Category: Spiritual Formation
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Your Will Be Done in My Life
This prayer from Thomas a Kempis has really touched me where I am today: O Lord, blessed be your name forever, for it is your will that this temptation and trouble come to me. I cannot escape it, but must run to you so that you can help me and turn it to my good. Lord, I am now being afflicted, and my…
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Who Does What?
Reading Jerry Bridges’ book Discipline of Grace, especially chapter 6, prompted me to think about the importance of understanding “Who does What?” in our salvation. Here are a few observations that I hope will provide some clarification: Many are frustrated to unfortunate degree because they do not understand that sanctification is a process. Many are…
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My Lukewarm Heart
Here are a couple of question to ponder from Ole Hallesby: Do I really desire to be set free from the lukewarmness of my heart and worldly life? Is not my Christian life always lukewarm and half-hearted for the simple reason that deep down in my heart I desire it to be that way? If you…
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A Paradox of God’s Intentions
A paradox of the Christian faith worth pondering, from John Flavel: When God intends to fill a soul, he first makes it empty. When God intends to enrich a soul, he first makes it poor. When he intends to exalt a soul, he first makes it sensible to it’s own miseries, wants, and nothingness.
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The Great Omission
I’ve been reading Dallas Willard’s The Great Omission. This book is a compilation of essay’s Willard has written through the years. Most of those essays are available online. They are each able to stand alone, and all are worth the read. Why Bother With Discipleship? Who is Your Teacher? Looking Like Jesus The Key to…
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3 Lane Escape from Moralism
I am thankful to Joe Thorn for concisely clarifying an issue that I believe confounds many well intentioned Christians. The problem addressed is the confusion of moralism with the gospel. In many case moralism is an attempt to take seriously both God and the Christian faith. Nevertheless, moralism is off track. In a post titled…
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How Can I Be Sure I Would?
Steve Timmis of The Crowded House and co-author of the book Total Church posed the following questions and thoughts for reflection: How can I be sure I would lay down my life for sake of Jesus & the gospel? Perhaps I’ll be like Peter in his bravado and subsequent denial? Can’t ultimately be sure until…
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4 Keys to Cultivating Inner Peace
How can one cultivate genuine inner peace? Thomas a Kempis suggests embracing the following four attitudes and practices: Seek to do the will of others rather than your own. (Matthew 26.39; John 5.30; John 6.38) Always choose to have less rather than more. (1 Corinthians 10.24) Always seek the lowest place and consider others better…
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Spiritual Formation Beyond Decency
We must stop using the fact that we cannot earn grace (whether for justification of for sanctification) as an excuse for not energetically seekng to receive grace. Having been found by God, we then become seekers of ever-fuller life in him. Grace is opposes to earning, not effort. The realities of Christian spiritual formation are…
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Christ-likeness: The Purpose of God for His People
by John R.W. Stott I remember very vividly, some years ago, that the question which perplexed me as a younger Christian (and some of my friends as well) was this: what is God’s purpose for His people? Granted that we have been converted, granted that we have been saved and received new life in Jesus Christ,…
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Ordinary Saints
Jerry Bridges opens his book, Respectable Sins, with a reaffirmation and reminder that all who are in Christ are declared Saints. While some may find this status difficult to believe, Bridges explains: “We don’t become saints by our actions. We are made saints by the immediate supernatural action of the Holy Spirit alone who works this change…
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My Spiritual EKG
“How are you doing, Spiritually?” That is an important question. The Great Physician, by both direct and indirect statements in his Word, repeatedly encourages us to examine our hearts. But while many may be aware that it ought to be our regular practice to take a Spiritual pulse, I suspect that relatively few know how to read…
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How to – or NOT to – Read Your Bible
How should we read our Bibles? There are a number of good ways. But Dane Ortland offers some suggestions about how not to approach it: The Gold Mine Approach – reading the Bible as a vast, cavernous, dark mine, in which one occasionally stumbles upon a nugget of inspiration. Result: confused reading. The Hero Approach…
