Spiritual Formation Posts 2010-2015

Payne Theological Seminary

Here are posts I made from 2010 - 2015 on the broad theme of Christian Spirituality. Which means things like: spiritual formation, spiritual renewal, spiritual transformation, spiritual restoration (all these terms are different!), corporate spirituality, discernment, cultural discernment, spirituality and the church, and some others.

Live Unveiled Before God

Psalm 23:1

Either Deep Change or Slow Death

Spiritual People are More Resilient

What It Means to Be "Led By the Spirit"

Get a Grip Off Life

Created Things Cannot Fill the Abyss of Interior Solitude

5 Key Aspects of a Pentecostal Worldview

"Testimony" as "The Poetry of Pentecostal Experience"

Jesus Never Called Us to Be Comfortable

Points of No Return

I Had a Religious Experience (A Few Thoughts)

How the Prophetic Voice Increases

Self-Love as Boredom

Some Meditations on LOVE

All Relevant "Doing" Comes From Abiding

Self-Control

Everyone's Heart Is an Inner Cupboard

The Dialectic Between the Words of Men and Their Being

The "Kindness Circle"

Avail Yourself of the God Positioning System

"Grace" As the Concrete Manifestation of the Activity of God

The "World" As a "Systematic Sham"

Influence

The Absence of the Feeling of God

Church: The More People, the Less Truth

Don't Protect the False Self

Jimmy's Dream

Still Learning... 1 Corinthians 3:10-17

Look Past the Face Into the Heart

Release From Addiction to Control

Give Yourself to the Timeless Issues of the Human Spirit

A Pentecostal Epistemology Privileges Aisthesis Before Noesis

The Primacy of Worship Before Mission

N.T. Wright on Divine Character Formation

Influence Doesn't Need to Make a Personal Appearance

God Helps By Giving Himself

Be Annihilated for God's Glory

Focus on Influence, Not Size

Where There Is Life, Build Structure

You Don't Have to Advertise a Fire

Rejecting "Church" as an Entertainment Center

There Are No Critics In the Revolution

On Not Being My Own Providence

The Fool: A Personal Example

When Your Plans Change

Expectation, Hope, and Promise

The Dialectical Movement from Solitude to Community

Living in the Place of Constant Deburdening (When Your Mind Wanders in Prayer)

Why People Try to Control Others

No One Is Uncontaminated

Self-Exaltation is Bad; Humility is Good

Repression, Addiction, and the Return to Love

The Way of Escape & the Two Options of Choice

The Logic of Self-Control

Swimming In the Attributes of God

Eternity From the Jesus POV

Freedom Is For Something

Deepen the Life You Already Possess

Living Above our Illnesses

The Non-localized Glory of God

Our Vocation Is: Royal Priesthood

Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

Love is Kind

Spiritual Maturity - It Takes a Lifetime

The Garden of My Heart That Is Jesus

A Cruciformed Life: Don't Expect to Be Crowned With Glory By the World

Doing Worship Reps In the Spiritual Gymnasium

Love Is Our Measure

We Need More Repetitive Worship (Tribal Worship Was 7-11 Worship)

Never Abandon Your Loved Ones

Community - Healthy; Loneliness - Unhealthy

Labor Under God

On Pride and Humility

Freedom Is Not Anarchic

Desiring to Be a Saint

Gliding Forward Even While We Sleep

The Need for Authentic, Caring Community

Inner Peace Is Not Circumstantial (Solitude Is a Deepening of the Present)

What "Church" Is

Protective Love Can Cause Withdrawal Pains

Love Always Protects

Enter the World of Non-text

Adoratio, Ergo Sum

Market-Driven Churches Attract Consumers, Not Disciples

Holy Nothingness As the Precondition for Divine Everythingness

Real "Church" Is Not a Personal Need-Meeting Machine

Unforgettable Words of Love

If You're Not Heavenly Minded You'll Be No Earthly Good

The Spiritual Life Consists of Practicing God's Presence

"Church" Was Never Intended to "Meet Your Needs"

Reject Performance-Based Churches

Open the Present

Eating With Jesus as Entering the Kingdom

It's About Influence, Not Size

Who Are You?

Bridge the Gap

Don't Cling to This Life

Spiritual Formation and the Reversal of Romans 7:19

Resolution

Where Work Finds Its Ultimate Meaning

Miroslav Volf On the Meaning of Work

"Follow Me"

The Lie of Ontological Uniqueness (and the Real Meaning of Christmas)

Langdon Gilkey on Holiness

Because He Lives, I Can Face Today

The Day the Church Stood Still

For Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Was a Total Way of Life

Be Marginal

Losing My Religion to Join the Revolution

Tradition

To Keep Unencumbered

Contemplation Is a Creative State of Being

It's You That Needs Changing

Friendship With God As the Antidote to Loneliness

Withdraw to Lonely Places

Spiritual Formation & Transformation

Hoping Beyond Death

Develop a Conversational Relationship with God

The Normal Christian Life Includes a Conversational Relationship with God

God's Name Is Not "Robert"

Explore Inner Space

Age Me, O Lord

Stephen Lived on the Corner of Heaven Street and Earth Boulevard

Blessed Are the Mono-Taskers, for They Shall See God

Square One

Renounce a Spirit of Poverty

Contentment & the Fall of America

Be Free of Trying to Change Other People

Myelinization and Spiritual Transformation

Confess and Forgive

Traveling Without a Map

MLK's Idea of Prayer

A Self-Imposed Half-Day of Silence

Walking Naked Into the Land of Uncertainty

What My People Need

Proof That Things Won't Make You Happy

Stay In the Fire That Burns You

Power Corrupts: The African Big Man Syndrome

Repetitive Worship & the Kingdom of God in Kenya

Don't Accept Your Subhumanity

William James on Religious Experiences as Authoritative

St. John of the Cross on Humility and Pride

Dallas Willard Defines Spiritual Formation

Kindle a Dark Night in Your Soul

"No" Is a Freedom Word

Salvation as Rescue

Subversive Spirituality: It's a Story, Not a Logical Argument

The Uncomplicated Spirituality of Jesus

To Forgive or to Punish?

