What I learnt from my Spiritual Theology Class

I guess I'm in search of some kind of theology I can identify with in the Spiritual Theology Course, I think I found it in one of the classes, and surprisingly it's the kind of theology closer to me than I think (I've come to dislike many of the stuff typical evangelicals believe in... sigh...)

The topic was the Reformed Tradition with a particular concentration on Calvin. (These are all my understanding from the lecture itself, so whatever gets wrong, it's my fault .=P) For Calvin, being "spiritual"means submitting to God whatever He gives us. His providence is always the best.

For Charismatics (or even evangelicals), when you got sick, you thank God when you get cured. (Yeah, we sang the song about thanking God for the thorns of the roses, how many of us pray for that? I really don’t want to pray like this coz I don’t want to get stuck by thorns =P.) For Calvin, he has got this conviction that God's will whatever it is-- is good, so you can praise God whatever the circumstances.

We leave our personal desires. Instead of praying for what we want, we ask God's will to be done. (That doesn't mean God's will is not always done, but this means we are actually asking ourselves to submit to God's will.)

God may not heal is, that's not the point.

Some charismatics suggest that we should tell God what we want specifically, but the lecturer told us it might be because he’s lazy, but he just asked God to help mould him into a good father, and as to how to be a good father, it’s up to God to decide. It’ll be really terrible if our desires all turn into reality. =P (haha, this is exactly how I usually pray like, maybe I’m lazy, but why should I name all these stuff I think is good for God?? =P)

The lecturer said he was invited to dinner by a sister from church, whose mother got a stroke long ago and became a Christian, but her mom still remained unhappy, because she could not forgive someone. Then just before that dinner, that sister said her mom was much happier recently and asked the pastor to pray for her. He forgot what he prayed about, but after a while her mom died. Then the sister came and talked to him and thanked him, because she had been thinking about this for a while, her mom was happy and didn’t have much to do in the world anymore, maybe it’s time for her to rest in God. And that day when the pastor prayed for her, he prayed that if it’s God’s will, then let her rest. He jokingly said others’ prayers brought healing while his brought death. =P

Some thinks that the idea of predestination makes people lazy in evangelism, but Calvinists' effort in evangelism was more than that of the Lutherans.

And one important aspect of predestination, is whatever your work is, the effect is from God. Not us! Otherwise it’ll be really scary, whether someone would believe in God depends on us, who make so many mistakes and error?!