part of the littleness of the K is Jesus having emptied Himself and become obedient to the point of death on a Cross. how could that ever bring about good?
actions that will result in God acting look like nothing from a human point of view
The K is completely deniable. You can come up with a plausible alternate definition if you want
it’s like a small seed or yeast (invisible)
TDC is God’s plan and process of overcoming evil w/good in human history, especially through the Cross and Resurrection
the constant problem for human life is to find an adequate basis for life in knowledge
If God loves the world, I can trust God with everything. I don’t have to run my life and fight with others for seemingly limited resources
Babel today is the secular knowledge system of the universities and professions
If people thought the Church had knowledge, they would not want to keep it out of the State
Can human beings on their own achieve the knowledge they need in order to live? No.
What if the Bible contains the most important information about the most important issues in human life?
[One of the attractive things about the naturalist worldview is there's very little attendant morality. Morality, then, is left to people to decide on their own.]
It's a good thing our knowledge is limited b/c our self-will is limitless.
All evil in human life comes from will running beyond knowledge — Descartes
knowledge brings power and power requires responsibility to be properly used
[This is Dallas at the height of his powers and mature thought and graciousness
I’m not taking a lot of notes, and didn’t the first time through, but this series is one of the single best things on the Internet.]
Rom1 is the most important social analysis in the Bible
People turn away from God and then suppress the truth.
Deus Absconditus
If God didn’t hide from us, we couldn’t hide from Him
taught in parables so those with eyes could choose not to see and those with ears could choose not to hear
God is present and at work, but deniable
Jesus came with from nowhere no credentials or references
Except the testimony of John the Baptist, who was himself undeniably in the tradition of an OT prophet
‘If I were Jesus, I’d go back to Pilate and say ‘Let’s have that conversation about truth one more time.’ Maybe after that, I’d go visit the Sanhedrin.’
Acts 10: He became visible only to those who were prepared beforehand.
Take the Bible and God’s hiddenness in it. You can allege almost anything out of it.
Col 3.1-4
TDC is God’s plan to overcome evil w/good in the grinding processes of human nature
The Crucifixion is the high point of the revelation of the hidden K
Humans can’t deal with truth on their own
The truth will make you flee
The truth that people get apart from God is almost always destructive
Truth can only be endured and promoted in a com’ty of grace
Jesus did not say ‘the truth will make you free’
He said, ‘If you continue in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free’
social authority: who has knowledge
the secular mind has redefined knowledge so that it alone has it. and Xians have often conceded it.
The single greatest mistake in the last two centuries has been the Xian church being willing to walk away from knowledge and to settle for something much weaker called ‘faith’
The greatest challenge of God’s people today is standing in our world as representing knowledge of reality and show, with love and intelligence, that we have it
We see this in children: character only develops with freedom
Divine Conspiracy 02: Human Nature
What is a Human Being?
The official point of view now is there is no human nature
outcome of drive to total liberty
essential mark of Babel orientation in human life
democracy as social and political system: everyone should be able to do what they want
it can only be true if you don’t have a nature, b/c a nature limits what you can do
nature limits freedom if you mean doing what you want
there were often bad, oppressive arguments from nature
John Dewey rejected human nature
natural law as basis of human law has been rejected
public sentiment takes place of natural law
denying human nature takes away all the conflicts where desire wants free play
desire is often for what is not good, so you can’t define good in terms of desire
still, we all know we have desired things that are not good
regret comes from experience of having desired and done things that are not good for us
loving someone means wanting and working for (willing) what is good for them
if I love you it means sometimes not willing what you desire b/c sometimes what you desire is not good
self-love often means not doing what I desire to do and do what I do not desire to do
Rom 1
when you turn away from God, you take humanity to be ultimate
by rejecting God, you loosen your mind from reality, and then anything goes
the mind is directed by the will and won’t function properly
the will is supposed to be directed by the mind under truth
educators today are like farmers who don’t believe in weeds or bugs; they only believe in fertilizer. So they pour on fertilizer and make bigger weeds and bigger bugs.
they have become callous, so they give themselves over to sensuality to try to feel something
this is why our culture is so addicted and addictive
the only way out of that is realizing you have a will that’s different from your feelings and you don’t have to live by feeling
[Maybe teach Rom 1 in ss next…
When something bad happens, people ask ‘how can someone do that?’
why our society is lost at every level: gov’t, science, academics, pop culture, sports, etc.
