Religious Affections by Edwards and a Spiritual Discipline Attempt
posted September 10, 2008 by jordan
I am in full writing mode now, cranking out new, obedience based T-Life (transformed life) curriculum for use by small groups or one on one mentoring. We have learned from our Eastern friends (SE Asia, China, Indonesia, etc.) the distinction between cognitive discipleship and obedience based discipleship. I Thessalonians is done. Half of I Corinthians and beginning I Peter preparation study (a beta test version of I Thessalonians will soon be available to a limited number folks, contact me if you want to be considered for the list).
BUT, it is easy to get caught in the communicator’s/writer’s trap of devotional life only as a means to future communication via sermon, blog post etc. So I am going public, needing accoutability, for a new spiritual discipline endeavor. I am attempting to rewrite/translate/modernize paragraph by paragraph, Jonathan Edward’s Religious Affections. I know there are modernized versions available, but that misses the point of the attempt. It will force me to slooooooow down and wrestle with this rich Puritan writing. If I am called to communicate it later, so be it. But for now, its for my growth. Help hold my feet to the fire on this blogging friends. Thanks.
note: Several of you have already emailed asking in what manner am I going about it. Here is the blank column document you can use it however you want: religious-affections-columns-modernizing-blank.doc
September 12th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Hey man, just couldn’t get to sleep tonight before I sent you a message. You guys aren’t looking to add anyone to your leadership team are you? The more I read your church’s blogs, the more I feel like my family and I would be a great fit there.
Anyway, I’d love to chat with you and get some more info on what you guys are doing at Northwood.
Thanks for your time!
-JB
September 13th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Hey JB. I would have to say that NorthWood is an awesome place to work. No place is a perfect environment, but NW is about as close as you can get in my mind. At this point, because of economy and that we knew getting in the new building would tighten things up for a year and a half afterwards. Next year our Exec Pastor has told us for the most part our budgets are close to flat and we have a hiring freeze in order to insure we stay solid financially. Next year can always change, but for now that is the plan. But who knows in the future? Keep in touch and if you are ever in the Keller area call us so we can get to know you. We tend to hire people we are in some kind of relationship with as we can better assess our hiring order (1) character, (2) chemistry, and (3) competence.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:05 am
[...] In this spiritual exericise, I hit this quote which I just had to share. This is the modernized version… We sing in worship to engage and express our affections. There is no other reason to sing. If we aren’t dealing with our affections in worship, we might as well just read the lines of the songs dryly together in paragraph form without any music. We worship with music to because God has created music with a certain nature where it tends to move our affections deeply. [...]
September 21st, 2008 at 8:45 pm
[...] This process is like crack cocaine for my soul…. I cannot stop. Amazing stuff. Currently translating on page 76…only 399 left before my supply dries up and I have to go hunting another Puritan drug. hahaha. [...]