Category Archives: seeking understanding

I once read that icons of the Orthodox tradition should not be thought of as paintings, but as windows to heaven… they shed an illumination of the Holy for our ears to behold. Last week in Belgrade at Saint Sava’s church…

I prayerfully pondered several icons… in a series of posts today and tomorrow, I give you some windows into heaven.

Oh, it was not on purpose… but, my now-deceased Canon did not grab the clearest of images due to lack of mono-pod, inability to do settings for various reasons, etc… BUT, I kinda like the softness that the bit of a blurred effect gives, kinda like we’re looking through a glass that is smudged… get it?

Recently I sat with a couple who are planting churches in a place where churches are neither strong nor easily found. They are using a set methodology which makes sense to me but I will not discuss here… What I want to do in this post is to do a bit of contextualizing (how’s that for a word?)… I want to use the questions in my work (you know: riding trains, drinking coffee and asking questions…

1. What are you thankful for today?

2. What are you struggling with lately? -or- What is causing stress in your life?

3. [after reading a text] What does this story teach me about who God is?

4. What does this story teach me about what humanity is really like?

5. What will I do differently in my life as a result of this story?

6. What should we do together to obey this message from God?

7. Who could you share this story with?

Now, I sat and took notes from my friends, and then another friend from another city typed them up after we talked about the ways that these questions could help us and others in knowing God and living life better for Him. I have made some further modifications to some of my scribbling of the questions to make them shorter and am seeking to make them clearer.

What are ways you would further edit these questions?

Please note that these questions are designed to be used in conjunction with reading passages of Scripture in a small group setting. Can you see how they could be helpful to you in understanding God and life a little better? But I can also see how these questions could be used in a lot of other ways to pull understanding of God out of lots of things (General Revelation does exist).

I’m excited about how these simple questions can help create an ethos of making disciples… What do you think?

Current dire circumstances that are caused by past decisions were a topic of discussion the other day. I was visiting a friend conversing about how past decisions had created some tough issues they were dealing with.
Up in Hungary (I’m writing from Croatia) at lunchtime in many/most restaurants a set menu is offered for a less expensive price, its called the napi menü (daily menu – anybody remember the blue pate special? no? oh well).
If one needs to eat out often, this is the way to go. You save money. But, there is another advantage – you get to try all kinds of genuine Hungarian dishes that you might not order from a several page menu. When faced with a menu full of choices, many people go to what they know and can afford. This is safe – humans like safe. Going with the set menu (napi menü) means you don’t have to choose, you just go with the choice of the restaurant, you take the risk to eat what they have prepared. As one who leans toward the adventurous side, I love taking the risk. Sometimes I don’t even look at the sign or ask, I just order and eat.
So, the other day, when discussing how our choices often have long lasting impact… I said “Life is not a napi menü.” Lots of choices lay before is… we require wisdom to make good ones. I have found that God gives and builds wisdom in us. He uses experiences to teach us wisdom, but he will also just give us wisdom (James talked about this) in making decisions and then living with them and learning from them.
So, where will you eat lunch today? Will you order from the menu from choices you know and are safe? Or will you take the risk of the napi menü?
or just eat the burek…