even the church is mostly not operating with correct thinking
(and that’s a big part of why people dismiss us (b/c of current and our wrong thinking in history))
life only goes well when we conform to what is real, to what is true
the more we do, the better life goes
that’s why a lot of our previous culture was better in the sense that it had more vestiges of truth in it and helped us conform with reality: in the church, in law, in ethics
as we’ve cut those loose, our society is trending down in terms of conforming properly to reality
and life is getting harder for people. we are more and more lost.]
when nature disappears, knowledge and truth disappear
political correctness takes over
what’s correct in someone’s view. that’s all we have left.
all that’s left is will and what people want and how much influence or power they can bring to bear
the human capacity to know the good and right is distorted by the human will to fulfill desire (we want what we want)
that’s why a divine source of knowledge is essential to human life
Gen 1
Ps 8
Is 63
You are a never-ceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s great universe
Jonathan Edwards, On Virtue. Love as primary
CS Lewis, Abolition of Man
The Babel Imperative: Meant to abolish human beings as free people devoted to good through love and replace them with people who are under the domination of other people who live only in terms of their own desires.
So, TDC is God’s aim to defeat this terrible declension from God’s world and K by bringing out a world- and history-wide com’ty of people who have the character and power of JX Himself.
Human nature is built for that, to become like X, to live in the KoG.
Divine Conspiracy 03: God and His Kingdom
The K is like leaven. It has a life of its own
The thing that saved my faith in X: Mk 4.26-9
I do not have to make it happen
Speak the Word, live in the K, let the results take care of themselves.
When I would do that, I would begin to see change.
God is, in Himself, a sweet society
The Trinity is too one to be many and too many to be one.
When you realize what marriage has come to mean in our society, why not homosexual marriage?
A mystery is not something you can’t figure out, but in the NT something that has been hidden but is now revealed: God’s plan of redemption for the world.
to judge angels means not just to judge as we conceive today, but to govern (like in the book of Judges)
What makes the Bible hang together? The progressive with-ness.
Adam and Eve, Noah, the Patriarchs
The people of Israel: arranges to be with them in the Tabernacle
How can God be present with people w/o destroying them?
X came to break God’s K out of cultural captivity
the Church is the dwelling place of God
meaning in life is a kind of energy and direction that makes life not something you have to just carry by willpower
A Confession — Tolstoy
The Meaning of Life for the Believer in X
The love and purpose of God for us
We are embedded in His eternal life
Romans 8
All the hard things turn to good.
[‘Our bad things will be turned to good, our good things will last forever, and the best is yet to come’ — Jonathan Edwards (approximate quote)
Exact quote:
Point 1: Our bad things will turn out for good.
Point 2: Our good things can never be taken away from us.
Point 3: The best things are yet to come.
—Jonathan Edwards, Christian Happiness (preached at 18 years old)]
People are made for drama, excitement in living and working with God
The book of Acts is a description of the coming true of Mt 21.43: the K will be taken from you and given to a people producing the fruit of it
anyone who wants to find the K can find it through J
seek first the KoG and everything else will be added
find out what God is doing and do it
observe Jesus, what he said and did
do that where you are and you will find the KoG
and the kind of righteousness that God has
and when you find that, everything else you need will be provided
same as Ps 23, but now with a face on the Shepherd
we can't just rest in the name, we have to move to the reality and the presence of the K
'please help us to know Your K in its full reality where we are'
Divine Conspiracy 04: Kingdom Gospel
Jesus and Paul preached the same Gospel
You have to be an ontologist (to a degree) to understand the Gospel
Jesus did not come to preach the existence of the KoG, but its availability
The biggest threat to God’s K in my life is my kingdom.
The only things outside God’s will are rebellious human and angelic wills.
The K is not in your heart
We don’t want to get hung up on language. The important thing is the reality.
[Maybe part of the problem with really vital strains of faith, e.g., Puritanism, is that when they go cold they can be oppressive. Maybe that’s why strong religion gets such a bad rap. And/or maybe part of it is just that the world hates it.]
If your Gospel doesn’t include redemption of your whole life, you’ve got the wrong one.
Living in Jesus’ name means on His behalf and from His resources
We can trust God with our lives
If something happens that you don’t like, He’ll bring something good out of it
This world is a perfectly safe place for us to be
[Part of the dissonance comes from feeling God bless us and work in little things, but then big, bad things can still happen to us. It feel contradictory, but it’s not.]
Seek first His K: find out what God is doing and join Him in that
Joshua 1.8: This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth and you shall meditate therein day and night.
