Spiritual Formation
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9 Those born from God don’t practice sin because God’s DNA remains in them. They can’t sin because they are born from God. 10 This is how God’s children and the devil’s children are apparent: everyone who doesn’t practice righteousness is not from God, including the person who doesn’t love a brother or sister. 11 This is the message that you… Read more
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Wesley summarized his search for Christian perfection in his work, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. As I work my way through this piece I find my own heart longing for this work of Christ in me. It is a lifelong journey. Without knowing it, I’ve been living out Wesley’s journey for quite some time.… Read more
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What did Jesus call us to? Get people to a decision… or call on us to follow him? Scot McKnight is highlighting this powerfully in his book, The King Jesus Gospel, but Dallas Willard was doing so before. And for some reason… we’re still not paying attention. I was in a very uncomfortable conversation yesterday… Read more
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Scot McKnight in his book, The King Jesus Gospel, quotes one of my favorite writers and thinkers, Dallas Willard. He takes Willard’s “gospel of sin management” and puts it in his context of h0w our culture is missing the gospel. We don’t want to follow Jesus. We want him to get rid of our sin… Read more
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The founding of the Assemblies of God (my denomination) was based on the lack of creeds in the very beginning. They believed in the Bible, bless God, and that was enough. It wasn’t long before theological controversy forced them into a statement of faith. (But it’s not a creed. 😉 ) Over the years as I… Read more
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One of my main thoughts from my message from Philippians 2 today: As a Pentecostal believing in the power of the Spirit, I will confess that all too often it is easy to see the true “power” of the Spirit in the manifestation gifts like healing, deliverance, prophetic words, etc. What we need to start… Read more
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The challenge of the servanthood of Jesus is one I like to avoid, quite honestly. 😉 When I get into a text like Philippians 2:1-13 I dig into the meditation of serving. This time through I am tracking the thought of “servant” through the Bible (in a very quick manner). What I am finding is… Read more
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I follow Scot McKnight on the Jesus Creed blog quite a bit, but other than that, I’m not familiar with his teaching. When The King Jesus Gospel was announced, the one thing that sold me on getting this book right away was there was a forward by Dallas Willard. I have a high regard for Willard,… Read more
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David Brooks of the New York Times hits the nail on the head today. (HERE.) We think so highly of ourselves, we just think we can whip this economy back into shape without realizing the depth of the problem and that TIME will really help in pulling ourselves out of the mess. This is leading… Read more
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Don’t be in debt to anyone, except for the obligation to love each other. Whoever loves another person has fulfilled the Law. (Romans 13:8, CEB) This whole passage, from Romans 12 to 13, has kept my mind going for quite some time. Without our lives being a living sacrifice and our minds being completely transformed… Read more
Apprentice 2 Jesus 