, living prayer, the continuous current and background of all movements of life. Long practice indeed is needed before alternation yields to concurrent immersion in both levels at once. The “plateaus in the learning curve” are so long, and many falter and give up, assenting to alternation as the best that they can do. And no doubt in His graciousness God gives us God’s gifts, even in intermittent communion, and touches us into flame, far beyond our achievements and deserts. But the hunger of the committed one is for unbroken communion and adoration, and we may be sure God longs for us to find it and supplements our weakness. For our quest is of God’s initiation, and is carried forward in God’s tender power and completed by God’s grace.”

Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion

The depths of the Water stage aren’t always new, profound truths previously unknown. Rather, they are often simple truths more deeply experienced. Try reading the whole book (it’s just one chapter) every day this week. Focus in on the excerpt above. Read it several times and take an extended rest with these words. Read them slowly. Let them sit in you as you sit with them.

Suggestion for Action

Finally, receive the words from John the Elder as words from someone who experienced “water” himself. Receive this promise as you enter your day.

Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve.