Developing a Fresh Perspective on Spiritual Formation

Do You Have a Guiding Purpose Statement (GPS)?

My Guiding Purpose Statement (GPS)

“Seeking to be a disciple of Christ, I am committed to becoming a disciple-making pastor.”

My GPS Relationship with God and a Specific Person

How This GPS Help My Relationship with God and Others

This guiding purpose statement will help my relationship with God through the knowledge, understanding, and growth that will be gained from his dear son, Jesus, in the discipleship life lived.[1] Not that I would personally become exactly like Christ, for there will be no individual becoming exactly like Christ, but instead becoming Christ-like in my own personality as all people who become Christ-like will be Christ-like in their own individuality and personality, meaning that everyone is different and will not be exactly the same (2 Cor. 3:18 King James Version).[2] By honoring the Son, individuals honor the Father, and the relationship between the disciple and the Father is magnified through the Son of God (Jn. 5:23-26). For me, there is nothing greater under the sun of this temporal life than to draw near to God by learning of his dear son whom he sent to our world (Jn. 3:16; Phil. 2; Jn. 1: 1-5; Heb. 1: 1-6). Besides, Jesus is the express image of the Father, and if we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father, and the way a person can behold Jesus today is by abiding in the word, not that the word in and of itself can change an individual’s heart but spiritual growth which is by the spirit through spiritual discipline have abiding in the word will change the heart by the holy spirit’s work (Phil. 2:13; Jn. 14:9; Heb. 1:3). An individual cannot change their selves, for we live in the real world in this reality, but by abiding in the word and believing in the inerrancy of the word, Christ himself will do the hard work of heart transformation within the individual (Ezek. 11:19, 36:26; 2 Cor. 5:17).[3] There is the cooperation, an individual effort, of circumcision of the heart of the individual, which subdues and softens one’s position for the receiving of the truth and its growth from within (Rom. 2:25-29; Col. 2:11). With this being stated, just seeking to be a disciple of Christ will enhance the relationship between the individual, in this case, myself, and the sovereign God of the universe, who is both transcendent and imminent according to his will (Isa. 7:14, 66:1; Matt. 1:23).

How will my GPS help my relationship with a specific person?

As a disciple of Christ, an individual can develop better coping skills, including the fruits that are of Christ, which will enhance relationships within family and community. To be a disciple-making pastor would be exercising Christ’s likeness by showing empathy and sympathy for the church members as a pastoral counselor, but more importantly, my guiding purpose statement will specifically aid me in my relationship with my wife as I learn, grow, and understand Jesus and his relationship with the bride as the church (Eph. 5:25). One primary example of this concept is to love your wife as Christ loved the church, suggesting that even when the church did not love him, his love never failed. Of course, there is the other side of the equation: balance and the wife honoring the husband as a willing participant in the partnership, abiding by her husband (1 Cor. 7:11-16).

A Research-Based Definition for Growing in Favor of God and Others, and Explanation of How Terms are Used

I would like to share a research-based concept for growing in favor with God, which is spiritual formation, in that this favor would not be based on rote ideas or concepts in an event or events but through a process of learning, listening for God’s gentle promptings and leadings, gaining understanding, and applying the truth of God’s word to one’s personal life of the immaterial and not material existence.[4] Spiritual discipline is not the same as spiritual growth, but the function of spiritual discipline will help in leading a person into spiritual growth, which will only come from God through the Holy Spirit, indicating spiritual growth is a dynamic process and not a static event.[5] A person will solidify and live spiritual growth dynamically throughout the individual’s temporal and mortal life, i.e., solidify the dynamic growth of the individual, e.g., making one’s life cumulatively stable by the Spirit of God in a spiritual continuum.[6] This process is not an individual’s will, effort, or experience but of the Spirit of God, according to God’s will and good pleasure, but does not negate the process of individual involvement of spiritual growth (Rom. 12:2). With all of this being stated here, to grow spiritually is to grow favorably with God; therefore, these findings define what it means to grow favorably with God and with others. As a person grows spiritually, they take on spiritual attributes that are then applied to the individual’s life and profoundly affect all emotional and relational statuses, both intrapersonal and interpersonal (Gal. 5:22-23). In summary, spiritual growth would be a deepened relationship with God.

Pastor Houston Taylor

Obtaining Inward Light Ministries

Lakeview Seventh Day Baptist Church

[1] Vanesa Pizzuto, “The Infamous Fleece of Wool: The 5 Worst Reasons to Ask God for Signs,” Adventist Today (Sandy, OR: Adventist Today Foundation, 2011): 23; Paul Pettit, Foundations of Spiritual Formation: A Community Approach to Becoming Like Christ (Kregel Academic & Professional, 2008), 42-44.

[2] Pamela E. King, “The Reciprocating Self: Trinitarian and Christological Anthropologies of Being and Becoming,” Journal of Psychology and Christianity 35, no. 3 (2016): 220-221.

[3] Pettit, Foundations of Spiritual Formation, 47-48; John Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God’s Best Version of You (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 138-139.

[4] Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be, 189.

[5] Ortberg, The Me I Want to Be, 51; Pettit, Foundations of Spiritual Formation, 252.

[6] Pettit, Foundations of Spiritual Formation, 20–21.

The Proclamation of Freedom to Choose Life or Death

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

The scriptures of interest in this interpretation are those of Deuteronomy chapter thirty, verses fifteen through twenty. Moses is giving his third and final discourse before the Israelites enter the promised land without him, and he is proclaiming or declaring promises with conditions, whether they be good or bad, life or death, with an explanation of expressed love toward God, the record of the choice, with a final appeal by Moses to make the choice of life and its rewards (Deut.30:15-20 King James Version).[1]

Within verse fifteen, Moses sets before the people of God the freedom to choose between life and good or death and evil (Deut.30:.15). One point to make about this verse just mentioned is the fact that the Bible states the choice is for life and good which does not mean that they would die right then and there but can be a reference toward life eternal in contrast to what death and evil would imply which would be the second death, and this is not to be mistaken with the immediate spiritual death of separation from the power and presence of God that they could also realize in the choice (Rom.6:23; Jn.6:40; Ezek.33:18; Rev.20:5-6, 13-15).[2] A second major point about verse fifteen is that this life-or-death choice reveals the free moral agency and the fact that God does not force himself against the human conscience that negates any concept of predestination. The first part of verse sixteen lays out the conditions that are to be met for the choice of life and good revealed by an outward showing of obedience and complete love toward God, walking in God’s ways, keeping God’s commandments, judgments, and statutes (Deut.30:16). Part two of verse sixteen reveals the promises of the conditions in three ways which are to obtain life, to multiply, and to receive the blessings of God in whatever land the Israelites would possess which has a similar resemblance to the command and vocation of Adam at the Garden of Eden (Gen.1:28; Deut.30:16). Verse 16 through eighteen are the results of the choices of verse fifteen. Verse 16 where the condition and promises of choosing life and good, while verses seventeen through eighteen are the conditions and promised results of choosing death and evil, with verse seventeen revealing the conditions of outward showing, followed by verse eighteen in the promises call reward for choosing death and evil in the immediate time and also in the future death after the final judgment, eschatologically speaking (Deut.30:.16-18).

The conditions of verse seventeen of an outward showing in the choice of death and evil were that they would not hear God’s word, allow themselves to be drawn away from God’s presence and protection, and worship other gods. The results of this choice in the conditions fulfilled are revealed in verse eighteen and that they shall surely perish, and then their life would not be prolonged upon the land whether or not they passed over the Jordan and apply to any direction they chose to travel to possess it without God (Deut.30:17-18). Perhaps Moses could have stopped here and made the choices with their conditions and promises. However, the scripture reveals that there Is celestial as well as terrestrial interest in these choices by the fact that there is a record of the choice in heaven as well as on earth in verse nineteen (Deut.30:.19).

