Blog – Page 2 – Joel Bidderman

Day 2: Have You Brought Me Here?

Listen: https://joelbidderman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/At-the-Foot-of-the-Cross-HI.wav Consider: "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." Romans 5:3-5 (NLT) Abraham, Moses, Israel, Jesus...being led into the wilderness is a regular part of life with God. I grew up in a Christian sub-culture of society where things like prosperity Gospel was the norm. Spiritual success was measured by not suffering, and having material abundance. But my [...]

2024-03-21T14:33:27+00:00By Joel|At the Foot of the Cross|

Day 1: Retracing My Steps – At the Foot of the Cross

Listen: https://joelbidderman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/At-the-Foot-of-the-Cross-HI.wav Consider: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." John 3:16-17 It happens to us all. It's only a matter of time before plans crumble, and life seems like you're caught in a maze with no way forward. I know, that's not very optimistic. But it's true, and that's where I was when I wrote my song At the Foot of the Cross. Having worked at a Native American mission for a couple of [...]

2024-03-25T03:26:28+00:00By Joel|At the Foot of the Cross, Creative, Story|

Let Us Begin Again

cusp: a point of transition (as from one historical period to the next) Once again, we are on a cusp. We wake up. We start the coffee. We begin again, literally but also metaphorically. The call of the moment is to bravely reset on the successes and failures as well. It's a new day to create with our lives. To breathe hope into hopeless spaces, and to scrape art into the scratchboard of life. St. Bonaventure tells us that towards the end of his life St. Francis would tell the other friars: “Let us begin again, brothers, for up until now, we have done little or nothing.” Francis – who did much, and whose legacy lives [...]

2024-01-01T17:45:55+00:00By Joel|Creative, francis of assisi, memories|

Silence in the Way of Jesus

“A word with power is a word that comes out of silence. A word that bears fruit is a word that emerges from the silence and returns to it. It is a word that reminds us of the silence from which it comes and leads us back to that silence.” Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart I have been pressing into the connection between the formation that happens through the contemplative life and the formation that happens through stepping out into active mercy and justice. I'm convinced more and more, that to live a Christ-centric life of love, mercy, and justice, means to passionately pursue the way that Jesus walked out His conversational life with [...]

2022-03-30T21:47:27+00:00By Joel|discipleship, Silence, Solitude, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation, Stillness|