Touched by an Angel

Greetings All,

     This week's "thought" comes to you from Eric Metaxas and is found in his lesser know book entitled, "Miracles - What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life."  Metaxas  graduated from Yale with a degree in English and is much better known for his lengthy and best-selling book, Bonhoeffer - Pastor, Martyr, Propet, Spy  or his other more popular book Amazing Grace, about William Wilberforce and his heroic campaign to end slavery in the British Empire.

















In this book, "Miracles," Mataxas deals only with those miracles cited in Scripture, or told to him by friends and associates whose integrity he trusts implicitly, so as to avoid sharing stories from people whose character and credibility he cannot personally vouch for. (He even records for us the dream which he himself had, that led him to write the book on Bonhoeffer.) The stories come from personal friends who either witnessed or experienced phenomena that apart from a miraculous explanation is otherwise inexplicable. Phenomena whose veracity he might even have questioned if he did not personally know the various individuals. For any interested in this topic of the miraculous, this book is well worth the price. Most of the stories are too long to quote, so I share one of the shorter ones. Enjoy.

Touched by an Angel

     "My friend Eva Meyer was thirteen and a freshman at Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut.  In the first few days of school (this was in the 1980's) she made some new friends and one invited her to a sleepover one Friday night in early September. Eva soon realized these girls were rather different from the ones she had been used to spending time with. For one thing, they were all interested in the occult. In fact, they decided they wanted to have a seance that night. One of the girls was heavily into the music of "The Doors," and said she wanted to invoke the spirit of Jim Morrison (who had died July 3, 1971). But Eva did not wish to "break on through to the other side."  She knew far too much about the dark side of the spirit realm to think it was a good way to spend the evening. She simply could not go through with it and said so to her new friends.

     So the girls decided they would all take a walk to the beach instead. The girl whose house the sleepover was at, lived within walking distance of Compo Beach. The quickest route there was straight down Hillspoint Road and over the Hillspoint Road Bridge, which crosses over I-95, the heavily trafficked interstate highway that runs from Maine to Florida. When the girls got to the bridge, Eva saw that there was a six-foot-tall wooden stockade fence blocking the road. Evidently there was "roadwork" being done on the bridge, although they could not see past the tall fence to see exactly what was being done. But the girl whose house they they were staying at told them she climbed the fence all the time and just walked across the bridge. She insisted that she had done it many times and explained that they just didn't want cars driving across it, but it was absolutely fine to walk across it.

     Eva explains that for "some strange reason" they insisted that she go first. They would boost her up and help her get over the fence. To this day Eva cannot figure out why she agreed to go first, but she did. She says that at the time she was a "five-foot-two, maybe one hundred forty pounds, somewhat chubby, very weak thirteen-year-old girl," who had never done a single pull-up in her life. Maybe this is why she agreed to letting the three of them help her up and over first, or why they suggested it.  So the three girls boosted her up with their hands and essentially heaved her over the six-foot fence.

     It was in the next split second that Eva saw the trouble. To put it in her own words, precisely as she typed them to me: "THERE WAS NO BRIDGE THERE!!!  NOTHING!!!"  It was an unspeakable horror, the sort of thing about which one has reoccurring nightmares. Eva remembers in that briefest of moments seeing a huge semi-truck roaring right beneath her flailing legs, which were kicking in midair, and she remembers the feel of the rough top of the stockade fence which she desperately tried to grasp with her hand as her body went over.

     Instinctively she screamed, "Jesus!!!"  Then, just as she lost her grip and began to plummet to what she knew would be her death on the highway below, with the endless speeding trucks and cars, she felt herself being lifted up.  She saw nothing, but in the blink of an eye she felt herself being scooped up in midair and carried back over the fence and placed on solid ground -- but a full ten feet away from where the three girls had tossed her over.  She says that she remembers landing -- "my arms stretched out wide, as though a parachute had brought me to a soft landing." And then she remembers the unhinged looks on the faces of the three other girls. She remembers that they were "utterly horrified, scared witless." Eva says they were, "white as sheets, with mouths agape, and eyes wide in terror."  All three of them shrieked and instantly bolted from the scene, running as fast as they could. 

