Rwanda

We leave for Rwanda in 14 days and the realization that we are the carriers of the gospel - the good news that was meant to change the world is beginning to become overwhelming. Belief is not enough. Worship is not enough.  Personal morality is not enough. Christian community is not enough.  God has always demanded more.  When we committed ourselves to following Christ, we also committed to living our lives in such a way that a watching world would catch a glimpse of God's character - His love, justice, and mercy - through our words, actions and behavior.  We are Christ's ambassadors wrote the apostle Paul, "as though God were making His appeal through us" (2 Cor. 5:20).  God chose us to be His representatives.  He called us to go out, to proclaim the "good news" - to be the "good news" - and to change the world.  Living out our faith privately was never meant to be an option!  Please pray for us as we represent Him in Rwanda. 

Stop Trying

"We do not become able to obey Jesus by trying to obey Jesus, but by becoming the kind of person who naturally does obey. That means our intention is to acquire, by intelligent effort and grace, the inward character of Jesus Christ himself."    (Dallas Willard)

Make it Real

I believe one of the most pervasive problems in contemporary American Christianity is that we mistakenly assume that information automatically translates into transformation. But knowing something is true does not in and of itself ensure that this truth will make a significant difference in our lives. Faith for contemporary American Christians is generally a belief about something, not an experience of anything. We need a way to make what we know in our minds real to our hearts.

"The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived."  Thomas Merton

Organized

If one's life is to be organized at all, it must be organized by the will (or the heart).  It can be pulled together from the inside only.  The function of the will or heart is to organize our lives as a whole and to organize them around God.

Choice is the exercise of the will, the capacity of the person to originate things and events that would not otherwise occur.  By originate I mean to include two of the things most prized in human life:  freedom and creativity.  These are really two aspects of the same thing when properly understood: the power to do what is good or evil.

The thought of a sin is not sin, and it is not even a temptation.  Temptation is the thought plus the inclination to sin, possibly manifested by lingering over the thought or seeking it out.  Without the inner yes, there is no sin.  But sin itself is when we inwardly say yes to the temptation, when we would do the deed, even though we may not actually get to carry it out. 

To sin or not to sin that is the question?

Psalms 86:11

11 Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.

The ME I Want To Be!

If Christ's people genuinely enter Christ's way of the heart, they will find a sure path toward becoming the persons they were meant to be: thoroughly good and godly persons yet purged of arrogance, insensitivity, and self-sufficiency.

Spiritual Formation

Spiritual formation for the Christian refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self so that it becomes like the inner being of Christ Himself.  To the degree in which spiritual formation in Christ is successful, the outer life of the individual becomes a natural outflow of the character and teachings of Jesus.  Christian spiritual formation is focused entirely on Jesus.  It's goal is conformity to Christ that arises out of an inner transformation accomplished through purposeful interaction with the grace of God in Christ.  Obedience is an essential outcome of Christian spiritual formation.