They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42, NASB)

Disciples Of Christ Growing In The Lord Through The Means Of Grace

Today we are witnessing the spread of The Cult of Guru Richard Foster deep within mainstream Protestant evangelicalism and with it a neo-pietism masquerading as Spritiual Formation as espoused by Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard and his spiritual twin Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster.

And with this Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism and its antibiblical Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP), which is all simply a reimagined form of the alleged “Christian” mysticism from apostate Roman Catholicism, we are hearing way too much talk about so-called “spiritual disciplines.”

You need to understand that these are largely artificial repainted ascetic practices of Roman Catholic monks and monkettes which greatly contributed to God bringing about the Protestant Reformation in the first place. And yes, it was the Spirit of the Lord Who moved men like Martin Luther who, as a former monk, had forgotten more about ascetic “disciplines” than mystic monk wannabes Foster and Willard will ever know.

If you’ve bought into their mystic malarkey of centered on the self spiritual formation I will remind you here that the Biblical term for growing in the grace of God is discipleship. And the proper term the Protestant Reformers would use for things e.g. like prayer and studying the Bible would be “the means of grace.”

With this correct Biblical Protestant evangelical position in mind then, if you’re feeling stressful or anxious; why not get “away” and spend some time searching the Scriptures. Apprising Ministries is pleased to point you on this Lord’s Day to a piece from Geoffrey Thomas which provides us good information about the importance of the means of grace in searching the Scriptures. Thomas begins:

You can take a Bible anywhere, and it is one of the great pleasures of the Christian life to be on a hilltop, or at the seaside, or by a river, reading the Word. But for regular, disciplined reading a place is needed as free from distraction and as conducive to study as possible. Our Saviour went to a garden, Peter had a rooftop, and Elijah an upper room.

There is an advantage in reading the Scriptures day after day in the place which is firmly associated in your mind with that activity. You can slip into the right frame of mind the moment you sit down, because you have established the habit of getting down to study once you are in that place. (Online source)

You can read the rest of this article by Thomas here.

See also:

SPIRITUAL FORMATION: JUST SAY NO

THE VERY CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER OF CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM (CSM)

MARTIN LUTHER ON SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

JOHN CALVIN ON MONASTIC VOWS AND SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES