The ultimate purpose and practice of Spiritual Formation is:
- Identifying the Anxieties for which we currently lack Grace
- Training us to Catharize them by the Cross of Christ
More formally:
Continue readingCategory Archives: Beliefs
Requiem for The Flesh
StandardOur flesh is the shame
God built into our genes
To help us survive
Without Him
LifeView: Part-y of God [from iHack]
StandardOver on my professional blog iHack, I’ve been working through the excellent book Designing Your Life. In addition to articulating a philosophy of work (WorkView), they challenge us to write down a philosophy of life (LifeView).
Since that obviously overlaps with my spiritual journaling here, I decided to repost it.
To move forward Together
We must internalize And reconcile
The excluded pain That enabled us
To become Us By creating Them
LifeView (Designing Your Life)
How to Take Up Our Cross Daily?
StandardSearching for THE right question.
Continue readingPathy versus A-Pathy
StandardApathy
Is a lack of passion
In a particular direction
Relative
To what someone
Perhaps even myself
Wants
If we are Path-y
We won’t have Apathy
I Wanna Be A Loser
StandardI wanna be a loser
So Christ can be the winner
I wanna be the kind of saint
That everyone thinks a sinner
Revival Time (and Space)
StandardLord,
Is now the time
You will restore
Your kingship
To Your people?
Yes.
If you are willing
To pay the price.
What is that price?
Continue reading#Devalidation: My Current Favorite Sin
StandardPerhaps my worst and most common trigger
(Amygdala hijack)
Is when someone says something
That implicitly assumes
That what I consider vitally true
Is obviously false
And I feel like I have to
Invalidate their statement
Or else they’ll have
Invalidated me
Three Dimensions of Christian Identity
Standard- Position: We are already completely accepted as the Father’s beloved children
- Process: We are still becoming redemptive co-heirs with Jesus
- Perception: We develop this identity in (not from) community as we practice reconciliation by hearing and obeying the Spirt
Grievable Losses: The Beatitudes, Summarized
StandardBlessed are those
Who grieve the loss
Of the historic context
That made them feel secure
Fruit of the Spirit vs Veggies of the Law/Jellies of the Flesh
StandardMy mind was blown a couple months ago when our preacher that week pointed out, almost as an aside, that the Fruit of the Spirit was primarily something we gave other people.
Perhaps like you, I had subconsciously assumed that Fruit meant I was feeling more love, joy, peace, etc. But once I reimagined Fruit as “experiences we give others that contain the seed of Christ,” I started to get really excited.
For three reasons: Revival, Metrics, and CounterFruit.
Continue readingThe Amygdala Gospel: Rewiring How We Grow Closer to Jesus
StandardWhen Jesus said we must deny ourselves, I think He meant the amygdala.
Continue readingAddiction, Alcohol and The Law
StandardDrinking alcohol may not be a sin, but it certainly is a coping mechanism I need to be careful about. There is always a risk of turning to that instead of Christ.
Unfortunately, the same can be said of the Law: the religious, psychological, and social structures I rely on to control (rather than cure) sin. Continue reading
Owned Stewards
StandardTo be a steward
Isn’t just not Being an owner
It is also Having an owner Continue reading
Whole-y Pray-ers
Standard[aka Hegelian Prayer: Asking for God’s synthesis, not just our thesis]
God wants whole-y pray-ers
Continue readingCore Grace Training
StandardCore Grace
is the ability
to hold the tension
between affirming
my own individuality
and acknowledging the legitimacy
of other’s needs
long enough
for Jesus to crucify
my self-centered false identity
and reveal
His greater redemption
for all of us.
In other words,
(by analogy with core strength training)
it is what enable us
to substitute Christ-like Responses
for selfish Reactions
Backstory
Continue readingIGWET Statement of Faith
Standard- Praise
Romans 8:28 And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. - Word
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, - Spirit
John 14:26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you. - Body
Romans 12:5 so in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another. - Blood
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. - Mission
Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” - Reflection
Philippians 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.
Becoming a Jesus-Lover
StandardIt is a very good thing to be a follower of Jesus. But like people in the gospels, we today can end up following Jesus for many reasons: salvation, miracles, curiosity, etc.
Those are all good things. But they are not the same as actually loving Jesus for Himself. It is good to thank Him for what He does; but it is better to worship Him for who He is.
Continue readingMy One Thing: Keep Growing Closer to Jesus
StandardAt this point in my Christian life my one aspiration is for all of us to Keep Growing Closer to Jesus (KGCJ), in terms of:
- Love: Relationship with Jesus (Worship)
- Likeness: Resemblance to Jesus (Character)
- Living: Real-World Impact for Jesus (Mission)
Previously I had used the phrase “Loving More Like Jesus.” However — while I still agree with that goal in principle — in practice it was starting feel more like Law than Grace. Hence the shift from “loving like” to “growing closer”
Continue readingDiscipling by Jesus to Align with Love
StandardThe premise of Discipling by Jesus is that uniting with Christ is what enables us to become fully human, as we learn to love our Selves and Others as Jesus does.
Continue reading
Radically Happy 
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