Month: June 2015

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Devotional Resources

Devotional Guide: Joy

VISIO DIVINA – DIVINE SEEING

HEARING God’s Word, SEEING God’s Word, PRAYING God’s Word

The term, visio divina, is Latin for “divine seeing.” The practice of the visio divina is a method of connecting God’s Word with God’s creation using visual arts.

Theme: Joy

"I will make merry before the Lord"
“I will make merry before the Lord”

Psalm 97, 2 Samuel 6:16-23, Luke 2:22-38

Suggestions for how to practice the visio divina

  1. Place the name of God on your forehead by making the sign of the cross and saying, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
  2. Pause for a few moments with your eyes closed and take five to ten deep breaths.
  3. Look at the picture and take notice of any figures, shapes, colors or textures appeal to you.
  4. Read on of Scriptures under the picture, beginning with the Psalm. It is helpful if you use the same Scripture for a few of days (there is no hurry to finish the visio divina). Do not read the Scripture for the purpose of study, but let it speak to your heart. Take note of the emotions as well as the thoughts this passage brings to mind.
  5. Connect the Scripture to the picture. Are there common or uncommon elements between the two? Are there godly desires that you find rising to the surface of your thoughts? What is God revealing to you about who you are, about who God is?
  6. Now pray the Scriptures and picture using what you have discovered during this visio divina time.
  7. Finish by saying (if you use the visio divina in the morning), “May God order and direct my day through Jesus Christ according to his word, ” or (if you use the visio divina at night), “Grant me, O God, a restful night in Jesus Christ according to your word.”
  8. Either go about your daily routine, or lay you head on your pillow in peace.

If you like to write, you might consider journaling your thoughts when you are finished (not during) your time of meditation on God’s word.

Click on the picture to view a larger version.

God bless this journey of divine seeing.

Copyright Douglas P. Brauner

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PWTE Daily Devotion

Glass from the Past

Click on this SoundCloud link to listen to today’s PWTE daily devotion

“Indeed, in your sight a thousand years are like a single day, like yesterday-already past- like an hour in the night.” Psalm 90:4 God’s Word to the Nations

It seems that the older I get the more flashbacks I experience. I had one of those occasions when I walked around the penny arcade in Manitou Springs, Colorado. It’s not that I hung out at a penny arcade as a child, but that the arcade possessed stuff from my past gathered into one space. Pinball machines, coin fed riding stuff and window shopping items like these reminded me of my distant past.

Like my distant past, these gum machines were distorted by the pane of dirty glass that protected them. This glass perverted my view of these machines. There were water spots and reflections that made it hard to see the details of these machines.

In the same way, my past is distorted as I move into the great unknown of the future. “Stuff” gets in the way of my memories so that I’m not sure what is real and what is now my perception of the past.

However, God sees clearly my past, our past. To God, our past is as if it were today. Maybe that thought frightens us. We’d like God to lose sight of our past, or that he’d at least see our past as better than it was (isn’t that how memories usually work?). Since, by definition, God stands outside of time “a thousand years are like a single day” to God.

If the psalmist speaks truth, and I believe he does, then we’re missing the point when we focus on our past failures and sins. If today is like a thousand years to God, or better yet, two thousand years, it’s as if Jesus died for us yesterday. Jesus’ mercy for us on his bloody cross is firmly fixed in the mind of God. God’s memory is fixed on his Son’s death and resurrection so much so that they are a present reality in our lives.

We might see through the glass dimly but God never does. His view of the cross is as clear today as it was two millennia ago.

Copyright, Douglas P Brauner

Click on this link to listen to the most recent PWTE podcast. The Pursuit of Happiness

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Podcasts

Episode 002 PWTE Podcast – The Pursuit of Happiness

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Fox Run Regional Park, Colorado
Fox Run Regional Park, Colorado

In this episode of the Praying With The Eyes podcast my guest, Des Bustamante, and I discuss the pursuit of happiness. In American culture this pursuit is ingrained in our DNA from the time of the writing of the Declaration of Independence. But what does it mean to pursue happiness? What happens when we make an emotion the goal of our lives? Des and I take a hard look at how this phrase is used in modern culture. We also explore the difference between happiness and joy. The blog that we discuss is entitled, “Signs of Life.”

Blog: Signs of Life http://goo.gl/VhZ16M

Declaration of Independence: http://goo.gl/rznOoW

Internet Articles

Scripture: (Links to Biblegateway.com)