FOCUS ON THE FAMILY AND BRIO MAG ENCOURAGING LECTIO DIVINA

Under Links to Our Sites at the Focus on the Family (FoF) website we will find one to Brio magazine. Once there at “Brioland” we’re told:

Brio is an Italian word that means full of energy, life and enthusiasm. It’s the name of our magazine because it’s a terrific definition of our readers! For more than 15 years, Brio has been teaching, entertaining and challenging teen girls toward a healthy self-concept and closer relationship with Jesus Christ. (Online source)

As we then wander through FoF’s Brioland wondering how they are “challenging teen girls toward a healthy self-concept and closer relationship with Jesus Christ” we come upon a section called spiritual heath. Being a pastor who adheres to Sola Scriptura I was happy to see at the lower left hand corner Read Through the Bible with Brio, “Get your Bible reading plan here!”

And then I was also intrigued by an article from the January 2009 edition of Brio entitled Choose Your Sword by Susie Shellenberger, editor of Brio mag. Shellenberger says:

The most important book you’ll ever read is the Bible! It will challenge, surprise, encourage, guide and even entertain you. Most important, it will show you how to establish a personal, growing relationship with Jesus Christ. It can open the gateway to heaven and fill you with invaluable insight. (Online source)

Hey, so far, so good. As a matter of fact she even informs readers:

if you don’t have a Bible of your own, check out our showcase! This isn’t an exhaustive list—you’ll find lots more on the market. And you can purchase any of these Bibles at your local Christian bookstore. But we want to give away the ones we’ve listed here! (Online source)

Ooh, sounds great. So Shellenberger goes on to tell us about:

Brio’s Bible Giveaway!
We’ll randomly draw e-mails for each Bible. Send only one e-mail per person with the name of the Bible you want in the subject line of your e-mail to: prizes@briomag.com. (Online source)

But unfortunately, among the Bibles to be given away by Brio from Focus on the Family is a travesty called The Message (TM) by practioner and teacher of corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM)) Eugene Peterson. My friend Berit Kjos has done a fine job exposing Peterson’s piece of spiritual trash in What kind of message is The Message?

However, being one whom God graciously delivered from the religious bondage of apostate Roman Catholicism it gets even worse when I see the following version of TM offered by FoF’s Brio magazine encouraging these teen girls to practice Lectio Divina, which is a staple of the spurious CSM of Counter Reformation figures like the Roman Catholic nun and messed up mystic Teresa of Avila:

The Message//Remix: SOLO (NavPress)
Known as “an uncommon devotional,” this Bible devotional revolves around lectio divina, or “divine reading,” an ancient approach to exploring Scripture updated for today’s students. You get 365 Bible reading/devotional times. (Yep, that’ll take you through the entire year!) Making God’s Word a part of everything you do is important, because if you don’t pause and reflect, you just might miss the best part! Paperback retails for $14.99.) (Online source, emphasis mine)

Since it’s not the point of this short post to go into Lectio Divina, other than to point out that had it not been for the Reformation neither teen girls—nor anyone else—would even HAVE a Bible to read in the first place, I will refer the interested reader to Dr. Gary Gilley on Lectio Divina in Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM).

Now if this kind of circling up “Protestant” evangelical wagons and heading back into the Dark Ages of subjective experience and mysticism-lite upsets you, and it should, then here’s a bit of good news because Brio wants you to know:

Hey, we’d love to have some feedback from you! If you’ve got a comment about this article, send it to Brio@briomag.com. Please include your name, age, mailing address and the title of this article.

We Brio editors, Susie, Martha and Ashley, will eagerly try to read every single message (count on it!) and will assume you are giving us permission to reprint your comments, if we so choose, at briomag.com and in Brio or Brio & Beyond.

But, we can’t promise we’ll send a response to every email. We’d never finish the next issue of Brio if we did! So, anything you really need an answer to must be sent via snail mail. Write to Brio, Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, CO 80995. Thanks. We hope to hear from you! (Online source)