{"id":1301,"date":"2010-12-19T12:19:08","date_gmt":"2010-12-19T12:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/12\/a-normal-christian-life--part-four.html"},"modified":"2010-12-19T12:19:08","modified_gmt":"2010-12-19T12:19:08","slug":"a-normal-christian-life-part-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/12\/a-normal-christian-life-part-four.html","title":{"rendered":"A Normal Christian Life—- Part Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thumbnail<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

Sometimes spiritual formation literature can get pretty weird and demanding, especially if you are an ordinary Christian just trying to improve your Christian life. Sometimes it sounds like you are being called to be some sort of individualistic spiritual superman or superwoman.  John Wesley had a good deal to say about the wrong sort of spiritual fanaticism that involves more heart than light, that reflects a zeal, but not according to knowledge. And sometimes too, the call comes in the form of  insisting, ‘if you don’t have the spiritual gift I have, then you are not a Spirit-filled, mature Christian.  Wesley had serious problems with such claims. Here is a famous quote. <\/p>\n

Religion is the
\nspirit of a sound mind; and, consequently, stands in direct opposition to
\nmadness of every kind. But I mean, it has religion for its object; it is
\nconversant about religion. And so the enthusiast is generally talking of religion,
\nof God, or of the things of God, but talking in such a manner that every
\nreasonable Christian may discern the disorder of his mind. Enthusiasm in
\ngeneral may then be described in some such manner as this: a religious madness
\narising from some falsely imagined influence or inspiration of God; at least,
\nfrom imputing something to God which ought not to be imputed to Him, or
\nexpecting something from God which ought not to be expected from Him.—  <\/span>John Wesley Sermon on ‘The Nature of
\nEnthusiasm’[1]<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

One of the great problems in the 21rst century
\nchurch is the problem of time.  <\/span>This is
\nall the more a problem during an economically difficult time.  <\/span>People have to work, work hard, to find a
\njob, or provide for their families, or pay off their college education, or the
\nlike.  <\/span>When they are not busy doing such
\nthings, they are resting, or occasionally having a bit of fun with their family
\nor friends.   <\/span>There are frankly not a lot
\nof hours in the week for religion of whatever sort.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And so it is, that when the spiritual gurus call a
\nperson either to extreme spiritual athleticism (“drop everything and come to my
\nseminar’) or alternatively they serve up pablum in the form of ‘chicken soup
\nfor the soul’, it is no wonder that the Christian public gets confused about
\nwhat the normal Christian life should look like.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Is spiritual formation like some sort of hothouse
\nflower that requires a self-contained environment where ‘heat’ is the constant
\nrequirement just to produce any sort of growth at all?   <\/span>Is it some sort of human self-help
\nprogram?   <\/span>Is it all about deep
\nintrospection and intense feelings about God?  
\n<\/span>Is it the seeking after some sort of cathartic religion experience?  <\/span>In short, folks get discouraged because they
\nfeel like they either don’t have the time or don’t have the energy, or don’t
\nhave spiritually what it takes to do spiritual formation.  <\/span>And this is unfortunate. <\/span><\/p>\n

John Wesley certainly had some thoughts about this
\nwhole matter, and one of the interesting things about Wesley is that he did not
\nthink one size of spiritual formation fits all. 
\n<\/span>In fact he set up societies, classes, and bands, three different levels
\nof spiritual commitment to help persons at different stages in their spiritual
\ngrowth learn to draw closer to God.  <\/span>And
\nwhile Wesley was all in favor of a Christian having a deep and abiding love for
\nGod and neighbor and manifesting the love and joy and peace as the fruit of the
\nSpirit in their lives, on the other hand, John Wesley was not a fan of what was
\ncalled ‘enthusiasm’ in his era, by which was meant religious fanaticism.  <\/span>As the quote above from Wesley shows, his
\nview was that true religion, true ‘enthusiasm’ in the positive sense,  <\/span>was the spirit of a sound, rational
\nmind,  <\/span>not someone who had taken leave of
\ntheir senses.  <\/span>It was also not about a
\nChristian needing to go through some dark night of the soul experience in order
\nto truly commune with God.   <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What Wesley goes on to stress in the sermon we are
\nquoting here is that false enthusiasm is seeking the ends without the means,
\nseeking something from God directly, that he in fact regularly and normally
\ngives through the communal life of Christ.  <\/span>Here’s how he puts it at the end of this
\nsermon—<\/span><\/p>\n

“Beware,
\nlastly, of imagining you shall obtain the end without using the means conducive
\nto it. God can give the end without any means at all; but you have no reason to
\nthink He will. Therefore constantly and carefully use all those means which He
\nhas appointed to be the ordinary channels of His grace. Use every means which
\neither reason or Scripture recommends, as conducive (through the free love of
\nGod in Christ) either to the obtaining or increasing any of the gifts of God.
\nThus expect a daily growth in that pure and holy religion which the world
\nalways did, and always will, call “enthusiasm;” but which, to all who
\nare saved from real enthusiasm, from merely nominal Christianity”<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

What then are the ordinary channels of God’s
\ngrace?   <\/span>While of course they include
\nthings like prayer and Bible reading that we can do on our own (which we will
\ndiscuss later in this study), but in the first instance Wesley is talking about
\nthings we do together— participating in the weekly worship of God, and if
\npossible in the sacraments with the body of Christ, and participating in the weekly
\nstudy of God’s Word.  <\/span>In Wesley’s own day
\nit also meant attending the society, or class, or band meetings as well.  <\/span> <\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To begin with then, the normal Christian life
\ninvolves doing one’s best to observe the Lord’s Day every single week.   <\/span>It involves coming prepared each week to
\nwholeheartedly get caught up in love and wonder and praise of God in Christ
\nwith the congregation.   <\/span>We will say more
\nabout this in a minute, but it needs to be added that participation in learning
\nabout God through Sunday school or Bible study or small groups, learning with a
\ngroup of fellow travellers, fellow Christians, is equally important.    <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Christian life involves both education and transformation, both
\nlearning and loving, both fellowship and worship, both being lifted up in
\nspirit and being enlightened in mind.  
\n<\/span>The normal Christian life needs balance not only between work and rest
\nand play, but that life cycle needs to include worship and learning as well.  <\/span>To some degree the Christian faith is
\nsomething caught, through participation in worship, to some degree it is
\nsomething taught, through Christian education. 
\n<\/span>And in a Biblically illiterate age, we need large doses of both.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
\n

[1]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nAll quotations from the works of John Wesley are from the Jackson editing which
\nis in the Public Domain and readily available in various places online. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes spiritual formation literature can get pretty weird and demanding, especially if you are an ordinary Christian just trying to improve your Christian life. Sometimes it sounds like you are being called to be some sort of individualistic spiritual superman or superwoman.  John Wesley had a good deal to say about the wrong sort of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nA Normal Christian Life- Part Four - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/12\/a-normal-christian-life-part-four.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Normal Christian Life- Part Four - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sometimes spiritual formation literature can get pretty weird and demanding, especially if you are an ordinary Christian just trying to improve your Christian life. 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}