And now they’re interesting point to make at this time is that there are only two choices which bring a blessing are a curse to each individual making a choice as a free moral agent (Deut.30:19). The second part of verse nineteen and verse twenty reveal a strong appeal by Moses to make the righteous choice of life and good, receiving the blessing of God instead of the curse (Deut.30:19-20).[3] Moses concludes this passage in this appeal by reiterating the promises within the conditions of making the right choice for life and good redundantly (Deut.30:19-20).

The greatest principle that is observed in this passage would have to be about the choice in the free moral agency. That choice only gets two possible options, which affect everything in this temporal life and also in the next like to come, and there is a celestial interest, as well as a terrestrial interest by the record-keeping, revealed in verse nineteen. There’s enough information here then a person could infer the eternal significance of choice as well as the temporal and that there are only going to be two groups in the end, those who choose life and good and those who have chosen death and evil. This principle which applied to the Israelites then, also applies to everyone today, and New Testament scriptures support this principle of choice between life and death by the resurrection of life or the resurrection of judgment and death (Acts 24:15; Jn.5:25-29, 6:40; 1 Thess.4:13-18; 1 Cor.15:51-53; Rom.6:23).

This principle of choice covers more than one main doctrine. The doctrine of the state of the dead is 1, and the doctrine of the resurrections. The common ground between these two doctrines is they both are eschatological in nature. Furthermore, this declaration set forth by Moses focuses on the five major core values of any worldview individual’s belief of origin, identity, meaning, morality, and destiny. The focus of this principle will be strictly on character and destiny and the resurrection doctrine, which in fact, touches on all the points listed here above.

The principle is one of the moral values in righteous choices. To sin is the same as destroying one’s self literally, physically, and spiritually as revealed in the above passages by the results of wrong decisions based on the conditions. Paul also exemplifies this principle of holiness by informing the Corinthians to seek righteousness unto holy lives to be received by the Father as sons and daughters of God in second Corinthians, chapter six, verses eleven through eighteen and concluding with a therefore in chapter seven, and verse one on the promises of the proposed conditions presented by the Apostle Paul (2 Cor.6:11-7:1; Ezek.38:18; Rom.6:19-23). That makes this righteous principle one of seeking holiness, and this principle applies to every biblical Christian seeking the kingdom of God today as it did in Moses’ day, as testified by New Testament writings reflected here above.

[1] Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Dt 29:1–31:1.

[2] Francis D. Nichol, ed., The Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1 (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1978), 1049–1065.

[3] Peter T. Vogt, Interpreting the Pentateuch: An Exegetical Handbook, ed. David M. Howard Jr., Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2009), 89, 187; Jack S. Deere, “Deuteronomy,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 316–323.

The Rebellious Israelites and the Pardon

Numbers 14:11-19

This interpretation is of the book of Numbers, chapter fourteen, verses eleven through nineteen, concerning the event of spies returning from the promised land and bringing with them a negative report except for two of them, Joshua and Caleb. The storyline picks up from here after the negative report and where the Israelites demonstrate a terrible lack of faith in their disobedience toward God after having such a preponderance of the evidence of God’s power and presence. 

Within verse eleven, it can be determined that the Israelites are putting God to the test by their unbelief with a preponderant amount of evidence to prove contrary to their faith as a testimony of a lack of faith (Num.14:11 King James Version). This interpretation of verse eleven is self-evident according to the words God had spoken, which are recorded in these verses of interest and reflected upon throughout this brief examination.[1] Even if a person lacked the history to this point, the fact that there is unbelief is inferred by the remaining verses of intercessory interference for annihilation avoidance inferred by Moses’ earnest prayer of humility (Num.14: 12-19). Within verse twelve, God speaks of how the Israelites tempted him by an unbelieving heart and what God would do to them in destruction and disinheritance. Because of these facts, God proclaimed to raise a new generation of people to himself, bringing him glory throughout the earth as a greater nation through his believing and obedient servant Moses (Num.14: 12).

