Category Archives: Quotes & Excerpts

VOTE: trade 7 incomplete reasons for one (possibly) good one.

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“Who can endure a doctrine which would allow only dentists to say whether our teeth were aching, only cobblers to say whether our shoes hurt us, and only governments to tell us whether we were being well governed?”
—C.S. Lewis

It’s not too late to vote! I hope you are an informed voter, doing research and weighing the sides of the issues, and of the character and policies of the candidates.

In the spirit of Election Day, here are seven poor reasons to vote, and one (possibly) good reason, by Kris Zyp (my bro-in-law).

I repost these with his permission (I think). All words are his [with some commentary by me, JP].

  1. “He (or she) is an idiot” – Politics easily devolve to an ugly game of character defamation which often have little to do with the real issues. Getting lured into the bickering not only distracts us from the real issues, but encourages the campaign and rhetorical negativity, that we pretend to detest. If you are falling for the name-calling, bashing, and drama, you are the reason for the wretched campaigns on display in America.
  2. “It’s my Civic Duty” – Perhaps the most commonly accepted, yet blatantly illogical idea in America is that two people can vote for opposing candidates (or issues), precisely canceling each other out, and both make a net positive civic contribution. When it comes to voting, Americans tend to mistake a right for duty. When we pretend that a right is a duty, we distort and dilute the privilege of that right. Failing to grasp the difference between a right and a duty undermines the value of our rights. [JP adds: I tend to think of it as your responsibility, given as a right or privilege. Duty in our day implies drudgery and doing the bare minimum and nothing more.]
  3. “Democracy depends on it” – Democracy relies on statistically accurate sampling, equal representation, and informed voters. In any federal election, even 0.1% voter turnout (real turnout is vastly higher) is more than enough for statistical accuracy. Thanks to numerous suffrage movements, most people have at least some representation. Poorly informed voters reduce the collective intelligence of the vote. However, you can contribute to democracy if you are representing an under-represented people (like minorities), or happen to be an unusually well-informed voter. (Kris wrote a post on this a few years back.)
  4. “It’s Christians’ duty to vote, to preserve a Christian nation” – The Bible says nothing remotely close to this. Governments, by their nature, are founded on coercion and power, precisely the opposite of the way of cross, servanthood, and humility. The Kingdom of God does not rest on a political nation. [JP adds: while I believe some of the founding fathers were committed Christians, and most believed in a personal Creator, there is not a Gospel-centric orientation to the founding documents. Religion shaped their their vision of the New World, yet I surmise it was less about establishing a “Christian” nation and more about leaving behind the quasi-“Christian” nation they fled. Was the United States ever a Christian Nation? That is a question worth thinking deeply about some more.]
  5. “Fear” – Fear tends to drive us to being irrational. There may be some people in history that truly faced dangerous circumstances if someone was elected. Unfortunately, exaggerating our circumstances to pretend that we are facing something similar to the holocaust or other large scale tragedies only makes a mockery of those who truly facing a desperate plight. The only people that come close to a real reason to fear the outcome of the results of a modern election in the US aren’t citizens, so they don’t have a vote anyway. [JP adds: anger is misplaced insecurity acted out on others. Do your fears drive you to trust God, or hate others?]
  6. “I am better (or worse) off than 4 years ago” – Economics is a complex field with hundreds of indicators, and countless influences. The government’s influence is just one, and is furthermore defined by a myriad of politicians, compromising, and crafting numerous policies. Making an evaluation based on a single sampling falls far short of any real economic analysis. [JP adds: what passes for “values voting” these days is often people voting with their wallets first. That’s their value: themselves. That’s an incomplete reason. If you have plenty but vote just to raise or keep your standard of living — but not raise your standard of giving — you may want to check yourself before you wreck yourself [selfish-foolish-greed].]
  7. “If you don’t vote, you don’t have any right to complain” – Nope. This is completely backwards, let’s get it straight: If anyone has earned a right to anything, it is those that stand up for justice the other 364 days that truly have a compelling claim on the right to vote on election day. [JP adds: voting is a vital part of democracy, in concert with the other strands we pursue every other day.]


One (Possibly) Good Reason:

  1. When injustice is taking place, when people are being exploited or unfairly disadvantaged, when their rights are being deprived, without power of recourse, we should stand up for them. If voting can be effectively used as one of the tools to stop injustice, to give voice to the disenfranchised and oppressed, voting can then be virtuous and noble use of this important and valuable right.

