Related Contemplative Things - Ford and Scazzero

I was quite astounded (but not really) at some related things I read yesterday.

The first one is about an article on RW's pastors.com about keeping the Sabbath called Why We Can't Stop that is written by Peter Scazzero. (Scazzero's book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality is also now featured on RW's site.) See here:

Rick Warren Points Network Followers to the Contemplative "Sabbath"
www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com

If you follow the links and go onto Scazzero's site, it all sounds pretty nice, but a critical component of Scazzero's teaching, in his own words, is to introduce people to ancient spiritual disciplines, as he explains in this youtube. Emotionally healthy spiritual maturity, according to Scazzero, is based on spiritual formation (contemplative spirituality), and practicing the Daily Office. In the video he says that when we spend as much time contemplating as we do being busy, the arrow of our lives will be straight. What? Does the Bible teach that we can make our lives straight through our own practices? Or do we align our hearts and minds to the plumb line of God's word through repentance and obedience, so that He will change us and make our paths straight. Once again, Scazzero may be a pleasant enough guy, however, it appears that he is teaching what all the contemplatives teach, and that is adding to what Jesus has already done so that we can be in God's presence. No matter how nice the Scazzero's make this sound, essentially, any method, practice or attempt by man (including Roman Catholic contemplative traditions and mysticism) to access God's presence is adding to His grace.

Speaking of contemplative traditions and mysticism, Scazzero's book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality is filled with it (see EHS Part 1).

The second thing I read that ties into this, was here:

Zondervan Introduces Contemplative Leighton Ford
www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog

Believe it or not, there is a HUGE connection here with Leighton Ford and Peter Scazzero. Ford gave Scazzero some counsel one night that led him in the contemplative direction. (Incase you didn't know, Ford is Billy Graham's brother-in-law). After that advice, Scazzero unfortunatley headed over to some monasteries and learned how to do breathing exercises, centering, and the Daily Office which he now teaches, etc. (See Breathe In, Breathe Out).

This month, this spirituality is being highlighted and spread by RW to pastors through pastors.com (via Peter Scazzero's contemplative teaching on the Sabbath and the promotion of his book). And that's not all we can join the dots to. As pastors read the article on RW's website and go over to Scazzero's website, they may stumble upon Scazzero's blog, where the lastest post gives glory to St. Teresa of Avila and her Seven Mansions, here:

Teresa of Avila’s Seven Mansions - Prayer
http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/blog/?p=62

Copy and paste that into your brower if you wish to read it.

These are all things I have researched and blogged about before, ad nauseum. If anyone wants to know what these mansions actually are and who else teaches this, check out my older posts on the Seven Mansions and Imago Christi, both of which Scazzero writes about favorably on his blog.

So thanks to Scazzero and Ford and a crisis, spiritual practices that subsitute the grace of God are now being promoted on the very popular pastors.com. And now, thanks to RW, how many more nice pastors with good intentions will now be led into this spirituality?

Related:

The Attentive Life, Discerning God's Presence in All Things by Leighton Ford
Review by Gary Gilley