SF: Questions
Two Sundays from now (August 20), we will wrap up our sermon series on spiritual formation. On that day, in addition to reviewing the things we've talked about, I want to do my best to answer any questions that may be brewing in your mind as you ruminate on these matters.
Please help me by using the comment thread to throw out 1) questions, 2) areas you still find unclear, or 3) matters you'd like to see covered before we leave the topic of spiritual formation. This will really help me in preparing for the 20th.
Seriously, if you don't post anything, it will be a really short message.
God's judgment on all of you who read that last sentence and responded with secret delight!
Please help me by using the comment thread to throw out 1) questions, 2) areas you still find unclear, or 3) matters you'd like to see covered before we leave the topic of spiritual formation. This will really help me in preparing for the 20th.
Seriously, if you don't post anything, it will be a really short message.
God's judgment on all of you who read that last sentence and responded with secret delight!
posted by Bob | 7:21 AM
5 Comments:
So I haven't been around much, but I hopefully will be soon. One pratical matter since I have not been around to witness a lot of what has been going on withing Coram Deo: How much is spiritual formation actually taking place within the community? You have been talking about it a lot and all the sermons I have heard are good. But have they been shaping you as a community? Has the spirit been working and have you been striving to see it happen?
I should be around when you give this sermon, I was gonna come this week but my mouth was killing me (wisdom teeth).
I will be looking forward to a recap. I know that God works from the inside out and that character change is more important than behavior change. Gospel transformation allows us to serve and love God while at the same time doing the things we want (because we will more and more want the right things). If we want character change, changed feelings, and changed actions, there are some things we can do to help to get the gospel rooted in our soul... learning, resisting temptation, praying, spiritual disciplines, and community. We remember that sin is death and unhappiness disguised as temporary relief. We will experience the most joy through enjoying and glorifying God fully and knowing Him rightly, loving and being loved by Him.
Lately, I've felt like we are speaking in great detail about the "ends", a formed spirit that glorifies God. I have loved this topic. I've never felt more confidence in the direction a church is headed than during this series.
I think we need to hear more about the means to get there, the Spirit of God. No doubt, He is primary: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor. 3.18.
Should I expect the same out of the Holy Spirit as I do out of a close friend? How do I have a relationship with an intangible God, whose communication is always through a man or woman?
These are some hard questions for me to ask. They feel like a lack of faith. If that is it- maybe we can talk about faith.
Evan
Your sermon on redemptive community has me thinking about the inherently communal context of spiritual formation. I’m trying to work out in my own mind how the God-appointed means of spiritual formation, disciplines, play out in that context. Some are obviously communal but others are so private as to leave our left hand unaware. As I anticipate going back to my redemptive community in Chicago (let me tell you, living with 50 girls is a sanctifying experience for all of us!) I’m trying to think through how the personal and public mesh.
I want to hear what the father's love is. I would like to hear honesty about God's love, When it is a song in our ears and when God's silence sticks us in the pain of death. I would like to hear about how the disciples failed after a three year intensiv e discipleship program from the very Man I just want to hear from once audibly.
I want to hear about the fears which locked the disciples in the upper room, and how God came and approached that circumstance. I want to hear why Jesus told the disciples to pray in the garden so they would not fall into temptation but they fell asleep because they were weighed down by sorrow. I want to Hear Of jesus's love for me, for others, for the world. I want to know what salvation is and what it means when it says "d o not say who is saved or who is not saved,.... But faith says "believe and you will be saved." I want to hear about prayer, A call to honest real specific proactive pray.
These are just a few things I would lobby as topics before we closed things up, p lease note I came in at halftime. so... maybe you already did. but just like peter it is good for you to remind me all the time of these things. :) Paul O
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