Community....

I am moved by what Peter Hoover, a friend wrote about visiting a christian community:

Our trip to the Danthonia Community goes down as one of the best trips we have ever taken -- relaxing, thoroughly enjoyable, and the kind one can spend a long time thinking about and learning from.

The most valuable thing, for me, was to see how an entire community can function so well with so little preaching and so little emphasis on rules and order. Yet, through opening themselves to the Spirit's leading, and to one another, the brothers and sisters living there have to a very large degree attained exactly what all of us strive after and long for. They live one with another in peace. They enjoy one another's presence, and they have a large number of eager, spiritually-minded young people throwing themselves into the cause.

What it takes, the Danthonia believers told me, is for everyone to become inwardly silent to where we can hear God speaking to us. Too many times we meet, not to listen, but to tell one another everything we know. That way nobody learns anything and no one can hear the voice of God at all.

Adults Communications

Every Tuesday I meet with a small group of friends to share faith and life. At the last meeting, we talked a lot about communication. A woman said that she (and many other women) wish that men read wishes from the eyes and that they think this is an expression of true love.
Thought: Hmm. If this is the expression of true love, why does not even God do it - although he is probably the only person who will ever be in a position to be able to. But even he expected to request that we speak openly and clearly. "You have nothing, because you do not ask" James describes the results of not formulated and expressed ideas.
Perhaps, therefore, because formulating desires gives a lot of energy. Yesterday I spoke with a woman in terms of future prospects. She told me much about what she no longer wants. I asked her to formulate what she wants instead. Reaction: surprised silence - and then very powerful formulation with shining eyes: "I want that!"
Perhaps God therefore does not read our desires of the eyes, because it is an expression of his love, and to respect us as a comparison to be taken seriously.
I find it exciting. What do you think?

Originally written by Kerstin Hack on Saturday, December 13, 2008 @ 09:14

Communication

In the Bible there is a passage that I am very fascinated of. It comes from the story of Job (Job 2, 11-13):

11 When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. 12 When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. (New International Version)

Seven days silence ... "because they saw that his pain was very great!". Silence is not (necessarily) the absence of communication - it can be a very profound expression of communication. Connectedness, which is deeper than words.

Tonight, I have dreamed of a small, two-year-old boy that I like very much - one of my "favorite children." In the dream he has laid his hand on my cheek. Silent communication.

In recent months I have read Obama's biography, now I read the story of Leanne Payne, a woman who experienced a lot in the area of inner and physical healing by God. Obama has the experience of many conclusions only by images, which he tells of his life. You can guess what individual experiences have triggered in him, but he leaves room for interpretation. Leanne Payne, however, is very clear and direct. There is another form of communication, to which I must get used again.

I myself am a woman, who uses words happily and actively. But I would like to learn more to communicate differently. God talks to me in the colors of nature and the strong wind or gentle exercise, "Brother Sun and Sister Moon" as a sign disclosing his communications to be seen. And just as Jesus told many stories and left space. Space for meetings, space for own interpretation, space for life.

Originally written by Kerstin Hack on Sunday, November 16, 2008 @ 13:49

The Ten Commandments

Actually, I do not quote from BILD (German newspaper), but if they translate (even without distortion) the "Ten Commandments for bloggers," which created the British Evangelical Alliance in line with the original Ten Commandments had, is that a valuable LINK. The "Wiener Krone" (Vienna crown) takes the easy way. The quote is simply the English original.
The World commented - very exciting - for the third commented:

If God had not presented Moses the Ten Commandments on stone tablets but by e-mail, the third command would probably be: "Remember the Sabbath day and keep one day a week away from your blog." Because if God already had taken electronic communications into account, then he would have been aware that there is a major threat to all holidays and the peace of mind of the people by incessant e-mailing, chatting and blogging, with what managers just as unemployed hairdressers destroy their rhythms.

Whether that is something for me to take over, I still do not know ... because I also write for relaxation and sometimes I encounter God (of course not always).

Originally written by Kerstin Hack on Monday, October 06, 2008
@ 08:47