{"id":14338,"date":"2007-07-30T13:58:17","date_gmt":"2007-07-30T13:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2007\/07\/30\/day38\/"},"modified":"2007-07-30T13:58:17","modified_gmt":"2007-07-30T13:58:17","slug":"day38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/day38\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Passion"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is what the lord says:<\/em><\/p>\n\n

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the lord, who exercises kindness, Justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. … so that no one may boast before him.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Character Check<\/strong>\nIn what area of my life am I sacrificing the best for merely the good?<\/p>\n \n

In Business Terms<\/strong>\nI commit myself to projects and plans, and then wonder how I can get them all done. This is true of the pastor, the teacher, the administrator. Indeed, it’s true of our culture, which tells us, “Do as much as you can or you’ll never make it.”<\/p>\n\n

In that sense, we are part of the world.<\/p>\n\n

I’ve discovered I cannot fight the demons of busyness directly. I cannot continuously say “No” to this or “No” to that, unless there is something ten times more attractive to choose. Saying “No” to my lust, my greed, my needs, and the world’s powers takes an enormous amount of energy.<\/p>\n\n

The only hope is to find something so obviously real and attractive that I can devote all my energies to saying “Yes.” In effect, I don’t have time to pay any attention to the distractions.<\/p>\n\n

—Henri Nouwen<\/p>\n\n

Something to Think About<\/strong>\nLet us think often that our only business in this life is to please God.\n– Brother Lawrence<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is what the lord says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the lord, who exercises kindness, Justice and Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[1731],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[156],"tax_ctp_tags":[3640,5046,5064],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-14338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-henri-nouwen","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-commitment","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-formation","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-warfare"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\nSpiritual Passion - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah warned against making such things 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