Tag: Spiritual Health

Who’s Driving Your Emotions?

When others use our emotions either against us or for their own goals, they are not trustworthy sources of counsel.

God gave us emotions to serve as brakes. Not the gas pedal. But there seems to be a growing epidemic of emotional pedal confusion1 in our world. Then, unironically, people are surprised by the carnage and chaos that results.

Watch out for those who are constantly pressing the gas on your emotions. They are not trying to help you. They are using you. Controlling you. And you should ask yourself why you let them.

What’s worse is those people are doing you a disservice and spiritual harm. When others use our emotions either against us or for their own goals, they are not trustworthy sources of counsel. I will grant that not all people who do this may have malicious or nefarious objectives, but the end will be the same. We have to become more discerning in who we allow that kind of influence in our lives.

This happens in the church. At your workplace. On the news. In your family. And especially on social media. It’s going to happen anywhere two people interact.

But, learning to be a steward of your own heart is the key to becoming free from these tactics. It can be challenging to set up healthy barriers. But doing is so is an essential part of growing emotionally and spiritually.

One of the most important disciplines we can cultivate is reflection. Taking the time to think about what is happening in and around your life. Slowing down long enough to make sure you are going where you planned and doing those things that are healthy and good.

When we reflect on those moments and events that caused us emotional frustration, we begin to discern how we respond to different stimuli. This is how we grow.

It’s one thing to be passionate. But it’s quite another to have your passions enslaved. And even more dangerous when our passions are used for the purposes of another’s agenda. We can be so passionate about something we can’t actually change we lose sight of who we are in the process. This is a recipe for being deceived and misled.

It’s one thing to be committed to a cause. But it’s quite another to give blind allegiance to anything. Particularly anything that does not provide a path toward forgiveness and reconciliation.

Too many people can no longer tell the difference. Why? Because they have invested too much of themselves into what they are promoting. And no one wants to admit they are wrong. That they may have been misled. Or even manipulated.

When our identity is subsumed into another’s or into a cause, no matter how noble its purported aims, we will become cogs in someone else’s machine. This is not how we are to live our lives. We should not surrender our personhood to anyone or anything. Who we are is a gift from God. To give ourselves in a way that only rightly belongs to God to anyone or anything earthly is a form of idolatry.

Good intentions are not good enough. Good intentions are the internal reasons for why we act. And it’s important to have them. I will not deny that. Wanting positive results can be and is commendable.

The challenge is recognizing whether or not those intentions actually produce the intended results. If they don’t, and we continue to do those things that are inflicting obvious harm, then we have become the very thing we were trying to oppose. Our intentions have to be evaluated by the results they produce. Otherwise, we will give ourselves, and others, a pass on their actions when the results are negative.

Judas had good intentions. But he ended up betraying the Son of God. And Peter had good intentions, but when confronted with his association with Jesus he denied Him three times. One could not forgive himself, the other found forgiveness he didn’t deserve.

Our intentions should not be the metric we use to evaluate what we do. What results from our actions should be. And the results must be under constant evaluation.

Steps for Reflection

Because learning how to reflect on our lives and our responses is so important, I’ve asked my friend and contributor to this site to provide us with a simple pattern we can use. There is also an example below. When you find yourself feeling like you are not clear about a reaction you had to an event or situation go through the following steps.

1. What emotion do I feel the strongest right now?

(If you’re having trouble identifying it, use a feelings wheel – you can find one fairly easily on Google)

*Express your emotion to God, be specific about why you feel that way.

2. What might God want to say to me in the midst of that emotion?

(It can be helpful to use the Psalms in this case – Google the emotion you feel and the word “Psalm” and see if you find one that you identify with)

*Pray, listening to what God might say about that emotion to you.

3. What is a healthy way to express that emotion to those around me?

(This might be the step that requires you to talk with a trusted mentor in the faith – despite a culture that wants you to react immediately)

*Act on the emotion in a Christlike way that displays empathy and humility.

Example:

Someone shares an example of injustice in the world that is horrible.

1. What emotion do I feel the strongest right now?

Anger. Specifically frustrated and infuriated.

