Category: Interior Life

What is spiritual theology?

What are spiritual theology and spiritual formation and why are they essential to following Jesus?

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Spiritual theology and spiritual formation compared. Do you know how to grow? We will look at the definition of spiritual theology and spiritual formation, and why they are important to anyone who wants to become like Jesus and be closer to God in Christ. Then we will look at six elements of your growth so you can focus on these in prayer, scripture reading and fellowship. Then we will mention some resources for you. What is the definition of spiritual formation? Spiritual formation is the process of becoming what God intended us to be, in Christ. In other words it is recovering the fullness of the broken image of God inside us, as well as reunion with God. Since Christ is the perfect example of what a completely restored human looks like, spiritual formation is focused on being “Christformed”. Biblical spiritual formation focuses on what the Bible teaches about spiritual Continue Reading →

holy spirit dove stained glass

How To Work Through Purification

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Our lack of holiness can be very frustrating. We have the desire to be holy and to be Christlike but we struggle with our disordered desires for pleasure. Our culture provides many opportunities to satisfy our sensuality. As the passage below from Titus teaches, we have grace from God to reject worldliness and to be self-controlled. Below is an exercise to help us receive God’s grace and to activate our will. It follows the general format of lectio divina. Do part or all of it and change it as you desire. For the complete guide go here. Purification Exercise: Read twice: Titus 2:11-14 (ESV): “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing Continue Reading →

Butterflies, Eagles and the Spirit of God

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At one point in the movie The Hobbit Gandalf, Bilbo and the dwarves are all trapped in a tree slowly tipping over a cliff while hordes of orcs are attacking. The situation looks hopeless but then, amid all the chaos, Gandalf spots a butterfly that has landed on the tree. He calls the buttefly to himself and whispers to it and it flies off. A few minutes later the situation has worsened and dwarves are about to start falling off the tree to their death. Just as the first dwarf falls off the tree a giant eagle swoops down and rescues the falling dwarf. The butterfly has summoned a convocation of eagles which comes and ravages the orcs and rescues Gandalf, Bilbo and all the dwarves. This is a good illustration of how the Holy Spirit often comes to us. In the midst of a situation that seems void of Continue Reading →

Are You Looking Forward To Being Glorified?

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How much do we reflect on the idea that the people of God will have the glory of God? Revelation 21:11 promises that in the coming New Heaven and New Earth believers will have “the glory of God”. But this promise is not confined to Revelation ‒ it is a major New Testament theme. In a previous post we looked at the future luminosity of the body of Christ which is one dimension of God’s glorification of his people. Now we will consider what the New Testament says about this glorification in general. Warning: this is a very encouraging subject! It is surprising how often scripture speaks of the glorification of believers. Apparently this is an important truth for believers to keep in mind. Some of the mentions of this theme in the New Testament include: • In John 17:22 Jesus states in prayer that “The glory that you have Continue Reading →

How Shame and Self-Rejection Affect Us

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Shame can be described as a sense of embarrassment, dishonor, disgrace or inadequacy. These feelings come from something you did or thought that contradicts what you believe to be good or valuable (this is essentially guilt which is a precursor to shame). Just the fact that we fall short of our own standards of good produces shame in all of us. We want to hide our weakness from others because we want them to value us. This is why it is normal for people to display their best self to others, which probably helps society stay civilized. But we also naturally display a false self in many situations, which keeps us from truly connecting with others. We use our false self to cover up our shame, for example, pretending that we have our life all together when actually we are broken or struggling. It takes time, but we need to Continue Reading →