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GCM Collective

I thought we were supposed to be “new creations”–what happened?!

Posted by Caesar Kalinowski on

As Christians, we often wonder why we continue to sin in the same old ways, see so little real change in our lives, and possess such a low desire to be “on mission” for God. We generally continue to live our Christian version of the “American Dream” with a little church attendance thrown in on Sundays, and maybe a weekly Bible study, when it fits our schedule. If we have stepped up to the level of tithing on our income, well...then we are really getting somewhere. But not that big of a change really. Not at the heart level. Not in the nitty-gritty rhythms and stuff of life. Is this what Jesus came and died on the cross for?

I thought we were supposed to be “new creations”–what happened?!

Having spent years pastoring people who are asking these same questions, and feeling the ineffectiveness of applying more traditional “spiritual disciplines”, I began to wonder how the apostles Paul and Peter, and the other disciples, managed to live such transformed lives—lives that were not only personally transformed, but that also changed the world. Don’t get me wrong here, I am in favor of, and have found great benefit in many of the more traditional forms of spiritual discipline...time in the Word each day, prayer, keeping a journal, prayer-walking etc. But as I’ve learned from reading Henri Nouwen, all of those “disciplines” are meant to be a means of creating space and time for God to act, for the Spirit to speak to us in intimate ways. The “discipline” itself is not what changes us–it is God’s grace. -
 

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