1.0Bible Lessons from Jeff Gullesonhttps://www.jeffgulleson.com/bible-studiesJeff Gullesonhttps://www.jeffgulleson.com/bible-studies/author/jgulleson/rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="rYElFfyoth"><a href="https://www.jeffgulleson.com/bible-studies/the-christian-mystic/evangelical-spirituality-01/">EVANGELICAL SPIRITUALITY – 01</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://www.jeffgulleson.com/bible-studies/the-christian-mystic/evangelical-spirituality-01/embed/#?secret=rYElFfyoth" width="600" height="338" title="“EVANGELICAL SPIRITUALITY – 01” — Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson" data-secret="rYElFfyoth" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script> /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); </script> EVANGELICAL SPIRITUALITY – # 01  INTRODUCTION:  The overall term describing what we will be looking at in the weeks ahead is “Evangelical Spirituality.”  QUESTION: What would be your definition of “Evangelical Spirituality?” What do you think this term might mean?  The key to “Evangelical Spirituality” is maintaining what Christians have called “Quiet Time” or “Personal Devotions.”  QUESTION: Describe what you feel “Personal Devotions” looks like? If someone said that they had a “Quiet Time” or “Personal Devotions” what did they do?  “Personal Devotions” is the key to “Spiritual Formation.”  QUESTION: If someone asked you to explain “Spiritual Formation,” what would you say?  Answer: Could be described as “Christian Growth,” “Growing in Christ,” or “Becoming a Godly Person.”  Evangelical Spirituality sought via Personal Devotions will not produce Biblical Spiritual Formation apart from “Christian mysticism.”  QUESTION: What do you think the term “Christian mysticism” or “Christian mystic” means?  Answer: “A [Christian] mystic is one who experiences God in trans-rational and non-empirical ways. This kind of transcendent intimacy with God is what is involved in being ‘born again” and in ‘getting to know Jesus’” (The God of Intimacy and Action, Tony Campolo and Mary Albert Darling).  “Trans-rational” – Going beyond or surpassing human reason or what is rational. “Empirical” – Truth based on observations or experience, capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment. Based on testing or experience. (Her theory had not yet been tested empirically. A rock will sink in water. You take a rock, put it in water, and if you see it sink you have empirical proof.) “Transcendent” – Beyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experience.  “The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know . . . . “ (Blaise Pascal).  QUESTION: What do you see in this verse that indicates that Paul and the early Christians were “mystics”?  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (I Cor. 2:12-14).  QUESTION: What truths might we mine from this text that would prove that Paul and the early Christians were “Christian mystics?”  1. Apart from the Holy Spirit teaching us a Christian cannot understand spiritual truth. 2. What God the Spirit teaches us is beyond human wisdom. 3. The Holy Spirit gives some, not all, people understanding of spiritual truth.  ILLUSTRATION: Without Spirit teaching us it is as if we were deaf. If 99 of 100 people in a room were deaf, only one would hear the intercom. So apart from God’s Spirit teaching us, we will not hear from God.  QUESTION: Can you think of other […]