In this blog I continue the discussion of mysticism, the spiritual disciplines, and Reformed faith. I introduce Antony, the father of the monastic movement, critique the teachings of Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, share my experiences with meditation before Christ saved me, and present the key elements of biblical faith.
I am not the first to address the influences of Roman Catholic mysticism, Eastern religions, and the New Age on evangelical churches. Bloggers and writers have cautioned evangelical Christians about blurring theological boundaries and adopting practices incompatible with Reformed faith.1 I join the conversation with a series of blogs that begin
Inspired by The Confessions of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Oh Lord, you are life itself. You are the air we breathe, and the love in our hearts. What do we know of love? Holy God, you are the author of love. O Lord, only you are good. You alone
NEWSLETTER Share Tweet Forward Share Pin In Remarque’s WWI classic All Quiet on the Western Front a twenty-year-old German soldier withdrew from battle to eat a potato. When finished, he heard a bombardment was imminent and thought, “Perhaps it is our inner and most secret life that shivers
NEWSLETTER Share Tweet Forward Share Pin Yoga and the Christian Years ago I began each day with yoga. I stepped barefoot onto a mat and moved from pose to pose for a half hour. I ended with the prayer pose in which I stood erect with
I lived through and walked alongside protesters in the 1960s. I understood the grievances. America needed to wake up to the sin of racism. Today protesters remind America that there is more to do. But a smaller group seem bent on destroying America. Black Lives Matter (BLM) Patrisse Cullors, cofounder
I used to believe that my inner life was my personal business. The good Lord showed me how wrong I was. God in UsThe Holy Spirit entered my soul in a split second. He came with no fanfare or drama. In that same second, he told me to
In Angels, Demons, and the Dead, I tell the story of a Christian woman who lived in a nursing home and had nightly conversations with her deceased husband. When sensing his presence, she told him about her day in the same way she had for their sixty-plus years together. He
One wintery night, I turned onto the ramp of an interstate. A gust whipped up new fallen snow and erased the road. My car slid as if in free fall toward the edge of the ramp. Miraculously, I felt my car lifted and put back on the ramp where the
Images of angels and the beliefs they represent are passed from one generation to the next until they are baked into cultures. A popular image is of the archangel Michael standing over Satan, the archfiend who led the whole world astray. Michael’s booted foot is firmly planted on the devil’s