Awakening Transformation - Fr. Rob Lord+: Christ is Pulling for You

What I Am Reading

Dallas Willard: Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge
At a time when popular atheism books are talking about the irrationality of believing in God, Willard makes a rigorous intellectual case for why it makes sense to believe in God and in Jesus, the Son.
Richard Stearns: The Hole in Our Gospel: What does God expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World
"Rich Stearns has penned a passionate and persuasive book aimed at Christians who find themselves absorbed with their own existence, pursuing the American dream of health, wealth and happiness. Rich traces his own spiritual journey from having it all, to sacrificial living on behalf of those who have nothing. Not only is Rich eloquent, he's right."
Kevin W. McCarthy: The On-Purpose Person: Making Your Life Make Sense
Kevin and his family are members of All Saints here in Winter Park FL. I read his first edition of this book in 1993 and found it enormously helpful. His new revised release of this book is even more compelling. Do you feel pulled in a thousand different directions? Are your days so busy you hardly have time to think? Are you living up to other people's expectations while your own plans and dreams go unmet? In The On-Purpose Person you'll learn how to discover who you are, where you are headed, what you should do, and what's most important to you! That's being on-purpose!
John P. Kotter: A Sense of Urgency
Does your organization have a true sense of urgency? What is the greatest threat to our lives and our mission in this world? At the top of the list is complacency. John Kotter reveals the insidious nature of complacency in all its forms and guises.
Mary Poplin: Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa Taught Me About Meaningful Work and Service
"Mary Poplin takes us on a pilgrimage toward clarity about who we are and what our life amounts to. The pilgrimage is simultaneously through Calcutta and through the heart of the 'sophisticated' dynamics of university life in America. As it proceeds we gain a better understanding of the social forces that govern the university in the name of intellect--but falsely so...Dallas Willard
Dr. Dennis A. Butler: The Road to Wisdom: Becoming
Dennis was a great help to me as a spiritual friend in my previous parish. His outstanding work on human transformation and behavior has culminated in this exceptional book. Using the assesment tool, known as the Enneagram, he helps us understand the healthy and unhealthy dimenions of our personality and worldview. If you want to go deeper into the practice of self-examination, and find the wisdom to grow, read this book.
Gary A. Haugen: Just Courage: God's Great Expedition for the Restless Christian
This book will cause you to do some very real self-examination. - Rob "I dare you to read Gary Haugen without growing a bigger vision of God. He is a prophet in our day calling us to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God." —John Ortberg
Ruth Haley Barton: Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry
I’m tired of helping others enjoy God." "I just want to enjoy God for myself." With this painful admission, Ruth Haley Barton invites us to an honest exploration of what happens when spiritual leaders lose track of their souls.
Gary A. Haugen: Good News About Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World
"I defy anybody to emerge from exposure to this book unscathed. In fact, my advice to would-be readers is 'Don't! Leave the book alone!'--unless you are willing to be shocked, challenged, persuaded and transformed." —John Stott
Brian McLaren: Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices
If I want to see change in the world, the change needs to begin in myself. If I want to see the world become more peaceful, for example, I need to become a person of peace. If I want the world to become less consumptive, I need to become more self-disciplined, and so on. So, to be the change we want to see in the world, we need spiritual practices that help us change.
Adam Hamilton: Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics
Everyone agrees that America is polarized, with ever-hardening positions held by people less and less willing to listen to one another. No one agrees on what to do about it. One solution that hasn’t yet been tried, says Adam Hamilton, is for thinking persons of faith to model for the rest of the country a richer, more thoughtful conversation on the political, moral, and religious issues that divide us.
Mark Galli: Beyond Smells & Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy
"In this warm and engaging book, Mark Galli makes a compelling case for the relevance of Christian liturgy in our postmodern, individualistic age. Through lucid examples and moving personal testimony, Gallie explains the countercultural appeal of liturgical worship that spans the denominational spectrum."
N. T. Wright: Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
For years Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven. Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age.
Kevin G. Ford: Transforming Church: Bringing Out the Good to Get to Great
Using the story of five churches wrestling with change and searching for genuine growth in their ministry, The Transforming Church identifies the five dysfunctions of an unhealthy church and the five characteristics of a growing, healthy congregation. Hopeful and encouraging in tone, Kevin Ford will help churches identity and resolve common frustrations churches face and become a healthy church that is relevant and life-giving to society
N. Graham Standish: Humble Leadership: Being Radically Open to God's Guidance and Grace
“Humble” and “leadership” may seem oxymoronic, but Standish argues that the Christian tradition has twinned the two—that from the desert fathers and mothers through medieval mystics to the Reformers and modern thinkers like Thomas Kelly, some of history’s most passionate and effective spiritual leaders understood and demonstrated the power of humility in relation to their vocations to lead.

May 16, 2007

Christ is Pulling for You

I remember hearing Dallas Willard preach a homily where he spoke of the meaning of the Ascension of Christ. What struck home with me in that homily was not only the obvious truth that Jesus is now reigning as the Lord of all, but something even more wonderful.

As our great high priest, fully acquainted with our humanity, Jesus is now interceding for us. he is praying for us.

Willard put it this way: Jesus is pulling for you. You are being pulled closer into the heart of God.

I came across another helpful expression of this same truth: "This ascension of Jesus Christ is good news for us as Christians, and through us, for our world. It means that God loves, values, holds, and will transform our fragile and broken humanity in Christ. It means that, at the Ascension, Jesus took all of human life, which he cared for so deeply, and brought it "into the heavenly places," into the very heart of God. This includes the suffering refugee, the abused child or spouse, the victim of war or terror, the lonely one in the nursing home, the one who struggles with depression or a lost sense of worth and value, those who are sick, all who are in difficult transitions in life. All of human life, at the Ascension, moves even more emphatically to God's side! All, in Christ, are moving, sometimes with sparks flying, more deeply into God's being and becoming. In Christ's Ascension we have a vision of humanity in all of its depth and breath being taken up into, being pulled toward, the heart of God in Christ."

May you have a Blessed Ascension Day. Spend some time reflecting on the fact that Jesus is pulling for you.

With you on the Journey,

Rob+

May 16, 2007 | Permalink

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Good Places To Visit

Covenant
We embrace a historic orthodoxy that is generous in spirit, confident in the contribution evangelical-catholics can make to Anglicanism, and welcoming of the diversity of traditions within North American Christianity.
Fulcrum: Renewing the Evangelical Center
Fulcrum aims to represent the centre ground of evangelical Anglicanism in the church and in wider society
All Saints Episcopal Church, Winter Park, Florida
The Parish I serve as Rector
Jesus Creed
Exploring the significance of Jesus and the Orthodox Faith for the 21st Century.
NASHOTAH HOUSE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
This is my seminary where I attended from 1977-1980. It remains one seminary where Mere Christianity in the Catholic and Evangeical tradition is honored and where clergy are trained in the richness of the Anglican Tradition.
Living Church Web Site
A good source of news about the Episcopal Church
Renovare
The ministry of Richard Foster, helping churches with making disciples and spiritual transformation
Bishop N.T. Wright Website
N.T. Wright is a leading New Testament Scholar and Theologian in the Anglican Communion. Solid and dynamic reading!
World Of Your Making
My twin brother and fellow Episcopal Priest's weblog
The Northumbria Community
A "new monasticism" community in Northern England and the Holy Island of Lindisfarne

Awakening Transformation - Fr. Rob Lord+

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