Calvin Miller - A Hunger for the Holy: Nurturing Intimacy with Christ

BEST SELLING AUTHOR

CALVIN MILLER

NURTURING INTIMACY with CHRIST

Our purpose at Howard Publishing is to:

Increase faith in the hearts of growing Christians

Inspire holiness in the lives of believers

Instill hope in the hearts of struggling people everywhere

Because Hes coming again!

A Hunger for the Holy 2003 by Calvin Miller

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America

Published by Howard Publishing Co., Inc.
3117 North 7th Street, West Monroe, Louisiana 71291-2227
in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc.,
7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80920
www.SimonandSchuster.com

06 07 08 09 10 11 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Edited by Tammy L. Bicket and Dawn M. Brandon

Interior design by John Luke

Cover image by Gary Bartoloni / Photonica

Cover design by David Carlson Design

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations within critical articles and reviews.

Portions of this book are based on Calvin Millers The Table of Inwardness

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Miller, Calvin.

A hunger for the holy : nurturing intimacy with Christ / Calvin Miller.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 1-58229-318-X; 1-58229-588-3 (pbk)

eISBN-13: 978-1-439-12291-4

1. Spiritual lifeChristianity. I. Title.

BV4501.3.M54 2003

248.4861dc21

2003056594

Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 1996 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, 1997 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, Authorized King James Version. Public domain.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
THE TABLE OF INWARDNESS

CHAPTER ONE
HUNGERING AFTER THE HOLY LIFE

CHAPTER TWO
BARRIERS TO THE INWARD JOURNEY

CHAPTER THREE
THE NEEDLES EYE AND THE PROVIDENCE OF ABUNDANCE

CHAPTER FOUR
THE UNFORSAKING CHRIST

CHAPTER FIVE
THE HOLY COMMUNION OF PRAYER

CHAPTER SIX
WALKING IN OBEDIENCE

CHAPTER SEVEN
WIDENING OUR INTIMACY WITH CHRIST

CHAPTER EIGHT
FOREVERNESS

I have watched my wife preparing dinners for so many of our guests across the years that I have lost count of the occasions. But I know that at the time, each of those meals owned its own significance. She prepared the best linen (Wal-Mart could supply) the best silver (stainless steel) the best crystal (not Waterford). When all was set just right we waited for our guests to arrive the table was prepared.

The table God prepared for the psalmist in the twenty-third psalm is the guiding image of this book. The promise is splendid and dependable: Thou preparest a table before me, in the presence of mine enemies. At this table we mortals sit one at a time with the immortal Christ. Novice and Nazarene, one on one, intimate and eternal.

If this book is to mean anything to you, you must let Psalm 23:5 become a picture of Christ setting the table for our own wilderness meal. His table is made elegant by its simplicity. It has but two chairs, two place cards. Beside one plate is a card that reads Jesus. By the other is a card marked with your name. A candle burns from the tables center, ready to cast its amber enchantment on both your eager faces.

Across the years I have come to delight in the fellowship of the wilderness table. The meal itself is a banquet of substance. Holiness is the fare. Union with Christ is the point of the occasion. He knows I have a terrible craving for his presence. I know that he longs to see teacher and pupil made one by their common appetite for togetherness.

And I am hungry!

Hungry for the Holy.

The table is prepared.

I take my chair.

I wait.

THE TABLE

In this secluded place I meet a King.
He comes alone to drink reality
With me. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we sit
And sip a life that passes by the crowd.

As inwardness is borna felted thing
Of powera commonality of grace
A union where unmended hopes are knit
Where silence roars as quiet sings aloud.

Oh Christ, I love it here! It is our place.

Speak Lord or not. Touch me or not. Show then
Your will or bid me wait in patient grace.

Fill all my hungry need with joy again.

With simple loaves of bread and chaliced wine
Heaven, earth, and all of God are mine.

Calvin Miller

HENRI J. M. NOUWEN

When you are able to create a lonely place in the middle of your actions and concerns, your successes and failures slowly can lose some of their power over you.

ANONYMOUS

While in the race to save our face, why not conquer inner space?

Galileo: Im not a theologian: Im a mathematician.

Sagredo: You are a human being! [Almost shouting]: Where is God in your system of the universe?

Galileo: Within ourselves. Ornowhere.

BERTOLT BRECHT

THE JOURNEY INWARD

Psalm 1:1

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.

We humans are a hungry lot. We are driven by a craving to know who we are. Yet who we are is embedded in the heart of a holy God. Unless we seek for ourselves in the epicenter of Gods grace, we will be forever condemned to walk the arid edges of self-understanding.

We fear the search for who we are. Perhaps because were afraid that having located our true souls, we might not like ourselves all that much. So, we shrink to step across the threshold to our inner selves and invite God in. Yet, we do not hesitate to stick our hands into the human throng to shake a thousand others. But no matter how we love the busy world of our relationships, the fast-action theater of our noisy and hurried lives at last empties out. Then we find ourselves in lonely cells of bulky silence that compels us to turn from outer things and face our inner selvesand our mighty God.

There exists at least one other reason we turn from inwardness: It seems a kind of nakedness and soul exposure. Self hides its insecurities. It simpers where none can see, outwardly pretending to be gallant or holy, while inwardly it cowers in fear and trembling.

The journey inward is therefore painful. Remember Hamlet forcing his mother, Gertrude, to grapple with her inner depravity: Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge. You go not till I set you up a glass where you may see the inmost part of you. The young prince forced his mother to stare at the hidden woman who skulked at the center of her flamboyant outer being. The question is, what did Gertrude see? What sort of inner self does Gods holy mirror reflect?