     She remembers the feeling of those moments. She felt strangely calm, but confused too. She knew without a doubt that in that moment Jesus had miraculously saved her life. She simply walked home not telling a soul what happened, but remembers clearly that not one of those three girls ever spoke to her again. They wouldn't even glance in her direction or come near her. [Twenty-some-odd years later, around the time of her high school reunion, Eva discovered through Facebook that the girl whose house they had been at was a full-fledged Satanist -- her page filled with pentagrams and other dark, occult symbols]."

     If you read the book you will find one other amazing story about Eva later in her life.  One which may explain why she was so miraculously spared.

Just some food for thought!

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

A Soul Filled With God

Greetings All,

     This week's 'thought' comes to you from Gary Thomas, and is taken from his book, "Simply Sacred." It has to do with the blessings of a soul filled with God.  It caught my eye because just yesterday I was having this same exact conversation with two different individuals!
     As one who frequently counsels with people who are married, and those who are looking to get married, I always seek to share what Thomas shares in this post today. For if one simply grasps this one principle, it saves a lot of needless heartache.  And, of course, it need not be restricted to marriage. It can benefit any relationship, be it friendships, parent/child relationships, church relations, etc.  Enjoy.

A Soul Filled With God

     "Personal worship is an absolute necessity for a strong marriage. It comes down to this: If I stop receiving from God, I start demanding from others. Instead of appreciating and loving and serving others, I become disappointed in them. Instead of cherishing my wife, I become aware of her shortcomings.  I take out my frustrations with a less-than-perfect life and somehow blame her for my lack of fulfillment.

     But when my heart gets filled by God's love and acceptance, I am set free to love instead of worrying about being loved.  I'm motivated to serve instead of becoming obsessed about whether I'm being served.  I'm moved to cherish instead of feeling unappreciated.

     A wife complains about a lack of spiritual intimacy in her relationship with her husband. "He's never been what you might call a spiritual leader," she says, and this has become almost an obsession for her -- as if her own spiritual health depends on her husband suddenly becoming mature.

     Spiritual intimacy is a legitimate desire, but whenever we place our happiness in the hands of another human being, we guarantee ourselves some degree of disappointment. This is why worship sets us free. It meets our most basic need -- to rest in the fact that we are known and loved, that we have a purpose, and that our eternal destiny and delight is secure -- so lesser needs (including spiritual companionship) serve the role of an occasional dessert rather than our main meal.

     It's simply not fair to ask our spouse to fulfill us. No one can. If we expect our spouse to be God for us, our spouse will fail every day and on every account. Not only that, should our disappointment lead us to divorce, our second, third, and even fourth spouse will fail us too!

     There is no one else who can love us like God, with a steady and giving love. When the one thing we seek is to dwell in God's house, gaze on his beauty, and seek him in his temple (Psalm 27:4), our soul's sense of desperate need is met in our heavenly Father's arms. Then we leave the temple and find tremendous joy in giving, loving, and serving rather than in keeping close accounts as to whether we are being loved or being served."

     One of the most helpful things any couple can learn (and the earlier the better) is that their spouse does not have the ability to make them happy. There are many things a spouse can do, but making their spouse happy and fulfilled is not one of them.

     To understand this is especially important for the engaged and newly married, who often enter marriage with this fanciful falsehood ingrained in their minds through romantic books and movies which play on our utopian wants, and not life's realities. Surely the refusal to accept this truth is one of the factors that has fueled the rising divorce statistics where a husband/wife leaves their spouse in search of another, hoping the next one will supply the happiness and fulfillment #1 or #2 could not.

     To place such an impossible and unrealistic expectation on another human being sets that person up for failure, frustration, and anger. It's like asking that person to take a small cup and fill a bath tub with large cracks throughout and no plug in the drain!

