Category: Level: Advanced

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 →

heaven eternal perspective

Has The New Creation Already Started?

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The reason we ask this provocative question is because of some mysterious passages in the New Testament that make us wonder when the New Creation starts. One of the most striking passages is Ephesians 2:6: “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” (NIV). Notice that “raised” is in the past tense. Christians have already been raised in some way. But even more important is the fact that we have been raised “with Christ”. Thus, we are joined with Jesus in his resurrection. And because we are joined with him part of us is currently dwelling in heaven! So what does this have to do with the New Creation to come? The answer is that Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of the New Creation. And in the Old Testament the idea of resurrection was connected with the new ideal Continue Reading →

Key Facts from the Huge Pew Religion Study

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The huge Pew Forum Religious Landscape Study was just released. The study was conducted in 2014 and the same study was also conducted in 2007 which allows us to see important trends in religious affiliations and beliefs. The full report can be found here: http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/ The study groups people into the following categories (in order of affiliation rank): Evangelical (25.4%), unaffiliated (22.8%), Catholic (20.8%), Mainline Protestant (14.7%), and Non-Christian faiths (5.9%). The biggest headline is that the Christian share of the population has fallen from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6% of the U.S. population. Most of the losses have come for Catholics and Mainline Protestants. Christianity is still by far the most dominant religion in America and more Christians live in America than any other country in the world. It’s interesting that Evangelicals have only lost 0.9 percentage points since 2007, but this means a gain of about 2 million Continue Reading →

Why Church Can Be Boring or Hurtful: Reuniting Spiritual Theology with Doctrinal Theology – Part 2

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Doctrine does not make fellowship life-giving, rather, doctrine with practice. In other words, the practice of the faith keeps church from being boring or hurtful. It is the joy and even excitement of growing in a community and in watching others become part of your community that makes fellowship life-giving. But historically the theology related to growth in community became separated from doctrinal theology. This is a big reason why churches are often boring or hurtful. This blog looks at this problem. With the advent of the skepticism and modernism of the 18th and 19th centuries the western church found itself on the doctrinal defensive again. The church responded in the 20th century by reasserting its fundamental doctrines, as it needed to. But much of the church became preoccupied with fighting unbelief. By allowing skeptics to focus the church primarily on doctrine the church once again neglected brotherly love inside Continue Reading →

Why Church Can Be Boring or Hurtful: Reuniting Spiritual Theology with Doctrinal Theology – Part 1

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The theme of this post is that spiritual theology became separate from doctrinal theology in the Middle Ages and Reformation and that this has seriously damaged the transforming power of Christianity. The purpose of this blog is to inspire Christian leaders and theologians to reunite spiritual theology with doctrinal theology, and to encourage believers to read spiritual theology. The ultimate purpose is to free believers from the burden, boredom and pain of bad spiritual theology, and edify and equip believers to live effective Christlike lives in the Spirit. This blog is based on the chapter in the book Flourish titled: “Reuniting Spiritual Theology with Doctrinal Theology, or Why Church Can Be Boring or Hurtful”. “Spiritual theology” can be defined as the study of how Christians grow spiritually including patterns and stages of growth in their relationships. It also includes the biblical and doctrinal structures behind spiritual growth. It is what the Continue Reading →