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The Day I Converted to Being a Hippie
On June 21, 1969 I was baptized into hippiedom. Up until then, I had been a pretty typical middle class kid from the suburbs of London, Ontario, but after that day, my life was never the same. Paul took the Damascus Road. I took the 401 to the Toronto Pop Festival. There I heard groups… Continue reading
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A 100-Year Journey of Grace and Grit!
Tomorrow, my mother turns 100! I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have had a queen for a mother all these years! I say “queen” because that’s the way she has always carried herself– with poise and grace. She has always been self-controlled and composed, able to project peace rather than anger (except when she went absolutely… Continue reading
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Love in the Midst of the Black Death
Imagine yourself a six-year old child in 1349 when the infamous Black Death strikes. In less than a year about one half of the 30,000 citizens in your town have perished at the hand of the bubonic plague. It passes but breaks out again–six more times during your lifetime. With each outbreak, images of your… Continue reading
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An Everyday Wonder!
Recently we were driving Highway 21, the road that skirts the eastern shoreline of Lake Huron. As we drove along, we passed dozens and dozens of wind turbines. The questions of whether these things produce energy efficiently or destroy the beauty of the countryside, as many contend, didn’t occupy my mental landscape. I’ll leave such… Continue reading
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Desire and the Spirit-Led Life (Excerpt from WHISPERS THAT DELIGHT)
Excerpt from WHISPERS THAT DELIGHT–Copyright © 2008 Andrew T. Hawkins Passion must at times animate our prayer and if we do not get our hearts’ longings into our prayer closet, our devotional life is finished. Fenelon claims that to pray is to desire. Without it, he says, we do not really pray, but merely go… Continue reading
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Love, a Simple Secret for Hearing God (Excerpt from WHISPERS THAT DELIGHT)
Excerpt from WHISPERS THAT DELIGHT–Copyright © 2008 Andrew T. Hawkins Hearing that God can speak directly to us can feel intimidating because of our seeming inability to tune into his voice. I certainly do not hear him so plainly in everyday experience. However, I find that most of the time my problem comes from not… Continue reading
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Primal Yearning and Prayer (Excerpt from WHISPERS THAT DELIGHT)
Excerpt from WHISPERS THAT DELIGHT–Copyright © 2008 Andrew T. Hawkins Sometimes we think we must obliterate all other desires and somehow progress to a state of wanting nothing but God. However, things do not normally work that way. We cannot just cut the principle of desire out of our lives nor instantly do away with… Continue reading
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Confession–Relief from Deafening Pain (Excerpt from WHISPERS THAT DELIGHT)
Excerpt from WHISPERS THAT DELIGHT–Copyright © 2008 Andrew T. Hawkins After lifting our minds in praise to our Heavenly Father, self-examination and confession flow rather naturally. Having glanced toward his beauty and grace, our thoughts inevitably drift back to how unfortunately different we are. Two frightening consequences of the Fall make this attention shift unavoidable,… Continue reading
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A Lesson When God Spoke Peace to Me
Recently in prayer I imagined that God was saying something like the following: “Whatever you do, do in peace. In a peaceful state of mind you will have the opportunity to look to God for confirmation that you’re on the right track. A hurried, hectic spirit is distracted by the pressures. It cannot hear. The… Continue reading
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Does Our Worldview Allow Us to Hear from Beyond?
Our basic understanding of reality (worldview) either opens the door to communication with God or slams it tightly shut. In the first instance, we must obviously believe that God exists if we are to connect with him. Fortunately, this foundation block is in place for the vast majority of people. We simply don’t have enough… Continue reading