Well said, Kris. Still chewing on it. Need to finish my ballot.

Of the reasons above, which do you tend to slip toward? 
 

Hard to share: 5 reasons it’s difficult to share our faith (part 2).

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Continuing from part 1, Jonathan Dodson writes:

We often find it difficult to share our faith because we want to first form relationships with people. Avoiding preachy self-righteousness, we try to get to know others before talking about Jesus. We prefer to talk about work, culture, and ordinary stuff first. This springs from a proper concern to not come off as stiff evangelists but as real, caring people.

Love (Not Proselytize) Your Neighbor

This concern to have a relationship before sharing the gospel has some biblical warrant. Jesus said: “Love your neighbor,” not proselytize your neighbor.

To proselytize is to coerce or induce people to believe what you believe. The person who proselytizes coerces by forcefully defending and advancing their beliefs. Remember the filmThe Big Kahuna? Grabbing evidence and opportunities, Christians back their co-workers into a theological corner, expecting them to throw up their hands and say, “I believe!” Other times, proselytizing takes the form of recruitment. We might try to convince people to join our moral or political agenda, as if Jesus wants to add to his numbers to strengthen a political constituency.

When we proselytize people, we reduce discipleship to an intellectual enterprise. In effect, we replace the gospel with doctrinal agreement (or just being right). When we focus on recruitment, we make Christianity about power or morality. This replaces the gospel with religion or right-wing politics. But Paul shared a gospel that was all about Jesus, preaching Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:1). He resolved to preach Christ not politics. Similarly, when sharing our faith, we need to make Jesus the stumbling block not morality or politics. When we put doctrinal, moral, and political blocks in front of the gospel, we proselytize instead of love. Proselytizing requires the mind and the will, but love requires heart, mind, and will.

“When sharing our faith, we need to make Jesus the stumbling block not morality or politics.”

Conversations: Listening More Than We Talk

I’ve had countless conversations with non-Christians in which I’ve had to remove these stumbling blocks in order to get to the heart with the wonderful news of the gospel. Getting to the heart takes time. We need what Michael Frost calls “Slow Evangelism.” We need faith in God and love for people that slows us down to listen to others well, so that we can learn how to make the good news good to their bad news. For many, hearing that Jesus died on the cross for them is entirely irrelevant; we have to show the relevance of Jesus to their real need. Relationships are essential to discerning and meeting real needs.

It was Francis Schaeffer who said: “Give me an hour with a non-Christian and I’ll listen for forty-five minutes. Only then, in the last fifteen minutes, will I have something to say.” We often hesitate to share our faith because we want people to know that we value them, regardless of their response. But if we truly value them, we wont simply “wait” to share the gospel; we will embody it by listening well.

Wonderful Doesn’t Wait

Have you ever noticed when you encounter something truly wonderful, you don’t always wait for a relationship to tell someone? There are things that are so urgent, so weighty, so wonderful that we burst out to talk about them whether we have a relationship or not! When our sports team scores to win the game, we don’t look around the stadium and think:“I can’t tell people how happy I am about this win. I don’t even know them!” No, we don’t wait to express our joy; we burst out when our team wins. We celebrate with strangers and go nuts on social media. When we’re at a concert and our favorite song is played, and the band is really rocking, we don’t wait to sing along or comment. We sing and chat it up with strangers. After reading a book or seeing a great movie, perhaps the Hunger Games, we strike up conversation with people at work about how great the movie was.

When something is truly wonderful, we often don’t wait to talk about it. Is the news about Jesus so urgent, weighty, and wonderful that we can’t help but share it? It is, but often it’s not as fresh as the game, concert, or movie. Why? Very often this is because we aren’t immersed in the goodness of the gospel. It is old, memorized, fading news because we haven’t had a fresh encounter with Christ in weeks! The wonder is lost because we haven’t plunged ourselves into Christ-centered worship, prayer, or Bible meditation. We are most likely to talk about the gospel when the good news is good news to us.

“We are most likely to talk about the gospel when the good news is good news to us.”

Consider this:

Have you ever considered what would have happened if Jesus had waited until he had a relationship with the thief on the cross to offer him eternal life? What if authors, pastors, and preachers waited to tell you the good news until they had a relationship with you? Sometimes there are things that are so wonderful, they don’t deserve a wait!

