Everyone has opinions about their church’s worship music, and nearly everyone thinks it could be better. This is not a criticism of worship directors, their teams, choirs or other musicians. Rather it is a result of the fact that we all have a yearning to worship in a way that is natural to us, and church worship services cannot appeal to everyone’s individual style. Yet with all the complaining, one should question not their church leadership but themselves; how often do I spend time personally worshiping my Lord? To put it another way, how much effort do you make to pursue his presence?
After yesterday’s examination of Spiritual Formation and the Biblical teaching of discipleship, it seems appropriate to enter into an extended series that will teach us how to connect with God in new ways and expand our awareness of his work in our lives and world. These spiritual disciplines are organized into three sections, those that should be performed in solitude, those performed in community, and those that are personal disciplines. We will conclude by examining what fruits we can expect from these practices, fruits that will make us fit to echo Paul’s sentiment, “Be imitators of me, as I follow Christ” (1 Corinthians 11.1).
This is the final entry in a series we started last Thursday. A survey conducted by Barna and Summit Ministries revealed many worldly philosophies have gained a foothold in the minds of many practicing Christians. This is alarming on many levels, and we have taken the time to examine Scripture in such a way that it overcomes these false belief systems. Yesterday we looked at post-modern ethics and determined that its fundamental flaw is the absence of God from its reasoning. Today we uncover three Marxist beliefs that many Christians believe to be true.
Summit, a ministry in Manitou Springs, Colorado that I wholeheartedly support and have served with, in cooperation with Barna conducted a survey of “practicing Christians” and the results are disturbing. The questions were designed to see if Christians were influenced, or perhaps adopting, beliefs from other ideologies. The results show that New Spirituality, secularism, post-modernism, and Marxism have all penetrated the thinking of the elect. The survey is made up of 1,456 people who described themselves as attending church at least once a month, who claim their faith is important to them and agreed with the following statement:
We’re in the midst of a series on Spiritual Disciplines, specifically those we enter into while in solitude. We have just looked at how to read God’s Word in times of crises, and today we examine how to pray. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert before beginning his ministry to pray and seek God’s council, a night in prayer before selecting the disciples, throughout the Gospels we see he periodically left the disciples to pray for an hour (or more), and he spent another full night in prayer on the day of his arrest. His example is one we should follow.
What is “spiritual formation”? Many Christian schools and mega churches will have a director of spiritual formation (SF) and I’ve often wondered, what exactly is this discipline? Deconstructing the term provides me a mental picture of the human spirit as a lump of clay on a potter’s wheel being formed into something useful, which is of very little help since the Bible is clear that God is the potter and not us. There are many different ideas and approaches to what SF is, but perhaps the most useful understanding comes from looking at the disciplines colleges and seminaries teach for this major.
Since Thursday of last week we have been discussing a Barna\Summit Ministries survey the revealed Biblically-incorrect beliefs that many Christians hold true. We are attempting to overcoming them with the truth of Scripture. Yesterday’s article combatted materialism from the “secularist” movement and today we examine post-modernist beliefs that have slipped in particularly among Gen-X Christians. Post Modernism is a belief system that rejects the common notions of absolute truth, objective reality and many other grand narratives of the last century. This thought system asserts moral relativism and, likewise, there is no one correct system of logic. If true, then nothing can be known with certainty.
During our series we have learned that angels are created beings, spiritual rather than physical in nature, and that they operate in specific roles. There is a military branch headed by the archangel Michael, a secret-service like branch run by the Cherubim, throne room attendants called Seraphim (which may or may not be angels), and some tasked to specific duties like protecting churches and initiating judgments. There is one more being that must be covered here, and despite its name it is in fact no angel at all: The Angel of the Lord.
It’s not every year that July 4th, America’s birthday, falls on a date that we publish, but when it does we enjoy taking the time to celebrate and to remind our readers of America’s Christian heritage. In light of the occasion, George Washington – America’s father – may have the best take of all when he stated, “It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.” Say what you want about Washington or the founding fathers, but do not say they were theists. Clearly they invoke not only God as creator, but state repeatedly the importance of the Bible.
Yesterday we began a new series on the topic of spiritual discipline by introducing section one (of four sections) outlining the importance of silence and solitude in our walk with the Lord. During those times there are disciplines we can follow that help us focus our awareness of God’s presence in our lives and in the midst of difficult circumstances. The first of these disciplines, which we will take up today, is reading the Bible. We all have difficult circumstances in our lives, and whatever the situation, when we want to hear from God there is no better resource than his Word.
Last Thursday we started a series that overcomes incorrect beliefs held by Bible-believing Christians. A Barna survey, sponsored by Summit Ministries, revealed a great many Biblically-incorrect beliefs that have crept into the church. Yesterday’s article combatted strange doctrine from the “New Spirituality” movement (which largely stems from eastern mysticism, so its not really “new” at all). Today we examine beliefs that are right at home among secularists than among those who think biblically. As always, we use the Bible to combat these false notions which is especially appropriate in this case since those surveyed stated a belief in the Bible as God’s Word. Let’s begin!
Last week we started our series on angels, learning about their origins and basic nature. We then looked at three classes of angels, the militant arm lead by the Archangel Michael, Cherubim who act as guards and Ophanim who backup the Cherubim in their service and transport the royal chariot. Today we learn about the only other named group of angels, the Seraphim. They are mentioned only once in all of Scripture, in Isaiah chapter six, and their description is minimal. They are described as having hands, feet and six wings. Most scholars assume they have a human form, but this isn’t necessarily the case.