Studies on Spiritual Death

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Where Are You Calling From?

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 2:13, Romans 6:11, John 5:24, Galatians 2:20, Ezekiel 37:

A businessman, while away on vacation, was reading his hometown newspaper. He was stunned to come across his own obituary. Shocked and angered, he immediately called the editor on the telephone. I’m c...

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A Deeper Understanding of Death to Self

Author

Richard J. Foster

Keywords

Carrying our Cross

Scripture

Galatians 2:19

A Lutheran pastor friend—the Reverend Bill Vaswig—and I once were discussing Galatians 2:19 and wondering what it means to be crucified with Christ. I mean, what are we actually talking about? Bill sa...

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The Purpose of the Law (Torah)

Author

Robert Jeffress

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 2:21, Galatians 3:21-24, James 1:23-25

So what is the purpose of the Old Testament law? The law reveals God’s righteous character, but it can’t make us righteous (Gal. 2:21). The law is a tutor to teach us about the Savior, but it can’t sa...

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The Covenants of Scripture

Author

Merrill F. Unger

Keywords

Covenant

Scripture

Hebrews 13:20, Genesis 1:26-28, Genesis 1:26, Genesis 3:14-19, Genesis 3:14, Genesis 8:20-9, Genesis 9:5-6, Genesis 12:1-3, Galatians 3:16, John 8:56-58, 2 Corinthians 3:7-9, Deuteronomy 30:1-10, Deuteronomy 30:1, 2 Samuel 7:4-17, Luke 1:31-33, Acts 1:6, Revelation 19:16, Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, Hebrews 8:8-12, Galatians 3:13-20

Eternal covenant, Heb 13:20—The redemptive covenant before time began, between the Father and the Son. By this covenant we have eternal redemption, an eternal peace from the ‘God of peace’, through th...

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“But I Don’t Want to Die”

Author

Mark D. Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Romans 6:23

My friend Tim is a manager of a small company. Because he often hires people for their first full-time job, he gets to tell new employees about their benefits. One time, Tim was trying to explain to a...

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Spiritual Formation: Essential to Human Existence

Author

M. Robert Mulholland Jr. and Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 3:18, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 1:28, Philippians 2:12-13, 2 Corinthians 4:16, 1 Timothy 64:7-8, Colossians 3:10-11

In their excellent book, Invitation to a Journey , M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton describe the foundation of life as being spiritual in nature. This means we are constantly be “form...

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The Prime Sacrament

Author

Martin Luther

Keywords

Baptism

Scripture

Romans 6:3-4, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:27, Colossians 2:12

Baptism is the prime sacrament, the foundation of them all…There are two things which baptism signifies, namely, death and resurrection…We call this death and resurrection a new creation, a regenerati...

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Death is a Biological Event

Author

Matthew McCullough

Keywords

Death

Death is a biological event—the end of the heart’s beating, the lungs’ breathing, and the brain’s processing—but it is also far more. There’s no confining death to the moment at which your life ends. ...

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Hearing Jesus in Silence

Author

Jim Forest

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 1:35, Psalm 46:10, 1 Kings 19:12, Zephaniah 1:7, Psalm 4:4

One of the early saints who emphasized the place of silence in spiritual life was Saint Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who died a martyr late in the first century. In a letter written shortly before his...

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An Unlikely Story of Redemption

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

2 Kings 5:1–14, Isaiah 53:4–5, Exodus 15:26, Mark 2:1–12, John 11:25–26, Psalm 103:2–3

David (Yonggi) Cho would go on to lead what is recognized as the largest church in the world (the Yoido Full Gospel Church), but his spiritual journey began far from Christianity. Raised as a Buddhist...

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Francis Collins’ Search for the Divine

Author

Francis S. Collins

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:11, Isaiah 55:1-3 , Exodus 33:18-23, Romans 8:22-23 , John 4:13-14 , Psalm 42:1-2

While the search for the divine has been somewhat crowded out in modern times by our busy and overstimulated lives, it is still one of the most universal of human strivings. C. S. Lewis describes this...

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Daily Bread, The Great Banquet, and the Kingdom of God

Author

Heaven

Keywords

The Lord's Prayer

At the heart of [his prayer for daily bread] stood a central biblical symbol of the kingdom: the great festive banquet. Which God has prepared for his people— The whole point of the Kingdom…isn’t abou...

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A Reminder of our Dependence on God

Author

Tim Chester

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 6:11, Matthew 26:28

Every meal—not just Communion, but including Communion—is a reminder that we are dependent on God as creatures. We are not self-sustaining. Much of our food is grown, processed, distributed, and possi...

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Play the Man

Author

Mark Batterson

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 2:10, Matthew 5:10-12, 2 Timothy 4:7-8, 1 Peter 4:12-13, James 1:12, Psalm 46:1-3

Like a scene straight out of Gladiator, Polycarp was dragged into the Roman Colosseum. Discipled by the apostle John himself, the aged bishop faithfully and selflessly led the church at Smyrna through...

