Draw Near: Lenten Devotional by Lynne Baab, illustrated by Dave BaabTwo Hands: Grief and Gratitude in the Christian LifeA Renewed SpiritualityNurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care in the Twenty-First CenturyThe Power of ListeningJoy Together: Spiritual Practices for Your CongregationSabbath Keeping FastingPrayers of the Old TestamentPrayers of the New TestamentSabbathFriendingA Garden of Living Water: Stories of Self-Discovery and Spiritual GrowthDeath in Dunedin: A NovelDead Sea: A NovelDeadly Murmurs: A NovelPersonality Type in CongregationsBeating Burnout in CongregationsReaching Out in a Networked WorldEmbracing MidlifeAdvent Devotional

Draw near: Fragrance

Lynne Baab • Tuesday November 1 2022

Draw near: Fragrance

Way back in my 20s, when I was joining the staff of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an older staff person prayed for my commissioning. She opened her prayer with 2 Corinthians 2:14: “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.” Then she asked that God would help me spread the fragrance of Christ. At the time, I had little idea what she meant or what that looked like, and I frankly thought her prayer was slightly weird.

I mostly forgot about that prayer...

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Draw near: Praying to Jesus for perseverance

Lynne Baab • Tuesday October 4 2022

Draw near: Praying to Jesus for perseverance

Jesus, good above all other, gentle child of gentle mother, in a stable born our brother, give us grace to persevere. —Percy Dearmer, 1906

I met this hymn a few weeks ago for the first time, and I was quite taken by the idea of praying to Jesus for perseverance, something I have seldom done. I habitually pray to Jesus for many things. I ask him for the patience, kindness, and boldness that characterized his life on earth as described in the Gospels. I ask him to give me clarity of purpose like he had. This hymn got me thinking about the ways Jesus persevered. Yes,...

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Draw near: Praising God with Desmond Tutu

Lynne Baab • Tuesday September 20 2022

Draw near: Praising God with Desmond Tutu

All you big things, bless the Lord. Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria, The Rift Valley and the Serengeti Plain, Fat baobabs and shady mango trees, All eucalyptus and tamarind trees, bless the Lord. Praise and extol Him for ever and ever.

All you tiny things, bless the Lord. Busy black Ants and hopping fleas, Wriggling tadpoles and mosquito larvae, Flying locusts and water drops, Pollen dust and tsetse flies, Millet seeds and dried dagga, Bless the Lord. Praise and extol him forever.

Former archbishop and anti-apartheid and human rights activist Desmond Tutu includes this prayer in his book An African Prayer Book. I love the specificity of the things in the prayer, and it motivates me...

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Draw near: Yearning, beseeching and beholding with Desmond Tutu

Lynne Baab • Tuesday September 13 2022

Draw near: Yearning, beseeching and beholding with Desmond Tutu

“Saint Julian of Norwich says prayer ‘is yearning, beseeching and beholding.’ We are made for God, we yearn to be filled with the fullness of God, and so we come asking the one who is always eager to give. We place ourselves in his hands as suppliants, in the attitude of those who know they have nothing that they have not received, before the One who is ever the gracious one, ready to give beyond our asking and our deserving. We are like parched land thirsty for the gift of rain – yearning, beseeching, waiting and asking and assured that we...

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