Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. Developing your own ideas. In short, thinking for yourself. You simply cannot do that in bursts of 20 seconds at a time.
William Deresiewicz
Contrary to the usual mostly “sound bite” and/or “tweet”, today’s “A Few Thoughts”requires buckling up and thinking. Enjoy
Walk by the Spirit
During the past several years, I have experienced far greater traction in my apprenticeship to Jesus when I started reading “walk by the Spirit” as “practice daily life in interactive cooperation with the Spirit”.
And the secret to interactive cooperation with the Spirit is an active, yet indirect approach to spiritual formation.
Just like a passive approach to spiritual formation does not work, neither does a direct approach. We’re not capable in our own resources and brokenness to naturally embody and exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. As I mentioned before, brokenness, self-centeredness, and corruption are infused into our thoughts, feelings, bodies and relationships. We don’t possess the will or strength to change this on our own. So the worst thing we can do is try to act lovingly, act joyfully, act peacefully, act patiently, etc. It’s just acting. That’s the direct approach. While it may give us a sense of success, it actually doesn’t go very far because it has only modified external behavior at best and hasn’t touched the real person on the inside.
The fruit of the Spirit, which is divine love, must come from a transformed inward life so that it naturally, easily, and routinely expresses itself through our body and relationships. In other words, we must be transformed. We must become the kind of person inwardly possessed by divine love so that it easily expresses itself outwardly. But transformation is not in our control. It is in God’s control and power. We can’t directly affect this. We cannot will love, joy, peace, or any of the other aspects of divine love into our lives. The Spirit of God must grow his fruit in us, in his power and time.
What is in our control is intentionally placing ourselves before God all of the time in every activity during every day. We do this through spiritual practices and relationships with humility and surrender to God. This is the active, yet indirect approach. It is interactive cooperation with the Spirit by opening up and surrendering ourselves and every aspect of our daily life to God. As we make space for God in everything we do, the moments of our daily lives become the soil for spiritual transformation.
Over time, these practices and relationships performed with humility and surrender build new habits throughout our daily lives. God uses these new habits to transform us from the inside-out. With time and the Spirit’s power, our entire person undergoes transformation: mind (our thoughts and feelings), heart (our will), body (our embodied habits and readiness to act), relationships (our family, friends, strangers, and even enemies), and soul (the untouchable integrating aspect of an entire flow of life that forms a whole person). Then our transformed character and experiences become embodied and naturally act through our body and relationships.
Relational Humility
Relational humility has implications for measurement and assessment. The ratings of others are privileged over self-report. If you want to know if I’m relationally humble you need to ask my family, my church, my friends, my co-workers, and my students.
The other implication for measurement and assessment is observing relational humility in situations where the virtue comes under stress. In the humility research psychologists have described the following locations as “stress tests” of humility:
- Seeking control, influence, or power within a group
- Interpersonal conflict
- Receiving praise or winning an award
- Sharing credit with others for accomplishments
- Receiving unfavorable or critical feedback
- Admitting and discussing one’s failures
- Taking ownership and responsibility for mistakes and hurtful behavior
- Apologizing to others
- Learning from others, being taught
- Interacting with those of lower status
… these are the relational locations where humility either shines or fails. Our behavior in these moments becomes either oil or sand in the relational gears of life.
… they provide inventory of locations where we can do some good self-examination. Instead of asking myself “Am I humble?” We can reflect upon how we behave, and have behaved, in very specific situations in our life. When it comes to relational humility, do we pass the tests?
A False Teacher
John MacArthur , answering the question, “What are the marks of a false teacher?” Aug. 29, 2024
“What are the marks of a false teacher?” …quoting the words of Jesus, saying, “We will know them by their fruits.”
“The kind of person (a prophet) really is cannot help being revealed.”
… three tests to know whether a preacher is a false prophet — character, creed and converts.
“A person’s basic character — his inner motives, standards, loyalties, attitudes and ambitions — will eventually show through in what he does and how he acts, despite being able to disguise bad fruit with “ecclesiastical trappings, biblical knowledge and evangelical vocabulary, what is in the heart will emerge, and corrupt theology will result in a corrupt life. False teaching and perverted living are inseparable and eventually will become manifest.”
“What he teaches may seem biblical and orthodox, but careful examination will always reveal ideas that are unscriptural and the absence of a strong, clear theology. They have a ready hearing among most people, because they say only what people like to hear. … They want to hear illusions, not truth.”
…regarding a false teacher’s converts, “…they will attract to themselves people who have the same superficial, self-centered and unscriptural orientation as they do. Their followers will be like them — egotistical, proud, self-centered, self-indulgent, self-willed and self-satisfied, while being religious.”
STILL ON THE JOURNEY