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The Power of Silence in a Prayerful Life

Author

John Climacus

Keywords

Scripture

Habakkuk 2:20, Lamentations 3:26, Psalm 46:10, Zephaniah 1:7, 1 Thessalonians 4:11

The Desert Saint John Climacus placed a strong emphasis on the role of silence in the life of prayer. In his guidebook to the spiritual life, he had this to say: Intelligent silence is the mother of...

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Defining the Gospel

Author

Carl Medearis

Keywords

Scripture

John 14:6, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Acts 4:12, Colossians 1:15-20, Galatians 2:21, Romans 10:9-10, Romans 6:23

I’ve been reading Donald Miller’s Searching for God Knows What . Miller took this point to an even further extreme. In his book, he tells a story about one occasion when he was speaking to a class at...

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The Movement Towards Spiritual Formation

Author

Robert Mulholland Jr.

Keywords

Spiritual Formation

Spiritual formation has become one of the major movements of the late twentieth century. Spiritualities of all varieties have emerged on the landscape of our culture—Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Zen, vari...

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Preparing for Death

Author

John Robinson

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 90:12, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Philippians 1:21-23, Deuteronomy 30:19-20, Isaiah 40:6-8

When I was told that I had six months, or perhaps nine, to live, first reaction was naturally of shock -though I also felt liberated, because, as in limited-over cricket, at least one knew the target ...

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Finding the Life You Were Made For

Author

Addison D. Bevere

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 10:38-39

Jesus, the hero of the world’s most well-known spiritual narrative, offers us a mysteriously clear path to the good life: “Anyone who doesn’t pick up their cross and follow after me doesn’t deserve me...

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The Problem with Cults

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

Keywords

Energy

What is wrong with a religious cult is not that those in it are insincere or that the energy it attempts to access and contain is not real. The reverse is more true. What is wrong is that a cult, by i...

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Suffering as Ministry Training

Author

Frank Viola

Keywords

Suffering

God’s idea of ministry training is a broken vessel. His idea of spiritual preparation is suffering, which includes rejection. Here is the biblical recipe for ministry preparation—a recipe that’s glari...

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St. Valentine & The Origin of Being “Your” Valentine

Author

Ben Lansing and D. J.Marotta

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 17:17–24, Isaiah 6:8, Exodus 24:3–4, John 15:12–13 , Acts 13:46–49, Psalm 119:105

[Saint] Valentine was a priest in Rome when Emperor Claudius II began his hostile reign. Valentine was arrested for performing Christian weddings. While imprisoned, Valentine befriended the jailer’s d...

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A Holy and Humbling Mystery

Author

Norman Wirzba

Keywords

Food

Food is a holy and humbling mystery. Every time a creature eats it participates in God’s life-giving yet costly ways, ways that simultaneously affirm creation as a delectable gift, and as a divinely o...

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The Truman Show & the Cracks in Our Reality

Author

Mark Labberton

Keywords

Reality

Let’s take stock of the challenge once again: the work of spiritual transformation, by which we come to live in God in the midst of our neighborhood, is the most difficult process in the universe. Thi...

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C.S. Lewis & Joy Davidson: A Mystical Way of Revealing God

Author

Les and Leslie Parrott

Keywords

Marriage

One of the most compelling love stories in our time involves a couple who, in the beginning, lived an ocean apart. He was a scruffy old Oxford bachelor, a Christian apologist and an author of bestsell...

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All Different Kinds of Jesus

Author

Kevin DeYoung

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 1:15-17, Hebrews 1:3, John 1:1-5, Matthew 16:13-20, John 14:6, Acts 4:12

There’s Republican Jesus who is against tax increases and activists judges, and for family values and owning firearms. There’s Democrat Jesus who is against Wall Street and Walmart, and for reducing ...

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A One-Dimensional View of Holiness

Author

Kevin DeYoung

Keywords

Holiness

With all the best intentions, we tend to flatten the biblical view on holiness until we squeeze out the dynamic nature of life with God. In an effort to own up to our own abiding sinfulness and highli...

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The Martyr's Mindset: Ignatius of Antioch and Death as Worship

Author

Ryan Bundrick

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 16:25, Romans 8:17-18, Philippians 1:21, 2 Corinthians 4:17, Psalm 116:115, Daniel 3:, Daniel 6:

How many modern Christians consider dying to be the worst thing that can happen to them? We pray for safety, healing, and protection, and rightly so. However, do we live in the truth that death has tr...

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Christian Maturity and Gentleness

Author

John E. Biersdorf

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 15:1, 2 Timothy 2:24-25, Isaiah 42:3, Philippians 4:5, Galatians 5:22-23, Matthew 11:29

Compassion is expressed in gentleness. When I think of persons I know who model for me the depths of spiritual life, I am struck by their gentleness. Their eyes communicate the residue of solitary bat...

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The Judas Goat

Author

Perry Stone

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 7:15, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, 2 Peter 2:1, Colossians 2:8, Jude 1:4, Matthew 7:15, 1 John 2:19

The idea of spiritual goats in a church has always been intriguing to me…They gave opinions to questions they were never asked and sought attention to soothe their feelings of neglect… Then, in every ...

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