     Yet it also sets the expectant one up for a life of disappointment, disillusionment, frustration, and anger, as well as feeding the blame game.  For whether it's verbalized or not, spouses who have not realized this truth will often think (regarding their partner): "If only they were more ______ and would do __________, then I'd be happy."

     The answer is "No, you wouldn't."  For true inner contentment and happiness doesn't come from others.  It comes as the soul is filled with the presence of God, and learns to rest in the Gospel truths of God's pardon, love, delight, and acceptance of us in Jesus. Then, from that inner soul-fullness, one is enabled to move out and joyfully share their life with others, instead of constantly seeking to get from them what that person is unable to give.

To Him alone who can fill our cup till it overflows in glad service to others, Pastor Jeff

The Knowledge of the Holy

Greetings All,

     Today's 'thought' goes along with a sermon I preached from Revelation 4:1 this past Sunday, entitled: "The Script Has Already Been Written."  For that verse speaks of God's plan for the future and how it "must" come to pass.

     In this thought A. W. Tozer elaborates on that same topic with his typical clarity. This selection is found in his superb book, "The Knowledge of the Holy."

     Given the world situation at this present time (which seems like a pressure cooker about to explode!) such biblical truths can ease many of our fears, and give us the encouragement we need to look to the future with hope.  Enjoy.

     "God's Sovereignty is the attribute by which He rules His entire creation, and to be sovereign God must be all-knowing, all-powerful, and absolutely free... Only God is free. God is said to be absolutely free because no one and no thing can hinder Him or compel Him or stop Him. He is able to do as He pleases always, everywhere, forever.  To be thus free means also that He must possess universal authority...

     Even to discuss the authority of Almighty God seems a bit meaningless, and to question it would be absurd.  Can we imagine the Lord God of Hosts having to request permission of anyone or to apply for anything to a higher body?  To whom would God go for permission? Who is higher than the Highest?  Who is mightier than the Almighty?  Whose position antedates that of the Eternal?  At whose throne would God kneel?  Where is the greater one to whom He must appeal? (Is. 45:5, 20-21 / 46:5, 8-10)...

     [Yet] if God rules his universe by His sovereign decrees, how is it possible for man to exercise freedom of choice? And if he cannot exercise freedom of choice, how can he be held responsible for his conduct? Is he not a mere puppet whose actions are determined by a behind-the-scenes God who pulls the strings as it pleases Him?

     The attempt to answer these questions has divided the Christian church neatly into two camps [one denying God's sovereignty, the other man's will to choose]...

     Here is my view: God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make, but that he should be free to make it.  If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, "What doest Thou?"  Man's will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so.

     Perhaps an illustration might help us to understand. An ocean liner leaves New York bound for Liverpool. Its destination has been determined by proper authorities. Nothing can change it. This is at least a faint picture of sovereignty.

     On board the liner are several scores of passengers. These are not in chains, neither are their activities determined for them by decree. They are completely free to move about as they will. They eat, sleep, play, lounge about on the deck, read, talk, altogether as they please. But all the while the great liner is carrying them steadily onward toward a predetermined port. Both freedom and sovereignty are present here and they do not contradict each other. So it is, I believe, with man's freedom and the sovereignty of God. The mighty liner of God's sovereign design keeps its steady course over the sea of history. God moves undisturbed and unhindered toward the fulfillment of those eternal purposes which He purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began.

     Toward [the fulfillment of all God has decreed and promised] God is moving with infinite wisdom and perfect precision. No one can dissuade Him from His purposes; nothing can turn Him aside from His plans. Since He is omniscient, there can be no unforeseen circumstances, no accidents. As He is sovereign, there can be no countermanded orders, no breakdown in authority; and as He is omnipotent, there can be no want of power to achieve His chosen ends... Within the broad field of God's sovereign, permissive will, the deadly conflict of good and evil continues with increasing fury. God will yet have His way in the whirlwind and the storm, but the storm and the whirlwind are here, and as responsible beings we must make our choice in the present moral situation."

