Mohler - Spirituality in contrast to Christian Faith

Our wonderful, and o so faithful Administrative Assistant here at X1 has the wonderful knack of purchasing books for me as gifts that often really speak to me significantly. She has done it again with a book I'm reading now, 'Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth' by R. Albert Mohler.
It is a short, extremely incisive Biblical, unadulteratedly Christian insight into current cultural issues.

I was struck this morning by these words written as part of a reflection of living in a post 9/11 Terrorist Attack world:

"We learn[ed] that spirituality is no substitute for Christian faith. Churches were filled to capacity in the weeks following September 11. Some observers predicted a period of national revival and openess to the gospel. That did not happen. Within just a few months, church attendance had fallen to pre 9/11 levels. The national trauma produces flutterings of spirituality but little evidence of renewed Christian conviction.
Spirituality is what is left when authentic Christianity is evacuated from the public square. It is the refuge of the faithless seeking the trappings of faith without the demands of revealed truth. Spirituality affirms us in our self-centeredness and soothingly tells us all is well. Authentic faith in Christ calls us out of ourselves, points us to the Cross, and summons us to follow Christ."

My o my, clear incisive insight to the way things actually are. It is demanding for me as a church leader because i can never rest content that the 'spiritual' are amongst us - they must be called to 'Authentic faith in Christ.'

Simon

Over 'Pietized' Praying

You can always trust Eugene Peterson (author of The Message version of the bible) to bring through a thought with clarity and insight that leaves you pondering. Currently reading his book 'The Word Made Flesh' focused primarily on the spirituality of 'everyday' language and he broaches with typical brilliance the fact that we as believers can do to prayer what Christ never did Himself - my own word here 'over-pietize' it.
I do not understand why when people begin to pray they have a whole new language that disconnects them with any normal real, gritty way of speaking to the Father. I will never for a moment exhort us to pray causally without respect, but I deeply respect my father and yet speak very personally to him. Anyway here is Mr. Peterson, enjoy

"Prayer may well be the single aspect of our language most in danger of losing touch with the sheer grittiness of our humanity. We lost touch with our humanity when we deprive God of his humanity. Children pray in spontaneous honesty. Catastrophe and crisis very often take us to the bedrock of our humanity, where our language is purged of pretense and piety and we pray from the gut. But apart from childhood and crisis, while we are on the road through the secular Samaritan ordinary, [Peterson is reflecting on Christ's words in Luke 11: 1 - 13] our prayers have a way of being abstracted from the homely and distinctive details that are part and parcel of our ordinary and everyday life. Prayer more often than not is practiced in religiously defined and protected settings. More often than not it is formulated in pious cliches picked up hanging around churches or borrowed from prayer books."

Seek Him with all the adoration of a perfect Father, but remember He is your Father, and the Son He sent to us was more 'human than any of us will ever be!

Simon

Balance

First week of a New Year so, like many, I am thinking about the year ahead and what that would hold for me as an individual. I don't think that we as Christians should be individuals that start each year with half-hearted resolutions that only last the first days of the year. But the dawning of a new year is certainly a time where we can take stock and decide upon the areas of our lives that need adaption in some way in order to be more Christ-like - that is the overarching goal of our Faith! To be so much more like Christ in every way in our closing days then in the beginning. If there is a change in the opposite direction we can be sure that there is an area of our life that is not under submission to His Lordship and not being led by the inner working of His Spirit.

In the early years of my faith I would focus on one of the key fruit of the Spirit or a spiritual habit as an underlying theme for my focus on the year. Prayer, Humility or others, sure you know what I mean. This year I have really just lingered on the concept of balanced living. My thoughts on this have always been governed by several things:

1) The impetus of the Wisdom literature towards this concept
2) An Edwardian awareness of the inherent link between our Spiritual health & our mental, physical, or 'soul' health.
3) Personal maturity as a man heading towards mid thirties.

I see that a balanced life submitted to the Lordship of life avoids so many unhelpful extremes - inferior, impure sub-standard Spirituality or the other superior, self-righteous, legalistic super spirituality. Extremism is a mark of spiritual immaturity (don't sit there saying, "Well what about extreme devotion, extreme love?" You know what I mean).
We must balance every area of life - I laugh as I recall a recent comment by a leader I truly respect. He said, "Sometimes an hour of body-refreshing nap is better for me than an hour of prayer, if you know what I mean." I know exactly what he means and have seen the detrimental overflow of many who would never admit this or even dare embody this.

balance, I'm going to give it a go...
Simon

Ordo Amorie

Quite often in my brief journey of leadership I have found myself trying to explain things for which I just do not have enough insight or depth of wisdom to put as well as I would like. A case and point has just been proven to me again whilst doing some reading regarding Small Group leader- what you must look for in them.

I have always tried to intimate that at the root of all that can be said and done about growth in faith etc. the key is something seated deep in the heart, an absolute devotion to Christ. Well today while reading an author quoted another author who referred to something that St. Augustine (the great Western Church thinker) wrote of. Here is the quote

"Whatever its characteristics, every one of us has a spirituality, what Augustine called an ordo amorie, an ordering of our loves. What do we most cherish? What do we most desire? What is the treasure hidden in the core of our being? Our spirituality is not what we profess to believe, but how we order our loves." -- Margaret Guenther

Augustine had it spot on! Growing in faith, being a faithful servant to your church or beyond, touching this world for the cause of the gospel of the Kingdom is not dependent on input, who you hung out with, how much you read, who you knew (it is about each of these things yes but...) it is thoroughly dependent on the order of your loves. What is our first love?

WHAT DO WE LOVE ULTIMATELY?

Simon

Gratitude in the 'Everyday'

My humble estimation is that someone has got this 'Christian Faith' thing when there is a massive RAMP UP in their gratitude towards all aspects of life, from the mundane to the exquisitely serendipitous. When one comes to see, through faith and the illumination of the Holy Spirit, that every moment is a gift from God there should be a change in the affections of the heart.

I had an example only last night. We have begun to shop online with Tesco and have found it an absolute treat. This week we needed tea bags and discovered while 'in' the online grocery store that Twinings Everyday tea bags were the best bet when bought in quantity. Twinings is normally above our spending bracket but we gave it a go. WELL... what can I say? The Tesco man (as we call the great men who deliver our sustenance on a weekly basis) arrived at about 9pm last night and we partook of a cup of 'Everyday' tea, it was sheer delight.

I am about to have one now, and so thought, "Tell them Simon, tell them that you really get this faith thing when your life is marked by gratitude for the every day."

Simon