Your COMPASS for the Journey on the PATH of Discipleship: July 24-30, 2011
Posted by Isaac Butterworth | Filed under Compass, Discipleship, praxis, Puritans, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation
Your COMPASS for the Journey on the PATH of Discipleship is a daily resource designed to help you find direction in your walk with Christ. We are in the midst of a study of John Flavel’s teaching on our union with Christ. The book, The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety, by J. Stephen Yuille is our primary guide. The theme this week is the practice of union with Christ.
Sunday, July 24, 2011 DUTIES TOWARD GOD
Compass:
Psalm 1:2 ‘…He meditates day and night.’
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Map:
We begin this week’s reflections with Stephen Yuille’s question: ‘How does the believer cultivate communion with God?’ We saw last week that the answer involves spiritual duties. According to John Flavel, God has appointed certain ‘ordinances and duties of religion [in order to] maintain daily communication betwixt Christ and his people.’ Flavel believed that the Holy Spirit uses these duties to let forth God’s ‘influences’ upon the soul, so that we make suitable ‘returns’ to him.
Journey:
This week, we will look at five ‘duties’ that we have toward God, five practices that will position us for God’s ‘influences’ upon our spirits:
• Watching
• Listening
• Meditating
• Praying
• Participating in the Lord’s Supper
Which of these five ‘duties’ or practices are a regular part of your life? Which ones will present you with a significant challenge?
Monday, July 25, 2011 WATCHING OVER OUR SOULS
Compass:
Matthew 26:41 ‘Watch and pray….’
Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.
Map:
The first duty the believer has toward God is that of watching. The distractions and deadening influences that continually assault us make it necessary to keep watch over our souls.
Journey:
John Flavel offers six ‘acts’ by which we can do this:
- ‘frequent observation of the frame of the heart, turning in and examining how the case stands with us’
- ‘deep humiliation for heart-evils and disorders’
- ‘earnest supplications and instant prayer for heart-purifying and rectifying grace, when sin hath defiled and disordered it’
- ‘the imposing of strong engagements and bonds upon ourselves to walk more accurately with God, and avoid occasions whereby the heart may be induced to sin’
- ‘a constant holy jealousy over our own hearts’
- ‘the realizing of God’s presence with us’
Yuille says that ‘keeping watch over the soul is foundational to other spiritual duties, because their effectiveness depends in large part upon the removal of [any unconfessed sin, any unchecked pride, any undisciplined thoughts, and any of the other things] that dampen the affections.’
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 LISTENING TO THE WORD
Compass:
Romans 10:17 ‘…Faith comes from hearing….’
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
Map:
In a state of watchfulness, the soul is ready to pursue God in other duties. The most important of these for Flavel was attendance upon the preaching of God’s Word. Brian Gerrish writes: ‘The word is not simply information about God; it is the instrument through which union with Christ is effected and his grace imparted.’
Journey:
Preaching, in the eyes of John Flavel, is the principle means by which God communicates himself to the soul. If this is so, we must be careful in our approach to preaching. Flavel coaches on this by emphasizing what we are to do before, during, and after hearing a sermon.
Antecedent to (before) the sermon, we must…
(1) prepare ourselves by…
- considering ‘the greatness and holiness of that God whom we approach in hearing the word’
- ‘discharging [our] heart from worldly cares’
- ‘longing after the word for further communications of grace by it’
(2) pray, requesting that God…
- assist the preacher
- pour out his Spirit with the Word
Concomitant to (during) the sermon, we must exercise…
- ‘an assenting act of faith’ whereby we acknowledge the Word’s divine authority
- ‘an applying act of faith’ whereby we take to hear what is proclaimed
Subsequent to (after) the sermon, we must…
- preserve what is proclaimed ‘in our hearts and memories’
- produce ‘the fruits of it in our lives’
You may want to try this discipline as you prepare for the next sermon you will hear.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 MEDITATING
Compass:
Joshua 1:8 ‘…Meditate on it day and night….’
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Map:
Yuille writes that meditating on God’s word was of great importance to John Flavel. This is so for Flavel because he viewed understanding as the primary faculty of the soul. ‘Light in the mind,’ he wrote, ‘is necessarily antecedent to the sweet and heavenly motions and elevations of the affections.’
Journey:
According to Yuille, ‘the goal of Puritan meditation is to apply Scripture successively to the faculties of understanding, affections, and will.’ He quotes Peter Toon, who writes, ‘In meditation a channel is…opened between the mind, heart, and will – what the mind receives enters the heart and goes into action via the will’ (From Mind to Heart: Christian Meditation Today, p. 18).
For a brief treatment of the methodology of Puritan meditation, read Stephen Yuille’s article, ‘Puritan Meditation: The Gateway from the Head to the Heart.’ Then give it a try!
Thursday, July 28, 2011 PRAYING
Compass:
1 John 5:14-15 ‘…Ask…according to his will….’
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
Map:
John Flavel describes prayer as ‘an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his service.’
Journey:
Flavel says that we can learn to pray with more humility, sincerity, zeal, readiness, and faith by…
• Being frequent in prayer
• Not grieving the Holy Spirit
• Searching our hearts
• Looking more at the exercise of graces
We must also to the matter and manner of our prayers. As to the matter, our prayers must be agreeable to God’s will; as to the manner, out prayers must be sincere and fervent.
Friday, July 29, 2011 PARTAKING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
Compass:
John 6:55 ‘…My flesh is real food….’
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Map:
For John Flavel, the Lord’s Supper ‘is the seal of the covenant of God in Christ, wherein by certain outward signs, instituted by our Savior, Christ and all his benefits are signified, conveyed, and sealed to the worthy receiver.’
Journey:
The next time you participate in the Lord’s Supper, consider these words of John Flavel: ‘Among all those ordinances wherein the blessed God manifests himself to the children of men, none are found to set forth more of the joy of his presence than that of the Lord’s Supper; at that blessed table are such sensible embraces betwixt Christ and believers as do afford delight and solace, beyond the joy of the whole earth.’
Saturday, July 30, 2011 REVIEW
A we come to the end of this week’s reflections, read this statement by Stephen Yuille: ‘…Flavel stresses the diligent use of duties: “You find in the word a world of work cut out for Christians: there is hearing-work, praying-work, reading, meditating, and self-examining work; it puts him also upon a constant watch over all the corruptions of his heart. Oh, what a world of work hath a Christian about him!” Yet, while stressing human effort, Flavel is careful to note that the practice of duties must not be viewed as an end in itself. He explains that believers ‘have special regard to duties in point of obedience, but none at all in point of reliance.’ In other words, we obey Christ, but we do not rely on our obedience for communion with God. We rely solely on the Spirit of Christ.
Photo Credit: Brown Pelicans by Mike Baird
