Partakers Christian Podcasts

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Letters - Letter 9 Enclosing a letter to a corresponding sister, whom he regards with respect tinged with fear. His old theme concisely put. THE enclosed is an answer to that which I received from --; pray deliver it to her. She seems to me full of good will, but she would go faster than grace. One does not become holy all at once. I recommend her to you: we ought to help one another by our advice, and yet more by our good examples. You will oblige me to let me hear of her from time to time, and whether she be very fervent and very obedient. Let us thus think often that our only business in this life is to please GOD, that per

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Letters - Letter 8 Concerning wandering thoughts in prayer. You tell me nothing new: you are not the only one that is troubled with wandering thoughts. Our mind is extremely roving; but as the will is mistress of all our faculties, she must recall them, and carry them to GOD, as their last end. When the mind, for want of being sufficiently reduced by recollection, at our first engaging in devotion, has contracted certain bad habits of wandering and dissipation, they are difficult to overcome, and commonly draw us, even against our wills, to the things of the earth. I believe one remedy for this is, to confess our faults, and to h

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Letters - Letter 7 At the age of nearly fourscore exhorts his correspondent, who is sixty-four, to live and die with God and promises and asks for prayer. I pity you much. It will be of great importance if you can leave the care of your affairs to, and spend the remainder of your life only in worshipping GOD. He requires no great matters of us; a little remembrance of Him from time to time, a little adoration: sometimes to pray for His grace, sometimes to offer Him your sufferings, and sometimes to return Him thanks for the favors He has given you, and still gives you, in the midst of your troubles, and to console yourself with Hi

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Letters - Letter 6 To a member of the order who had received from him a book, and to whom he again enlarges on his favourite topic. Encouragement to persevere. I have received from Mrs. -- the things which you gave her for me. I wonder that you have not given me your thoughts of the little book I sent to you, and which you must have received. Pray set heartily about the practice of it in your old age; it is better late than never. I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied without the practice of the presence of GOD. For my part I keep myself retired with Him in the depth of center of my soul as much as I can; and while I am so with Him

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Letters - Letter 5 Prayer for a sister who is about to make a vow and profession. A fresh insisting upon the necessity and virtue of practicing the Presence of God. I received this day two books and a letter from Sister, who is preparing to make her profession, and upon that account desires the prayers of your holy society, and yours in particular. I perceive that she reckons much upon them; pray do not disappoint her. Beg of GOD that she may make her sacrifice in the view of His love alone, and with a firm resolution to be wholly devoted to Him. I will send you one of those books which treat of the presence of GOD; a subject which, in my opinion, cont

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Letters - Letter 4 Writes of himself as of a third person, and encourages his correspondent to press on to fuller practising of the Presence of God. I have taken this opportunity to communicate to you the sentiments of one of our society concerning the admirable effects and continual assistances which he receives from the presence of GOD. Let you and me both profit by them. You must know, his continual care has been, for above forty years past that he has spent in religion, to be always with GOD; and to do nothing, say nothing, and think nothing which may displease Him; and this without any other view than purely for the love of H

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Letters - Letter 3 For a soldier friend whom he encourages to trust in God. WE have a GOD who is infinitely gracious, and knows all our wants. I always thought that He would reduce you to extremity. He will come in His own time, and when you least expect it. Hope in Him more than ever: thank Him with me for the favours He does you, particularly for the fortitude and patience which He gives you in your afflictions: it is a plain mark of the care He takes of you; comfort yourself then with Him, and give thanks for all. I admire also the fortitude and bravery of M. GOD has given him a good disposition, and a good will; but there is i

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Letters - Letter 2 Difference between himself and others. Faith alone consistently and persistently. Deprecates this state being considered a delusion. Not finding my manner of life in books, although I have no difficulty about it, yet, for greater security, I shall be glad to know your thoughts concerning it. In a conversation some days since with a person of piety, he told me the spiritual life was a life of grace, which begins with servile fear, which is increased by hope of eternal life, and which is consummated by pure love; that each of these states had its different stages, by which one arrives at last at that blessed cons

