Part three: Real Spirituality

So, what are we saved to?

We are saved to give God glory through our obedience

We are saved to love those in whom we come in contact

We are saved to share the gospel message with those who are lost.

Any more? Of course! There could many more added to the above list. The process of being ‘in Christ’ is all encompassing. In fact, Paul would go as far as describing us as new creations.

But in many respects the points above deal primarily with the external.

This is all good and well, but the scriptures are loud and clear that God doesn’t want to just do things through us, but also in us.

This working in us is the basis of real spirituality.


Spirituality is certainly a buzz word these days. Everyone wants to be spiritual, but for the most part spirituality is equated with a vague and/or unexplainable emotional experience. Not surprisingly, this experience usually centers on the those involved..

But real spirituality, that is biblical spirituality, is different.

It is the work of the Spirit in our lives to make us more like Christ.

Biblical Spirituality, at its heart, involves paying careful attention to God’s work of transformation – the process of becoming like Jesus.

And this is not an optional extra in the life of a believer.

We are saved from death resulting from our sin

We are saved to a life that is forever (that is, in this age) being transformed.

God wants us to be like Christ.
And it is the work of the Spirit to bring this about
In your life
Each and every day

Indeed as the youthful passion fades from our life, it is this realization that should stop us from being stagnant. In fact it should drive us forward more than youthful passion ever did.

But are we even aware of the Spirits transforming power?

……..to be continued.

Part One – the silence
There have been limited posts on tubemantravels for sometime.
In part, I must confess a somewhat adulteress fling with face book. Her networking skills, photo albums and bizarre communities certainly worked their charm on me, and before long I was calling blogger at 3am explaining why I wasn’t coming home for the night.

However, some balance has been restored.

But face book was only the problem in part. The other aspect has involved my own spiritual wrestling’s over the past months. It is a time of change for me.
I think that perhaps more important than the man you are, is the man you’re becoming. And I’m in the process of trying to align my will with Gods as we work out that destination.

Part Two – the voice
St Marks has been helpful in this, as we continue our series in Biblical Spirituality - the work of the Spirit in our lives to make us more like Christ.

As Sydney Anglicans I believe we are very good at understanding what we have been saved from.
Many of us have read Cross of Christ by Stott at an early university age. We’ve fought to understand terms like propitiation, reconciliation and salvation.
We certainly have an understanding of our poor standing before God and our desperate need for Jesus to be our substitute. What brilliant knowledge! Truly some of the most important stuff we can ever know.

We know what we are saved from, but I’m not sure we have the same solid grasp of what we have been saved to.

We preach, teach and encourage others to “be holy”, “be imitators of God”, “be living sacrifices” and “to take of the old and put on the new”.

But seriously, what the heck does any of that mean? I mean how do we actually do that?

Don’t we just spend our time feeling guilty because we’ve failed again and then by our late 20’s we’ve kinda hit a rut, where we have lost the passion of our teens and allow our lives to become a little stagnant re. our faith?

The thing is, I want to imitate God! I want to be a living sacrifice! Yet these are all abstract ideas. What is needed is a filling in of the details on how we continue to be more like God and how we can continue to offer ourselves as living sacrifices.

We need a solid recognition of the Spirit’s transforming power in our lives – Aligning our will with Gods and changing the rhythm of our hearts so they beat in time with His.


………..to be continued