     There are certain things I might phrase a bit differently than Tozer, but his points are well taken. God is sovereign, man is responsible. God decrees and ordains all that happens, yet without ever violating our liberty to choose. His plan will unalterably come to pass -- the ship is going to Liverpool! (to use his illustration) -- but we still have the liberty to make choices for which we will be held responsible (Westminster Confession, Chapter 3, section 1 -- On God's Eternal Decrees).

     To use the words of Revelation 4:1, "Come up here and I will show you what MUST take place after this."  In the end it will all unfold just as God has decreed. This means that when things look out of control (from our perspective) we can be thankful God still occupies the throne of His sovereign rule, and is, "moving with infinite wisdom and perfect precision" to carry out His plan for the ages.

Under the shadow of His wings, Pastor Jeff

Do Not Fear

Greetings All,
This weeks thought comes once again from Charles H. Spurgeon, and is found in the devotional book, "Beside Still Waters - Words of Comfort for the Soul." And once again I will repeat that this is my favorite devotional book and well worth the cost to pick up a copy.
     This selection has to do with fear.  Rather, it has to do with the remedy for fear. In a world filled with news that can sometimes make us shudder, and circumstances that can often spawn fear, Spurgeon's words offer some fear-quenching truth we should all consider. Enjoy.

Do Not Fear

Luke 12:32

     "Do you believe that anything is left to chance? Is there any event outside the circle of divine predestination? No, my friend, with God there are no contingencies. The mighty Charioteer of Providence has gathered the reigns of His horses, and He guides them according to His infallible wisdom.

     Foreknowledge and predestination are in everything, from the motion of a grain of dust to a flaming comet blazing across the sky. Nothing can happen unless God ordains it; nothing happens without divine power. The Lord said, 'Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire... and I have created the spoiler to destroy' (Isaiah 54:16 / Isaiah 45:5-7). The most violent people could not move a finger if strength were not lent them by the Lord.

     As for nature's catastrophes, the Lord is distinctly in them. 'He shakes the earth out of its place' (Job 9:5).  Our Father works all things! Why then should His children be afraid?

     Regardless of how tremendous events may be, we know that nothing can happen to shake the kingdom of God. Even the gates of Hell shall not prevail against that kingdom (Matthew 16:18).  Our chief possession lies there, and if that is secure then all is safe. Our highest, best, and most vital interests are beyond even the shadow of harm. Therefore, 'Do not fear.'

     Suppose an accident should take our lives? I smile as I think that the worst thing that could happen would be the best thing that could happen (Phil. 1:21-24). If we should die, we shall be with the Lord (I Thess. 4:17). So, if the worst that can befall is the best that can come, why should we fear? This is good reasoning -- if you are a believer, and if God is your refuge, there is no logical reason to fear."

     It is so true. To believe that our loving, just, and all-powerful God is in control of "everything," as Spurgeon puts it, "from the motion of a grain of dust, to a flaming comet blazing across the sky," puts the heart at ease. It not only subdues our fears, it enables the soul to be at rest even in difficult circumstances. For knowing that God is in control means things can't possibly be out of control even when they seem to be, and it means I no longer need to try and control the outcome of things! The one who believes God is in control no longer has to be controlling.

     The Bible assures us that God is not just, "in charge like the president" (as one person put it, which would not relieve anyone's fears!), He is in control. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Nothing catches Him off guard. There is nothing He does not know (He's omniscient) and nothing He cannot do (He's omnipotent) -- which means that if it happens, He has a reason for allowing, permitting, or ordaining it.

     It's a truth that does require us to trust that our God has a good/redemptive purpose in all things (even the worst), yet it should also work to remove our fears -- for if our Father ordains it (everything that happens to us must pass through the filter of His love for us) there is hope, divine purpose, and holy love expressed in everything that could ever come our way.

     My prayer is that you would live each day in the soul-liberating and fear-quenching effects of such truth, Pastor Jeff 

Every Day With Jesus

Greetings All,

     This weeks thought comes to you from a devotional book I picked up which I've found surprisingly good. Its entries are short, sweet, and to the point. It's called "Every Day With Jesus," and has many contributors (17) but no one author.  Its published by "Worthy Publishing" out of Brentwood, Tennessee -- a group who stated goal is, "Helping People Experience the Heart of God."
     Each selection in the book starts with a quote from a well-known Christian and is based on a verse from the Bible. This particular selection I share with you because I felt the little one illustration contained in it was so helpful and visually descriptive that it merited being shared! I hope you benefit from it as well. Enjoy.

