Spiritual Formation (Spiritual Friendship part 1)

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But Ruth said [to Naomi], “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. (Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, Ruth 1:16)

Jonathan made David vow again because of his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own life. (Ibid. 1 Sam. 20:17)

            We are relational creatures, and the need for relationship is seen even in the Garden of Eden.  There the Lord God observed that the man should not be alone and when there was no suitable partner for the man, God created the woman (Gen. 2:18-22).  Thus, there was a right relationship between the creator and the creation and right relationship within the creation.  This is still a need we have today.  Why are there dating websites?  Why are there social media websites?  Why do most restaurants have tables with more than one chair?  Without giving tacit approval to dating websites, it is because we are social creatures and we seek relationships.  We seek to continue relationships, and we seek to nourish relationships.

As has already been cited, the Bible has many stories that revolve around relationships, and although, cultural norms may have changed, the basic concept remains the same.  There seems to have been an implicit spiritual connection between Naomi, who was an Israelite and Ruth, who was a Moabite.  Moabites were the descendants of Lot and his elder daughter (Gen. 19:37) and there was always war between the Israelites and the Moabites.  You may recall the episode when Balak king of Moab hired the Mesopotamia diviner, Balaam to curse Israel as they were trying to enter the promised land (Num. 22-24).  Although we are not told in detail why Ruth was willing to abandon her people and her god Chemosh, she chose to follow Naomi back into Israel, saying to her, “… your God [shall be] my God” (Ruth 1:16).

Notwithstanding, the fact that Naomi and her family had left the land of Israel due to famine (1:1) and when in the land of Moab, her husband and sons died, all of this would seem in the ancient mind to be a punishment from God.  Moreover, Naomi herself seems to have felt some distance from the God of Israel, since she wanted to be called Mara, which meant the Almighty has afflicted me (1:20).  Yet, there was something about Naomi’s faith in the God of Israel that attracted Ruth to the worship of Yahweh.

So, in this series, we’ll explore the topic of Spiritual Friendship and how it can relate to our Spiritual Formation. (Click here for Part 2)

Written by Pastor Ozzy

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Works Cited

1995. Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible. LaHabra: The Lockman Foundation.

Spiritual Formation (Spiritual Reading part 4)

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Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1 Peter 5:8)

Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” (Ibid. Job 1:9-12)

I have not forgotten my promise to consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist.  All extremes except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged (Lewis, Kindle 32)

            Spiritual warfare may be an overlooked topic in Spiritual Formation.  The goal of Spiritual Formation is to submit the self over to God, so that the character of Jesus may be formed within us.  If that is a person’s goal, do you not think that Satan would work in every way to obstruct or stop this purpose?  Although many of C.S. Lewis’ other works are associated with Spiritual Formation, the Screwtape Letters are not often cited.  This may be a mistake, since the Screwtape Letters are a fictional account of a demon giving instructions to a lower raking demon to prevent a person from becoming a committed follower of Jesus.  It must be understood, the work is fiction; however, Lewis brings out several real-world examples of ways that Satan may distract us from full devotion to God.

            In the above quote from the Screwtape Letters, the demon Screwtape points out to the lower demon, Wormwood, that there may be benefit to their cause regardless of whether Wormwood works to turn the person, referred to as the patient, into an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist during World War II.  Take a moment and consider, how could Satan equally use a person from these seemingly opposite positions?

            In another letter, Screwtape explains that from the demon’s perspective, many positions are neither good or bad, and their goals may be accomplished by letting the humans argue over “… whether love, or patriotism, or celibacy, or candles on alters, or teetotalism, or education are good or bad” (Lewis, 101).  Consider how Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love the Lord with all you are, and the second commandment was to love your neighbor as you love yourself (Matthew 22:37-40).  Has Satan be able to use the subjects that Screwtape names in this quote to convince Christians that they don’t need to love their neighbor who holds to a different position?  If so, then he has prevented the Christian from fulfilling what Jesus called the second commandment.  Moreover, where John wrote that Christians would be known for their love (1 John 2:5), if a Christian has been convinced not to love, what kind of damage does that do to the message of the cross?  This example illustrates why spiritual warfare should be a concern of Spiritual Formation.

Written by Pastor Ozzy

For more information, visit our website

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Works Cited

1995. Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible. LaHabra: The Lockman Foundation.

Lewis, C. S. 2009. The Screwtape Letters. New York: HarperCollins e-books.

Spiritual Formation (Spiritual Reading part 3)

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Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. (Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, Romans 12:9)

But how can I help believing it?  I have seen the truth – it is not as though I had invented it with my mind, I have seen it, seen it, and the living image of it has filled my soul for ever. (Dostoyevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, Kindle location 96361)

           

           Fyodor Dostoyevsky is not normally associated with Spiritual Formation, nor do any of his works appear in Foster & Smith’s Devotional Classics.  However, the unnamed narrator in Dostoyevsky’s Dream of a Ridiculous Man embodies the change that is the goal of Spiritual Formation; moreover, perhaps his dream can be understood as formation.  Before you read this short story, be aware, it goes into very dark places and touches on sensitive subjects.

Dostoyevsky rightly expresses the pessimism and emptiness that is the logical consequence of a life without God.  We will refer to the unnamed narrator as the dreamer.  An ego-centric man has become numb to his existence and his surroundings, including the cries of a little girl for help (Ibid. 96180).  However, this numbness is then confronted with the idea of paradise.  A world untouched by sin and people living in harmony with each other, their surroundings and their animals (Ibid. 96260).  It’s the perfection of the world that affects the dreamer.  But when paradise is lost, these people change; they learn lying, form groups and shed blood and discover science.  Science becomes the new god of that formerly perfect world, and those formerly perfect people think that science will lead them back to perfection.  Something that science is incapable of doing.

Therefore, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man can be understood as a Spiritual Formation text, because we are in the same place as the dreamer.  When he awakens, he knows there is no amount of human effort that will restore what has been lost.  Human ways and sciences could not restore the dream world, nor can they restore this world.  The dreamer is now convinced, the truth is the only answer.  The dreamer’s world is our world.  His realization is our realization.  And his path is our path.  You see, we are the dreamer.

Written by Pastor Ozzy

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Works Cited

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. 2015. The Complete Works, Novles, Short Stories and Autobiographical Writings. n.a.: E-artnow.

1995. Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible. LaHabra: The Lockman Foundation.