Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Greatest Challenge of our Age...

At Calvary, we are in the middle of the sermon series Seamless. Recently, during some reading, I came across a couple of quotes that resonated with the heart and challenge of living a seamless life. They are from the book Thirsty for God by Bradley Holt.

"From a Christian perspective, the word "spirituality" calls us to recognize the importance of its root term, spirit, an important biblical word. In both Hebrew and Greek, the same word (ruach and pneuma, respectively) is used to mean "breath," "wind," and "spirit." The Bible refers both to human spirit and to divine Spirit. How one understands spirit will determine how one understands spirituality. For example, if "spirit" is separated from physical reality, in a realm of its own, apart from the daily life of human experience, the resulting spirituality will become an escape into another world. But if God created the world as good and later became flesh, as the Gospel of John asserts, then "spirit" is a dimension of reality, compatible with physical existence. In this case, humans are not divided but rather are unities of body, mind, and spirit. The result is that spirituality has a much more wholistic and down-to-earth meaning. It encompasses the whole of human life and will develop in a variety of styles, depending on cultures, denominations, personalities, and gifts."

"The greatest religious challenge of our age is to hold together social action and spiritual disciplines. This is not just a theological necessity, dictated by the need to integrate all of life around the reality of the living God.
It is a matter of sheer survival."

~Walter Wink~

2 comments:

Hermi said...

I often times think that the greatest challenge of our age is to truly lead other people. General George S. Patton says, "We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people."

Eduardo de Leon y Castillo said...

In my opinion Wink has stated what has been the challange for the Church since its inception. Social action and church disciplines. Most movements have focused on one or the other. Thankfully we have an oportunity to influence both, as our walk is congruent with our speech day in and day out.