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Published: 26 July 2018

It’s interesting to watch terms change over the years.  Today, what we call “Spiritual Formation” used to be called “Progressive Sanctification.”  Before that, it was called very simply “Holiness.”  At the core, all of those terms mean the same thing.  They refer to the ongoing work of God in our inner lives to make us what He designed us to be—people in His image.  To be Holy does not mean to be self-righteous or boring.  It means to be beautiful in the way that God is beautiful; filled with love, peace and joy.  Progressive Sanctification means we are a people in process.  We have been sanctified by the work of Jesus, we are being sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit and, we will be eternally sanctified when we get to Heaven.  Spiritual Formation means our spirit is being brought into harmony with His Spirit and that we are cooperating with Him to form the character of Christ.  What could be dangerous about any of that?  One thing.  We could yield to the temptation that Spiritual Formation is a personal and private matter.  The reason that is dangerous is because our growth in holiness is designed to function within community.  We both grow in and express our growth through community.  Paul recognized that the people of Galatia might think they could abandon the synagogue and the church meetings and go off with the Holy Spirit on their own!  While solitude is good, it’s purpose is to prepare us for loving relationships within community, not to alienate us from it.  We’ll see what this looks like on Sunday in Galatians 6.  Just a quick warning, this could get messy .

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Published: 21 July 2018

It’s too bad that churches have been divided over the nature and work of the Holy Spirit.  He is the One who makes us one and we end up dividing what He is trying to reconcile!  Too much talking about the Holy Spirit makes some people, (especially certain fundamentalists) a little nervous.  That’s not new.  When we have structured our faith according to our own desires and image it’s a little nerve-wracking to make room for the Holy Spirit to come in and monkey with it!  That was the problem in Galatia and it’s the problem today.  Of course there are people, (like the ones in Corinth), who want to abuse the freedom of the Spirit and use Him as a means to their own selfish desires.  That is also a sad abuse of what God intended for good.  It would be terrible however, to be so over-protective of our faith practices and routines that we grieve and quench the Spirit who is trying to give us life!  Legalism and life under the law is not dead.  The works of the flesh are not dead.  We are inhabited by the Holy Spirit of God and He is working very hard to produce fruit that remains in our lives.  There are no laws against the fruit He wants to produce.  Let’s cooperate with Him today.  Since we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit!