John Mark Hicks

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was enriched by attending a session on contemplative spirituality at Lipscomb’s Summer Celebration led by Randy Harris, Rhonda Lowry and Gary Holloway.  In this post I will describe how Gary Holloway reminded me of the ancient practice of Lectio Divina which has been part of my spiritual meditations off […]

Beginning Saturday, I will travel with my wife to the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia.  We will spend a week together in the midst of God’s good creation.  I will be separated from all electronics–fasting from the computer–in order to simply be present with my wife.  It will be a time of fun, relaxation, […]

As I revealed in a previous post, I pray the Lord’s prayer at least three times a day…and these are some thoughts that often accompany that prayer in recent months and especially given how May 21 is now meaningful in the same way for both John and Maggy Dobbs and myself with the death of our sons, John Robert […]

Madeleine L’Engle:           “Dear God.           I hate you.           Love, Madeleine.” I have been contemplating this brief prayer for several days after I read it in Gary Thomas’ Sacred Marriage (p. 157; an excellent read, btw!). Initially, I was horrified by how much I identified with the prayer and I was quite troubled by the […]

The Lord’s Prayer is our pledge of allegiance to God and our assurance of God’s allegiance to us. The prayer is part of my morning, noon and evening meditations.  I also recite the prayer at other times in the day, including thee times while I shower (yes, I do shower).  I have found the prayer […]

I tend to think of the Psalms in the broad category of “calling upon God”–they are situated responses to God’s own call toward us in creation and redemption. In dialogue believers call upon the creator and redeemer God in profession, prayer and praise; they respond to God’s divine acts in the world in confession, lament and thanksgiving […]

Tim Archer commented on a post below with these words:  “I like what Glenn Pemberton once said about the story of Nadab and Abihu and their two brothers: ‘The good news is that God looks on the heart. The bad news is that God looks on the heart’.” So what are we supposed to do when […]

In stark contrast with the Uzzah story in 1 Chronicles 13, I do not remember any lessons on Hezekiah’s Passover in 2 Chronicles 30 in my younger years growing up in Churches of Christ. There may have been some but they did not make an impression on me that I can remember. The Uzzah example, […]

During July 2007 I presented three lessons in the summer series at Brentwood Hills Church of Christ near Nashville, Tennessee. They asked me to present some material from Kingdom Come: Embracing the Spiritual Legacy of David Lipscomb and James Harding which I co-authored with my good friend Bobby Valentine. Bobby and I presented the material […]

My Bible Class page now has a new offering entitled the Prayers of Habakkuk.  It is a four lesson series on Habakkuk and these are the class handouts. Habakkuk has been an important prophet for me in the past twenty years or so.  The two laments of chapter one and the woe against Babylon in […]