*God, I am angry about this injustice. Why would such a thing be allowed?! Do something!

2. What might God want to say to me in the midst of that emotion?

I see examples of anger about injustice in several Psalms, so I read those Psalms.

*It seems like God is saying it’s okay to be angry over such things, to trust Him that He will enact justice, and to seek Him on how to participate in His justice.

3. What is a healthy way to express that emotion to those around me?

I think about a humble and empathetic way to respond in my context. I seek the advice of trusted mentors.

*I commit myself to on-going prayer and periodic fasting concerning this injustice. I decide to start a petition to change the laws and I contact lawyers and politicians to begin making changes.

Footnotes:

1 Pedal confusion is the phrase used to describe when a driver presses the wrong pedal while driving. Usually leading to an accident.

Why Do we Weight Ourselves to Death?

We too often carry the weight of wounds inflicted too early in life to know how to properly cope with them. When we were wounded, something changed in us. We can’t always describe it, or even explain how we were affected. But it is there.

As a pastor I have heard some of these stories of these old wounds. They linger in our memory and come to the surface when we least expect them to. When I sit and hear these stories, I wonder, “What can I do to help ease the weight of this burden?”

Recently, the thought has come to mind that one of the most important realizations any of us can have is learning we don’t have to carry these burdens forever. We don’t have to carry these memories wondering if we can ever lay them down.

It is not necessary to hide our pain because we don’t want to overburden others with our suffering. Someone may have violated our trust and are now hesitant to try again. I understand that feeling.

But we can’t allow that to stop us from seeking healing and spiritual health. It is scary being vulnerable. It can be frightening to open up to someone else. But it is the path toward freedom. The path away from an unhealthy way of living.

There are people who can help us. We have to ask God to help us find them!

The process of spiritual awakening and ultimate surrender to God’s grace is the only path toward lasting peace. Not because it makes us holier, but because it makes us whole.

This is the promise offered by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He does not promise to eliminate the scars or even the memories.

What he promises is the healing touch of redemption. By taking what we give to him, broken and tattered as it might be, and uses it to fashion something new, and dare we say beautiful.

In the span between lost and found is searching. Our search for purpose, meaning, and salvation. His search for the lost, broken, and longing.

And then, in a moment we did not plan, on a road we did not chose, in a place we never expected to be in, he shows up and sets right what was wrong. Not necessarily in the world around me. But in me.

I become new.

I am changed.

My perspective shifts.

My heart feels hope, as if for the first time. But not like in the way I tried before. Not in my own strength. But as naturally as a sail catches wind. Because that is what it was made to do.

This is the journey of transformation we should seek. This is the path of spiritual health we must not give up on.

There are many who are on the “fake it ’til you make it” plan. May I encourage you to cancel that plan. It is the path of self-deception. It only makes the burden heavier and the hope we desire harder to find.

We must seek those who do not operate out of pretense or a competitive nature. Not those who have hidden motives and transparent agendas. Or those who saw what we want to hear but who are never able to unlock the chains that keep us bound. These are the marks of those still operating out of a system designed to mask what is true and good. These are the signposts of those who are just lying better than the rest of us about what’s really going on in our souls!

Freedom, the kind we need more than anything else, comes at a cost. But if it is real; if it is genuine; if it is lasting, it will be worth whatever it takes to get it.

A Definition of Spiritual Injuries, Updated and Expanded

We continue see those failures and injustices that we should have “learned” to overcome by now. The deeper problem is that we cannot learn out way out of spiritual trauma. We must be healed from it first!

UPDATED: June 1, 2006.
Originally Posted September 19, 2016 as Spiritual Injuries: A Definition.

In light of the circumstances in which we find ourselves in the United States, I felt compelled to revisit this post. Bishop Luis R. Scott has also updated the book in which the concepts and definitions below are contained. I felt it prudent to take some time to update and amplify this article.

It is my conviction that the conversations that many desire to have around the issues of racism, justice, and the Church’s role have been hampered by a deficit in the language we use. To that end, I resubmit this article as a jumping off point to reframe the conversation in language that points us to the truth of the Gospel, the reality of God’s healing power in the human heart, and the place the Church needs to play in our journey toward peace and lasting justice.

