Spiritual Exercises
Read: Psalm 23 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (v. 6) A calendar above my writing table shows a mother duck venturing out from the weeds into a serene lake, followed by five fuzzy ducklings. The caption reads “Come, […]
Training for the Good and Beautiful Life
Read: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. (v. 3 MSG) This beautifully written passage is revered by many Christians. However, it may be so familiar that we do not notice that Paul pulls no punches here. He says that it doesn’t matter how […]
Seeking God
Read: Psalm 46 Be still, and know that I am God. (v. 10) Here is a recap of our definition of spiritual formation so far: “Christian spiritual formation is the process of being conformed into the image of Christ, through an intimate relationship with God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in order to live […]
A Good and Beautiful Life
Read: Colossians 3:1-17 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. (vv. 9-10 NRSV) What is the key to living a good life? Marketers spend […]
Making All Things New
Read: John 16:5-16 A new spirit I will put within you. (Ezek. 36:26) If you were ever a candidate for cataract surgery, your doctor probably promised that your dull and drab world would be bright and colorful after your surgery. Of course, you couldn’t know that your world was dull and drab until you had […]
Intimacy with God
Read: Genesis 3:1-12 But the Lord God called to the man . . . “Where are you?” (v. 9) Many years ago, I was a fan of Guideposts, a magazine full of heartwarming, personal stories of relationships with God. One day I decided to try to write for this magazine, so I read back issues and the editor’s guidelines […]
In the Likeness of God
Read: 2 Corinthians 4:1-12 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. (v. 5) When a child is born, someone inevitably will say, “He’s the spitting image of his dad.” In terms of physical appearance the boy is a lookalike. But as a child grows, someone might remark: “He’s a hard worker […]
Who Shapes Me?
Read: Romans 12:1-8 Do not be conformed to this world. (v. 2) How hard do you fight against being conformed to the culture around you? Do you dream of owning the latest electronic device? Do you excuse your bad language by saying, “I hear it all the time”? Do you judge, not love? We adapt pretty […]
Train Yourself to be Godly
Read: 1 Timothy 3:14-4:16 Godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. (v. 8 NRSV) In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell reports that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. Baseball players, violinists, computer programmers, and inventors all need to spend […]