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The seat of the Spiritual life (Herman Bavinck)

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  You cannot see the sun but you know it is there.  The soul can be a bit like that In today’s world ‘spiritual’ is often used in all sorts of contexts.   Whatever view one takes it is something that happens inside the person.   From a secular point of view scientists have tried to find it in the workings of the mind and give it a purely materialist interpretation.   However even with all the breakthroughs in science and there have been many people are more than the sum of their parts.   To take this materialist view also means to take a biological evolutionary interpretation of our destiny.   I reject this view.   Humanity was not just a big mistake.   Genesis starts with: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 We are more than the sum of our parts.   God created us for a reason, and we saw this in the garden when God walked with Adam in the garden before the fall.   Humanity was in communion with God and even though the Fall took place God had

The Essence and Core of the Spiritual Life. Part 3 Fellowship with the Holy Spirit ‘Act and Being’ Part 3

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  I took this picture recently and the cloud formation reminds me of the Holy Spirit   I want to begin by two verses and thinking about them: 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14   And 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 2 Peter 1:4 When we talk about the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, it has a context.   From the second quotation there is a very explicit statement that we will become sharers in ‘The Divine Nature’.   We will always stay human and created but we are brought into fellowship with ‘God’.   Bavinck contextualizes this for us: “First there is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit convicting of sin, righteousness, and judgment; then that of Christ adopting us and granting us his benefits; thereafter that of t

The Essence and Core of the Spiritual Life. Part 2; Fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ

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I took this by the lake side   Our life force flows from the fellowship we have with the Trinity.   Last time we looked at the fellowship we have with the father.   We cannot go directly to the Father.   God is eternal and infinite, and we are only finite created creatures.   That does not mean that the road to the Father is closed.   It cannot be closed because God is love.    It is by the two hands of God that we can come to the Father.   Although Jesus is God the Son, he took on a finite form and became a human being.   Our Lord Jesus lived, died and resurrected two thousand years ago; so how can we have a relationship with God the Son today?   The Holy Spirit our Comforter the third person of the Trinity transcends time. We also have Scripture, and this witness of the original Apostles of Christ are mediated to us by the Holy Spirit.   There is one invisible Church made up of believers who have fallen asleep, the present saints and those who will come after us. Herman Bavinck who