I review a lot of material that I think encourages spiritual formation. It is important, however, that you check the accuracy of everything with the Bible.
I believe there is only one author and one book that is completely accurate and He is God and His book is the Bible
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I am back now from a week of travel. I learned a lot, was reminded of a ton of things that I all too quickly forget, and reconnected with some friends from around the country.
I’ve gathered up these ideas from listening to B. B. Taylor -
Don’t listen to stories that are too shallow. They make life into less than it really is.
Let the Bible tell you what stories are most important.
Any story that I will take to make my story must
1. Honor people not like me.
2. Let me argue with it.
3. Level with me about the cost of love.
The Bible tells us a story like this– where Jesus comes to honor, serve, wrestle, and ultimately love those who would follow him to death. After everything else, there is new life.
Today, I had the chance to hear Dallas Willard speak. He has such great insight. Here is the thought that I’d like to share with you– “people come to the kingdom of God through exile.”
When everything else falls apart, when our little kingdoms are ruined and lost, it is then that we can die and God’s life can live in us.
Unfortunately, most of us live like kings– making all our decisions based on what is best for us. We can be servants only when we have resolved that the only kingdom that matter is God’s. When his kingdom is before us, we can serve others fully and joyfully.
I am in San Antonio at the 2009 International Renovare Conference. I had the priviledge of hearing Eugene Peterson speak last night. He had a lot of great things to say about the Jesus Way and many of the ideas in the talk are covered in his book by the same name. But one thing he said really caught my ear. To be on the Jesus Way we have to be personal and immediate and relational. Jesus was all of these things. He called people by name, he was truly present to their needs and concerns. He made friends with his followers.
None of this is new but I find it to be a good reminder. We sometimes can drop down and make following Jesus, or his teachings into a program. Or we look at people as problems to be solved. Lord, forgive us when we do that (and when I do that).
In passing, Peterson noted that for children everything is personal, immediate, and relational. They are not interested in programs. They like to play. They live in the now. They give hugs, they crave being with friends, and even their parents. Sadly, over time they grow to be impersonal – less relational – more distant.
Maybe this is at the root of why Jesus said that we are to change and become like little children . . .
May you experience life the right way—the Jesus way.
It seems the older we are the less and less we think about what we do.We act on instinct and intuition.This is not entirely bad, as Dallas Willard points out, who would want to go back to childhood or adolescence when it comes to basic skills.Think about the first time you drove a car (a standard car at that) and all the decisions and calculations that raced through your mind.With more experience, we settle down and can handle the weight of the flood of information that comes with driving a car.
However, the painful truth is that Jesus says we must change and become like little children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven.This teaching runs counter to everything in our lived experience.Running a business, succeeding in education, or advancing in politics usually depend on the wisdom of hard knocks and the accumulation of personal knowledge that comes with age.
But it is not that way with spiritual matters.
True inner transformation comes not from acquiring more experience or knowledge but by being childlike.This is a hard lesson and many cannot accept it.
I’m reminded of all this because Vacation Bible School is here.Don’t underestimate the power of truth.
I do hope that your summer is off to a good start. Mine has been pretty event filled. I was able to get away with my family to the Hill Country for a few days before kicking off our summer classes. Now that we are up and running with new adult classes, I am back to blogging.
I’ve been reading After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty somethings and Thirty Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion, and I have to applaud the author Robert Wuthnow for conducting such careful research and comparing his own work to other statistical surveys.
One study that he looks back at is the World Values Surveys that have been conducted since 1980 in about 65 countries. Repeatedly, they have asked repeatedly to rank on a scale of one to ten whether the following activities are ever justifiable:
Claiming government benefits to which you are not entitled
Avoiding a fare on public transport
Cheating on taxes if you have a chance
Someone accepting a bribe in the course of their duties
Homosexuality
Prostitution
Abortion
Euthanasia – ending the life of the incurably sick
The answers, of course, are interesting. Among American young adults (ages 21-45) who attended church regularly in the 1980’s, the statistics show a positive correlation. Those who went to church believed that all of the above activities are never justifiable.
However, Wuthnow notes, “by 2000 that pattern had changed” (p. 147). What’s interesting is to note exactly how things have changed.
Homosexuality, prostitution, abortion, and euthanasia still show a positive correlation. In fact, there are noticable gains on all fronts. Those who go to church think such activities are morally wrong.
But it’s not the case with money.
Wuthnow has looked at the stats and feels its unfortunate that going to church doesn’t seem to change how people think about “bribes or other matters of financial ethics” (p. 148).
Claiming benefits, cheating on taxes, avoiding payment for services rendered, and bribes are now morally gray areas for church attenders.
Does this surprise you? I think it’s quite a commentary on our society- especially since the study was conducted pre- recession.
