The Lord is My Shepherd

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. – Thomas Merton

The Lord is my Shepherd Who guides me-Psalm 23

January 18, 2008January 18, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Art Photography, Church, Encouragement, Jesus, Photography, Psalms, Quotations, Scritpure Leave a comment

By His Wounds We Are Healed

But He was pierced for our transgressions.He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishmentthat brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.—Isaiah 53:5  

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Yours the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior,
It is I who deserve Your place;
Look on me with Your favor,
Promise to me Your grace.
-from O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, written by Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)

January 9, 2008October 13, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Art Photography, Canaan in the Desert, Christianity, Church, Encouragement, Healing, Jesus, Life, love, Photography, Religion, Scritpure, songs, spiritual, suffering, Thoughts Leave a comment

What To Fill Your Minds With

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.—Philippians 4:8-9

Love is born of an earnest consideration of the object loved—Thomas Aquinas

January 8, 2008January 8, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Christianity, Church, Encouragement, Life, Photography, Quotations, Religion, Scritpure, spiritual, Thoughts, Uncategorized Leave a comment

The Importance of a Life of Prayer

O Lord, who brings us to the Father,
The Life, the Truth, the Way
The path of prayer You did walk;
Lord, teach us now to pray.  

“Before a word of petition is offered, we should have the definite and vivid consciousness that we are talking to God and should believe that He is listening to our petition and is going to grant the thing that we ask of Him. We should look to the Holy Spirit to really lead us into the presence of God and should not be hasty in words until He has actually brought us there.” –-R. A. Torrey 

“We can never expect to grow in the likeness of our Lord unless we follow His example and give more time to communion with the Father. A revival of real praying would produce a spiritual revolution.” –- E.M. Bounds 

“The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says “Amen” and runs away before God has a chance to reply.  Listening to God is far more important than giving Him your ideas.”—Frank Laubach 

“The value in persistent prayer is not that he will hear us…but that we will finally hear him.”—William McGill 

“Prayer means yearning for the simple presence of God, for a personal understanding of his word, for knowledge of his will and for capacity to hear and obey him.”—Thomas Merton

January 1, 2008 by ryanmthurman Categories: Art Photography, Church, Inspiration, Kingdom of God, Life, Photography, prayer, Quotations, spiritual Leave a comment

Christ Holds It All Together

 We look at Jesus and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at Jesus and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.  

He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end.  Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross. –Colossians 1:18-20 The MSG

Not only do we not know God save through Jesus Christ, but we do not know ourselves save through Jesus Christ.  Apart from Jesus Christ we know not what our life is, nor our death, nor God, nor ourselves. –Blaise Pascal

December 28, 2007December 28, 2007 by ryanmthurman Categories: Art Photography, Christianity, Church, Encouragement, Jesus, Life, Photography, Quotations, spiritual 1 Comment

The Exultation Of My Heart

Ah, Lord God, you holy Lover of my soul, when you come into my soul, all that is within me shall rejoice. You are my Glory and the exultation of my heart; you are my Hope and Refuge in the day of my trouble. Set me free from all evil passions, and heal my heart of all inordinate affections; that, being inwardly cured and thoroughly cleansed, I may be made fit to love, courageous to suffer, steady to persevere. Nothing is sweeter than Love, nothing more courageous, nothing fuller nor better in heaven and earth; because Love is born of God, and cannot rest but in God, above all created things. Let me love you more than myself, nor love myself but for you. Amen.—Thomas a Kempis

December 17, 2007 by ryanmthurman Categories: Art Photography, Christianity, Church, God's Beauty, Life, Photography Leave a comment

Where It Is Divided Reunite It

Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy catholic (universal) Church. 
Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace.
Where it is corrupt, purify it;
Where it is in error, direct it;
Where in any thing it is amiss, reform it.
Where it is right, strengthen it;
Where it is in want, provide for it;
Where it is divided, reunite it;
For the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior.   Amen
-Book of Common Prayer-page 816

God, hear our cries,
bend an ear to our prayers. –Psalm 61:2 (adapted)

December 16, 2007December 16, 2007 by ryanmthurman Categories: Church, Life, Photography, Quotations, Religion, spiritual, unity Leave a comment