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We just finished up a 2 week course called Personal Spiritual Life in James Cistern. The course was designed to be a practicum of the Inductive Bible Study Method on the subject of our life in Christ.
I have been looking forward to teaching this class for a long time. Even while preparing I was anticipating going through the readings and discussing the material in class. I must say that I was not disappointed either when we finally got into the classroom.
Essentially, the course traversed through the various aspects of understanding our position “in Christ.” We began with “Holiness and Sin,” then we looked at “Grace.” After that we finished up week #1 with a study on “the Mortification of Sin,” and the contrast between the “Flesh and the Spirit.”
Week #2 started with an emphasis on the One who enables us to live the Spiritual Life with lessons on “The Role of the Holy Spirit,” and “Spiritual Disciplines.” Finally, we concluded class with teaching on the “Imago Dei” and the proper perspective moving forward in the Spiritual Life.
I heard great testimonies from the students throughout the course. We had daily readings from some of the best Christian teachers throughout history: C.S. Lewis, John Owen, Dallas Willard, A.W. Tozer, and Thomas a Kempis to name a few. The students said that it was “eye opening.” They routinely spoke of how they had never been taught these things before. Some related it to the testimony of Paul on the Damascus road – they said it was like they had scales fall from their eyes.
The honest truth is that we all tend to work our way to God through our own effort and we often forget that we are positionally, accepted by God fully on the merit of what His Son has accomplished, and not by anything we could owe God. The Spiritual Life is a combination of believing that reality and then living it.
The second emphasis of this course was actually doing the Inductive Bible Study Method. After two weeks of grueling observation, interpretation and application, most of the students are beginning to get comfortable with using the method. However, it became evident that there are some who will need some more time to really let the concept of the method sink in.
Please keep them and us in your prayers as we continue to train the students here how to study God’s Word for themselves, and live the Christ-filled Spiritual Life, such that other would see Christ living in us.