In HOPE

 

 

 

  In HOPE 9.11

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David Timms  

 

 

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 Prayer for Today

Lord Jesus, deliver me from myself. I affirm my desire -- again -- to walk with You. Open my eyes to discern the distractions and temptations that would lure me from beholding You. Slow me down that I might not rush past or ahead of You. Grant me grace to impart to others, beginning in my marriage and family.

May Your agenda become mine. I return to You in this moment, to be with You. Realign and recalibrate me according to Your will. Amen.

 

 
Hope Happenings

Tomorrow evening -- June 18, 2009 -- the School of Graduate and Professional Studies launches its new one-year graduate management programs. The Master of Business Administration (MBA) and the Master of Science in Management (MSM) will both be offered 100% online. 

Hope International University
Fullerton  CA  92831

 

 


www.growingdeeper.com

 

"Behold the face of Jesus,
to live the pace of Jesus,
to extend the grace of Jesus." 
~ Chuck Miller

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Face, Pace, Grace

We sometimes want to be like Christ but not with Christ. We prefer to drive hard rather than stroll. And we like to associate with winners not losers.

We sincerely claim Christ as Lord, but essentially ask Him to join our endeavors. We'd like a senior partner for our ventures; a guide to explain things along the path that we choose; and a benefactor to underwrite our dreams.

This past Monday, my spiritual director Chuck Miller suggested a recalibration.

Behold the face of Jesus ...

The starting point of all spiritual formation is "the face of Jesus." After all, we don't follow His followers. We follow Him.

Our attentiveness to Christ provides the foundation for abundant life. And to the extent that we "behold" our To Do list or our computer monitors or our routines before we "behold" Him, we live off-balance, teetering and wobbling within ourselves.

... to live the pace of Jesus ...

The gospels don't describe Jesus jogging around Galilee. He may have been fitness conscious but the disciples didn't do training runs with Him. Rather, they walked. They sat. They talked. They watched. They listened. They paid attention. They remained generally unhurried.

It's strategic that the apostle Paul would later write of walking, not running, by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16).

Eugene Peterson's confrontational words still ring true: "The word busy is the symptom not of commitment but of betrayal. It is not devotion but defection. It is an outrageous scandal, a blasphemous affront."

... to extend the grace of Jesus.

"Extending grace" generally fails to show up on our list of goals for each day.

We might have plans like "work, shop, drop the kids to school, have lunch with so-and-so, do the banking, etc." But how many of us itemize "extend grace"?

It tends to be incidental not intentional. No wonder. Apart from beholding the face of Jesus and living the pace of Jesus, we'll struggle to extend the grace of Jesus because we are either too busy or too self-absorbed.

How's your alignment today. Perhaps you could take two minutes right now to behold His face, adjust your pace, and be open to grace.

In HOPE –

David

 

 

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You can find back issues of "In HOPE" (2005-2009) at http://www.hiu.edu/inhope/.

David Timms serves in the Graduate Ministry Department at Hope International University in Fullerton, California. "In HOPE", however, is not an official publication of the University and the views expressed are not necessarily those of the Administrators or Board. "In HOPE" has been a regular e-publication since January, 2001.