Mosaic

Jeremiah 29:11-14

"We have to see history as a book that is sealed

and opened by the Passion of Christ." 

Thomas Merton

     "The history of mankind is full of hatred, bigotry, wars, and bloodshed. Collectively, our conscience is stained. Knowing how dark and shameful our history is, it's difficult to think that anyone is in control of it -- much less a benevolent, all-powerful God.

     Yet Scripture tells us that the book of history is in the hand of God. He has a plan greater than what we can see from our limited perspective. We are like ants crawling around on an enormous mosaic, scoffing, "How on earth could a picture be made of this?" Yet God, who stands outside history, has an intended purpose.

     Despite all our flaws, we can take comfort in the fact that God has a great plan for us, one more intricate and beautiful than we can imagine. We are -- we have always been -- his passion."

     I thought the image of the ant walking on an enormous mosaic (and looking only at the color he is standing on) was brilliant.  For isn't that how we often view our own lives and circumstances, or the world situation on any given day?  In comparison to the whole, we are like ants walking across the giant mosaic of world history -- a huge multi-colored picture that can only be fully appreciated when all the different parts are seen in relation to the completed image. We can even get discouraged when we see such a small piece of the whole, because like all pictures they were never meant to be appreciated and understood by looking at one isolated part.

     Yet if we were able to see it from God's perspective -- if we were able to be lifted heavenward and see the enormous mosaic from a height where all the parts are seen in their relation to all the others -- we would experience on of those moments of awed enlightenment. In fact, seeing it from the heavenly, eternal and divine perspective, we would affirm the beauty added to the whole even by parts that looked somewhat dreary -- even ugly -- when they stood alone on their own.

     That's where faith comes in. Faith trusts God's promise that He knows, and is in control, working all things out in accordance with the purpose of His will in Christ even when we struggle to see how it could be so (Job 1-42, Rom. 8:17-27, II Cor. 4:7-18, Eph. 1:9-12, Heb. 11:31-12:13, Rev. 2:8-11).

     Yes, my friends, the picture God is painting through the events and circumstances of history is beautiful -- even if from our ant-sized perspective we cannot see (and will not see) the entire gloriously stunning picture until He sets it before our eyes in eternity.

     In the Bonds of the God's Constant Call to Trust Him,  Pastor Jeff 

Shattered Dreams

Greetings All,

     Today I would like to begin by asking you all to remember the families of those who lost loved ones on 9/11 - as tomorrow marks the 12th anniversary of that tragic and world changing event. I even read yesterday that over 1400 of the rescue workers and emergency crews who helped right after the collapse of the towers (and others I'm sure) have come down with some form of cancer from inhaling the dust, etc.  I would ask you to pray for them.
     Now, as far as our 'thought' for this week, it comes from Dr. Larry Crabb, and is taken from his book, "Shattered Dreams."
     In some ways it even relates to what I've just mentioned regarding 9/11, but I must warn you that it takes some readjusting of our minds, and a reorientation of our accepted presuppositions to comprehend what he's saying!  In a culture like ours where the "quality of life" paradigm under-girds everything we think, feel and believe, we must consider what he says lest certain portions of Scripture continue to remain a mysterious enigma to us. Are you up for the challenge?  Enjoy.

     "Shattered dreams are never random. They are always a piece in a larger puzzle, a chapter in a larger story. The Holy Spirit uses the pain of shattered dreams to help us discover our desire for God, to help us begin dreaming the highest dream. They are ordained opportunities for the Spirit to awaken, then to satisfy our highest dream... God is always working to make His children aware of a dream that remains alive beneath the rubble of every shattered dream, a new dream that when realized will release a new song, sung with tears, till God wipes them away and we sing with nothing but joy in our hearts.

