Hooray!On Saturday, May 2nd, Tricia graduated from the two-year certificate program in Spiritual Direction at St. Thomas Seminary in Bloom field, Connecticut. She worked hard, and I am very proud of her. She is, and will continue to be a gifted spiritual director.  One of the first jobs I had as a young man was sales clerking at our local drum shop. The proprietor was my teacher, and being a budding drummer it was marvelous for me to be around the gleaming objects of my affections. Often I was given the responsibility of opening up in the morning. A few hours later, my teacher/boss would stride in with an air of anticipation, turn to me with a twinkle, rub his hands together vigorously signaling his keen interest in hearing intriguing news from me, and ask "Whatıve we got cookin'?" Tragically, given the striking absence of even one sales quark in my body, I would generally have scarce little to tell him. I didn't like how that felt. Either did he! Nevertheless, suffering few ill-effects of that usually unnerving exchange I thought it might be of interest to tell you what Klesis has been "cookin'" In these last few months. By the time you receive this we will have completed our inaugural Listening to God Together workshop for couples. We have been toying with this idea since beginning the ministry: We had 13 couples in attendance representing 5 churches in Connecticut and Massachusetts. These couples had been married ranging from just a few weeks to over 30 years! The group jelled well together, and everyone experienced hearing the voice of the Lord through the teaching offered by Tricia and me, and time alone with Him as couples. We plan to offer more of these workshops in the fall and winter. A few weeks later we had the privilege of working with Reverend Jim Silver and a wonderful group of believers at Poquonock Community Church. We were asked to teach them how to go into the quiet and hear the Lordıs voice through Listening Prayer. I preached the sermon on Sunday morning, and then both Tricia and I taught on what the Scriptures have to say concerning listening to God, and just how to do that. We then gave them time to go into the "quiet" to be alone with the Lord so He could speak. Virtually everyone reported hearing Him, and through our discussions about the experience it became clear that some even had a gift in that area. May Jesus continue to grow Reverend Jim and the dear saints at Poquonock in relating intimately with Him. On Good Friday, I had the honor of joining 6 pastors from churches in our Presbytery, including the Executive Presbyter Jane Watt in a joint service around the theme of The Seven Last Words of Christ. I was given the phrase "I thirst." For me, it was a time to go deep into the sufferings of our Savior and try to communicate the physical pain He endured for us. The service was simple and quietly moving. The third Sunday in April, Tricia and I began teaching an evening adult class at Collinsville Congregational Church entitled: Even Greater Than - The Kingdom of Power. Building from the What is Inner Healing? class we taught there last fall the focus of this class is on how the Kingdom of God works through the believerunder the guidance and power of the Holy spirit. We're combining teaching from the scriptures with hands-on training in how the minister under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and look forward to manifestations of God's grace and power. Christian actor Paul Johnson (he has a drama ministry with his wife Nicole) this for a few days on a learning to listen retreat. Paul has a natural contemplated bent so he was able to quickly moved into listening. Tricia gave a presentation on listening to God and CPC womens' fellowship gathering. The Lord is giving her more opportunities to share her knowledge of, and experience with allowing God to build and into a relationship with his beloved. She is currently leading a small group of women in a study of Brendan Manning's book, Abba's Child: The Hearts Cry For Intimate Belonging. The prayer at out each week the is to give us opportunities to Minister inner healing, biblical counseling, spiritual direction, and marriage counseling to people from our own church, covenant Presbyterian, and people from neighboring churches. I continue to provide play maker profiles to the clients of CORE Resources in Nashville, Tenn., as well as clients at the Lord's sends directly to us. We're not to capacity yet, but the weeks are full nonetheless.  In the next few months, along with our ongoing work we will be:
 Counseling people in the body of Christ gives you a sense of what God is doing in many people as he grows and purifies his beloved. For instance, within the last six months or so, in number of Christian men and women have sought my counsel when a problem of a series of seemingly at escalating problems that threaten to overwhelm them. They ask questions like " Why is this happening to me, now? " or " Why isn't this going away? " or " Why isn't God in answering my prayer? I have prayed over and over about this." Often they will mention that they had been doing all the right things or, at least, making headway in that regard, and things seem to be going from bad to worse. They are genuinely perplexed, and growing frightened because the old formulas are not working. As I was reflecting on the questions I had been asked late, another question came into my thoughts, I presume from Holy spirit. It was " how will my people know what it is to overcome if they never know what it is to suffer trial or affliction beyond their means?" To experience God's ability to overcome whatever we face, we need to experience problems to resist our best attempts to solve them. To really know God's power we have to see it manifested. Jesus tells us in Johns gospel account that trouble has all us in it cites. But then he says " don't let it get you down, in fact cheer up! I took what the world could hit me with full bore, and wrestled it to the ground! " (John 16:33 paraphrased) Paul tells us in the book of Romans, chapter 5, but we should rejoice when trials and suffering knockers out of the saddle, and expose our underbelly is because suffering yields magnificent fruit in the form of a nail hard stubborn stick with that attitude, then character that is full bodied and deep set, and finally a hope that never lets you down because the Holy Spirit has been saturating your heart with life abounding love all the while. Peter says we should rejoice as well when it gets bad and there seems no end in sight because it is during these times faith is being made pure and strong in fires that burned through to praise, glory and honor to their rightful owner, Jesus if we embrace them. The problem is that most of us are quite a home viewing our experience through simple "cause-and-to effect" lenses: if I do what is right and good, I will be blessed; if I do what is wrong and bad, I should expect trouble or discipline to follow." While this portrayal might look too simplistic to be credible, such "works-righteousness" thinking lurks just under the surface in the lives of many Christians. The litmus test for detecting its presence happens when a person hits a stretch where the bottom drops out for no apparent reason, and does not let up. Is this spiritual warfare? Am I being punished for sin? What do I need to do to make it better? We pray. We take measures to deal with the problem. We look to find a way to make it go away. Thus our efforts at overcoming are in part attempts at being responsible with our lives, and in part, chronic and spiritually pathological drives for control, and safe self-sufficiency. Yet, God-blessed trial has as its goal the destruction of the human tendency to turn to its own ability to save itself. (Jdg. 7:2b) God abhors that. So how should we respond in stubborn trials and afflictions? Peter tells us that in humility we should willingly embrace our condition, and place ourselves under the sovereign and mighty hand of God. When He deems it right, He will "lift you up." We are to tear off our anxiety over the situation, and set our faces like flint toward the God who ardently cares for us. (lPe. 5:6-7) If He wants us to change or act, He is more than capable of letting us know in a way we can understand. If He wants us to wait, all our flailing about, and well-thought gambits will be nothing more than trying to run down the wind. You see, something more precious is happening here. To witness God overcome what has ensnared us with its tenacity and power draws us near Him. We learn to put on the crown jewels of patience, trust, faith, and humility. We become saints of substance, not cowered by adversity, not threatened by the call to sacrifice, not diminished by what the world, flesh or devil can take away because God has delivered us. We learn to live the reality of Christ our Overcomer because in difficult circumstances He sustained us, got us through the fire, turned mourning into dancing, and deserts into pasture. Otherwise, His ability to overcome in our behalf remains only an abstraction to us. If you are caught in a hard place, all roads are blocked and have been for a while, then surrender, embrace trust, and let God do with you as He would.
He is blessing you, and someday it will come clear. ~
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