Wilsons Creek gave me a strong of belonging of what I call the three S’s: Structure, Social Network and Spirituality
- I attribute my ongoing recovery from a very severe brain injury in December 1995 primarily to my Christian Spirituality which had its seedbed in my Wilsons Creek days. This has brought healing, restoration and transformation of life purpose. A Christian spirituality comes as a consequence of having a Christian Worldview. It isn’t another Spirituality in the Postmodern Culture of many spiritualities which are seen to be all equal.
- It is a unique Spirituality which integrates the whole of life … of the Inner, Middle and Outer Persons {Spirit, Soul (= mind, will and emotions), and Body}. It means being a disciple of the Person of Jesus Christ, not a follower of a Church as a corporation. A Christian spirituality could also be termed a `Spirituality from Jesus Christ’.
- A Christian Worldview sees that there are two worlds which are totally interconnected. The first is a visible physical world that you and I are part of. The second is an invisible, but very real, spiritual world where God is …. as God is Spirit. It is just as real as the first one …… you work in it with real results.
- God is the infinite-personal God …. infinite – because God is outside the Cosmos and personal because God can be known in personal relationships by His Spirit. God is always the One coming to us to seek a relationship with us and not the other way round of us searching for God. It is not where we are seeking a higher spirituality reality through a particular spiritual path.
- That is the major difference with other spiritualities. God comes to us and reveals Himself to us initially in His written Word, then in the person of Jesus Christ who was God and then by His Holy Spirit who Jesus gave as his personal representative after His Resurrection 2000 years ago.
- A major consequence of a Christian Spirituality is that you have two dimensions of life you enter into. The first one is initially ‘a vertical one’ ….. a relationship with God as Heavenly Father made possible through Jesus Christ as the Son of God. In this relationship you are given a new identity through the living, dying and rising of the person of Jesus Christ. This is the Grace of God. This could be called a ‘Vertical Spirituality’
- The second dimension comes as a fruit of the first. It is a horizontal dimension of purpose. It is a God-given personal purpose for being in this world ….. why are you here? You have what is termed ‘a calling in life’ which may or may not involve your working in an occupation but goes way beyond your occupation. To help to accomplish that purpose you are given special abilities. Life is like a glass of water. If I sit the glass on a shelf for a while, especially in the sun, it will go green with algae and is no good for me or anyone. If I give the glass of water away to a thirsty person, straight away, I can then refill the glass for another person. God’s spiritual life to us is like that …. There is an endless supply that is very thirst quenching water of life.
- ‘You are there for other people’ as Albert Einstein said long ago, ‘ …. not for what you can get from them but what you can impart into their lives for good in an inner sense’. We are here for one another …… I have a component of life that you need and you have a component of life that I need. We are interdependent with each other and not independent. Life is like a community ….. we are here for the common good of others. If we are here for one another, we find another life problem we need to grapple with, ‘Do You live a Whole Life or do you have a Hole in your Life’? Life without God is incomplete, whether we discern it or not. We can be very accomplished on the outside but deep down inside there is something missing. We have lost the centre of our life. We have a big black Hole in the Soul individually and corporately as a culture. We can try and fill this with more materialistic achievements or things. However, there will still remain an inner emptiness and vacuum which only a spiritual dimension can fill.
- This ‘Hole in the Soul’ idea was illustrated to me recently by a friend of mine who shares this idea. He was on a plane journey going overseas and he got into a very open and friendly discussion about life with his fellow passenger. This man told him how he had risen to the highest level in his company and how he had retired with more money than he could spend in a lifetime. Yet there was still something missing. There was an inner lack of meaning and fulfillment in the midst of all that he had accomplished. This came down to a discussion on what was really missing – a spiritual dimension.
- A Christian Spirituality isn’t about a vague, unknowable and far off spirituality which we reach out for. There are certainly rational dimensions to this spirituality but these come as consequences of getting to know God. You can get real answers to prayer for anything, even physical healing. God is really there for you.
- One of the followers of the Messiah Jesus wrote: ‘ …….. when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth ‘ (John’s Gospel Chapter. 4 vs. 23, 24)
- He was writing about truth concerning God and the whole of life. It isn’t just true for John but for all readers. It was a ‘True Truth’ communicated by God who sees the whole Cosmos as the large picture plus you and me as part of the detailed small picture. Seeing God is the Creator of all things, God knows the final truth. This truth was communicated by prophets and seers over many years and finally in person in Jesus of Nazareth who was God Himself in human form. These truths were collated in the Bible which consists of sixty six books written by people who didn’t often know each other over 1500 years, yet whose writing manifests an amazing unity.
- In the beginning humanity had a relationship with this infinite – personal God of the Cosmos. We were made in God’s Image. This relationship became broken on our side, not God’s side. It was an irreconcilable breakdown with major universal consequences for God and us. Jesus Christ came 2000 years ago as the God-Man. He was not another prophet of God just to tell us about how we can reach God, but of God reaching out to us.
- Jesus the Messiah came as God in human form to connect us to a God who sought to ensure personal relationships with people. He restored that relationship again through His death on a Roman Cross. Jesus Christ was bodily resurrected and gave His Holy Spirit to us as His continuing personal representative to commence a lifelong recycling process through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. We voluntarily enter into this life – long relationship. Recycling is from ‘The Inside – Out’ and not the ‘The Outside – In’.
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