Most of life is ordinary, and God gave us ordinary life as a means of knowing the truth.
Category Archives: Blog
How To Fail Successfully: The Ordinary Way (Part 1)
I once attended a church conference where a Tent of Prophecy was set up in the parking lot. At some point in the conference we were invited to enter the tent and receive a prophetic word.
Eternity’s Sunrise: Verses On Joy
Last time I published a selection of quotes about joy and happiness. This week I offer some of my favorite verses on the same theme. To begin with, two poems by William Blake:
A Joyful Mystery: Thoughts on Happiness
In 2003 I published a book about joy entitled Champagne for the Soul. While working on the book, I began collecting quotes about happiness, a practice I continue to this day. I wish some of the recent quotes I’ve found could have made it into the original book. But as it’s too late for that, I present a few of my favorites here:
Horse and Train: How a Photorealist Portrays Angels (The Art of Alex Colville, Part 2)
Alex Colville’s art is full of black animals: dogs, cats, crows, horses. Consider his most famous painting, “Horse and Train.”
Dog and Priest: Which Is Which? (The Art of Alex Colville, Part I)
The Canadian painter Alex Colville (1920-2013) was that most curious of artistic hybrids, both a realist and a modernist. In fact art critic Jeffrey Myers, in an article entitled “Dangerously Real,” called Colville “one of the greatest modern realist painters.”
Let’s Pretend: Prayer as Serious Child’s Play
The backyard of our former house featured a neighborhood playground. While sitting on my deck one day, I overheard two little girls at play.
The Night Stair: Contemplative Prayer and the Spirituality of Sleep
One of the many books I hope to publish one day is The Night Stair: Reflections on Contemplative Prayer.
First of All Pure: How to Discover the Wisdom of God
A while back I wrote a blog on “The Green-Letter Bible” in which I suggested highlighting in green the rhema words of God—that is, those verses which from time to time we hear Him speak personally to us. For me, one of those verses is James 3:17: “The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure.”
Marriage: A Fire of Roses
My good friend Murray Phillips, a renowned wilderness painter and one of the kindest and most interesting people I have ever known, died on March 1 of a brain tumor, the day after his third wedding anniversary.