“Give me an hour with a non-Christian and I’ll listen for forty-five minutes. Only then, in the last fifteen minutes, will I have something to say.”1

photo by: roberthuffstutter

  1. Francis Schaeffer ↩
 

Hard to share: 5 reasons it’s difficult to share our faith (part 1).

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Do you find it difficult to share about Jesus with others?

You are not alone.

Jonathan Dodson writes in the introductory article for a series, “5 Reasons It’s Difficult to Share Our Faith” on Gospel-Centered Discipleship:

Very often we find it difficult to share our faith. Whether we’re in the workplace, neighborhood, or a social setting, talking about the person and work of Jesus doesn’t come naturally. There are some good reasons for this.

Dodson begins the series with the first one:

1. What if I’m Viewed as Preachy?

Preachy Christians often turn people off not onto faith in Christ. Think of Angela from The Office, the street preacher, or maybe the free speech fundamentalist yellers on campus in college. I remember watching them. They stood on a box to yell. Leading out with hell, fire, and damnation not grace, forgiveness, and salvation.These Christians all share something in common—self-righteousness. If we’re honest, we all have a bit of this in us, but with these figures it’s amplified. We hesitate to talk about Jesus because we don’t want to be associated with them. We’re concerned it would turn others off. But preachy self-righteousness isn’t just a turn off; it’s the opposite of the gospel. This brings into focus our first, principal concern:

We should avoid preachy self-righteousness because it communicates something opposite to the gospel.

Self-righteousness is rooted in pride and greed, no matter how religious or sincere we are, and thus when we are self-righteous will won’t be generous with the words of Jesus. Instead of representing Him, we will default to representing ourselves.

Dodson continues by exploring “How Do We Change the ‘Preachy’ Perception?”

Now, there’s also a critical response to this concern. While it’s true that we should oppose preachy self-righteousness (because it obscures the gospel of grace), it is also true that the gospel offends our own self-righteous sensibilities. The gospel reminds us that we don’t have what it takes before a holy God, that Christ alone has what it takes, and that he’s died and risen to give it to us.

The gospel is offensive; it lifts up a mirror and shows us who we really are, but it’s also redemptive; it lifts up Christ to show us who we can become.

How will this incorrect view of Christianity be corrected? Actions might remedy a perception of personal self-righteousness, but they can’t correct a religious view of the gospel. Only words can clarify the meaning of the gospel. Yet, there remains more difficulties in sharing our faith. In the next article, we will consider the concern that we first have a relationship before sharing the gospel with other

  • See the whole article on moving from preachiness to embodying the Gospel and speaking confidently, humbly, and honestly.
 

Do you and I share an unbelievable Gospel?

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What motivates you to share the Gospel with others, to evangelize? Do you tell others about Jesus because you know you should … or does His life and message spill out of your heart and mouth?

How believable is the message we share — and how convinced are we of it? That’s the crux of our message this coming Sunday with RENEW.

Most of us share an unbelievable gospel. We cough up memorized information about Jesus that has little apparent meaning for life. If we’re honest, we don’t exactly know howJesus is good news for others; we just believe he is. The problem with this is that non-Christians don’t share the “advantage” of mindless belief. “Just believe in Jesus,” we say, but what we tell them is so unbelievable! In their bad news, they can’t conceive how a dying Jewish messiah could be good news to them. Alternatively, their best news seems to trump our good news. This is where our calling to “do the work of an evangelist” comes in (2 Tim 4:5).

The workplace crusaders and angry street preachers who campaign to convert co-workers to their doctrine or recruit bystanders to their politics are also unbelievable. Even the well-intentioned evangelical who looks to get Jesus off his chest and into conversation is unbelievable. Too many Christians look to clear their evangelistic conscience by simply mentioning the name of Jesus or saying that he died on the cross for sins. Saying Jesus’ name in conversation earns us a check √. Mentioning what Jesus did (on the cross) earns us a check √+. This performance-based approach to evangelism is incredible because it fails to embody the truth we preach. Dismissing people’s struggles, fears, hopes, and reasons for unbelief, we plow onward with our name-dropping. This is unbelievable.

Sharing the Gospel Continue reading →

 

Romans 15: a heart for ministry.

