Fully Alive 1

On the back of his new book, Discovering Our Spiritual Identity: Practices for God’s Beloved, my blurb reads:

Trevor Hudson is one of South Africa’s contemporary spiritual masters. … If I had one person I’d choose to be a pastor to my children, it would be Trevor Hudson.

This new book could become a standard textbook for spiritual formation classes and it will be a book deeply loved by pastors and Christians. I will begin a series next Monday on this book and hope you will join us. Today I want to introduce you to what this very fine book does:

It’s personal: “During my sixteenth year,” Trevor writes, “I became a Christ follower. That gracious invitation, “Follow me,” rooted in a great love that had sought me from my very beginnings, burned its way into my heart and evoked both desire and response.”

It’s informed: “Spirituality is being intentional about the development of those Christ-shaped convictions, attitudes and actions through which our identity as God’s beloved is formed and given personal expression within out everyday lives.”

It’s comprehensive: “I offer sixteen signposts toward the development of a renewed spirituality that is…
* centered in the life of Jesus, our ever-present Savior and Lord,
* faithful to the treasures of the diverse streams within the Christian tradition,
* accessible to the people living next door
* interwoven with those practical concerns that constitute daily living,
* and also deeply related to those human struggles taking place on the streets.”

So what is this book about?“It is about aliveness — coming alive to
* the wonder of our belovedness in God’s eyes,
*discerning the depth and sacredness of ordinary life,
* alerting ourselves to the hidden tentacles of evil within and around us,
* becoming more aware of those closest to us,
* responding to the suffering of our neighbor.

Above all, it is about waking up to the always available presence of the crucified and risen Christ, alive and at large throughout the world, who invites us to be his followers wherever we are.”

Interested? Join us daily next week.