By humble supplication and prayer, Moses begins to logically plead the cause of God by not allowing this disbelieving people to bring shame against God’s Name or kingdom works upon the earth by the subjugation of the Israelites for the cause and conquest.[2] This was an interesting intercessory approach to not allow this stiff-necked culture to bring shame to God and his cause through God’s proclamation of judgment against the people (Num.14: 13-15). Something interesting happens here in that God relents from his words through the earnest, humble, sincere prayer, not for any merit of the Israelites but for his own name’s sake through the intercessory prayer (Num.14:17-19).[3] God here does relent and honors the prayer of Moses by the evidence of not following through with the proclamation in verses eleven and twelve (Num.14:11-12).

There is a valuable principle that is clearly observed here of the power of prayer and how it can cause heaven’s course of action to become swayed through a powerful God of great compassion, mercy, and longsuffering toward his people then and today (Num.14:17-19). This same principle in the power of prayer and intercessory prayer can be observed in other scriptures of the Bible, such as in the story of Nineveh when the King and city turn from their evil ways and repent, which leads God to relent from his proclamation of destruction and total annihilation of such a great city (Jon.1-4; 3:10).[4] Through prayer and repentance, God’s great name is glorified on the earth and many people are saved as the prophet Joel also points out (Joal 2:12-13). One interesting point to make here is that the events of Nineveh and those written of Joe are a proven testimony to the power of prayer and how a longsuffering, gracious, merciful God of the universe can and will relent disinheritance and destruction to the saving of people as individuals, and communities, cultures, and nations. This principle of intercessory prayer, whether it be for the individual themselves or communities at large can apply as much today as it did throughout the biblical ages as expressed within the Bible’s pages.

[1] Francis D. Nichol, ed., The Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1 (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1978), 862–873.

[2] R. Dennis Cole, “Numbers,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 222–229.

[3] Eugene H. Merrill, “Numbers,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 231–232; Peter T. Vogt, Interpreting the Pentateuch: An Exegetical Handbook, ed. David M. Howard Jr., Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2009), 68–69.

[4] R. Dennis Cole, Numbers, vol. 3B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 232.

Would you like to have a perfect baby?