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“This combination of words and works, the verbal and the visual, is a recognition that human beings often learn more through their eyes than through their ears. Words explain works, but works dramatize words. The public ministry of Jesus is the best example of this, and after his ascension into heaven he continued ‘to do and to teach’ through his apostles (Acts 1:1). It would be wrong to conclude, however, that ‘works’ means only miracles. One of Jesus’ most powerful visual aids was to take a child into his arms, and one of the early church’s was their common life and their care for the needy. Paul’s only other use of these three words [‘power’, ‘signs’, and ‘wonders’] is in relation to his ministry in II Cor. 12:12, where he calls them ‘the things that mark an apostle’. This is not to deny that God can perform miracles today; it is rather to acknowledge that their chief purpose was to authenticate the unique ministry of the apostles [Heb.2:4].”
—John Stott on Romans 15:18-191

This morning at 6 AM some of the men of WCC will gather for their weekly Thursday morning Bible Study. One of our Elders, Kent, leads the men through the study and draws from that guide. Here’s a quick summary outline of Romans 15, Paul’s way of describing what a real heart for ministry — worshiping God by loving and leading people:

  • 15:1-3 » The Servant Heart: Basis for Ministry
  • 15:4 » The Scripture: Guidance for Ministry
  • 15:5-13 » The Unified Body: Channel for Ministry
  • 15:14-23 » The World: Field for Ministry
  • 15:24-29 » The Poor: Special Concern for Ministry
  • 15:30-32 » Prayer: Power For Ministry

In the middle of the chapter we find an apt description of maturity in the Christian life:

“I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.”
—Romans 15:14

Do you see the triad of growing in 3-D?

  1. HEART (full of goodness),
  2. HEAD (filled with all knowledge) &
  3. HANDS (able to instruct one another).

We need godliness, Gospel truth and wisdom, and the ability to lead.

When these three are brought together with a servant’s heart for ministry, God’s power is demonstrated. There we see Him do miracles as He pleases.

  1. Stott’s quote comes from the ROMANS Leaders Guide published by Redeemer Presbyterian Church. ↩
 

Really know.

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“If there is not radical growth in humble love toward everyone (even your enemies), you don’t really know you are a SINNER saved by grace. If there is not radical, concrete growth in confidence and joy (even in difficulties) you don’t really know you are a sinner saved by GRACE.”
—Tim Keller

Many people are willing to agree that they are sinners. “We all make mistakes,” they say. “It’s part of being human.”

And then comes the self-justifying disclaimer, “I try to do my best everyday,” or a comparison with others (“Well, I’m not as bad as ______, I don’t _______.”)

Let’s really know we are sinners, and really know God’s grace, as He changes our motives, conquering our fears, overwhelming us with His love.

 

Courage: providing for us what we cannot.

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We often think of giving and provision as an element of generosity. Giving says something about the recipient (“you’re valued”), and when this giving costs us something it also says something about the giver (“I trust God”). When one gives up what they need in order to provide for others, that person demonstrates their faith (really courage) that God will then provide in the future, satisfying all needs.

Consider the ultimate sacrifice, where love motivated the deepest kindness, most costly generosity, embodied by the most courageous One:

“God takes action in Christ against sin, death, and the devil. The doctrine of justification is not about the workings of impersonal law in the universe, or about manipulating its outcomes, but it is about God. The moral law is simply the reflection of the character of God, and when God acts to address the outcomes of the broken moral law, he addresses these himself, himself taking the burden of his own wrath, himself absorbing in the person of Christ the judgment his righteous character cannot but demand, himself providing what no sinner can give, himself absorbing the punishment no sinner can bear and live.”1

How does God provide for us? Through His relentless courage.

Why does God provide for us? Because He loves us.

Why are we moved to provide for others? Because we love them and trust God. Generosity and courage are relational. They’re easy to show in any language.

  1. David F. Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 201. ↩
 

Who can outrank an ‘ordinary’ Christian?

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THEOLOGY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS: the general authority of every believer to minister

Every believer is a prophet, a priest, and a king.

We are all prophets (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 1:24). Every believer is to exhort (Heb.3:13), counsel (Rom. 15:14), evangelize (Acts 8:4) and teach (Col. 3:16) with the word ‘dwelling richly’ within. Believer, you must speak!

Every believer is a priest (I Pet.2:9). We all have access to the presence of God, as did the priests of old (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 4:14-16), and have the responsibility to offer spiritual sacrifices and deeds of mercy (Rom. 12:1-2; Heb. 13:12,16). Believer, you must serve!