Bishop Scott has also graciously allowed me to share Chapter 3 of the 2nd Edition of his book, Healing the Broken Spirit. This chapter deals specifically with the issue of Blind Spots, namely, what they are, how they develop, how to spot them, and what can be done to address them. Please take the time and read it. It is long, but if you are interested in having better and more fruitful conversations, take the time and prepare yourself for them.

Download Chapter 3 | Blind Spots: Instinctive Reactivity by Bishop Luis R. Scott, Sr.

Over the last 20 years my father, Bishop Luis R. Scott, Sr., has been thinking about and refining the idea that God desires for all of his children to experience spiritual healing and live in spiritual health. The challenge that seems to persist in our world, and more specifically the Church, is that we do not have the framework to work towards these realities. We continue see those failures and injustices that we should have “learned” to overcome by now. The deeper problem is that we cannot learn our way out of spiritual trauma. We must be healed from it first!

While there may be some who use similar sounding language, the concepts that are described in my father’s book and have been manifested in day-to-day ministry at our church are truly unique. I have come to this conclusion for two main reasons. First, we have heard so many stories from those who have learned about the concept and reality of spiritual injuries who have told us about the impact this understanding of spiritual health has had. Second, we have continued to refine the concepts and those who claim some awareness of the words we use do not really understand the conceptual framework that we are using in our conversations about spiritual health. In short, we believe that what we are doing is unique and we humbly embrace this as a calling and a great responsibility we must guard. Continue reading “A Definition of Spiritual Injuries, Updated and Expanded”

How do we heal from our Spiritual Injuries?

If they knew what you knew that God knew about you, how would that affect how you lived your life?

One of the hardest things to do as a Christian is moving on from our past. We all know who we were. We also know who we are, or at least are trying to be. There is no escaping the memories of our history. We are all inescapably trapped by our own experiences.

This reality has often times caused me to struggle. In particular, I have struggled with bearing witness to the grace of God and the Gospel of Jesus because of fear. Fear of my own ignorance; of my own failures; even of my own fears. The level of emotional and spiritual paralysis can be suffocating at times. I recognize that I have been saved by Jesus. I believe the Good News and have confessed my faith in God. I have started doing all the right things, and still I have felt like there is something missing.

The truth is there is something missing. However, it is not what many of us think. Over the years, I have found that my biggest problem is not the right things I’m doing, but a shame over all the things I know I have done wrong. I think this is because of an essential misunderstanding of grace.

God’s grace does not remove the scars caused by our sin. What grace does is heal the wound. An open wound, one that will not heal, will eventually get infected. We understanding this when we think of our bodies but, what about our spiritual being. When we suffer a spiritual injury how are these wounds healed? What can we do to close a wound we cannot see?

The first thing we have to recognize is that spiritual injuries are exactly that, spiritual. That means looking for natural means of healing them will never work. As a matter of fact, doing this may actually deepen the injury and extend the time needed for healing. Pastor Luis Scott has defined a spiritual injury as a contradiction between what we believe and what we know to be true. An example of this is when a child is being abused by a parent. The child believes that the parent should be caring for and protecting them but, the supposed protector is actually a perpetrator. The injury caused by this contradiction remains present and open far longer than any of the physical wounds inflicted as long as the contradiction remains unresolved. Long after the latter has healed, the former may continue growing and festering.

While it is true that many people suffer spiritual injuries at the hands of others, it is also true that we can become the cause of our own injuries. When w attempt to reconcile a contradiction in our hearts and minds, a contradiction that “we know” is not true, we inadvertently keep amplifying the spiritual damage. What makes this entire process worse is that many of us dying under the weight of more contradictions than we can identify on our own. We need help in sorting it all out. We really cannot do it on our own. But our shame (which is the inverted expression of pride) gets in the way.

My shame over past sin is real. There is no taking any of it back. All of us who acknowledge that we are sinners understand this. The problem is that we cannot continue to believe that we are both horrible sinners and redeemed saints. Before I get accused of being a heretic, understand what I am saying. I am a horrible sinner. That does not change. What does change is that if I am redeemed by the blood of Christ, as the Gospel declares, then I have to see the reality my sinfulness in light of the truth of my salvation.

