Category: Spiritual Disciplines
-
What We Celebrate At Christmas Is Why We Go to Church
As Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year, church leaders across the country are making decisions about whether their respective congregation will hold services or forgo them. As one who holds a firm resolve about the prudency, even the appropriateness, of arbitrarily canceling services on any Sunday, no matter how noble-sounding the reasoning, I…
-
Dangers of Spiritual Resolutions
I’ve been there. Likely, so have you. The year begins with good intentions, and maybe even a strong start, only to fizzle days later. The Statistic Brain Research Institute reports that 75% of New Years Resolutions are broken within the first week of the New Year. No doubt most of the others go down soon…
-
How to Preach the Gospel to Yourself
Paul, in Colossians 2.6, instructs us: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him…” Simple words, but powerfully practical when unpacked. How did we “receive” Jesus? By faith and repentance – or by repentance and faith. We are not quite sure which comes first, but perhaps…
-
Resolutions for the New Year
Each year, during the first week of January, I have made it my habit to review a series of personal resolutions written long, long ago – the Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards. While these are not necessarily my own resolutions, at least not the whole, they are worthy of reflection. In reading and re-reading this list…
-
5 Reasons to Recover the Practice of Confession
Is confession something that Evangelical Christians should practice regularly? or Is confession a practice rooted in the superstition of some by-gone tradition? Joe Thorn gives a handful of good reasons why Confession should be part of the regular Christian practice: 1. Confession Acknowledges God’s Place and Authority In our Lives By a sincere and hearty…
-
Sailboat Spirituality
Do you sometimes have difficulty understanding or remembering who does what in our Spiritual maturation? We get that it is God who must make us alive to believe (regeneration), and that he gives us the gift of faith to believe, which leads to salvation (justification). But then what? Surely there is something we must do. …
-
Sabbath Rest: The Above All Commandment
Like many people, I get easily wearied by many of the Sabbath debates. What can you do? What can’t you do? While not unimportant, these questions miss the point. Jesus told us: “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2.27) In other words, Sabbath is a gift made or established by…
-
Revised Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards
As a young man – a teenager, really – Jonathan Edwards set down on paper a series of thoughts and practices to help cultivate growth in grace. (See 2 Peter 3.18) Edwards then re-read this list at least once a week to keep his mind focused and renewed. The result: A man of humble godliness,…
-
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…
-
Organic Church
You will observe that I am not merely exhorting you “to go to church.” “Going to church” is in any case good. But what I am exhorting you to do is go to your own church – to give your presence and active religious participation to every stated meeting for worship of the institution as…
-
Bible Reading Plans for 2011
New Years Day has come and gone, and 2011 is trudging along. You want to do some things different this year. You’ve always wanted to read through the Bible, but you’ve never been quite sure how to do it. Or, you have read through the Bible before but you are looking for a different approach.…