Every believer is also a king (Rev. 1:5,6). We all have authority over the world (1 John 5:4), over the flesh (Rom.6:14ff), and over the devil (Luke 10:20). We all have divine weapons to demolish strongholds and obstacles to the kingdom of Christ (2 Cor. 10:4-5). Believer you must take charge!

This doctrine is called the ‘universal office’ of believer, and it is nothing short of revolutionary. A layperson ministers in word (as a prophet) and deed (as a priest), and need not wait for a pastor to request it (because he is a king). Jesus himself said that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist (Matt.11:9-11). Who can outrank an ‘ordinary’ Christian? No one! So we see that every lay person1 has the responsibility to initiate, to plan, to guide and to manage ministries of both word and deed. Lay people must not be passive.”2

Tim Brister3 provides a related visual on loving God and others with our head, hearts and hands (corresponding to prophets-priests-kings, respectively:

  1. “Lay person” is shorthand for those who are not “clergy,” that is are not the paid professional ministers Ie.g., pastors) in the local church. Almost everyone is a “layman” or “lay person,” and they the high calling of serving and even leading in the church and the world. ↩
  2. Tim Keller, “THEOLOGY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS: the general authority of every believer to minister,” in ROMANS Leaders Guide (thanks to my friend Kent Blair for sharing this quote) ↩
  3. “Why I Employ the Triperspectival Framework for Gospel-Centered Spiritual Formation” ↩
 

How much do we value hope & healing?

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“… the church is called to be for the world what Jesus was for Israel: not just a moral lecturer, nor even a moral example, but the people who, in obedience to God’s strange vocation, learn to suffer and pray at the place where the world is in pain, so that the world may be healed.” 1

We will value hope and healing for others as far as we value these truths for ourselves. That is why rehearsing the Gospel every day is vital. We begin each day voicing our greatest needs, far deeper than financial concerns or relational strife — we are estranged from God until He mercifully brings us back to His table to enjoy the life of His Son.

When He invites us back day after day, we develop an appetite for the nourishment He offers, and cannot go on without inviting others to the table as well. Yet, if we think we’re better than others, we’ll live that way. (E.g., it’s impossible to really forgive someone if you think you are better than him or her.) People who think of others as more important than themselves — like Jesus lived and why He died — people like Him find opportunities to set aside their personal comforts to bring comfort to others. I dare say this is part of the vision Jesus has for our lives. I tend to think many of His so-called followers fail to grasp this and thus fail to become who He rescued us to be.

Grasping the Gospel of hope & healing: If we are convinced all the time that we are worse off and undeserving than we ever realized before, and at the same time more loved than we ever dared to dream, we will be on the right track. Our hearts will be renewed with compassion as we hear Jesus invite us again to His gracious table – just as He invites the lame, sick, and outcasts to dine with Him (yes, you and I are two of them). Furthermore, we’ll pull out a chair for another whom Jesus is also waving into His banquet.

“Given the iterative weakness of our surrender to Jesus’ authority and the frequent frailty of our resolve to follow Him, our lives of discipleship must regularly be punctuated by intentional pauses at the feet of the Servant, not only remembering His grace, but thoughtfully receiving it. In this way, the Spirit will bring the grace of Jesus to bear on our hearts, softening them, inclining them toward God, and enabling them to respond to the virtuous demands of our King.” 2

Will I value hope and healing enough to daily remember, daily receive, and daily respond? If so, I won’t go it alone.

  1. N.T. Wright, “The Truth of the Gospel and Christian Living,” in The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (ed. Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright; New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), 224. ↩
  2. Jonathan Lunde, Following Jesus, the Servant King: A Biblical Theology of Covenantal Discipleship (Grand Rapids: Zondervan), 286. ↩
 

Good reads | John Stott: The Humble Leader.

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“When you read the end of this book, you will know quote a lot about John Stott. You will see why he was in the ‘Top 100’ list of influential people [TIME magazine, 2005]. He was driven by a passion for Jesus Christ’s name to be honoured around the world.”
—Julia Cameron, biographer, in John Stott: The Humble Leader (Christian Focus, 2012), 15. [Kindle]

20120627-060050.jpgYou may not have heard about John Stott, though you certainly have felt the influence of his great life. He never married, through the world was his family, all the nations his parish (church family). As a pastor in London (All Souls Church), The Right Reverend Dr. John Stott was truly a “global Christian,” a voice for the furthering of the Gospel, and an advocate for the poor and marginalized for most of his nine decades (1921-2011).

