Every true believer lives to the glory of God and should desire to grow, develop, and make progress in spirituality.
In this booklet, Maurice Roberts guides us through this spiritual growth and development with practical guidance for fostering heavenly-mindedness and spiritual conversation. The more we grow in heavenly-mindedness, the more we will shine as lights in this dark world. And the more we aim to promote God-honoring conversation, the more we will be seen to walk in the steps of our master Jesus Christ, of whom it was truly said, “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46).
Contents
What Is Heavenly-Mindedness? Growing in Heavenly-Mindedness The Place of the Moral Law Spiritual Conversation
Want to read something that stirs you to be more heavenly minded as a Christian? Author and preacher Maurice Roberts has written for us this booklet addressing this topic as well as the topic of spiritual conversations as part of Reformation Heritage Book’s “Cultivating Biblical Godliness Series” and my desire to read this book is motivated with how good three of the titles are in this series, namely What is Experiential Calvinism?, How Should We Consider Christ in Affliction? and How Can I Stop Worrying? While I enjoy the first three titles more than this present volume still this booklet is a helpful resource. The title is How Do I Develop Heavenly Mindedness and Spiritual Conversation? implying the author would address two related topic but I felt more focus was given to the former rather than the latter. In fact the first half was so good I wished the second half of the booklet could have matched the former! It was logically laid out and practical; I enjoyed the author’s point that obedience to God matter and thinking of the things of God should be our focus. It really fed my soul and though this booklet is brief it packed a lot in there; it was a spiritual reading truly! I do recommend this work though I do wish more is said about having spiritual conversations with others; I think that topic alone could be its own booklet in its own right.
The author looks at two of the aspects of Christian godliness: heavenly-mindedness and spiritual conversation. Key takeaways: as Christians we can improve in heavenly-mindedness both by correcting our faults and stirring ourselves up to a higher level. Heavenly-mindedness is helped by filling our mind with Scripture and striving to keep God's moral law.
1) Fill our mind with Scripture and right doctrine. Our doctrinal understanding controls our attitude to God. We should deepen our reverence and fear of God, and adore and delight in Him.
2) Strive to keep God's moral law out of love to God by keeping careful watch that our motives and secret thoughts are in conformity to His ten commandments. When we fail, we can pause and secretly confess our guilt to God for His forgiveness.
In our spiritual conversation with others, we should speak humbly (not to draw attention to ourselves) and always aim to honor God for His love to us in Christ and of our experiences of God's grace. Some helpful ideas: encouraging others to talk about biblical subjects on the Lord's Day, mentioning points a preacher made after a sermon and stirring conversation by asking their thoughts on the implications, asking what book (or book in Bible) a friend is reading, which of God's promises gives them most comfort, which biblical text helped me, etc.