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Letters - Letter 1 Since you desire so earnestly that I should communicate to you the method by which I arrived at that habitual sense of GOD's Presence, which our LORD, of His mercy, has been pleased to vouchsafe to me; I must tell you, that it is with great difficulty that I am prevailed on by your importunities; and now I do it only upon the terms, that you show my letter to nobody. If I knew that you would let it be seen, all the desire that I have for your advancement would not be able to determine me to it. The account I can give you is: Having found in many books different methods of going to GOD, and divers practices of the

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Conversations - Fourth Conversation The manner of going to God. Hearty renunciation. Prayer and praise prevent discouragement. Sanctification in common business. Prayer and the presence of God. The whole substance of religion. Self-estimation. Further personal experience.   He discoursed with me very frequently, and with great openness of heart, concerning his manner of going to GOD, whereof some part is related already. He told me, that all consists in one hearty renunciation of everything which we are sensible does not lead to GOD; that we might accustom ourselves to a continual conversation with Him, with freedom and i

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Conversations - Third Conversation Faith working by love. Outward business no detriment. Perfect resignation the sure way.   He told me, that the foundation of the spiritual life in him had been a high notion and esteem of GOD in faith; which when he had once well conceived, he had no other care at first, but faithfully to reject every other thought, that he might perform all his actions for the love of GOD. That when sometimes he had not thought of GOD for a good while, he did not disquiet himself for it; but after having acknowledged his wretchedness to GOD, he returned to Him with so much the greater trust in Him, by

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we continue our Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Conversations - Second Conversation Love is to be  the motive of all. Once in fear, now in joy. Diligence and love. Simplicity the key to Divine assistance. Business abroad as at home. Times of prayer and self-mortification not essential for the practice. All scruples brought to God. (The audio continues the conversation...) Right Mouse click or tap here to save this as an audio mp3 file

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (being Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence) G’day! Welcome to Partakers! Today we start a Sunday series, where we are reading from a book by Brother Lawrence “The Practice of the Presence of God”… This book is available for you to freely download at various websites! Brother Lawrence was alive in the 1600s and this book of his details about how a person can benefit from the steady and soothing connection with God and to God. We have much to learn in the 21st century from this 17th century brother in Christ and that is what we hope each of us will gain from these conversations and letters recorded for us. Brother Lawrence gives open advice and we will see his passion for spiritual concerns as he went about his work in the monastery - in the kitchens and as a cobbler. In these recordings, we see how he rejoices in the mundane duties, his persistent prayer life and was well known for his kindness, sympathy and willingness to hel

The Spirit Explodes Part 22 of 22 - The journey to Rome – at last. Acts 27:1 – 28:31 by Roger Kirby It really is rather puzzling that Luke spent so much space on his precious scroll describing this sea journey from which we, like everybody else, are not going to be able to get much spiritual nourishment. ~~ There are at least 3 possible reasons: this sort of exciting sea voyage complete with shipwreck was commonplace in Greek literature and Luke wanted his work to fit the normal pattern to make it as acceptable a read as possible; this is a ‘we’ passage, indicating that Luke himself was on this voyage and so was complying with the expectation of those days that historical writers should have had some involvement in the events they described; Luke wanted to set Paul’s journey to Rome and his death there in parallel to Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and his death, thus showing how the life of a Christian should imitate that of Jesus. Question 1: What was Paul’s attitude to his fellow travellers and th

The Spirit Explodes Part 21 of 22 - Roman Justice. Acts 23:12 – 26:32 by Roger Kirby This lengthy section, though important in showing to Theophilus that Paul was innocent of any crime against Roman law and providing the opportunity for Luke to recount the story of Paul’s conversion for the third time, is of no great interest to us. So we will take it at the gallop. First there is the rather amusing account of how Paul started out on his much desired journey to Rome. Read Acts 23:12 – 35. What is interesting here is that the young man, Paul’s nephew, is able to gain access to the commander of the garrison. This suggests that he, and therefore Paul’s family, were of some considerable status and rank. Their society was exceedingly status conscious. Everyone knew where they stood in the hierarchy and acted accordingly. We have already seen this in the way that the commander reacted to the information that Paul was born a Roman citizen while he had to purchase his. That this comparatively young man is able t

