Reading Report 4

I. Guidance: Spirit-Rule and The Spirit Director

A faith of any kind (but assuredly for Christianity) requires a faith in the spiritual, in the metaphysical. We believe in a Trinitarian God, a Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and The Holy Spirit. This emphasis is often instilled in us by way of the Apostle’s Creed, in which we declare “I believe in The Holy Spirit.” “The Trinity lies at the heart of our faith and worship”1 and it reveals God is a relational God, he has “eternal relations within Himself.”2  Believers in a community will agree in “spirit-rule,” that is in two or more praying on a difficult issue, and discerning God’s answer “by the Spirit.” Foster gives an example of a model for corporate guidance in the Spirit, titled “meetings for clearness.”3  In the Baptist tradition, congregational churches often meet to make decisions and vote while invoking the Holy Spirit for discernment/to have God’s plan revealed in the plans a church is making.

The Spirit ruled life is common among people of faith who look to God for discernment in business, family and church. It becomes urgent to define the importance of separation of church (spiritual matters) and state (civil matters) because one is often inclined, (including myself to pray for our government and wish to see more “Godliness” in state matters, but they must remain separate. All of us should have a “Holy Spirit” conversion/revelation experience if we believe in

1.        Tenant, 2013, pg. 53

2.        Ibid., pg. 55

3.        Foster, 2018, pg. 180-181

The Work of the Holy Spirit which enabled the disciples to become the Apostles, the first gospelizing evangelists in the first century sense, and that Jesus promised advocate which still illuminates the word of the Lord for the believer. We wait on the Spirit, “for through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope” (Galatians 5:5, NIV). It is then transformation that we wait on, everyday praying, meditating, fasting, for the work of the Spirit in us, Paul says “do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2, NIV), that is we are doing every day when we turn our eyes, heart, soul and mind to Jesus, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2, NIV). When we have not experienced the complete surrender to Him, we cannot experience the Holy Spirit. We can only vaguely see the illumination with our eyes and soul, and one can give too much to the academic examination of scripture that one can utterly lose their faith like Bart Ehrman, who declared in the most public way that he had lost his faith. He allowed the devil to convince him that there was not a Holy Spirit, and he first gave up on the Holy Spirit, and then he convinced himself Jesus was not God.

Without our Faith in Him, all is futility, I am a firm believer in the Work of The Holy Spirit, and that Christ has made Him our advocate/His advocate to this day: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18, NIV). It is only with this faith, that and the power/the very fuel of the Spirit that I have been able to do anything, of this I am certain. And for this reason, I practice spiritual disciplines.

For these reading reports, and for the purpose of documenting developments and experiences with the disciplines, these are the chosen disciplines:

1.         From Part 1: Meditation from The Inward Disciplines

2.         From Part 2: Simplicity from The Outward Disciplines

3.         From Part 3: Guidance from Corporate Discipline

I have written nine hundred words on “Guidance” and “Spirit-Rule” because I owed about four hundred words to the last reading report, of which I provide here in the first section. I will write next on Simplicity and lastly on meditation, which is also prayer and in which I have incorporated a weekly fasting schedule, I will comment on this in the last section.

II. Simplicity: In the 21st Century

            Foster will encourage us to practice the simplicity of “usefulness,” and encourages to modify each possible area of our lives that might contain an air of selfishness, but I argue that there must be another kind of simplicity, a particular set of practices that I would encourage Christians and even non-Christians alike to practice. That is a “disconnecting” from devices and social media, and a “reconnecting” with the Goodness of God. Foster encourages the reader to use a bicycle, but I recommend walking. In my tiny town, Fabens, like many small west Texas towns, small alleys separate the property in town, there is literally a network of alley ways throughout the entire town. This makes for safe walking spaces, there are no sidewalks, few here, but these alleys are great for walks. Being a widowed daddy to a nine-year-old, I took my son trick or treating for Halloween here in my childhood hometown for the first time last year. Friday night football is big here, and this is a remarkably close and friendly community. My point is, the other side to disconnecting from social media and the internet and devices is to seek connection with community. This is a town that is devout, on a Sunday everyone is at one of the churches in town. Most people here are Roman Catholics, nonetheless, it is a peaceful and friendly and simple place to live a simple life. Teaching my son simple values in a place where it counts means something. Trying to do that in Houston would be quite different, at least for me.

