New journal
Posted by ruach on October 21, 2008
Just finished today the inaugral issue of the Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care. If all of the issues are like this one, this will be a most for those interested in spiritual formation and spiritual direction. Published by Biola.
Couple of favorite quotes
One from article by James Houston. He mentions “compunction” as one of the five aspects of the history of Christian devotion that we need to remember today. Compunctions synonym is contrition. Or today, the daily dynamic in exercising the fear of the Lord or the continuous sense of the ongoing need of conversion before God.
Charlie said
Dave Gibson just finished this past Sunday the book of Ecclesiastes. In dealing with ch.12 he spent the last 10-15 minutes of the sermon dealing specifically with the “fear of the Lord”, among other things warning that we have in many ways lost this whole mindset. I tend to agree. How do we get this back? Is it simply a matter of the will, or do we need a fresh visitation from God in our lives?
ruach said
If we were to be aware of the moment by moment presence of God (practicing his presence as Brother Lawrence says), would not this impact our fear of the Lord? Jerry Bridges has an excellent book on the fear of the Lord–one that I wanted to discuss with someone after reading it. Houston in that article I mentioned above referred to compunction as involving the shedding of tears for one’s sins, a fear of divine judgment and a concern for the eternal destiny of others. How to avoid the other extreme of being overly introspection?
Charlie said
I agree with your point about the moment by moment awareness of God and it’s vital role. That’s indeed a foreign discipline to the modern mind. I think this is one of the benefits of such practices as praying the hours. About the introspection thing I’ll simply quote from you…”Balance, my friend”:-)