The Spirit Explodes Part 20 of 22 - Jewish justice. Acts 21:1 – 23:11 by Roger Kirby From this point on Luke tells his story with big incidents, difficult to ask questions about. These first two and a half chapters are about how Paul was tried before the Jewish authorities and found innocent; the next two and a half are about how the Romans found him innocent; the last two tell the story about his voyage to Rome. We will have to take them in those big chunks with more explanation and less questioning than we have been used to.  But first Paul still has to get to Jerusalem. Luke is still with him on this journey and so we get a vivid account of where they went. Read Acts 21: 1–16. Luke must have been aware that he was leaving a great puzzle behind for all this readers. In the last chapter he records Paul saying: ‘compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem’. Here he tells us the Christians in Tyre ‘through the Spirit urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem’. Question 1: How can the Spirit have said the

The Spirit Explodes Part 19 of 22 ~Goodbye and Encouragement to the Ephesians ~Acts 20:1-38 by Roger Kirby   There is a very end of term feel to this chapter. Things do not go according to plan. One student falls asleep in the middle of a lesson. Then Paul exhorts everyone to a vigorous future just like a headmaster at an end of term assembly.  Question 1: What more does Paul do than the work of an evangelist? Question 2: What was Paul’s attitude to danger, as when the Jews, perhaps Jews planning to sail on the same boat as him, plotted against him? Question 3: In what particular things is he telling them, and therefore us, to follow his example? Question 4: An image from slavery is a poor one to relate to Paul’s description of how the elders in Ephesus were to operate. What better image of where overlooking occurs can you think of than that? Question 5: How do we know what is the truth to which we are to firmly adhere? Right Mouse click to download episode 19 as an audio mp3 file

The Spirit Explodes Part 18 of 22 ~Success and trouble in Ephesus. ~Acts19:1–41 by Roger Kirby Some time has passed since the main events we read about in the last study. Since Paul left Corinth he has been to Jerusalem and Antioch, travelled through the area he has already been to in the south of what is now Turkey and then travelled over land to Ephesus in west Turkey. As already noted Ephesus was a large city, third largest in the Empire, and correspondingly important both to Rome and the developing churches. Though it is interesting to note that in the book of Revelation the church in Ephesus is warned that ‘if you do not repent I will remove your lamp stand from its place’ and they did not repent and the city no longer exists today except as ruins. This episode has clearly been put next to that about Apollos not knowing the baptism of Jesus. This time the situation is much clearer: although they are called disciples they did not have the gift of the Holy Spirit. When asked whether they had receiv

The Spirit Explodes Part 17 of 22 The magnificent couple Acts 18:1–28 by Roger Kirby   I am going to cheat a little in this study! All our recent ones have been determined by geography – following Paul’s travels. If we do that here we shall have a very short study on Corinth followed next time by a very long one on Ephesus, so I am going to focus on Aquila and Priscilla, the most significant couple in the early church. Our study will cover them in both Corinth and Ephesus and glide over the fact that in between those two cities Paul finished his second journey, spent time at Antioch, and then started his third journey. Corinth was an unpromising place. It was more important than Athens in all except cultural matters. It was a seaport on the narrow isthmus of land between southern and northern Greece (as we call it now). It was a vigorous commercial centre notorious for loose living. Yet it proved to be more receptive to the Gospel than many other quieter cities. Read Acts 18:1–4. These verses intr

The Spirit Explodes Part 16 of 22 Many challenges! Acts 17:1 – 34 by Roger Kirby   There are many intriguing things happening in this part of the journey as the apostolic band travels south towards the great cities of Athens and Corinth. It sounds as though they did not stop for more than a night until they reached Thessalonica, the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia. Unlike Philippi it was a free city in the Emperor’s favour because it had been on the right side in the civil war three generations earlier.   Read Acts 17:1 – 9. Question 1: - Probably few or none of us are good at all these things, but we will all be better at some than others. Which are you good at? Question 2: - The proving bit reads ‘proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead”. How would Paul have proved that? How can we do something  equivalent? Read Acts 17:10 – 15. Question 3: - Of the people you know who are not yet Christians who would be the most likely to ‘examine the scriptures’ diligently? Read Acts