     It’s hard to hear, but it is important to know, that God is not committed to supporting our ministries, to preventing our divorces, to preserving our health, to straightening out our kids, to providing a livable income, to ending famine, or to protecting us from agonizing problems that generate in our souls an experience that feels like death. We cannot count on God to arrange what happens in our lives in ways that will make us feel good. Yet we can count on God to patiently remove all the obstacles to our enjoyment of Him. He is committed to our joy, and we can depend on Him to give us enough of a taste of that joy, and enough hope that the best is still ahead, to keep us going in spite of how much pain continues to plague our hearts...

     The battle is not to improve our circumstances, to supply us with money, to protect us from suffering, to keep us safe from pain and struggle, or to quickly fix whatever problems develop in our bodies. We are encouraged to pray for all these things, but we must always finish our prayer with that wonderful caveat that in our immaturity we find so annoying: if it be Thy will be so.

     The illusion that life in a fallen world is really not all that bad must be shattered. When even the best parts of life are exposed as pathetic counterfeits of how things should be, the reality drives us to a level of distress that threatens to utterly undo us. But it’s when we’re on the brink of personal collapse that we’re best able to shift the direction of our soul from self-protection to trusting love. The more deeply we enter into the reality that life without God is sheer desolation, the more fully we can turn toward Him…

     The richest love grows in the soil of an unbearable disappointment with life. When we realize life can’t give us what we want, we can better give up our foolish demand that it do so and get on with the noble task of loving as we should. We will no longer need to demand protection from further disappointment. The deepest change will occur in the life of a bold realist who clings to God with a passion only his realistic appraisal of life can generate.

     

     Until we recognize with tears how determined we are to move away from pain and how that determination reflects our blasphemous decision to preserve our own life, we will not be able to identify the subtle ways in which our relational style violates love for others by keeping us safe… We repent by radically shifting our motivation and direction from self-preservation to trust on the basis of the belief that Christ has both given, and is preserving, our life. The fruit of repentance is a changed style of relating that replaces self-protective maneuvering with loving involvement."

     It may take a few glances to fully comprehend what he's saying since we are so convinced that God's primary purpose in our lives is, "to support our ministries, to prevent our divorces, to preserve our health, to straighten out our kids, to provide a livable income, to end famine, or to protect us from agonizing problems that generate in our souls an experience that feels like death."  We're not used to hearing that God is instead committed to, "removing all the obstacles to our enjoyment of Him." Especially When the "obstacles" He's committed to removing are those very things we have convinced ourselves He's supposed to be supplying us with (like good health, a livable income, teens that behave, a wonderful marriage, etc.).

     This is one of the reasons so many Christians in our day simply cannot grasp how James could say (and Paul with him - Romans 5:1-5) that we need to, "count it all joy when we face all kinds of trials."  One can only do that when they realize (as James did) that the purpose in our trails and difficulties is meant by God to increase our reliance or dependence upon Him, strip away our trust in false sources of joy (and thus expose idols of the heart), wean our hearts away from their fixation on earthly things, and cause us to see that He Himself is the treasure that far exceeds all that this world has to offer.  Sometimes its only though trials and hardships that the things of this earth begin to pale in comparison to God and the eternal joys He has stored up for us.

     With prayers that you might see your shattered dreams and earthly disappointments as divinely ordained ways of bringing about your enjoyment of Him -- Pastor Jeff

Feeling like God is Distant and Withdrawn

Greetings All,     

 

This week's 'thought' comes to you from a man known as St. John of the Cross. They are various thoughts found in his most famous work, "The Dark Night of the Soul" (using revised and updated language).  More of this selection can be found in "Devotional Classics," by Richard Foster and James Bryan Smith.