In other words, the TRUTH of God’s grace, the TRUTH that I have been saved, the TRUTH that I am now being conformed into the image of Christ, these TRUTHs overshadows the lie that I am too far gone for God to save. That I cannot not be saved or that I cannot be changed. These ideas are contrary to what God has proclaimed in his word.

There are too many Christians who have inflicted upon themselves very serious spiritual injuries and they may not even know it. And the root cause of these injuries is that they have believed lies. When we believe lies about God, his grace, and the Gospel we will suffer. And we suffer because we are descending into bondage. But, when we continue to hold on to notions of who we used to be without God when God has changed those circumstances we continue to injure ourselves.

The first step toward healing is to stop doing what is causing the wound to remain open and exposed. We have to discover the lie we have believed that has led to a contradiction in our lives. This is not always easy. It can take some time to find and then accept that we believed a lie. However, in the end, it is vital to our getting spiritually healthy.

A “WebMD” Church Cannot Help the Hurting

I have written about this before in other places, however, it is a topic I find myself coming back to and thinking about regularly. It could be due to my love for talent shows. I could also be because of the longing I feel for validation myself.

I do not think that this longing is something far from the thoughts of many people. There is something within each of us hoping, yearning even, for others to receive us with open arms. I do not find this odd or even inappropriate. What I have discovered through my own introspection is that we may have turned our angst and decided to be satisfied by lesser forms of authority. When you are a singer and you want your voice measured you subject yourself to the judges on one of the many talent shows. When you want your cakes/cupcakes tasted or your tattoos​ showcased you put yourself out there and are literally under a microscope with the hope that someone will say, “Yeah, that is pretty amazing”. Those who make it to that stage are few. I often wonder about the countless droves who do not even risk the scrutiny and yet desire the evaluation.
Continue reading “A “WebMD” Church Cannot Help the Hurting”

Spiritual Starvation: The Reason Many Christian’s Struggle

Ok, so here is the deal. When I get hungry, I eat. When I get tired, I sleep. When I get discouraged, I eat. Just kidding on the last one. I usually go watch a movie or watch my kids play.

On a serious note, though, if hunger is the sign that something needs to be put in our stomach’s, what are we supposed to put in our spiritual belly when we are spiritually hungry? This is a question that I have been trying to get my head and heart around over the last couple of months. I do not have this all figured out, but I think that I am going in the right direction. So, let me share with you what I have been thinking.

There are two places in the Gospel’s were Jesus says something about spiritual food. What makes these two instances interesting is that one has to do with consumption and the other has to do with activity. I am by no means the symbol of fitness or dietary excellence, but I know that if I want to be healthy I have to eat well and exercise or stay active.

This is what Jesus said. The first he said to the devil and the second he said to his disciples.

But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4, ESV)

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work….” (John 4:31-34, ESV)

Continue reading “Spiritual Starvation: The Reason Many Christian’s Struggle”

Ten Questions That May Change Your Life, Pt. 2

These are the other five questions from Donald Whitney’s book. We look at the first five questions in a previous post.

6. Do you delight in the Bride of Christ?

This was one of those questions that did not seem to fit in with the rest of the questions. My first reaction was this, “What does this have to do with my ‘personal’ faith journey?” And, fundamentally, that was part of the problem. When I create a scenario where my faith is all about “me” and my faith is not a part of the greater “we,” (i.e., the church), then I have set myself up to no longer need anybody else. In order to avoid this we have to see the faith as something that we come into rather than as something that belongs to me. I just bought shares in the Kingdom of God. That is not how it works.

“So one of the best tests of whether we belong to Christ is whether we delight in His delight, namely, the people who comprise His church.” (Kindle Location, 754)

This is a wonderful reflection of what is missing in many areas of the church. There are places where members of the same congregation have not spoken to each other in years, maybe even decades. This is not a good witness to the world about the love of God in us, for them. If I do not or cannot delight in the company of the other believers, heaven will not be as blissful as many have imagined. This next statement and question helped me to clearly understand what this idea of delighting in the Bride of Christ meant.

