Warm Yourself at the Fires of Meditation | Desiring God

We were made to meditate. God designed us with the capacity to pause and ponder. He means for us to not just hear him, but to reflect on what he says.

It is a distinctively human trait to stop and consider, to chew on something with the teeth of our minds and hearts, to roll some reality around in our thoughts and press it deeply into our feelings, to look from different angles and seek to get a better sense of its significance.



Warm Yourself at the Fires of Meditation | Desiring God

How Many Motivations Are There for Godliness? – Kevin DeYoung

Is there just one proper gospel-centered rationale for holiness? Should we, in speaking about sanctification, avoid threats and warnings and coming judgment and focus simply on our acceptance in Christ? How many motivations does the Bible have for godliness?

I see at least twenty. In the three chapters of 2 Peter alone. MORE:

How Many Motivations Are There for Godliness? – Kevin DeYoung

Leaving the church means leaving Christ | Denny Burk

Yesterday you read an article by Denny Burk regarding Donald Miller's reasons for leaving the church. Here is a response to his reaction to the post.

Donald Miller has written a lengthy follow-up to his original post explaining why he has left the church (to which I responded yesterday). In this second posting, he doubles down on his original position that Christians need not involve themselves in a local church. They can attend if they want, if it helps them. But it is not necessary. It is certainly not a norm that should be imposed on all Christians everywhere.

Because Miller’s essay is so long (over 3,000 words!), I will not attempt a point-by-point rebuttal. Nevertheless, a response is in order since he takes issue with my contention that leaving the church is “spiritual suicide.”



Under point #8, He writes: MORE: Leaving the church means leaving Christ | Denny Burk

Donald Miller’s prescription for spiritual suicide | Denny Burk

I just read a rather stunning admission from Donald Miller. In a short blog post, he says that his learning style is not conducive for learning in traditional worship services. He doesn’t “connect” with God in singing praises or in listening to the preached word. On the contrary, he feels most connected to God when he is working to “build his company.” As a result of all this, he makes this confession:

MORE:

Donald Miller’s prescription for spiritual suicide | Denny Burk

The Cripplegate on Cessation and Continuation | the Cripplegate

In light of Eric’s excellent series over the past few days, I imagine there are many questions that are generated in the minds of our readers regarding the nature of spiritual gifts. Those of us at The Cripplegate have actually dedicated quite a bit of time to clearing up misconceptions of cessationism and responding to popular continuationist arguments. I thought it would be beneficial, then, to highlight those posts and present them in a sort of indexed fashion so as to make them as accessible as possible. While we make absolutely no claim of being exhaustive, we hope this provides some answers to the more popular questions and arguments.  MORE: The Cripplegate on Cessation and Continuation | the Cripplegate

Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation

(by Wyatt Graham - The Cripplegate)

A dark room that reeks of the musty smell that accompanies rot. Alone here, your mind wanders nowhere yet everywhere at the same time. A feeling of dread, loneliness or something wriggles through your bones. A sucking feeling in your gut tips you off that you are hungry but you are not sure. It might just be anxiety. All of this happened because of a keen experience of separation from God. A sort of spiritual anxiety. The Puritans described this feeling with the phrase, “the dark night of the soul.” They knew well about the malady of spiritual depression.

Spiritual stagnation is a problem that will bombard everyone at one point or another. Depression, fears and anxiety gush out, because we feel “separated” from God, from grace. We feel alone, sinful, dirty and unloved—or perhaps unloving.

Part of reason spiritual depression occurs, I am convinced, is because we have a wrong view of Biblical Change. We go to God and ask for ways to overcome our problems, our worries... MORE

Answers to Keys to Healthy Christian Growth in Godliness (Dane Ortlund) "...That’s the question I asked a handful of thoughtful men of God last week. Responses below. Please understand: I explicitly asked our brothers to keep it to a single, short sentence. Of course, whole volumes could be (and have been!) written addressing this question (here’s my favorite). So we gladly receive these wise statements remembering that sanctification is not a math problem. There is no formula. Every answer below needs a hundred footnotes. Point taken..."

How to Love One Another: Affirm, Share and Serve (Tim Keller) "Most of us are familiar with the “one another” commands of the New Testament. In the study guide for Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything, Tim Keller offers a helpful taxonomy under the categories of affirming one another, sharing with one another, and serving one another. These form, he says, “nine ‘community-building practices’—specific behaviors that build Christian community.” For a more detailed unpacking of each point, see pp. 58-71..."

Some Biblical Thoughts on the Holy Spirit (Graham Cole) "Christians throughout the ages have feared that they may have committed the unpardonable sin—blaspheming the Spirit. What’s your understanding of what Jesus meant by this sin? How would you counsel those who fear they’ve committed it?..."

Are there Dangers in being ‘Spiritual, but not Religious’? (CNN)""I'm spiritual but not religious." It's a trendy phrase people often use to describe their belief that they don't need organized religion to live a life of faith. But for Jesuit priest James Martin, the phrase also hints at something else: egotism.
"Being spiritual but not religious can lead to complacency and self-centeredness," says Martin, an editor at America, a national Catholic magazine based in New York City. "If it's just you and God in your room, and a religious community makes no demands on you, why help the poor?"..."

5 Reasons You Might Not Be Seeing Spiritual Growth (Jonathan Dodson) "1. Feelings can be misleading.
Just because we don’t feel holy doesn’t mean the Spirit isn’t making us holy. Feelings aren’t an adequate barometer of spiritual growth, but the gospel always leads us into growth. Bank your growth on faith in gospel truth, not in subjective feelings...."