Imitators of Those

“And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Hebrews 6:11-12

Tag: Faith

  • A Smog-Filled City and a Murky Pond

    —

    by

    Dee Ceall
    in

    This is (finally) the first guest post from my insightful wife, Dee. Hopefully lots more to come! – Dónal I sit on a swing in the park, as I do every morning, gently rocking back and forth. I look out through the grey haze and through the tree branches, towards the murky green lake in…

  • Bearing Our Father’s Name

    —

    by

    Dónal
    in

    I remember my first visit to South Asia. Travelling around the various cities of the country, we visited church after church, house after house, conference after conference for a solid twelve days. Throughout those dusty days and humid evenings, I was introduced to many of my brothers and sisters whom I had never met. Some…

  • A Call for the Long, Hard & Slow Work

    —

    by

    Dónal
    in

    I recently attended a conference for workers in our area of the world. There was some really wonderful teaching, encouraging reports, and thought-provoking break-out sessions. Overall, it was a blessing. However, one session in particular gave me a new way of framing my own story; and not in a positive way. In the early 1970s…

  • The Extraordinarily Ordinary Spirit

    —

    by

    Dónal
    in

    I place a high value on the ordinary means of grace. The ordinary means of grace are those things that God has given as regular, often non-spectacular, rhythmic events that form and shape our spiritual lives. They are the slow dripping of water to erode a rock, the steady flywheel of an engine that keeps…

  • Caught Before Taught

    —

    by

    Dónal
    in ,

    A sunny Friday afternoon in April 2011 found me sitting on the lawn at the back of someone’s house, quite bewildered. It was a youth weekend away, or at least, it was meant to be. I had arrived at the house of those organising it along with some friends. To be honest, at this point…

  • A Voice in the Wilderness

    —

    by

    Dónal
    in

    As daytime eased into nighttime, the animals began to sing their song. In this oasis of greenery, situated outside the capital city with all its clamour of horns honking, sellers shouting, power-tools working… there was peace. During the day, we had walked around the beautiful gardens of the retreat centre, our kids insisting on swimming…

  • The First 24 Hours

    —

    by

    Dónal
    in

    The golden glow out the window disappeared as the plane descended into the eventide shadows. Delayed, but not excessively, we hauled from the aircraft our heavy bags, (over-the-limit hand luggage, making use of as much space as possible), as well as our heavy eyelids, which surely had bags beneath. The dry, filtered air of the…

  • The World As I’ve Seen It

    —

    by

    Dónal
    in

    Dealing With Doubt – Part 3 I’ve seen too many facesAll shining like the sunI’ve seen too many skies on fireLike the face of the Holy One I’ve seen too many eyes wide openThat once were so blindAll burning with the beauty of the same loveThe same love that opened mine. This is the final…

  • The World as Best it Could Be

    —

    by

    Dónal
    in

    Dealing With Doubt – Part 2 When John Bunyan, writer of The Pilgrim’s Progress was facing an intense mental struggle, a verse came to his mind that comforted him immensely. For over a year he tried to find this obscure little verse, until at last he realised that it was not in fact from the…

  • The World as it Ought to Be

    —

    by

    Dónal
    in

    Dealing With Doubt – Part 1 The three loads of ammunition that I will lay out in these next posts touch on three different aspects of doubt, for it is a multifaceted beast. We will look at “The World as it Ought to Be”, “The World as Best it Could Be“, and “The World as…

  • The Darkness of Doubt

    —

    by

    Dónal
    in ,

    Darkness. Utter darkness. The anguish of a completely unsettled spirit compunded by the weighty shame of unwillingly facing doubt. I hadn’t chosen this. I’ve had other friends who walked into doubt over the faith because of deep-rooted sin in their lives that they just didn’t want to let go of. This wasn’t that. This had…

  • A Better Inheritance than Stability

    —

    by

    Dónal
    in ,

    As I write, the warm glow of the fire fills the room. Through a crack between the curtains I can see the dark outside. As is to be heard on the lips of many an Irishman at this time of year (amidst other colloquialisms regarding the general discontentment with whatever weather patterns exist on a…