Imagine a society filled with athletic, intelligent, and ravishing citizens; sounds impossible before, but not anymore. Scientists nowadays are trying to make modified human beings -through engineering human genetics. Over the years, scientists are aggressively revolutionizing the method of human genetic engineering, from the discovery of the double helix in 1953 through the first human trials for CRISPR in 2018 (History of Genetic Engineering and the Rise of Genome Editing Tools, 2020). At first, discovering cures for malignant diseases like cancer, HIV, Alzheimer’s, etc. are the main objective of the scientists in furthering their expertise in genome editing. However, some scientists are getting to an extreme in modifying babies before birth, although the experiment is dangerous. Genetically engineering babies is unethical; and must not be permitted worldwide due to its harmful effects. In addition, it would also create an artificial standard in the future generation, more importantly it is against the Creator of humankind.
As scientists developed new techniques in designing babies, facing rejection and failure, they still move forward in improvising their studies. Nevertheless, they cannot encompass the danger of the methods they are working on from 3-person IVF, which did not work, to early Pronuclear Transfer, which results are still not guaranteed (Cussins, 2017, par. 14). Based on the article written by Cussins (2017, par. 11): Scientists worldwide who worked on 3-person IVF technique wrote their conclusions to Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) announcing that 3-person IVF methods “were too dangerous to ever be ethical.” In this process, the baby would be having three parents: the birth mother, father, and the donor. Having the genes of three people in one child, inheriting all possible (good and bad) traits with any irreversible risks made the method perilous. As Regalado asserted after his interview with a young postdoctoral scientist named Luhan Yang: “the genetic changes created by germ-line engineering would be passed on, and that is what has made the idea seem so objectionable. So far, caution and ethical concerns have had the upper hand” (2015, par. 7). Since babies cannot consent themselves before birth, they have no choice but to suffer the consequences due to the contingencies of the method applied. Moreover, their future children would suffer too, because once their genes underwent genetic editing make-up, it would pass along from generation to generation, including the harmful effects that go with it.
Since the 3-person IVF method failed in genome editing, scientists then discovered an improvised method called Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR). In CRISPR, scientists are assuming a higher probability of modifying babies without inherited diseases from their parents. Furthermore, scientists simplified the technique of genome editing with CRISPR. As an illustration, it is like computer encoding: wherein a scientist can cut any bad genes of a person and paste a good one (What are genome editing and CRISPR-Cas9?). In this case, scientists are eying designer babies to be viable soon. As a repercussion, natural babies would seem like an inferior standard of humanity, because parents would then be able to choose better genes for their babies. Therefore, Regalado saw the danger of having designer babies; he feared that: “germ-line engineering is a path toward a dystopia of super people and designer babies for those who can afford it” (2015, par. 5). With this precariousness, even “The U.S. intelligence community last year called CRISPR a potential ‘weapon of mass destruction’” (Connor, S. 2017, par.9). If wrong authoritative persons get a hold of CRISPR, it would indeed be a powerful equipment in annihilating the normal human beings. Even if it has not started yet, the deaths of “defective babies are rising.” According to Charis Thompson, a sociologist: “ The number of live births to children with Down syndrome is declining because 92 percent of all women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to abort” (Khazan, O. 2014, par. 13). It is a clear indication that humanities’ willingness to terminate life of inferior unborn babies are higher, when there is a set standard of superiority to follow in the society.
God being the only Creator of humanity, is the sole Supreme designer of every human being. God fearfully and wonderfully makes every individual (Psalm 139:14). Amazingly, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27, KJV). Hence, God has not given humanity the power to choose the color of their skin or hair, for the originality of each human being is a unique gift by the Heavenly Creator. For these reasons, editing human genetics is not acceptable to God, for He made everyone with distinct unique characteristics. He even made humanity a little lower than the angels. In addition, God entrusted each individual to take care of themselves, for “your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your” (1 Corinthians 6:19, KJV). It is undeniable that God is all-knowing, that He knew every creature even before their existence (Jeremiah 1:5). God has His reasons for creating a variety of colors in humanity, but one thing is for sure: that all He has made are beautiful, and no creature can exceed his Creator.
After the fall of man in the garden of Eden, God’s original design has been tainted by evil. The propensity of sin has been handed down from generation to generation. Now, scientists are trying to attain the perfectness of humanity before sin. They are trying to make perfect babies through genome editing. Future babies that are free from hereditary diseases, more intelligent, athletic, and good in stature. Though these promises seem enticing, the results are still uncertain. Hence, despite of the uncertainties, people are already looking forward to having the perfect babies that they could raise. Consequently, in hopes of having ideal children, parents are losing sight of the real meaning of beauty: beauty that comes from within, the beauty that the Heavenly Creator has designed. Humanity should always keep in mind that: “Our ways are not God’s ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9, KJV). God knew what is best for everyone, even before his/her conception. Science might be a great tool in finding out cures in diseases, but not in designing a baby. Humanity should also remember the limits that the Lord has bestowed to His creation.
In the presence of advanced science these days, parents that are wanting to have ideal babies should not risk the lives of their future children in exploring genome editing. They should first consider the safety of their future children instead of trusting in the unknown result of science. As the Word of God proclaimed: “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness” 1 Corinthians 3:19, (KJV). Nothing is impossible with God; He can give each and every one a perfect baby, only if He wills