Hello, family, Tyler here. I wanted to take a moment to invite you to Bridgetown's

8th annual Holy Spirit Conference, January 23rd and 24th at Portland's Keller Auditorium.

The theme of this year's conference is going to be the healing after the healing. We'll be exploring

how the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit

is often just the first step to the deeper, slower soul level healing. Like the man

born blind in John 9, each part of us God heals only exposes a deeper part of us awaiting

healing from the same God. And the deepest healing is often the slowest kind.

We're so excited to be joined by contributors like Ruth Haley Barton, Kurt Thompson, Ken Shigamatsu,

and Brooke Lichertwood. Tickets are available now at Bridgetown. Church slash Holy Spirit.

I hope you can join us.

Mark chapter 1, verses 9 through 13.

At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water,

he saw heaven being torn open,

and the spirit descending on him like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven. You are my son,

whom I love. With you, I am well pleased. At once the spirit set him out into the wilderness,

and he was in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by Satan. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks, be to God.

A number of years ago, I was one among about a hundred in a cohort of Christian pastors doing quarterly retreats in this Midwestern monastery type setting.

And one such retreat was entirely themed around prayer.

But the practice of prayer that we were prescribed was a type of prayer involving no words,

...