“The truth of Scripture is better expressed by a congregation confessing, ‘We are the bride of Christ,’ than by a solitary Christian saying, ‘I am the bride of Christ.’ Therefore, do you delight in the church, that is, in the gathering of believers, their corporate experiences and labor?” (Kindle Location, 772)

7. Are the spiritual disciplines increasingly important to you?

My first reaction was, “No.” I have not participated in spiritual disciplines like I should. The primary reason is that I was unaware that there were a variety that could be practiced. After reading Whitney I have discovered that the spiritual disciplines must move from the category of “could be done” and become “should be done.” There are several statements made by Whitney in this chapter that are worth highlighting.

“Remember also that the spiritual disciplines found in Christian Scripture are sufficient.” (Kindle Location, 876)

“All the Christian spiritual disciplines are important and singularly beneficial. A discipline neglected is a blessing unclaimed.” (Kindle Location, 879)

This final example reveals the goal of the disciples life. To learn and grow and foster a consistent witness and a growing faith. We shouldn’t want to be a flash of fervor followed by nothing.

“Perhaps you are like a Christian woman I know who sometimes wonders if she is still growing spiritually, because the original God-kindled blaze of eternal life that once illuminated the darkness of her life so suddenly, seldom flames up as dramatically as when she was first converted. But what is true for the woodstove is true in this case for the Christian heart as well: just because the beginning of the combustion may briefly be more spectacular than at present doesn’t mean the fire isn’t growing. The initial burst of spiritual flame may be more dazzling, but the heartfire’s greatest effectiveness occurs as it burns into consistency.” (Kindle Location, 861)

8. Do you still grieve over sin?

My first reaction to this was, “I am not even sure people would understand this question.” As I read through the chapter it was just amazing to me how easy it is to become prideful in having received God’s grace. The wonderful words of God’s love are supposed to make us for full of ourselves. We should be moved to become more full of Him. Grieve over my sin changes how I look at everything, or at least it should.

“The closer you get to Christ, the more you will hate sin; for nothing is more unlike Christ than sin. Because Jesus hates sin, the more like Him you grow the more you will grow to hate sin. And the more you hate sin, the more you will grieve whenever you realize that you have embraced that which killed your Savior.” Kindle Location, 956)

Whitney’s clear description of what it means to draw closer to Jesus is important. Sin is darkness. It is everything that God is not and will never be. Therefore, if we are drawing closer to the eternal life of the Son of God the must necessarily be change occurring in our lives. This understanding of drawing close and the quote from Thomas D. Bernard, was also very revealing.

“The closer you come to the light of Christ, the more sins His holy light will expose in you. In the words of nineteenth century Bible scholar Thomas D. Bernard, ‘Our sense of sin is in proportion to our nearness to God.'” (Kindle Location, 971)

Finally, I was struck by the unshakable reality that grieving over sin will actually have the opposite effect than what I anticipated. Whitney says that

“Godly sorrow in the growing Christian makes him a thousand times more aware of his pride than his humility.” (Kindle Location, 1013)

9. Are you a quicker forgiver?

As I mentioned in Part 1, these questions are so simple and direct the longer you look at them the more you realize how important the answers are. This question in particular, has that effect. Let the two following passages sink in for a moment.

“Repenters toward God are forgivers toward others. Those who find themselves unable to forgive reveal that they’ve never experienced the transforming forgiveness of God.” (Kindle Location, 1084)

“The one who announces forgiveness where it hasn’t been sought not only discounts the importance of repentance, he also misunderstands the requirement of Scripture. But the one who is not willing to forgive is contradicting the Scripture, and for the moment at least, is putting the reality of his salvation to the test.” (Kindle Location, 1106)

I do not think that Whitney was off the mark here. Not only is our testimony questionable when we fail to forgive, but we should be concerned about where we stand before. When we are unable or unwilling to extend forgiveness to others after we have experienced it for ourselves, something is terribly wrong.