Stott’s words and writings shaped worldwide politics, a faithful voice for the cause of Christ and the implications of making the world a better, safer place: see the Lausanne Movement, with the Lausanne Covenant (1974), the Manilla Manifesto (1989), and the Cape Town Commitment (2011). Stott’s fingerprints are all over each of these, for the marks of his godly life shaped for decades the leaders in the worldwide Evangelical Christian movement.

I want to encourage you to read about his life, and dive into his prolific writings (some listed at the bottom). In this post I am reviewing John Stott: The Humble Leader, a new biography send to me by the publisher Christian Focus (paperback, 114 pages; e-book versions as well). They’ve asked me to write a review, and while it’s not required to be positive I could not be more enthusiastic about this brief biography.

Pastor John Robert Walmsley (R.W.) Stott lived an understated life, embodying a lifestyle of simplicity and joy — and others-centered service — that has been used by God to spread the Gospel to the nations. His greatness can be directly contributed to his daily humility and dependence upon Jesus. It’s not so much that humility made him great; his humility was his greatness.

In our society, here in the affluent West, we often talk about “making an impact,” wanting our lives to be influential in our spheres of influence and in the world. This pursuit is noble when we link to the cause of Christ, getting caught up in His Mission. Yet I dare say we get caught up with a bigger-is-better mentality, wanting to be so successful that we adopt the world’s standards of success, clamoring for approval by others more than the smile of God. Subtly we think that Jesus will help us achieve our potential for greatness, championing our talents and causes. Dr. Stott showed the opposite is true: when we are minor characters in God’s Story, where Jesus is the Hero, His message flows supernaturally from our lives. He became famous by trying to make Someone else famous.

Before I dive into a review of this book — given to me by the publisher for that purpose, let me give some qualifying remarks.

I’m encouraged by a new trend: noted megachurch pastors are returning to simpler ways of embodying the life of Jesus while preaching His message — see Craig Groeschel’s WEIRD: Because Normal Isn’t Working, and Shaun Lovejoy’s newest book, The Measure of Our Success: A Passionate Plea to Pastors, added to the groundbreaking no-holds barred approach of Francis Chan (Crazy Love, and The Big Red Tractor and the Little Village [video]), and David Platt (Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream and Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God). Somehow talented leaders get tricked into believing that God wants to leverage their positions for influence, by magnifying their personalities and highlighting their preferences.

Dr. Stott’s life and legacy give us a glimpse of hope, a reversal of that recent trend of how we define “greatness.”

Continue reading →

 

Spiritual experience.

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Do you know anyone who lives in their head? As if every emotion is secondary to just ‘figuring it all out’? How about someone who seems to respond emotionally but not logically to trouble and personal challenges.

I love thinking about the connect of head and heart, and how Christ refuses to let our faith reside in either/or (it’s both/and). Why does He do that? Because we’re whole people, though many lack wholeness — okay, we all lack wholeness — in our fallen human condition. So the connection of our beliefs (head) and emotions (heart) is closer than we realize. And the disconnect is more real than we imagined.

We see this when a friend is depressed. And when we have no words to describe how we feel; we just have to return to the Gospel and sing it back into our souls. And connect our deepest passions to God’s good gifts. This is where we begin to truly experience the Spirit.

So what makes for true spiritual experience?

“Spiritual experience that does not arise from God’s word is not Christian experience. Other religions offer spiritual experiences. Concerts and therapy sessions can affect our emotions. Not all that passes for Christian experience is genuine. An authentic experience of the Spirit is an experience in response to the gospel. Through the Spirit the truth touches our hearts, and that truth moves our emotions and affects our wills.
This also means that Bible study and theology that do not lead to love for God and a desire to do His will—to worship, tears, laughter, excitement, or sorrow—have gone terribly wrong. True theology leads to love, mission, and doxology (1 Timothy 1:5, 7, 17). We should not expect an adrenaline rush every time we study God’s word. We all express our emotions in different ways. But when we study God’s word we should pray that the spirit of God will not only inform our hearts but also inspire our hearts.”
—Tim Chester & Steve Timmis, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community, 31.

Do you agree? How does engaging God in His Word really change you?