Biblical Spirituality

The Father is the lover, the Son is the beloved. The Bible is awash with talk of the Father’s love for the Son, but while the Son clearly does love the Father, hardly anything is said about it.

Too many in ministry are burning out. The weight of responsibility builds up over time, and the responsibility can become crippling. How do we maintain mental health in the context of ministry? Michael Reeves charges the 2023 UST graduates to “Come and Behold” from Psalm 46.

Union with Christ in John’s Gospel and letters is the in-one-another relationship of believers with the Father and Son by the Spirit—the intimate, loving, relational participation of the believer and God, each in the life, affections, ways and work of the other.

The following 15 quotes are from Clive Bowsher’s new title Life in the Son: Exploring participation and union with Christ in John’s Gospel and letters.

Sitting in a cute (technical term for “slightly odd”) Welsh pub with fellow Master’s students on an intensive lectures’ week at Union School of Theology, I was delighted when the owner came over and lit the fire. I love a nice fire, and find nothing more satisfying than keeping it ablaze. Having taken ownership of keeping said fire alight, you can imagine how embarrassed I was, when all I seemed able to do was put it out!

It is necessary not only to pray, but also to pray “as we ought” and to pray for what we ought. Our attempt to understand what we should pray for is deficient unless we also bring to our quest the “as we ought.” Likewise, what use to us is the “as we ought” if we do not know for what we should pray?

Behold that dear, that exalted, that condescending Friend of sinners, whom you can never please so well as by giving the fullest credit to his assurance that he is your Friend, your Redeemer, your guide through earth, your portion forever. What a mercy that you have lived to know that such a glorious person exists, is ever present with you, sees every thought of your heart, and listens with infinite delight to every sigh.

Let us not grow weary in the battle for our minds. Let us not forfeit our stewardship of these supernaturally revealed words from God. Take a stand for your faith, and take a shield for your friends and family, by etching Bible verses upon the tablet of your heart.

O that every sacrifice I offer were consumed with the fire of ardent love to Jesus. Reading, praying, studying and preaching are to me very cold exercises, if not warmed with the love of Christ. This is the quintessence of holiness, of happiness, of heaven.

Behold the beauty of Jesus, which is the beauty of the Triune God—this beauty is able to save because it is not merely the beauty of a man, but is rather the timeless beauty of the incomprehensible, unchanging, self-existing, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, all-holy, all-just, all-gracious, loving, undiminished glory of the Trinity. That glory is able to save. And when we look at the crucified and risen Savior in this precious book, we are looking at that glory of that God.