10. Do you yearn for heaven and to be with Jesus?

We have all heard that there are some people who are “So heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” Well, the truth may actually be the opposite. What if we are not heavenly minded enough? What if we have failed to truly consider the wonder and joy of heaven? What if, because we do not appreciate what is to come, we have sold ourselves and those around us short of God’s best?

The twist that Whitney provides here is that the yearning for heaven that all Christian’s should have is at its heart a longer for the completion of God’s work of making us totally holy. When the work of Salvation that Jesus ratified on the cross is completed, we will be able to enjoy God’s company forever. But, only a holy people can enjoy that. That is why a yearning for heaven is a desire to holy. This was last statement is just a striking truth.

“Jonathan Edwards put it this way: “But neither a … longing to be in Heaven, nor longing to die, are in any measure so distinguishing marks of true saints, as longing after a more holy heart.”‘” (Kindle Location, 1198)

“Paul wrote like a man who had not only tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8), but like one who has found the holiness of the Lord eternally and irresistibly addictive.” (Kindle Location, 1229)

The single best sermon I have EVER heard on what heaven will be like was given by Dr. Sam Storms in 2003 at the Desiring God National Conference. It was called “Joy’s Eternal Increase: Edwards on the Beauty of Heaven”. You can listen online or download the video here.

Conclusion

These ten question have the potential to provide a major course correction in your faith journey. But, they could also end up doing nothing to take you deeper into God’s plan and purposes for your life. The choice is yours.

Ten Questions That May Change Your Life, Pt. 1

Here are the ten questions that Donald Whitney poses in his book Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health. Like I said in my review the simplicity, directness and depth of these questions truly is remarkable. I would encourage you to take some time and look at each one. Take the next ten days and see what God reveals to you.

I have provided the first five questions here, along with some of my reflections on them. We will look at the other five in another post.

1. Do you thirst for God?

This one is very interesting. The focus is not on having a relationship with God, but on and in God himself. Is God the most important part of my life? While I want to answer yes to this question. I really had to look at my life and see if there were areas that did not conform to this answer. There were, and still are places where I do not thirst for God. Here are few samples of what how Whitney defines what thirsting after God means.

“Just because a man longs for something that can be found in God alone doesn’t mean he’s looking for God.” (Kindle Location, 96)

“Many who claim they are questing for God are not thirsting for God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture, but only for God as they want Him to be, or for a god who will give them what they want.” (Kindle Location, 97)

2. Are you governed increasingly by God’s Word?

I think of all the questions this one was the “easiest” to answer. I know that my life has been growing in this area like never before. Even still, I have to say that I am not where I need to be in this area of my life. There are still times when I am careless with God’s word. Where I can play it “fast and loose” with what God would say or have me do. When you know enough of what the Bible says to bend it, you have to be very careful.

“The person who can content himself with few or routine contacts with Scripture may be manifesting something far worse than spiritual decline.” (Kindle Location, 252)

This statement is so true. The longer you spend in the word the more you will find that what you believe changes. It changes not because it was a wrong belief, but because you actually begin to believe it and that changes you!

“Speaking in a practical way, you know that God’s Word is growing in its influence over you when you can point to increasing numbers of beliefs and actions that have been changed because of the potency of specific texts of Scripture.” (Kindle Location, 282)

3. Are you more loving?

I pray that I am. If I answer this question in relation to how I feel for others, I would say that my sensitivity to the needs and circumstances of others has grown and increased. But, when I consider that love is an action, I am left knowing that I fall far short of what God desires to see in me. It is easy to love from a distance. I don’t get close enough sometimes. Part of the reason is because I just don’t know what to do sometimes. I am hoping that this changes as I continue to grow.

These two statement stood out to me and were really helpful in helping me to think about and evaluate where my growth in Christ-like love is.

