Category: Interior Life

interview

What Is Spiritual Formation? – Video Interview

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In early July 2017 I was interviewed for a Sunday morning service on the topic of spiritual formation. Below is the video of that interview from YouTube (I am on the left). The main topic was an explanation of what spiritual formation is along with some discussion of stages of growth. Pastor Dr. Rich Brown of Trinity Alliance Church near Redding, CA did an excellent job of preparing the questions and of conducting the interview, which was the substitute for his sermon that morning. We think it turned out well so I hope you enjoy it. It begins with some questions about my background. Then we talk about the biblical definition of spiritual growth, the causes of growth, stages of growth, the human role in spiritual growth, and a few other brief topics. Below this video is an approximate transcript of some of the discussion so you can get an Continue Reading →

listening, contemplation

God Wants To Bless You In Receptive Prayer

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I’ve read that in conversations we should find ourselves listening as much as talking. Of course, this just makes sense – it would be selfish if we were in the habit of listening 30% of the time and talking 70% of the time. But does this apply to our conversations (i. e. prayer) with God? Sure. God wants to do good things for us. He wants to speak his words in his way. He wants to continuously transform us into the image of Christ. So wouldn’t God want us to spend time listening for him, or at least being in a receptive mode so we could receive anything he might want to do? That’s why the image for this post is someone listening to headphones: they are in receptive, listening mode. It is common to think of prayer time as a time when we talk the whole time. We thank Continue Reading →

candy spiritual sweet tooth

Do You Have A Spiritual Sweet Tooth?

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We all love to feel the presence of God. We love times when we feel his love or joy welling up inside us. We feel free and light or just tremendous peace. But what about the rest of the time when we don’t feel God’s presence or power? Do we find ourselves making every effort to reclaim the spiritual sweetness we had? Seeking spiritual sweetness is okay to an extent. God wants us to feel good and He wants us to feel joy and peace. He wants to be with us as much as we want to be with Him. But there is some things that are more important than spiritual sweetness in the Christian life. Two come to mind. First, submission to God’s will. If we truly want to be in Christ then we should find ourselves seeking God’s will more than seeking spiritual sweetness. God may not want Continue Reading →

Incredible Motivation To Live For Eternity

Incredible Motivation To Live For Eternity

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I enjoy tennis. And I want to continually improve because it brings some joy to hit the ball well instead of hitting it over the fence. Also, playing well allows me to compete with others without being embarrassed and enjoy the competition. So I am motivated to improve and I am willing to sacrifice for it. Awhile ago I wanted to improve my forehand stroke by practicing with a ball machine. When I finally had time I checked the weather – it wasn’t good. It was cold and windy which is not good weather for standing and hitting balls from a ball machine. Should I go? I debated briefly but I decided to go. I was willing to sacrifice comfort for the sake of improving my forehand. In fact it was cold and miserable and I spent about 20 minutes of my 60 minutes setting up and taking down the Continue Reading →

fire of spiritual intimacy

How Can We Describe Intimacy With God?

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I am on retreat this week so the post today is a quote from something I’ve been reading from John Ruysbroec, a Christian spiritual writer who lived from 1293 – 1381. He had deep experiences of intimacy with God. Below is a quote of his description of what he felt. The second paragraph is a description of what we will experience in the next life. They are both from his book The Sparkling Stone, chapter 3. The love and joy he describes are encouraging and inspirational. He stated in other places that he did not believe in a merger of essence with God, so he was not heretical. His vocabulary may seem strange but he was looking for words to describe something that seemed beyond words. [Note: the “spirit” refers to our human spirit.] For students of church history it is interesting that Ruysbroec uses fire language similar to that used Continue Reading →