John lived between 1542 and 1591, and worked tirelessly for reform within the Catholic Church. In fact, this work was written during a time in his life when he had been arrested by fellow Carmelite monks who opposed his attempts at reform.  A biographer writes of this time: "On the night of 2 December 1577, a group of Carmelites opposed to reform broke into John’s dwelling in Avila, and took him prisoner....  He was jailed in the monastery, where he was kept under a brutal regimen that included public lashing before the community at least weekly, and severe isolation in a tiny stifling cell measuring ten feet by six feet, barely large enough for his body. Except when rarely permitted an oil lamp, he had to stand on a bench to read his breviary by the light through the hole into the adjoining room. He had no change of clothing and a penitential diet of water, bread and scraps of salt fish.  During this imprisonment, he composed a great part of his most famous poem Spiritual Canticle (Dark Night of the Soul) as well as a few shorter poems."  

     If you are going through a time when you've been struggling to understand why God feels so distant and withdrawn, I trust that his words (which show immense wisdom and insight) might challenge you to consider the truth he seeks to convey: That God's purpose in your life, is, out of His love for you, to use those dark, dry, spiritually numb or difficult times to purify your soul.  Enjoy.

I. God's purpose: To Purify the Soul.
"At a certain point in the spiritual journey God will draw a person from the beginning stage [of their Christian walk] to a more advanced stage... At this time such souls will likely experience what is called 'the dark night of the soul.'  The 'dark night' is when those person's lose all the pleasure that they once experienced in their devotional life. This happens because God wants to purify them and move them on to greater heights.

      After a soul has been converted by God, that soul is nurtured and caressed by the Spirit. Like a loving mother, God cares for and comforts the infant soul by feeding it spiritual milk. Such souls will find great delight in this stage. They will begin praying with great urgency and perseverance. They will engage in all kinds of religious activities because of the joy they experience in them. But there will come a time when God will bid them to grow deeper. He will remove the previous pleasure and consolation from the soul in order to teach the soul virtue and prevent it from developing vice -- the vice of being proud, coveting, misusing or idolizing the consolation God gives, thus explaining why God must take his consolations away to purify the soul."  

II. The Seven Sins God Seeks to Cleanse from the Soul through the Dark Night

1.) Secret Pride.   Beginners in the spiritual life are apt to become very diligent in their exercises. The danger for them will be to become satisfied with their religious works and with themselves.... Such persons become too spiritual. They like to speak of 'spiritual things' all the time. They would prefer to teach rather than be taught. They condemn others who are not as spiritual as they are... The devil knows that all their works and virtues will become valueless and, if unchecked, will become vices. Pride makes them begin to do these spiritual exercises to be esteemed by others. They want others to realize how spiritual they are. They will also begin to fear confession of their sins to another for it would ruin their image. They will beg for God to take away their imperfections, but...do not realize that if God were to take away their imperfections from them, they would probably become prouder and more presumptuous still. But those who are at this time moving in God's way will counter this pride with humility. They will learn to think very little of themselves and their religious works and instead focus on how great and deserving God is and how little they can do for Him. 

2.) Spiritual Greed.  These beginners begin reading many books and performing many acts of piety in an attempt to gain more and more spiritual consolation. Their hearts grow attached to the feelings they get from their devotional life. They focus on the effect, and not on the substance of devotion... Yet those who are on the right path will set their eyes on God and not on outward things or inner experiences. They will enter the dark night of the soul and find all of these things removed. They will have all pleasure taken away so that the soul may be purified. For a soul will never grow until it is able to let go of the need it has for such things. 

3.) Spiritual Luxury. A soul which is deep in prayer may experience profound temptations and find itself powerless to prevent them...   The first cause is the physical pleasure the body takes in spiritual things. The lower part of our nature, the flesh, is sometimes stirred up during times of devotion. But it cannot possess (or hold on to) the experience, and so, it begins to stir up what it can possess -- namely, the impure and sensual.   The second cause is the devil. In order to disturb and disquiet the soul, the devil will try to stir up impurity within the soul, hoping that it will give heed to these temptations. The soul will begin to fear these temptations, and if they persist, it may even give up on prayer all together.  The third cause is an inordinate fear of impure thoughts. Some souls are so tender and frail that they cannot stand such thoughts and live in great fear of them. This fear itself can be their downfall. But when the soul enters the dark night, all these things are put under control... In the dark night God takes away all sensory pleasure, and the soul is purified in the absence of it. 