Yesterday, I read an “evolving thought” at evotional.com on spiritual growth. The idea was that to grow spiritually we need at least 2 kinds of people in our lives: 1) a mentor that is closer to God than we are and 2) “a relationship with someone far away from God.”
This may sound strange at first, but there is some truth in it. We often find out what we really believe as we encounter those who don’t hold our values. This darkness should drive us to the flame – to the light of God’s love.
Robert Wilken has rightly observed that the first three or four generations of Christians came to know what they truly believed as they shared their faith with the Roman world.
[The early conversations between Christians and pagans] helped Christian thinkers to see the difficulties of the positions they adopted, to grasp the implications of Christian belief earlier than would have been possible if they had talked only among themselves- in short, to understand the very tradition they were defending. That Christianity became the object of criticism by the best philosophical minds of the day at the same time when Christians were forging an intellectual tradition of their own was a powerful factor in setting Christian thought on a sound course. Christian theology took shape in dialogue and discussion with alternative points of view (The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, 2nd Edition, Yale University Press, 2003): 200.
I know what you’re thinking. Are you crazy Jason? Are you suggesting that we might benefit from being around the world? Haven’t you read the invitations of wisdom and folly? Aren’t you the least bit concerned that listening to the world might drag you into the darkness?
The answer is of course, yes. I recognize that spiritual growth in the darkness is impossible. That’s why every strong Christian needs a mentor in the faith. But the conversation with the world should drive us deeper into Truth – into Growth – into Life.
A friend of mine, James Nored, recently asked a class about the spiritual value of bible class. The group almost unanimously agreed that Bible classes don’t change behavior. Why is this? Is God’s Word less effective today? Of course not!
The reason that lives don’t change is because we don’t let the truth really shape our habits and tendencies. We permit our experience of God (and the Holy Spirit) to penetrate only the surface our lives.
If we have made a commitment to change, one of the next key steps is knowing ourselves. How well do I really want to know what is going on in me.
Our action in any given moment are controlled by habits that we have developed. These tendencies and dispositions “double back” on themselves and become self reinforcing. In simple terms, our prejudices run the show.
We will only change if these deeper habits and beliefs are addressed. Sounds easy right? Hardly.
Too often, we fail to confront what is really going on deep down in our minds and souls.
This is especially true in Bible classes (and other public settings) where we don’t really condition ourselves to be open to change. I find that adults are pretty guarded in public– they put up their defenses so that they don’t look foolish or out of place.
Yesterday I started a new series called “The Five-Week Spiritual Workout.” Lesson one is entitled “You Can Grow.”
The good news is that we can “turn the corner” and change. For example, we can be like Jesus and have a life that is centered. He was exactly who he wanted to be, and the failings of his disciples, the actions of the Pharisees and religious establishment, the crowds with their every beck and call did not make Jesus waver. All too often in my own life, I find that circumstances (and particularly what people say) can affect my mood and actions. I live by reaction.
Jesus didn’t live that way. He does His Father’s work and speask as His Father intended even in the face of betrayal and abandonment. He is able do this because his relationship with His Father in heaven is alive. While he was on this earth, I think Jesus was growing spiritually all the time. Every day he stretched his humanity open to God and he lived exactly the right kind of life.
This week – I am going to try to keep this image in my heart: of Jesus opening himself to living exactly the way the Father willed for him. I hope that you can as well.
This Sunday I am going to begin a new five-week Sunday morning Bible class series in the chapel (9:15 a.m.). I want to discuss spiritual growth in four “target areas”
My Understanding of God (and myself)
My Relationship with God
My Capacity to Love as Jesus Does
My Capacity to Serve as Jesus Does
You can follow along and chart your growth in these areas using this devotional guide.
I am back now from a week of travel. I learned a lot, was reminded of a ton of things that I all too quickly forget, and reconnected with some friends from around the country.
Today, I had the chance to hear Dallas Willard speak. He has such great insight. Here is the thought that I’d like to share with you– “people come to the kingdom of God through exile.”
I am in San Antonio at the 2009 International Renovare Conference. I had the priviledge of hearing Eugene Peterson speak last night. He had a lot of great things to say about the Jesus Way and many of the ideas in the talk are covered in his book by the same name. But one thing he said really caught my ear. To be on the Jesus Way we have to be personal and immediate and relational. Jesus was all of these things. He called people by name, he was truly present to their needs and concerns. He made friends with his followers.
It seems the older we are the less and less we think about what we do.
Yesterday, I read an “evolving thought” at 
A friend of mine, James Nored, recently asked a class about 
This Sunday I am going to begin a new five-week Sunday morning Bible class series in the chapel (9:15 a.m.). I want to discuss spiritual growth in four “target areas”