Renate's Reflections

I live in a noisy country. There is no snow and all the buildings are made of concrete so sound bounces all over the place. And while I don’t necessarily miss the cold and snowy winters of Michigan and New York, I do miss the silence a good snowfall brings. It’s always been one of the things I noticed first thing in the morning after a snowstorm; the silence. It just makes everything seem so peaceful and it gives me pause to reflect on what the Lord has done in my life. Silence and Solitude is another spiritual discipline I have recently worked to develop in my life. The concept was new to me in the sense that I did not realize it could be developed for the purpose of spiritual growth. Then, of course, I had that moment when the palm hits the forehead and I said, “Well, duh! It’s all right there in the Bible.” Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (NKJV). The psalmist understood that knowing God bet...

Pursuing a master’s degree in education is a dream that is becoming reality. I’m about 2/3 of the way through the program and it’s been challenging, often frustrating, but in all, an extremely rewarding learning experience. My most recent class was a side step from all the education courses. It concerned the Dynamics of Spiritual Growth and reading Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life was one of the textbooks. Over the next few blogs I would like to highlight some of the disciplines I found most meaningful. Not surprisingly, Bible intake was the first discipline treated in Whitney’s book and took up two chapters. Whitney says, “No Spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word” (p. 28). What had not occurred to me before reading the book were the many ways in which I could “take in” Scripture and it wasn’t that the concepts were new or even radical. I just hadn’t stretched my thinking beyond reading and studying. So, I was encouraged...