A Conscious Approach for Spiritual Growth in 2019

A New Year🎄 Is Upon Us

Today marks the second day of a new year. 2018 with all its successes and frustrations is past gone. And there’s no looking back. Only to learn from its lessons, but nothing more. A new year and its possibilities is upon us and we’re up for a ride.

Thinking about the year ahead, I started wondering about what I wanted for 2019.

And spiritually, I want to grow more.

2018 was “OK” spiritually talking. I memorized a couple of verses(that in this moment I can’t remember…maybe one). Suffice it to say 2018 was more more “meh” than “yay!”.

But I want more “yay!”. I read about the lives of Paul, David and Elijah, just to name a few and I long to have such a deep faith and trust in God.

So I want to grow more.

I want to deepen my knowledge of God. I want to have a vibrant faith. I want to revitalize my prayer life.

I must confess my prayer life is dry. It has been bothering me for a while. The vibrancy of our prayer life shows the vitality of our faith, so if this is so, then my faith looks more like a flat line.

 

What I Decided To Do

So I decided to concentrate on two things:

1. Memorize the 100 Bible verses from the book “100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know”.

2. Follow the four practical changes Tim Keller made that revitalized his prayer life:

• Take several months to go through the Psalms
• Put in time of meditation as a transitional discipline between my Bible reading and my time of prayer.
• Pray morning and evening rather than only in the morning.
• Pray with more expectation.

These will the core and emphasis for my plan, but additionally, I plan to do some others things although on a more low-key level, more like an add-on:

3. Read a Systematic Theology book in its entirety(yes, they are usually 500+ pages, so I’ve been dreading to do this.) My options are:

• Louis Berkhof’s “Systematic Theology”
• Michael Horton’s “The Christian Faith”
• John Calvin’s “Institutes of the Christian Religion”
• Francis Turretin’s “Institutes of Elenctic Theology”

4. Read more theology books. I decided to start the year with the following:

• “Prayer” by Tim Keller
• “Knowing God” by J.I. Packer
• “The Holiness of God” by R.C. Sproul
• “The Bondage of the Will” by Martin Luther

 

Reasons Why I Decided To Do This

My outcome is to grow spiritually and by memorizing Bible verses I would fill my mind with the Word, and I can’t see anything else that would nourish my faith more.

And by going through the greatest book on prayer, namely the Psalms, and understanding that Christ is at its core, and going through the ups and down of those who wrote them, I believe my soul and faith will greatly benefit.

By putting in time to meditate on what I read before praying, I’m leaving space to really take in what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach me.

By praying morning and evening rather than only in the morning I will have more time with the Lord, dedicate more time for worship, and reap the infinite benefits of prayer.

By praying with more expectation I will exercise the muscle of faith by relying on His promises.

Conclusion

I am excited about this experiment and I am definitively looking forward to know more about God and to develop, strengthen, and revitalize my prayer life!

Shadows of Death

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” Psa. 23:4

I recently was reading Psalm 23, and while I was reading this verse I remember stopping cold after reading the phrase “valley of the shadow of death”. It struck me odd. I remember asking myself, “why did the author write “valley of the shadow of death”, instead of “valley of death”? Why use shadow in there? Why this adjective? I believe the Bible doesn’t add words for the sake of adding words, but that every word in it has a purpose, a meaning, a message to relay.

I started to think about it. Why the word “shadow”? What’s the idea behind this word? Well, this word has many meanings depending on the context and what you’re talking about, but based on the context we read in this Psalm, I believe it means a faint indication of something, a foreshadowing. We can see this idea behind Plato’s allegory of the cave.

In Plato’s allegory, he describes a group of people who for all their lives have been chained to the wall inside a cave facing a blank wall. Inside this cave, the people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and they begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He explains how the shadows on the wall do not make reality at all but are just mere shadows of the true form of reality.

I believe the author uses this idea of shadows to convey the message that whatever we encounter in this valley is just a shadow of the true form of death. But not death itself.

Through this text the author reminded me of a couple of things. First of all, that these shadows of death, namely afflictions, are only temporary. He talks about the “shadow” of death, not death itself. So God is talking through the author telling us that whatever we endure in this life is nothing but a shadow, is temporary, it doesn’t last forever. That relieves me. That strengthens me. Life is but a dream, a blink of an eye. We die and only then starts real life. Life for all eternity. So we can rest knowing that whatever the tribulation we are going through, whatever is bringing you down, is nothing but only temporary. It won’t last forever.

But wait, there’s more. I haven’t gotten to the best part, the meat and good news of this verse.

This shadow of death is nothing but a shadow of the true form of death, the second death, namely eternal condemnation. And this is what we deserved and were bound to: Death.

