Comments on: Bringing Reality to the Spiritual Life (Part 1)

By: Oscar

Oscar — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:21:42 +0000

I’m suddenly reminded of a time I was giving a testimony and I said one of those catchphrases like “I need to give my life to Jesus” or something like that. After I said that someone blurted out “what does that even mean?” I got annoyed at him. To be quite honest, I didn’t even know what I was talking about! It was just one of those things that gets drilled into your head when you hear it enough. But for him to have the courage, or just being so anoyed with hearing it so much, is really refreshing. He actually questioned in public! I never see that! And what did I do? I got mad at him. Yikes….

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:05:00 +0000

Hi Ben. I didn’t remember what Pelagian and semi-Pelagian meant and I had to look them up. I think of this less as a doctrinal issue and more about the tacit knowledge of how to live the Christian life that is informally passed from one person to another by example.

Speaking for myself, I acted like the people in The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen. When people around me were saying, “What a beautiful message!” and “What a wonderful Bible study!” I never wanted to say, “Well, I thought it was uninspiring” or “I didn’t get it.” I never wanted to be the one to declare that the emperor was naked, because, after all, the emperor’s clothes are so unique and special that only the truly wise people can see them. If the beauty or specialness of our Bible study is only apparent to those who are spiritually mature and “high level,” then who would want to admit that he doesn’t see it?

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:47:06 +0000

Hi Gerardo, I don’t really understand the question you are asking. Maybe this will be cleared up in Part 2.

By: Darren Gruett

Darren Gruett — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:06:02 +0000

Good article. Certainly, our lives as Christians should be more than just routine. I think of the disciples, living humdrum, boring lives as fisherman until Jesus called them. I think as Christians we should have the most exciting and fulfilling lives of anybody.

By: Ben Toh

Ben Toh — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:39:49 +0000

Thanks, Joe. It is surely easier for me to depend on “my work” which is tangible, than to depend on God’s work, which is often intangible. Though we do have to “work things out,” it is ultimately God who is working in us (Phil 2:12-13). Also, how do we practically and functionally speak as though God is speaking through us, and work with the strength God provides (1 Pet 4:11)? Surely this requires continuous self-denying humility and a continuous dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit, I think.

I’m wondering what you or others think? Is our UBF tendency toward “work righteousness” and “naturalism masquerading as the supernatural work of God” because of our Pellagian or semi-Pellagian tendencies? Or might it be (also) due to our spontaneous tendency to “save face” due to our strong cultural sense of shame and honor? So, if we say a conference, or a messenger, or a message, or a testimony is bad (or recycled), we are shaming (and not encouraging) the person or the one who prepared the conference.

By: GerardoR

GerardoR — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:37:11 +0000

Hi Joe,
Interesting article. However, I am still a bit unclear as to what you mean. Are you saying that we need to accept Jesus works in our life so that we can do them? The article sounded as if you are saying, God wants to work through us and bringing this additional work in our lives can satisfy our faith life. Is this correct?

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:53:49 +0000

Hi David, thanks for your kind words.

This website has quite a few readers who don’t comment. But regardless of how many read it this, what matters is how many of us actually live it out.

I think this is what Paul was talking about in 1Co 2:4: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.” Paul was a wise man and a great speaker. But it was the demonstration of the Spirit’s power through his life that distinguished him from the sophists of his day who roamed around Corinth trying to gather an audience.

If anything that appears on this website is Spirit-filled, then God will make sure it that it reaches the eyes and ears of those who need it.

By: David L

David L — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:46:09 +0000

Very good point Joe, about the need for awakening and real Christian life. I think that what Chesterton (another favorite Catholic of mine) said is right on, “people have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum and safe. There is never anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy. It is sanity and to be sane is more dramatic than to be mad.” If our Bible studies are boring and drab it is because something is wrong with us, not with the Bible or the Christian life. But here is a question for you Joe, who is listening? I mean, I know that there are 15 or 20 regular contributors to this website, but I also have spoken to many people in UBF who have never heard of it. I think that this is a message that people in UBF need to hear! So, how, other than by word of mouth can this happen? Maybe a mass email with this link should be sent to everyone in the entire ministry…but you know that if you do that, you might have to be a martyr :)