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There can be no spiritual formation without engagement with the Spirit. To attempt to do otherwise makes for a hard life, a miserable experience where the flesh gets the upper hand and joy eludes us and defeat is our constant companion. The transformed life we are called to cannot come about by the mere application … Continue reading Spiritual formation – open to the Spirit
To often spirituality is seen as other worldly, something out there that most of us can never achieve, a super-spirituality that has little time for real life. Yet we were made for everyday life. Adam and Eve had a garden to look after. A garden where they knew the Presence of God. Spiritual formation doesn't … Continue reading Spiritual formation – everyday holiness
Happiness and joy go hand in hand and for many it will be about having the right people around them or about having the right things, or perhaps the prospect of a better job, a wage rise, getting married, a new house, etc.. It comes back to the question of happiness, what is it, and … Continue reading Spiritual formation – a question of happiness?
With the Christmas season receding and the advance into the New Year getting underway, I've been struck by the words, "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, in favour with God and man..." They seem normal on the one hand, strange on the other, normal because he was a baby like every other baby, strange in … Continue reading Spiritual formation – Jesus grew
Busy, busy, busy, it seems to be the stuff of life. Busy at work, busy at home, life can seem unavoidably busy. How's yours? When it comes to spirituality it is massive, a killer. To quote Eugene Peterson, "Busyness is the enemy of spirituality. It is essentially laziness. It is doing the easy thing instead … Continue reading Spiritual formation – to busy to be formed
To be spiritually formed is to be whole, to be fully rounded in our approach to life. Frequently though that is not what we find, it seems in our nature to focus on one or two areas to the exclusion of others, or to go to an extreme in some area to the neglect of … Continue reading Spiritual formation – a fully rounded life
Last time I posted about the difference it makes to Christian spiritual formation depending on whether our focus is on holiness or love and how it can lead to distortion in our lives if we focus on one to the neglect of the other. And that brings in the whole question of balance. Now for … Continue reading Spiritual formation – balance