            A Simple Theology

1.      God is in control

2.      Even if I am not, I have God.

3.      I do not always understand, but God does.

4.      It is by Grace and gift of God that I find my purpose in this assignment.

5.      Writing these words, I am obedient in focusing my thoughts on Him.

First, we focus on Him, then we should find others to share the conversation about Him. If truly it is God’s purpose for me to teach the Bible, then truly God will provide and see me through these classes with the illumination of Holy Spirit.

III. Meditation, Prayer and Fasting: The Inner Disciplines

A Brief recap of reading report 1 on meditations would reveal that although experienced with the spiritual disciplines of meditation and prayer as practiced by Christians, I was rusty, and incorporating this discipline would require refocusing of my mind. It is certain that in 2020 qnd after losing my wife and mother of my two sons, the mourning process had shifted my relationship to God to one of utter dependency. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a full faith in God does not mean that we should lose all faith in our selves. Nonetheless, God has shown me great things in these darkest moments, and it only took remembering that we come to Him in praise as well as humility, we bring love to Him who has shown us the greatest unconditional love.

A recap of reading report 2 would include an examination of Psalm 119 and a determination to meditate on the Psalms, a new concept inspired by Eugene Peterson’s, A Long Obedience in the same Direction. I shared my 14 day Psalm 119 in my Homiletics discussion board post and a fellow student wrote that she was inspired to practice meditating on those verses. This is the fruit of scripture for those that seek the wisdom of the Lord, it abounds in the Psalms and the Proverbs, and ultimately, we must seek the Gospel, the very words spoken by Jesus as recorded in the Gospels and Acts. If we love Jesus, we will love the ministry of Paul the apostle, and his epistles will set our spirits soaring with the evidence he was deeply moved by the Holy Spirit. And that brings me to the Book of Romans, when we approach the Book of Romans for the first time we are overwhelmed by its high theology, but the Book of Romans is truly a feast for those who delight in the Word, who “taste and see that the Lord is good;    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8, NIV).

A Recap of reading report 3 details the introduction to an inner discipline I want to learn from and grow from: fasting. Developing a plan doesn’t always mean we will follow it but what it does do is set a way to achieve something yet to be attempted. In this case, I am incorporating fasting for the health benefits I expect will come from fasting in an organized and planned way. Furthermore, I am fasting during meditation hours, and I can attest to the reduction of caffeine in those early hours. I can confess that the air has begun to smell sweeter, and even the burden of mourning for my lost loved ones has lifted some.

When I pray for the world, when I pray for Christians and Israel and when I pray for the children who are suffering and any suffering I am praying for, I cannot help but feel a deep pain that aligns with the mourning I endure. I often think about Jeremiah and his nickname, “the weeping prophet.” Therefore, I have everything in Him and in His word, all that one needs. So, we persevere in our prayer and our lamentation.

Lamentations 3:22-24: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,    for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;    great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;    therefore I will wait for him.”

John 1:4-5: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Works Cited

Foster, Richard J. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. HarperOne, 2018.

Moore, Jimmy, and Dr Jason Fung. The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting. Victory Belt Publishing, 2016.

Tennent, Timothy C. This We Believe: Meditations on the Apostles’ Creed. Seedbed Inc, 2013.

Its is my hope that this work will have an influence on my sons and my nephews. Today's world is far more complicated for young men than when I was coming up. Yet I made my mistakes, I have my regrets and I seek God, suprisingly, seeking and finding God has been far more rewarding, humbling, and I have seen God at work, this I believe.

"If God is on our side, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31.