Martin Luther penned these words shortly before he passed away, demonstrating his profound grasp of Christian spirituality. In Matthew 5:3, Jesus very simply says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The word used for “poor” in this verse is the term for a beggar. Those who are poor in spirit have no spiritual assets or credentials. They receive the Holy Spirit as beggars. Consider the following statement by John Kleinig in his book, Grace Upon Grace:

The Father’s kingdom is theirs as a gift, something that is always received and yet never possessed. Unless they receive God’s kingdom, they can never enter it and reign in it as kings together with Christ (Mark 10:15; Luke 12:32; 22:28-30).

In essence, spiritual maturity is thus the exact opposite of worldly maturity. Worldly maturity is measured by our increasing independence, our ability to be self-sufficient and accomplished. Conversely, spiritual maturity is measured by our increasing dependence upon Christ and His gifts. But it seems that American Christianity has transplanted this cultural model of maturity into the faith and now spirituality has become all about actualizing our spiritual potential or identifying our hidden talents. The proper understanding is that our spirituality has nothing to do with our performance, rather it has everything to do with receiving from God.

This is why in Matthew 5:6 Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Jesus pairs righteousness with dietary nourishment, something we receive. He does not compare righteousness to any action that we should perform, but rather to needs that must be satisfied by God Himself, hunger and thirst. It is God who makes us righteous, it is not something we can accomplish by our right attitude or conduct. Hence we pray, “give us this day our daily bread.” We rely not on our own skill to receive bread, but upon God’s grace. The same is true of our spiritual walk. As I posted on Twitter and Facebook earlier, “Our justification does not depend on our piety and our spiritual performance but on Christ and His performance.”

We are beggars. That is true. How can we contend against the grain of culture on the issue of spiritual maturity? How do we effect change in churches who focus on worldly growth rather than teaching utter dependence on Christ? How do we confront leaders who are building their own kingdoms, rather than continually receiving Christ’s? And most importantly, how do we change our personal devotional life to reflect the life of reception, seeking God’s gifts as beggars rather than His applause as performers?

UPDATE: Jay Winters posted about Begging For Attention from God and he has some great followup thoughts on this post.

“Faith is a divine work which God demands of us; but at the same time He Himself must implant it. We cannot believe by ourselves.”
        - Martin Luther

For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel.
        - Martin Luther

I was going to wait until November 1st to post about this, but I just couldn’t wait, and a friend’s post triggered some more thoughts on this. The 31st of October is All Hallows’ Eve or Halloween. That means that the following day must be All Saints’ Day (a remembrance of the martyrs and saints). The time of year was chosen way back when in part to counter pagan festivals which focused on spiritism or witchcraft. These were common in much of Europe as non-Christians watched the lengthening of the night and the loss of daylight.

Luther posted his famous 95 Theses on the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517. His main points of contention were:

• The church’s sale of indulgences (the church sold certificates supposedly granting the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven)
• The nature of penance
• The authority of the Pope

This single act sparked what we now call the Reformation in the church, a radical change in theology, and a minor change in practice. Yes I know, many think practice changed drastically, and in many important areas it did. But overall, the changes were somewhat minimal in regards to the practice of our Sunday morning service.

So where am I going with this post? And why did I post it early? I stumbled across a great sermon today over at Jay Winters’ blog entitled How big was the Garden of Eden? He presents some great ideas about how to live free from sin, making an analogy to how Adam and Eve continued to hang out around “the sin tree” even though they had tons of room to roam in God’s “Divinely sanctioned nudist colony”, as Jay humorously calls the Garden of Eden. But it’s the last few sentences that really caught my attention:

So dream, dream and get away from your sin tree. Dream and participate in the life that God has for you. Dream and post your thoughts on a church door and fix the church. Take your boat and travel as far away from that sin tree as you can. Experience freedom. Experience God’s Word.

In some ways what myself and many others have been doing in the blogosphere is nailing our theses to the church doors. Luther did a great job fueling a Reformation that fixed the doctrinal issues, and it began to affect the heart issues as well. But Luther was a former priest and was deeply entrenched in much of the traditions. Now another Reformation is already underway, and it’s a Reformation of practice, not theology. And it’s followers are finding freedom, freedom as they experience God’s Word.

I’m stuck somewhere in the middle, trying to figure out how all of this will look, hence 390days.com — I’m still making sense of Christianity 2.0.

• Where are you? Are you walking in freedom and experiencing God’s Word in its richness or are you still making sense of the new direction our faith is headed?
• Is it OK to “look before you leep” in regards to Christianity 2.0?
• How does Web 2.0 enable Christ followers today to “nail theses” to the church’s doors worldwide in ways never imaginable in Luther’s day?