“When love grows colder, our sin increasingly manifests itself and we look more unlike Jesus.” (Kindle Location, 351)

This next statement cut sharply against the tendency among some in the church to think that doing something nice or kind some how amounts to meeting God’s expectations of us. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“Many people, therefore, are congratulating themselves for what amounts to merely being human, and they conclude amiss that this innate love testifies of spiritual health. Natural affection, however, is just one of several pretenders to the kind of love only those indwelt by the Holy Spirit can express.” (Kindle Location, 373)

4. Are you more sensitive to God’s presence?

This is one of those things that is almost impossible to quantify, and yet Whitney provided a clear and powerful description of what we should be looking for. There were a three ideas that were very helpful. Here is the first

“…it is through His Word that our experience with God, including our perception of His presence, is mediated.” (Kindle Location, 515)

We cannot encounter God directly, and we really shouldn’t. Moses taught us this when he asked to see God’s glory (Exodus 33:18). And God responds by telling Moses, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (33:20).

The second statement that Whitney makes is connected to the one above, when he says,

When we seek the presence of God mediated–directly or indirectly–through Scripture, we are not imagining God as we would like Him to be. The basis of our experience with God is God-revealed truth, not our individual, idiosyncratic opinions about God. (Kindle Location, 528)

And isn’t this exactly what we want? To make sure that we are not worshiping or seeking a God of our own creation we have allow the Word of God to guide and determine our understanding of Him. Which leads to the third statement that was probably the one that got me the most in this section.

Without a mediated sense of God’s presence, how can I know I have indeed encountered the God of the Bible? How can I be sure that I haven’t delved into the recesses of a mysterious, imaginative mind and simply manufactured an experience? (Kindle Location, 546)

5. Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and temporal needs of others?

Possible the most difficult aspect of this question is the “and” between spiritual and temporal. As I read I was confronted with the reality that theses two realities of a person’s life cannot be separated. If we are seeking to help someone in their spiritual journey, then we must also address their physical needs. If we just do one or the other we are dismissing the reality that we are physical creatures AND we are spiritual beings. We are both at the same time. There can be no dividing of the two. Even James said this when he reminded us that sending someone off without tending to what they need is not what God had in mind (James 2:14ff).

Evangelism that ignores hollow-eyed hunger or other crying needs of the ones being evangelized is a physical contradiction to the spiritual message.” (Kindle Location, 643)

I literally cringed when I read this statement. It is too often the truth. I pray that it changes.

There is no Christlikeness in throwing money at a physical need or in dutifully reading a few Bible verses to an unbeliever and apathetically sending him on his way to hell.” (Kindle Location, 671)

Next Time:

In Part 2 we will look at the following questions.

6. Do you delight in the Bride of Christ?
7. Are the spiritual disciplines increasingly important to you?
8. Do you still grieve over sin?
9. Are you a quicker forgiver?
10. Do you yearn for heaven and to be with Jesus?

Book Review | Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health

Donald Whitney’s book on spiritual health is probably one of the most challenging that I have read in the last few years. I began to read it not really expecting to finish. You just never know what you will find in books that claim to offer insights into spiritual formation. What I found was a book that did not travel the same path as other books. Each of the questions struck a different note. And each question moved me closer to understanding that there is much more involved in my own spiritual development than I had noted before.

I think that one of the things that struck me about each of the questions was how “ordinary” they were. There were not overly spiritual, but as I dug deeper into what they meant for my own faith journey I was struck at how much was still left to uncover. This is not a book that can be read or digested quickly. I would say that each question could be expanded into individual books themselves. As I read I found myself challenged on two fronts.

First, I was struck by the directness of the questions. There was not mincing of words. Whitney was direct and went right to the bottom line. There is a wonderful mix of practical application and spiritual depth. I found myself having to pause and think, often times several times on the same page. This is not one of those books you just push through reading. It has a tendency to push back.

The second area that I found myself thinking about was this. If I cannot answer these questions in a Biblical and honest way there is a problem with my spiritual health. Along these lines, I realized that the questions were not what I expected. I was expecting some other “spiritual” questions, but as I read and thought about the questions that Whitney asked I was left rethinking what I thought was spiritual and what was not.

As we walk along the path of faith, we will be confronted with the fact that the longer my “life” and my “faith” exist in different, separate areas, the longer it will take for me to arrive at a place of maturity. These questions reveal that I cannot avoid becoming a Christian if I practice spiritual disciplines. And isn’t this exactly what we want, to be what we profess?

My next post will give the ten questions and some of my thoughts about each.

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