A Perceived Need

2. Finding a Solution

By A Perceived Need

It is one thing to identify a problem and another to come up with a solution that is biblical and practical. That is the challenge that faces us in the Ezra Ministry as we attempt to address the problem of a “lack of competence and confidence in living in Christ and in the hand-in-hand conversational walk with God that we were created for.”[1] Thankfully, devising a solution for this is not something that is left up to us – who would be presumptuous enough to attempt this anyway? The reason we don’t need to try to do so is because the heart […]

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1. A Perceived Need

By A Perceived Need

A Perceived Problem In the recent Ezra Update I included a “perceived problem statement” and promised to elaborate on it. This is what I want to do in this article. Here, once more, is the problem – at least as I perceive it – that the Ezra Ministry seeks to address: Many Christians lack confidence in living in Christ and being led by his Spirit and consequently miss out on the richly interactive relationship with God that he desires and on which ministry effectiveness in his kingdom and in the world depends Let me explain and try to justify this statement. The first thing […]

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#2 Communion With God

By A Perceived Need

Before looking further at why so many Christians are dissatisfied with their relationship with God, it may be helpful to pause and think further about what we mean when we talk about “communion with God.”  That, after all, is the expression R.C. Sproul uses when he comments on the current Christian dissatisfaction; it is dissatisfaction with the “depth of spiritual communion with God.”[1] What does Sproul mean by that? Failing to be sure of what familiar terms mean can rob us of spiritual benefit and slow down spiritual progress. That is particularly true in this case.  “Communion with God”, whatever it means, […]

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#1 Thirsting for God

By A Perceived Need

In 2003 prolific author and teacher R.C. Sproul published a book called The Soul’s Quest for God – Satisfying the Hunger for Spiritual Communion with God. It begins with these words: Something is missing. It is missing from the life of the church. It is absent from the normal Christian life. What is missing is a depth of spiritual communion with God. Worship is unsatisfying to multitudes, and the Christian life is often marked more by a sense of the absence of God than a vital sense of his presence… There is a spot deep within our souls that is hungry […]

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Welcome to Ezra Reflections

By A Perceived Need

Ezra Reflections are thoughts that have come to mind in the course of reading the Bible and other books over many years. They are shared to help you deepen your relationship with God by taking things you know about him into the way you live. That’s the step we find hardest in the Christian life – translating knowledge into experience. The link between the two is most often the exercise of prayerful, reflective thinking. These Reflections are intended to help you do that. Reflecting is an act of thinking. Several words and images come to mind when I think of the term. One […]

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