Thursday, September 29, 2005
The (Christian) Way
"Making of a Christian" (as referred to in "Spiritual Formation") is a great start: since "discipleship" has been abused so badly (as this blog likes to point out) they propose to rename it "Spiritual Formation."
Unfortunately, Christian life is about all of life, not just spiritual life. How we think (Mark 7:20-23), how we eat (Act 2:42), how to pay our dues (Matt 22:21), how we interact with our family (Luke 12:50-53), friends and neighbors (Luke 10:19-37) and how we should work (Col 3:23).
The question is: how much do we let the Bible and prayer guide our minute-by-minute living? Be it financial decision (investing one's money) or managerial decision (who to layoff) or which devotional material to use/buy for family worship. (I'll be the first to confess that I'm far from living this way.)
Because Jesus' disciples were with Him 24x7 for 3+ years, they saw Him in action from eating and (I don't know how else to put it but:) "releasing His wastes" to healing and preaching. Even when He wanted His "quiet time," people sought Him out (and His response wasn't "people, can't you see I'm having my quiet time?").
Too bad the church has dropped the ball and failed to disciple the Christians. Fortunately, we have the Bible to guide us (along with Jewish and Christian writings to give us context of the Bible).
Update: Here are two verses that comes to mind:
And yet we don't have to do it all:
Unfortunately, Christian life is about all of life, not just spiritual life. How we think (Mark 7:20-23), how we eat (Act 2:42), how to pay our dues (Matt 22:21), how we interact with our family (Luke 12:50-53), friends and neighbors (Luke 10:19-37) and how we should work (Col 3:23).
The question is: how much do we let the Bible and prayer guide our minute-by-minute living? Be it financial decision (investing one's money) or managerial decision (who to layoff) or which devotional material to use/buy for family worship. (I'll be the first to confess that I'm far from living this way.)
Because Jesus' disciples were with Him 24x7 for 3+ years, they saw Him in action from eating and (I don't know how else to put it but:) "releasing His wastes" to healing and preaching. Even when He wanted His "quiet time," people sought Him out (and His response wasn't "people, can't you see I'm having my quiet time?").
Too bad the church has dropped the ball and failed to disciple the Christians. Fortunately, we have the Bible to guide us (along with Jewish and Christian writings to give us context of the Bible).
Update: Here are two verses that comes to mind:
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Eph
6:18
And yet we don't have to do it all:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we
ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that
words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the
Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's
will. Rom 8:26,27