Avoid the Arguer Without and Within

God Desires Participatory Relationship

John Piper on Spiritual Gifts Today (and Especially Prophecy)

Real Jesus-Followers Never Need to Be Coerced or Tricked Into Ministry

The Non-boring, Amazing Jesus

God Helps Us to Live the Way God Asks Us to Live

Needed: Spiritual Prescience

Reinserting the Supernatural Into the Heart of Christianity

Howard Thurman On the Need for Daily Withdrawal

Abiding 101

Face-to-Face Your Anger and Interpersonal Conflict (Not Facebook It)

"Get Low": The Futility of Self-atonement & the Need for Final Cleansing

Submit to God In the Present Moment

Every Brain Needs Downtime

Needed: "Garden Time"

Confession & Forgiveness: The Foundation of All Authentic Relationship

"Success" in the Kingdom of God Is...

Life's Not a Road But a Series of Rabbit Trails

Consumer Religion Fuels Clergy Burnout

Prayer & Divine Healing

Clergy Burnout

Seek Christ, Not the Self

Some Can't Live Without Their Sufferings

African, and African-American Spirituality

Only the Free Can Forgive From the Heart

Dark Knowledge of God

When Words Translate Into Deeds

Religious Information Cannot Morph the Soul into Christlikeness

Mayflies

Internet Multitaskers as Suckers for Irrelevancy

Freedom From Everybody, and From My Own Self

We Are the Pancake People

Three Important Perspectival Things

"Church" Should Make Us Uncomfortable

The Scandalous Jesus-Denying Behavior of Christians

Don't Doubt Who You Really Are

Your Identity Is: Beloved Son or Daughter of God

Spiritual Direction Is Not Psychological Counseling

Henri Nouwen on Spiritual Direction

The True Church vs. Screwtape

The Source of Fruitful Action

Essentials of Prayer

Nourish the Soul This Week

Why Multitasking Screws Up the God-Relationship

Heal the Evil Within

Biblical Metaphors of God's Presence

Merton On the Need for Solitude & the Irrelevancy of Many Corporate Meetings

Thomas Merton, Real Personhood, and Freedom

How To Keep A Spiritual Journal

How To Hear the Voice of God

Solitude & Silence

Solitude and Spiritual Transformation

Humility (Jack Deere on...)

Morphing from Persona to Personhood

Needed: More Deep People

God Morphs a Controlling Heart Into a Trusting Heart

Self-Deconstruction & Spiritual Transformation

We Get Transformed In the Presence of God

The Foundation of a Seminary Education Is Transformation of the Heart

Fear and the Kingdom of the Inherited

"Church": Relationship With God or Petty Church Rules?

The "Game With Minutes"

God Has Plans That Dwarf Yours in Comparison

The Sacrament of the Present Moment

Liberation Comes Before Theologizing

Love does Not Fashion Others Into One's Own Image

Do Everything In Love

Howard Thurman On the Almighty Clarity of Jesus

Ernie Harwell & the Power of Humility

Dallas Willard on Breaking Free from Institutional Measures of Success

A.W. Tozer On the Program-Driven Church

My Struggle With Self-Consciousness

Religious Experience

Beware “prideful sipping from the poisonous cup of international fame and notoriety”

Fear, Trembling, and the Unfinished Business of Sozo

Jim Cymbala on Authentic Preaching

Trust As the Cure for Anxiety & Fear

C.S. Lewis on Pride

Host the Loving Presence of God

Healing: A Few Developing Thoughts

Background Music As Grand Narrative

Remember the Past and Move On

Overcoming the Disordering Power of Misplaced Desire

Two Untruthful Situations

Either God Or the Wilderness of Neurosis

Comparison

Life Is a Series of Interruptions and Choices

Redemption

The Full Measure of Jesus' Joy

Love Requires a Predicate

Some Upside-Down Kingdom Stuff on Holiness

Marks of a Free Person

Christ Now IS Our Righteousness

Unequal In Valuableness; Equally Loved By God

Multitasking Degrades Performance

Either Asleep or Awake; Dead or Alive

Fear & Anxiety Immobilize the Spirit

Relational Vs. Theoretical Knowing

On Not Judging Others

(More) On Not Judging Others

On Not Judging Your Own Self

Self-Examine? Yes! Self-Hate? No!

God Is the Architect Of Our In-Christness

On Giving Advice

I Am In Christ Jesus

What It Means to "Abide in Christ"

Questioning God

Trust God to Keep You Close to Him

Testify

Want Some Rest? (Andrew Murray #2)

The Depth of Jesus' Words "Abide in me" (Andrew Murray #1)