Search for the Spiritual , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Emery White James

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

79 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

This is the book to put into the hands of seekers. With disarming candor (and no churchspeak), White explores the basics of the Christian faith.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Informations

Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 octobre 1998
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781585581115
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0403€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

© 1998 by James Emery White
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright owners. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-5855-8111-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version ®. NIV ®. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.© Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations marked CEV are from the Contemporary English Version. © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked GNB are from the Good News Translation Second Edition, formerly Good News Bible, Today’s English Version. Copyright © American Bible Society 1992. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked PHILLIPS are from the New Testament in Modern English, © J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972 and published by the Macmillan Company.
Scripture quotations marked TLB are from The Living Bible © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked TM are from T HE M ESSAGE . Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
Also by James Emery White Rethinking the Church
C ONTENTS Cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Acknowledgments 1 The Benefits of Becoming a Seeker 2 How to Explore Christianity Authentically 3 Is Somebody Out There? 4 What Is God Like? 5 Why the Life of Jesus Matters 6 Why the Death of Jesus Matters 7 Why the Resurrection of Jesus Matters 8 The Bible 9 Why Is There So Much Suffering? 10 There Can’t Be Only One Way 11 Disappointment with Christians 12 But Will It Work? 13 Stop Signs for Seekers 14 When the Search Is Over Notes About the Author
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am deeply indebted to countless individuals. Unfortunately, space allows the mention of only a few.
To my friends who have been, or are, seekers. Their questions and concerns, insights and challenges run throughout this book. Included in this group are the hundreds of seekers who come to Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, each week to explore the Christian faith.
To three men each having passed on from this life to the next who have impacted my life and thought in various ways in regard to explaining Christianity to seeking minds and hearts: C. S. Lewis, Walter Martin, and Francis Schaeffer.
To my mother, Sue White, for being such an authentic spiritual seeker and imparting that to her son.
To my sister, Susan Ragsdale, who has read all my manuscripts before they have been published, giving trenchant criticism in the context of supportive encouragement. She possesses one of the brighter minds I have ever encountered, and all my writings are indebted to her. To Mark Mittelberg, who took time out of his busy schedule to give the book a careful read and offer invaluable advice.
To Paul Engle, my editor at Baker, goes great appreciation for being such a joy to work with and for championing this project from the beginning. To Melinda Van Engen, who once again provided a careful reading and sensitive editing. To Devlin McNeil, my assistant, goes nothing but praise for keeping my life in working order.
Finally, as always, the deepest thanks goes to my wife, Susan, who made every page possible.
F or Mark, the issue was science. He liked stories that had an explanation, particularly an explanation based on observation. That’s what made something believable. He wasn’t an atheist; he just didn’t think there was enough evidence to convince a person that any particular spiritual direction was correct.
Then his wife, along with a friend of his, invited him to a Christian church. Mark agreed to attend, but just to see if there was any evidence to support Christianity. Surprisingly, he found a setting in which he felt comfortable raising questions and searching for answers. His concerns were deemed valid; the issues he raised were never dismissed. He began to attend every Sunday, and then he joined a small group in which he was encouraged to talk openly and honestly about where he was in relation to God.
Over the course of a year, Mark came to two conclusions: First, he decided that no real contradictions exist between science and the Christian faith. Second, and on a more personal level, Mark came to grips with the fact that he was failing at life, unable to live up to even the simplest standards he set for himself. Although the second issue was not part of his original search, the truth of it was inescapable. Mark decided he was in desperate need of leadership and that it could only come from God. Though he felt like he was jumping off a cliff, Mark became a Christian.
Kristi had been searching for years. Though raised in a nonreligious environment, as a youth she occasionally went to church with her Catholic friends. For Kristi, when someone said they were a Christian, it was an instant turnoff because such a label was usually associated with a judgmental and intolerant spirit.
In her midtwenties, Kristi tried attending a church, but it was a disaster. The church was caught up in division and discord and eventually split. Kristi decided she wanted nothing more to do with the Christian faith, but what could only be described as a “spiritual hunger” began to invade her life. She felt a void that she desperately wanted to fill. She also wanted her little boy, Jackson, to have some kind of spiritual foundation.
Her seeking began again in earnest. She made a list of the things she wanted in a church, and she set off in pursuit. A believer in self-help books, she scoured the bookstore looking for material to help her in her search. She scanned the Internet, checking out sites on Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Scientology, and the New Age Movement. She found no answers. Then two friends, both Christians, invited her to their church.
The first thing Kristi realized was that she was not, in fact, a Christian. Despite some previous involvement in a church, she had not in her heart of hearts truly accepted the leadership of Christ in her life. Then her husband, who had been attending with her, surprised her: He became a Christian. She felt cheated after all, she was the one who had been searching! Then she came to a defining moment of personal insight: She had wanted to find God in order to add control to her life; she had never opened herself up to the possibility of finding God in order to give up control of her life. Like her husband, Kristi found what she had been looking for and made the decision to order her life around Christ and become a Christian. [1]
Sociologist Wade Clark Roof recently released a book titled A Generation of Seekers . Based on his research of contemporary American culture, he concluded that the defining characteristic of our day is this: It is seeking. [2] But we’re not searching for just anything. He believes we are spiritual seekers, with spiritual questions, looking for spiritual answers, trying to fill a spiritual void. We are looking for purpose and meaning in our lives.
We get up in the morning, go to work, come home, invest in our family or friends, and go to bed and we don’t know why. We don’t know why we’re working so hard, studying so hard, why we’re married and trying to be committed to that marriage, or why we are working hard at being parents. We know why we’re doing it on a superficial level we work to make money, we study to make good grades, we stay married because we value commitment and it is often more practical to stay with one person over a long period of time, and we work hard at being parents because we love our children but we don’t know why we are living our life in an ultimate sense. It’s tough to give, work, and sacrifice without knowing what it’s all for in the end.
Where can we find purpose and meaning in life? No assembly line is going to manufacture a widget that brings purpose into our lives. Education isn’t going to make it happen. The government can’t do it. No piece of legislation or law will ever be passed that will address the state of my soul. It’s as if we have finally realized that our deepest needs are spiritual in nature. As Generation X author Douglas Coupland has written,
Here’s my secret: I tell it to you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love. [3]
Even with this realization, however, countless numbers of people never go into active search mode. It’s as if they see their disease but never pursue the treatment. Søren Kierkegaard addressed this irony, telling about a make-believe country where only ducks live. On a Sunday morning all the ducks came into church, waddled down the aisle, waddled into their pews, and squatted. Then the duck minister came in, took his place behind the pulpit, opened the duck Bible and read, “Ducks! You have wings, and with wings, you can fly like eagles. You can soar into the sky! Ducks! You