the practice of the presence of God

excerpt from aforementioned book by Brother Lawrence:

That he (Brother Lawrence) had been long troubled in mind from a certain belief that he should be damned; that all men in the world could not have persuaded him to the contrary; but that he had thus reasoned with himself about it: I engaged in a religious life only for the love of God, and I have endeavored to act only for Him; whatever becomes of me, whether I be lost or saved, I will always continue to act purely for the love of God. I shall have this good at least, that till death I shall have done all that is in me to love Him. That this trouble of mind had lasted four years; during which time he had suffered much. But that at last he had seen that this trouble arose from want of faith; and that since then he had passed his life in perfect liberty and continual joy. That he had placed his sins betwixt him and God, as it were, to tell Him that he did not deserve His favors, but that God still continued to bestow then in abundance.

That we ought to make a great difference between the acts of the understanding and those of the will: that the first were comparatively of little value, and the others, all. That our only business was to love ad delight ourselves in God.

That all possible kinds of mortification, if they were void of the love of God, could not efface a single sin. That we ought, without anxiety, to expect the pardon of our sins from the Blood of Jesus Christ, only endeavoring to love Him with all our hearts. That God seemed to have granted the greatest favors to the greatest sinners, as more signal monuments of His mercy.

this book is made up of several conversations between M. Beaufort, Grand Vicar and Brother Lawrence.

Brother Lawrence came to Christ at age 18 while seeing a tree stripped of its leaves.

he considered that within a little time the leaves would be renewed and after that the flowers and fruit would appear.

in nature he saw God.

this all took place back around 1666.

my dad gave me this book.

it's purty good so far.

if you want to borrow it after I'm done, let me know.

today i have the house and my tears to myself.

i've been on the verge of crying for the past 2 weeks.

sentimental tears.

tears from the realization that i'm so broken and powerless.

last night was hard for me

but i slept it off and now, today

this house is all my own.

i recently listened to Rob Bell's podcast on joy.

excellent stuff

his Mars Hill podcasts can be found here

http://www.marshill.org/teaching/index.php

it goes back about 12 weeks.

i almost cried listening to it while running

i'm in shambles

shambles, thats a cool word.

been listening to a lot of jazz lately.

not any certain specific type,

but "A Chick From Corea" by Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey

will blow your skull to pieces

so beautiful

still listening to "Maiden Voyage" by Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea

got a nice night planned for my lady

who arrived last night via airplane.

hopefully all goes well and we can enjoi each others company

................

-Lnk-