The Restory Retreat Centre

  The Bible - Thoroughly Human   The Conversation  Elements From The Conversation  “I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more  than I love the encounters that gave rise to them. If I am not careful,  I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place,  since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk  of taking part in stories that are still taking shape.  Neither I nor anyone else knows how these stories will turn out,  since at this point they involve more blood than ink.  The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me,  is to convince people to set the written word down  in order to become living words in the world for God'...

  I Am, And Living Mindfully The Conversation Elements From The Conversation There is much to learn from the Jews with whom we share the Old Testament. In a conversation with Benjamin D. Sommer, professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary (NYC), he has this to say about the Jewish approach to Biblical interpretation and different viewpoints: ____________________ … in rabbinic literature argument is often considered something that we do for the sake of heaven, for the sake of God that is, disagreeing about exactly how to interpret God's will, that intellectual activity of disagreeing about, debating about, studying further, the interpretation of God's will, for us Jews, that's actually a form of worship. It's not only prayer that is a form of worship. It is very often study of sacred literature that is also a very important form of worship - a way of showing our loyalty and love and obedience of God in traditional Judaism generally. In Judaism, debating about ...

  It is said that Calvin Coolidge, or Silent Cal, the 30 th  US president, didn’t work himself to a stanstill.    Taking into account that he generally slept 11 hours a night, supplemented by daily naps and some  three-month extended vacations, the conclusion that he worked a maximum of 4 and a half hours a day doesn’t seem too far-fetched. And the times he was in the Oval Office, he often pulled out  the bottom drawer of his desk, put his feet into it and counted the cars passing by on Pennsylvania Avenue.   When he passed away in 1933, Gertrude Stein reportedly remarked: “Coolidge dead? How can you tell?”   In 2 Kings 6 we are told of another leader, King Jehoram of Israel. With his city under siege by the Syrian army and Samaria experiencing a terrible famine, he walks on the  city wall. While doing so, he hears the horrific story of two mothers who started eating their children in an effort to stay alive. On hearing that he tear...

The Hope That You Have   In these days   verse 15 in 1 Peter   constantly  announces itself  to me : “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. ”   ( NIV ‬ ‬ )   The people Peter  wa s writing to  we re  liv ing  dispersed as a small  minority in the northern parts of Asia Minor ,  nowa day s known as  Turkey.  They ha d  it difficult, because they just d idn’t   fit  into their society.  As believers they were seen to be different and such people  never have it easy.  For that reason Peter describes them as  forei gners and exiles.   And yet,  despite their difficult circumstances, they  possessed  something that fascinated those around them . Those people came up to them and said: “We know for a fact that you have a difficult life.  And yet,  you ...