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because wall sinned.” Rom. 4:12

“For the wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23a

The foreshadowing in this verse points to Jesus’ work for us. The reason why the author describes the “death” we would find in this valley as a shadow is because Christ has already conquered death for us and now we are alive in Him! And how do we know this? Because He died in the cross for us? Yes, that’s true. But that’s not the whole story. Sometimes we get caught up only in His death. But the way He conquered death was by His resurrection!!! As Paul says, if He wasn’t resurrected then our hope is in vain! But He was! So our hope is not in vain and now in Him we’re alive and won’t find the true form of death in the valleys of affliction and tribulation in this life, but only temporary suffering, only shadows of death!

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.” 1 Cor. 15:20-21

“But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom. 6:23b

“Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for fall men.” Rom. 4:18 [ Emphasis added ]

Because Jesus died for our sins, and because He conquered death and we’re now alive in Christ, and because He first loved us and gave us life when we were dead in our trespasses and we weren’t able to ever save ourselves, and because we get this life and gift for FREE, we humbly only get to say: THANK YOU, OH LORD, FOR YOUR GRACE AND MERCY.

O Death, where is your sting?

They Can’t Take Away Anything For We Already Have Everything

The following is a dialogue between John Chrysostom (ca. 347-407) and the empress Eudoxia that took place when Chrysostom was brought before her and was threatened with banishment from the kingdom if he insisted on his Christian independence as a preacher.

It goes as follows:

[…after being threatened with banishment from the kingdom…]

“You cannot banish me, for this world is my Father’s house.”

“But I will kill you,” said the empress.

“No, you cannot, for my life is hid with Christ in God,” said John.

“I will take away your treasures.”

“No, you cannot, for my treasure is in heaven and my heart is there.”

“But I will drive you away from your friends and you will have no one left.”

“No, you cannot, for I have a Friend in heaven from whom you cannot separate me. I defy you, for there is nothing you can do to harm me.”

You see, Chrysostom had a clear sight. A clear understanding of both worlds, the spiritual as well as the physical. His view wasn’t blurred nor tainted by shiny yet meaningless objects, beautiful yet shallow women, enticing yet empty promises of money, fame or any other thing this world tells you are the main goals in life.

If this conversation between Chrysostom and the empress Eudoxia would’ve been a sight/vision exam, God, being the ultimate Optometrist, would’ve graded Chrysostom with a sight better than 20/20. He had no spiritual myopia. He had no metaphysical Uveitis. He had his sight set on things above, as Colossians 3:2 recommends for our own sake. He saw the world from a different frame of glasses that sharply contrasts this world’s hedonistic, narcissistic, and selfish spirit.

This world highly touts material things as if it were the final purpose and only end in life to accumulate as much of it as you can. By doing so, they are unknowingly expressing their existential void by trying to fill it with external decaying things you can’t carry with you in the coffin. You could be placed inside a golden coffin wrapped in diamonds but it’s still a coffin. You are as dead as the guy next door inside a coffin made with the cheapest wood available or as the guy being carried away by the cops in a plastic bag.

The models this world displays are nothing more than empty black holes of quiet desperation. They might grin, smile and project that “I love my life-I have everything under control” smile, but their constant consumerism and constant displays of what they own, bought or are about to buy, is nothing more than a broad display and living proof of their insecurity. A perfect example of this would be all the rappers that always talk about the same things: money, women, drugs, alcohol, cars, you name it.

You see, they have plenty of money but lack character, their bank accounts are  full but they’re empty inside, they are at the top of the world but are low in God’s eyes, they drive fast cars but are the slowest to show real love and sacrifice, they seem strong and untouchable but are weak in faith. They worship the things created and not the Creator.

As Tullian Tchividjian said in his book Jesus + Nothing = Everything while commenting on Colossians 3:12,

The Father. . . has qualified you [past tense; it’s finished] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us [past tense again; the deliverance is completed] from the domain of darkness and transferred us [past tense once more:the transferal is already concluded] to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have [present tense; this very moment we possess it] redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 

Chrysostom understood the concept of, and lived his life under the banner of, “the glorious exchange’, namely, that “on the cross, Jesus took upon himself our sin—our corrupt, fatal nothingness—then placed upon us his righteousness, his everythingness“, according to Tullian.

Now everything we need we have in Christ. No fast car, mind-blowing beautiful woman, the biggest mansion or castle on earth, no golden object you acquire, no amount of money, can ever measure up to the everythingness we have in Christ. Chrysostom knew this and that’s why he didn’t feel threatened by their removing of these earthly pleasures or his life. He knew that he had even more than he needed in Christ, and no material nor physical object would ever fill him as Christ fills us.

No matter what beauty your eyes have beheld, no matter how impressive the sounds of nature might be, no matter what earthly object has captured your fascination, no matter what pleasurable image has your mind so far conceived,  it is promised to us that heaven will be by far an infinitely more heightened experience in every way, shape and manner possible, than that which we have so far experienced and will ever have in this life.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

So why settle for less? Why settle for menial things that decay and wither like flowers without water when we have more than we need in Christ, the author of salvation, our hope,  and the Water of Life?

“A Death Blow Is A Life Blow to Some”

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“A Death blow is a Life blow to Some

Who till they died, did not alive become —

Who had they lived, had died but when

They died, Vitality begun.”

Emily Dickinson