It isn't for want of spiritual resources that many Christians find themselves starving.
It is for want of spiritual experiences with God: real, moving, transforming engagements. But our usual approach to Christian nurture rarely encourages real, moving, transforming engagements. Most of our spiritual food comes by way of sermons, books, and Bible studies. These speak to the mind but often miss the heart, the true place of divine encounter. The thoughts I'm sharing this week take a different tack. Their purpose is to help you experience more of God. I hope to do that by using words to introduce you to spiritual thoughts and practices that engage your whole person. In this way, you'll learn to cultivate an experiential faith that trains you to be attentive to a self-disclosing God who reveals himself in each daily round of beauty.
Jesus had a body -- and used physical things to illustrate eternal truths. As writer Sara Miles says, "If Jesus is about anything, it is the inconvenient truth that a spiritual life is a physical life."
This truth reminds us that our bodies are carriers of spiritual truth. "Do you not know that your body is a temple?" A temple is a good place to go and learn about the Divine. Our body-temples have all sorts of things to teach us if we pay attention. Too often we live mostly in our minds and spend too little time listening to what our bodies are saying.
I invite you to join me on a journey of physical and spiritual discovery the next few days.
J. Brent Bill
It is for want of spiritual experiences with God: real, moving, transforming engagements. But our usual approach to Christian nurture rarely encourages real, moving, transforming engagements. Most of our spiritual food comes by way of sermons, books, and Bible studies. These speak to the mind but often miss the heart, the true place of divine encounter. The thoughts I'm sharing this week take a different tack. Their purpose is to help you experience more of God. I hope to do that by using words to introduce you to spiritual thoughts and practices that engage your whole person. In this way, you'll learn to cultivate an experiential faith that trains you to be attentive to a self-disclosing God who reveals himself in each daily round of beauty.
Jesus had a body -- and used physical things to illustrate eternal truths. As writer Sara Miles says, "If Jesus is about anything, it is the inconvenient truth that a spiritual life is a physical life."
This truth reminds us that our bodies are carriers of spiritual truth. "Do you not know that your body is a temple?" A temple is a good place to go and learn about the Divine. Our body-temples have all sorts of things to teach us if we pay attention. Too often we live mostly in our minds and spend too little time listening to what our bodies are saying.
I invite you to join me on a journey of physical and spiritual discovery the next few days.
J. Brent Bill