4.) Spiritual Wrath. When the soul begins to enjoy the benefits of the spiritual life, and then has them taken away, it becomes angry and embittered... When their delight comes to an end, these persons are very anxious and frustrated, just as an infant is angry when it is taken away from its mother's breast. There is no sin in this natural disappointment, but if it is left to itself, it may become a dangerous vice. There are some who become angry with themselves at this point, thinking that their loss of joy is a result of something they have done or have neglected to do. They will fuss and fret and do all they can to recover this consolation. They will strive to become saints in a day! They will make all kinds of resolutions to be more spiritual, but the greater the resolution, the greater is the fall. Their problem is that they lack the patience that waits for whatever God would give them and when God chooses to give it to them. They must learn the spiritual meekness which comes about in the dark night.

5.) Spiritual Gluttony. Many souls become addicted to the spiritual sweetness of the devotional life and strive to obtain more and more of it. They pass beyond the limits of moderation and nearly kill themselves in spiritual exercises. They will often try to subdue their flesh with great acts of submission, lengthy fasts, and painful penances. But note: These are one-sided penances; they do not come from God... They do these things, not for God, but for themselves. And for this reason they will grow weary in them.... The problem is this: When they have received no pleasure for their devotions, they think they have not accomplished anything. This is a grave error, and it judges God unfairly. For the truth is that the feelings we receive from our devotional life are the least of its benefits. The invisible and unfelt grace of God is much greater, and it is beyond our comprehension... For true spirituality consists in perseverance, patience, and humility. The sin of spiritual gluttony will prompt them to read more books and say more prayers, but God in his wisdom, will deny them any consolation because he knows that to feed this desire will create an inordinate appetite and breed innumerable evils. The Lord heals such souls through the aridity [often the lengthy aridity] of the dark night. 

6.) Spiritual Envy. People who fancy themselves as spiritual are quite often not pleased to hear about the spiritual growth of others. Their chief concern is to be praised themselves, and thus they are not pleased when such attention is given to others. They prefer to be thought of as the most spiritual of all. This too can be cured by the dark night, where they see their spiritual poverty revealed to them through the lack of all spiritual help, interest and consolation. 

7.) Spiritual Sloth.  Spiritual sloth happens when pleasure is removed from the spiritual life and such souls become weary with spiritual exercises because they yield no consolation. Thus they abandon them. They become angry because they are called to do that which does not fit their [perceived] needs... Such souls are too weak to bear the crosses they are given to help us grow -- crosses we face in the dark night of the soul.

Let it suffice to say that God perceives the imperfections within us, and because of his love for us, urges us to grow up. His love is not content to leave us in our weakness, and for this reason he takes us into a dark night. He weans us from all of the pleasures by giving us dry times and inward darkness.... Through the dark night pride becomes humility, greed becomes simplicity, wrath becomes contentment, luxury becomes peace, gluttony becomes moderation, envy becomes joy, and sloth becomes strength.  No soul will ever grow deep in the spiritual life unless God works passively in that soul by means of the dark night."

         John's words bring me back to different junctures in my own spiritual walk where I learned the same lessons -- most often while going through times of spiritual dryness or numbness when God felt a million miles away.
          In those times God taught me the lesson he speaks of: That in the spiritual life we can often do all the right things, for all the wrong reasons, and thus turn a virtue into a vice.
          And though we detest times of spiritual coldness, it seems that in many cases it is not until we trudge through the spiritual wastelands of the dry and arid desert, or walk alone through a night so dark it seems akin to death itself, that we realize we were pursuing the pleasures God gives (or better yet, the pleasures that spiritual pride and greed and luxury and gluttony can give) more than we were pursuing God Himself.
        It seems every believer must at some point learn to desire God more than the gifts He gives, lest we be guilty of using the Christian faith to commit spiritual idolatry! 

With you in the struggle to grow, Pastor Jeff