{"id":2101,"date":"2012-05-23T12:52:23","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T16:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=2101"},"modified":"2012-05-23T13:14:38","modified_gmt":"2012-05-23T17:14:38","slug":"the-chains-of-understanding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=2101","title":{"rendered":"The Chains of Understanding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Wednesday Father!<\/p>\n

As You know Lord, for the last five weeks the group I lead on Tuesday evenings has been working through a study on Francis Chan<\/a>\u2019s book \u201cCrazy Love\u201d<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s been an eye-opening and convicting exploration so far, and has challenged quite a few perspectives I\u2019ve held on how to pursue a truly intimate relationship with You.<\/p>\n

The group discussions this study have led to have been powerful to say the least, and have also stirred in me some challenging thoughts about other facets of my \u201cFaith Life\u201d<\/em>, and how I perceive You\u2026<\/p>\n

For example, why in my arrogance do I keep You in a \u201cbox\u201d\u2026 You\u2019re so much bigger than that\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I study Your written word in search of Your will in my life\u2026 And yet, You\u2019re bigger than a book.<\/em><\/p>\n

I attend church services and functions to better focus on Your Presence\u2026 And yet, You\u2019re bigger than a religion or a building.<\/em><\/p>\n

I spend time and energy worrying about struggles in my life that seem impossible to overcome\u2026 And yet, You\u2019re bigger than any problem I could possibly face.<\/em><\/p>\n

You\u2019re bigger\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Period.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually an amazingly freeing feeling Lord; the more I cast off the chains of \u201cunderstanding\u201d<\/em> I\u2019ve held onto for so very long and open my heart to You with abandon, I find You there waiting for me\u2026<\/p>\n

Beckoning me forward.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And so Father, as I continue to seek Your Presence through study, through worship and through prayer, please help me see past those earthly confines I\u2019ve placed on You.\u00a0 Expand my heart Lord, to more fully connect with Yours, and lead me to Your side.<\/p>\n

In Jesus\u2019 name we pray,<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

~Phather Phil<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Wednesday Father! As You know Lord, for the last five weeks the group I lead on Tuesday evenings has been working through a study on Francis Chan\u2019s book \u201cCrazy Love\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s been an eye-opening and convicting exploration so far, and has challenged quite a few perspectives I\u2019ve held on how to pursue […]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[359,2838,219,2842,2851,1071,2845,2848,2843,2841,2849,2847,2846,2840,2839,205,318,1965,1917,2850,2844,424,604],"class_list":["post-2101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-bible","tag-chains-of-understanding","tag-church","tag-crazy-love","tag-earthly-confines","tag-emails-to-god","tag-eye-opening-exploration","tag-faith-life","tag-francis-chan","tag-god-is-bigger","tag-gods-written-word","tag-group-discussions","tag-intimate-relationship-with-god","tag-keeping-god-in-a-box","tag-placing-god-in-a-box","tag-prayer","tag-religion","tag-small-group","tag-small-group-study","tag-study","tag-tuesday-night-group","tag-worries","tag-worship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Chains-on-a-Wood-Post-1-Cropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-xT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2101"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2105,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions\/2105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}