Thoughts arrived reading from Dr Bruce Demarest "Satisfy Your Soul' (NavPress)
Growth requires an open heart and receptive mind to every overture of the Spirit. If we do not open up to ideas beyond ourselves, we run the risk of shaping God to our views and our ways - making God in our image - and never allow Him to shape us in His.
C.S Lewis in his book 'The Incarnation of the Word of God' (dated 1963) addressed this problem - personal biases that result in a closed mind.
He wrote, "If you venture to speak, you will have an amusing experience. You will be thought a Papist when you actually reproduce a Bunyan, a Pantheistic when you are quoting Aquinas."
As C. S Lewis saw it, we must be open to the best scholarship - the wisdom of ages - to keep on track and free from errors caused by our limited, culturally influenced views. Admittedly, C S Lewis said, the person who explores new ground and carefully weighs new possibilities puts himself at risk. For when he proposes new insights or approaches, he is likely to be misunderstood and resisted.
If you are a Christian, it is very likely you have already formed certain opinion about spiritual experience and growth. For example, you may not care to listen to a spiritual writer who lived prior to the sixteen century or you may dislike certain written prayers.
Centuries ago, Augustine (dated 430) uttered the following prayer: "Lord, Your best servants are those who wish to shape their life on Your answers rather than shape Your answers on their wishes." May this be the prayer of our hearts as well.
My Take:
The tendency to jump quick into conclusion, to dismiss or to label the author, the preacher or church when the real issue can be very much ourselves. We resisted and build our walls of resistance towards inner growth when we encounter new experiences or new thoughts as we had already formed a grid (pre-conceived idea) in us, basing on our own experiences, cultural and religious training. We further boasted this grid when we spiritualized them in noble and spiritual context where it is actually a personal spiritual preferences.
God is a God of ancient ages to the present into eternality. Studying church history, we will see that the Holy Spirit has flowed through Jewish and Christian history. You will find in the beginning of 1960s, the charismatic renewal in the Catholic church and mainline Protestant denominations has also powerfully impacted lives.
Excuse me, Catholic Church?
Yes, Catholic church. If this is your question.
God is not limited by our angry response when He placed a new and challenging idea which may seem totally contrary to our spiritual preferences, which we choose to call it spiritual accuracies.
Where the Holy Spirit is, there is liberty. He gives the liberty in Him that produces life. A life in Christ is measured by its fruits, and bearing fruits in all seasons. That is a nurture inner life in Christ.
I choose to pray as Augustine pray. I choose to humble before the Knowing King and confessed my vulnerability and acknowledge my lack of understanding and wisdom. In many ways and many times, I can end up belittling those spiritual teachings and teachers when it is just my spiritual preferences. I can possibly fall when I lest think I would fall. For the Lord exalts the humble and humble the self exalted ones.
We are so capable of replacing the Great Teacher.
Have mercy Lord.
Growth requires an open heart and receptive mind to every overture of the Spirit. If we do not open up to ideas beyond ourselves, we run the risk of shaping God to our views and our ways - making God in our image - and never allow Him to shape us in His.
C.S Lewis in his book 'The Incarnation of the Word of God' (dated 1963) addressed this problem - personal biases that result in a closed mind.
He wrote, "If you venture to speak, you will have an amusing experience. You will be thought a Papist when you actually reproduce a Bunyan, a Pantheistic when you are quoting Aquinas."
As C. S Lewis saw it, we must be open to the best scholarship - the wisdom of ages - to keep on track and free from errors caused by our limited, culturally influenced views. Admittedly, C S Lewis said, the person who explores new ground and carefully weighs new possibilities puts himself at risk. For when he proposes new insights or approaches, he is likely to be misunderstood and resisted.
If you are a Christian, it is very likely you have already formed certain opinion about spiritual experience and growth. For example, you may not care to listen to a spiritual writer who lived prior to the sixteen century or you may dislike certain written prayers.
Centuries ago, Augustine (dated 430) uttered the following prayer: "Lord, Your best servants are those who wish to shape their life on Your answers rather than shape Your answers on their wishes." May this be the prayer of our hearts as well.
My Take:
The tendency to jump quick into conclusion, to dismiss or to label the author, the preacher or church when the real issue can be very much ourselves. We resisted and build our walls of resistance towards inner growth when we encounter new experiences or new thoughts as we had already formed a grid (pre-conceived idea) in us, basing on our own experiences, cultural and religious training. We further boasted this grid when we spiritualized them in noble and spiritual context where it is actually a personal spiritual preferences.
God is a God of ancient ages to the present into eternality. Studying church history, we will see that the Holy Spirit has flowed through Jewish and Christian history. You will find in the beginning of 1960s, the charismatic renewal in the Catholic church and mainline Protestant denominations has also powerfully impacted lives.
Excuse me, Catholic Church?
Yes, Catholic church. If this is your question.
God is not limited by our angry response when He placed a new and challenging idea which may seem totally contrary to our spiritual preferences, which we choose to call it spiritual accuracies.
Where the Holy Spirit is, there is liberty. He gives the liberty in Him that produces life. A life in Christ is measured by its fruits, and bearing fruits in all seasons. That is a nurture inner life in Christ.
I choose to pray as Augustine pray. I choose to humble before the Knowing King and confessed my vulnerability and acknowledge my lack of understanding and wisdom. In many ways and many times, I can end up belittling those spiritual teachings and teachers when it is just my spiritual preferences. I can possibly fall when I lest think I would fall. For the Lord exalts the humble and humble the self exalted ones.
We are so capable of replacing the Great Teacher.
Have mercy Lord.
