Necessary and very relevant topic. The ongoing and often daily battle seems to always have been the temptation to respond and/or act differently than Christ would have me to.

In situations where the powers of darkeness incite humans to do their will, being influential to their responses & actions is quite a different task altogether (ex. the situation with the team's travels in Darfur).

It will certainly be educational to hear biblically & culturally relevant teaching on the subject, and prayers will certainly be with you & your team. God bless

We must add in a complete life. One swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy – Aristotle. The Darfur trips help us all understand the innate dangers in the world but also help to complete those who serve there. I appreciate your prayers as I know they are always there. God Bless…

I am glad we are doing this series because it is addressing an issue that God has been calling me to and I am only now beginning to learn about and that is the spiritual, "mystical" nature of God.

I think you can go all your life calling yourself a Christian and never explore the spiritual nature of your existence. It would seem to me, difficult to think about angels and demons without also thinking about the unseen world that they exist in. It is connecting to this world what the eastern religions and to a lesser extent Catholicism acknowledge and practice far better than we have as Protestants.

Think about how we typically teach people about our faith - a dualistic salvation faith (saved or unsaved), a faith of cognitive assent (if you believe the things on this list that we made, then you're good to go) or a works-based faith (keep volunteering at the church in the hope that you will stumble upon a relationship with God or worse, gain marks in the "good" column of your life). By removing the spiritual (and probably the most important) aspect of God we have allowed rationalism, secularism and atheism to gain a foothold because we've lowered God to their playing field - one of logic, facts, and discussion points.

A Christian faith without the spiritual, contemplative teaching practice that encourages a 1-on-1 relationship with God has allowed its followers watch or participate in slavery, the Holocaust, apartheid, etc. because,

a) I am already saved.
b) I already believe in the list of things to believe in.
c) I am already doing good works elsewhere.

In my opinion, we may not have allowed these things to happen if we were listening to what God was telling us, contemplating His will for our life. The lack of emphasis on this aspect of God becomes apparent by looking at where we worship. With the more spiritually-focused eastern religions, the temples are open 24/7 with a continual flow of people. In the West our churches are commonly open 1 day a week.

This modern leg of our faith journey is summarized well by a book I'm reading, "The Naked Now" by Richard Rohr (a Fransiscan friar)..."In the West, religion became preoccupied with telling people what to know more than how to know, telling people what to see more than how to see. We ended up seeing Holy Things faintly, trying to understand Great Things with a whittled-down mind, and trying to love God with our own small and divided heart. It has been like trying to view the galaxies with a $5 pair of binoculars."

So thanks Mike for taking steps in a direction which (I have heard several say about this series) is strange, unusual and scary. I hope we continue to explore this nature of God more deeply and hopefully learn how to see and how to know.

Hi, Mike,
I'm so thankful you are stepping up to the pulpit with this timely topic. I have been feeling God's call in this direction. Yesterday's message was excellent and on point for my whole family.