After 13 days of sharing snaps and waves about the inner life, I consider it appropriate to do a recap of directions 8 and 9. I recognized that in the Web2 platform, content related to politics, religion, and money is divisive and regarded with suspicion. At least, in Web3 like Hive, there is freedom to talk about money and crypto, and with the advent of the postmodern era, talk about spirituality and inner life is now given space, provided respect of others' opinions is maintained. There is no need to resort to force, bullying, and intimidation in the world of the free market of ideas in cyberspace. Only insecure and inferior ideas utilize such lowly means.

My Goal

My goal in creating this account, @hive-as-mission, is to present a view of the inner life and spirituality from the perspective of a Christian worldview. I acknowledge that Christianity does not have a monopoly on the subject. All other worldviews share their distinct perspective about these matters.

To achieve the above goal, my method is to share as snaps and waves my reading of selective Christian literature, and I would like to start with a Puritan author, Richard Baxter; hence, the reason for the name of this account. The specific book I have in mind is old. It was published in the middle of the 17th century. The title of the book is Christian Directory.

Source

Since 1986, it has been my ambition to complete reading this book, but for many reasons, I have been prevented from accomplishing such a reading project. However, with the advent of web3 platforms like Hive, especially with apps like PeakD's snaps and Ecency's waves, I find these tools very useful in slowly digesting an "elephant" like The Christian Directory.

Two Movements

The long-term goal is to produce a manual for young pastors. Nobody told me when I was young about the ministerial value of the book. So far, if my observation is accurate, two movements in the US received inspiration from Baxter's book. The first one is the Christian Reconstruction movement headed by theologians like J. Rushdoony, G. North, and G. Bahnsen. I observe in their books, they always divided the application part into four separate sections: self-government, family government, church government, and civil government.

The second movement got its inspiration from Jay Adams, who pioneered the nouthetic counseling movement, which is widely known today as biblical counseling. Again, if my observation is correct, there are at least two institutions actively involved in this movement. One is the Master's Seminary by J. F. MacArthur, and the other is the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary by Joel Beeke. The popularity of this movement was prompted by the shortcomings of the psychology movement to provide long-term solutions to the increasing problem of mental health.

Division of the Book

Christian Directory is divided into four books: Christian Ethics, Christian Economics, Christian Ecclesiastics, and Christian Politics. The order prioritizes personal change as the starting point for social change. Unlike most "reformers" today, they love to talk about social change, but personal transformation is largely missing. They want to change the society, structures, and lives of other people, taking the change in their personal lives for granted. And that is why you find policymakers and politicians who are big in their talk about social change and yet most corrupt.

In this reading and writing project, I want to start with book 1, Christian Ethics. The first book is further subdivided into four chapters: spiritual directions for those who need saving grace, directions for weak Christians, directions for Christian life, and directions to address ungodliness. Moreover, ungodliness is discussed in relation to unbelief, hardness of heart, hypocrisy, and idolizing man.

The first chapter contains 20 directions and identification of 40 temptations. So far, after 13 days, I have already covered the first 9 directions addressed to men who need saving grace. Before proceeding to the 10th direction, I want to recap directions 8 and 9 to serve as an accessible guide for personal sharing and group discussion.

I think I will conclude this post, for the length of this article went beyond my original intent when I started it. This will serve as just an introduction to the next post.