Pathways Press.com

Written by Ben Stuart, a contemporary author. This is an excerpt from his book “Single, Dating, Engaged, Married.”

When you have a source of life, you are a source of life. But where there is scarcity, desperation will set in. And desperation can easily become exploitation of others. If you are disconnected from a source of life, your “oxygen tank,” then you will attempt to suck life out of someone else. You will be tempted to use people to try to get your sense of self validated. You will, in a moment, become a sucker of life rather than a giver of life. And this is how toxic relationships are born. This is why so many go wrong. When we bring God-sized needs to human beings, they cannot possibly succeed. Nor can we offer them unconditional love on the days they are struggling, because they are our source! We must get a relationship with God right before we will ever get a relationship right,… because it’s in the stability of walking with Him that we have the resources to be a blessing to one another. We have to be connected to a source of life if we are going to be a source of life.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [1 John 4:7]

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Written by Whitney Hopler, a contemporary writer and editor.

Every day God gives you is a precious gift – a new opportunity to experience God’s goodness, share God’s love, and walk in God’s purposes. It can be easy to take the ordinary moments of life for granted, but each sunrise is a reminder of God’s sustaining grace, and every breath you take is evidence of God’s mercy.  You can embrace each day fully, even in difficult circumstances. When life feels overwhelming, take a break to slow down and turn your attention to the simple yet significant gift of being alive. Ask God to show you the wonder of his work in your daily life, and intentionally look for it. A moment of peace, an act of kindness, or the ability to experience the beauty of nature can all remind you that every day is a gift from God to you. Even the most challenging days of your life are still valuable gifts that God has given you – and God is right there with you, ready to help you deal with your challenges. The more you reach out to God, the more you can notice God’s presence with you in every day and in every moment. 

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.[Psalm 23:6]

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Written by Dallas Willard (1935-2013), an American philosopher known for his writings on Christian spiritual formation. This is an excerpt from his book “Renovation of the Heart.”

In renewing the language and reality of “spiritual formation” in our time and in opening afresh the way to the reality of it, the Spirit of God now calls his people to live from an adequate basis for character transformation, resulting in obedience to and abundance in Christ. This really is something different. The present moment is not an occasion to keep on doing the same things Christians have been doing in the recent past – except now “really meaning it.” It is time to change our focus, individually and in our Christian groupings. If we as Christ’s people genuinely enter Christ’s way of the heart, individuals will find a sure path toward becoming the persons they were meant to be: thoroughly good and godly persons, yet purged of arrogance, insensitivity, and self-sufficiency. Christian assemblies will become what they have been in many periods of the past and what the world desperately call for today: incomparable schools of life—life that is eternal in quality now, as well as unending in quantity.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. [Colossians 3:16]

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Written by Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900), a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.

The American lust for gold, and the breathless haste with which they work,…is already beginning to infect old Europe with its ferocity and is spreading a lack of spirituality like a blanket. Even now one is ashamed of resting and prolonged reflection almost gives people a bad conscience. One thinks with a watch in one’s hand, even as one eats one’s midday meal while reading the latest news of the stock market. One lives as if one might always “miss out on something”….Living in a constant chase after gain compels people to expend their spirit to the point of exhaustion in continual pretense and overreaching and anticipating others. Virtue has come to consist in doing something in less time than someone else.

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. [Matthew 6:24]

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Written by Pamela Pyle, a contemporary physician, missionary, author and speaker.  This is an excerpt from her book “Anticipating Heaven.”

We all are living an earthly story with a beginning, middle, and end. While aspects of our story’s closing hold mystery, we do not have to feel lost as we move toward it. We instead can lean on the support and wisdom of others who know the path ahead… Clarity can replace chaos. Assurance can overcome uncertainty. And love can conquer fear. You are not alone on this path. You are leaving the land of the dying and entering the land of the living, a place God calls home. As one story is closing, a bright new one is beginning.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. [Hebrews 11:1]

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This prayer is from the Book of Common Prayer.

O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. [Isaiah 30:15]

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Written by Jefferson Bethke, a contemporary author. This is an excerpt from his book “Take Back Your Family.”

He [God]  wants to fill the earth with His presence. It’s in His nature — true love by nature creates. It is a cup that spills over… God creates and shapes and molds and spins into existence these beginnings. Of Heaven and earth. And He intentionally only creates a pocket of order, called Eden. Most of the earth at the time of the creation narrative was untamed. Unordered. Not fruitful or multiplying. And, of course, God could have made the entire earth to be so. But He didn’t. Instead, He created a problem and commissioned His human diplomats to continue the work…You have an entire section of the earth untamed and unordered. The problem is that it needs to be so. It is beginning to be brought into the symphony of created order and shalom, but it is not. Yet…His answer was so peculiar, especially given no precedent. Out of the very mind of God the answer was to create two particularly unique image-bearing humans. Divine reflections of Him, similar in image bearing, yet obviously not the same. And then He gave these image-bearers the capacity to multiply themselves and have kids. And in that generational multiplying, the mission remains the same: order, shalom, beauty, fruition. In essence, God’s answer to the first problem in our story was a family…When I say family, I simply mean a “relational home,” as my friend John Mark puts it. A network of committed covenantal relationships and a team that commits to one another and is interconnected through a web of long-standing relationships. It’s layered and complex and older and spans generations. And having that web specifically work together and populate and bring forth his blessing into the world was one of God’s original and ideal ways of being human. And this is good news because you can be a young single adult, you can be divorced, you can be old, you can be married, you can be whatever season you are in and you are a part of some multigenerational story — for good and bad. God wants to work through that and in that and in you.

God created humankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them. [Genesis 1:27]

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Written by Rich Villodas, a contemporary pastor and writer. This is an excerpt from his book “The Narrow Path.”

Jesus is never about adjusting behavior alone. He cares about who we are becoming, not just what we do. He rejects a spirituality that doesn’t transform our hearts. To adjust our behavior—even in positive directions—without interior examination will enslave us. Said differently, we can do all the right things but never examine why or how we should do them. I know what it’s like to help others not out of deep concern but to avoid their displeasure. I’m familiar with speaking truth not because I’m compelled by God to do so but because I’m afraid of being rejected by people I respect. I’ve been an expert at saying yes to all kinds of invitations not because I fell led by God but because I’ll be seen in a positive light. The broad path is content with believing the “right” things and doing the “right” stuff, assuming that’s all Jesus wants. But a deeper look into our motivations is necessary for cultivating life with God…Slowing down—looking within—is difficult. Jesus, however, calls us to search our own hearts..He doesn’t let us live on the surface. He calls us deeper. Behavior modification without interior examination eventually leads to spiritual desolation.   

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. [Proverbs 21:2]

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