Psalm 1
Keep Scripture and prayers running in your consciousness, like ‘Hallowed be Thy name’
Proclaiming X rightly results in ravishing people w/ the K
If we see J rightly we will see that d’ship to Him is the greatest opportunity we have in life
Your God Is too Small — JB Philips
Maternal grandmother lived a life of incredible godliness
Paul was the first one who got the message of Jesus
[Dallas is an expert ontologist and knows what’s possible and what’s not and believes many things from the Bible in a pretty straightforward way. The example here is how many angels there are and what they do.]
What are the riches of X?
- The physical cosmos belongs to X and is totally at His disposal
- In historical context, the Bible says the cattle on a thousand hills, but that’s small cheese by comparison :-)
- Sagan says the physical cosmos is all there is
- the early disciples had seen J’ power over nature and death
- Resurrection: people say ‘that’s against the laws of physics’
- which ones? there aren’t any. physics does not deal with all of reality, just physical reality, and even that from a particular point of view
- there’s often an impression that something has been found out that shows the reality of God and His power over the universe to be wrong
- nothing has been found out
- ‘I do this so often that I get bored with myself for doing it.’
- 'where in the science book does it say …'
- [What has happened is naturalists who consider themselves smart have committed to naturalism which precludes God and then say no one who is smart believes in the possibility of God.]
- Spirit is energy. God’s Word which created the universe is power beyond comprehension and it is still working
- X as the master of the moral life
- J understands morality and can bring people to moral goodness
- Classical Greek thinkers totally failed to find way to bring people to moral goodness
- They didn’t even understand moral reality
- Plato’s Republic is still beautiful and worth reading and studying
- The Greeks couldn’t stop killing one another. They had to invite the Romans in to keep them from killing one another.
- that’s why the Xian teaching won the hearts of the ancient world. it presented the beauty and goodness of X and showed people how to actually have it
- The security and glorious future of the individual
- God’s care for children taught by J
- Xians don’t experience death
- The future of the created cosmos
- Physical cosmos will never pass away [as science predicts], b/c it is not self-sustained. We know almost nothing about the ultimate nature of the physical universe
- Suggestion: cold, dark matter hypothesized by scientists to explain behavior of the universe is God
- There will be new heavens and a new earth and a new Jeruslaem
The 4 great questions
- The nature of reality. What is real?
- God and everything that comes from His hand
- Who is well off? Who has the good life? Who is blessed?
- Anyone alive in the KoG
- Who’s a really good person?
- Anyone that is permeated with agape love
- How do you become a really good person?
- By becoming a disciple of J
Jesus objectively answers these questions better than anyone else
the biggest mistake we can make is to fail to present J adequately
Does the Gospel I preach have a natural tendency to produce disciples of J?
You could not wish to be born at a better time, when everything has been lost — Simone Weil
We have to plan with no assumptions of preceding knowledge or resources or ability
And what we’re doing is the Great Commission
For one thing, we’re called to make disciples, not Xians
It is J’ plan for church growth, the most successful plan in history (for any kind of growth)
Unfortunately, the history of the church is largely doing something besides the GC
Q&A
By comparison, Buddha died of food poisoning and did not rise again
The goal of Buddhism is to stop existing and never come back
Buddhism is life-denying, not life-affirming. The object is to abolish desire.
Metaphysical side: no persistent self, reincarnation
Compare moral side
Buddhism: this is an awful place that is an illusion
everything is identically an illusion, including people
Compare Buddhist life and civilization at its best to Xianity at its best
[point: these comparisons can be made with any other philosophy/belief system
Again, one big disadvantage we’re working with is all the terrible examples in the name of J]
All at their worst are about equally bad
Evidences:
the reality of X before and after His resurrection
the reality of the K as experimentally known through finding what G is doing, getting involved with it on that assumption and seeing what the reality is
Jesus doesn’t dodge facts [Xians have]
the secular system dodges facts by making assertions they have no way to prove, just based on authority that lets them get away with it
Sagan’s Cosmos is full of falsehoods, unfounded claims
Any sensible Xians can call out the basic logical inconsistencies
the curse of our land is we have all these uneducated people with higher degrees
they don’t know good method and truth is a subject of humor
don’t worry about it. just do the work. follow out the teaching of your Scripture, a profound book of knowledge. if you treat it like that, it will respond like that
go to the Scripture to see what is taught about life and reality and put it to the test
[this is the part that is essential and so seldom done. and without it, we don’t have knowledge
again, what we’re seeking here is personal, relational knowledge, ultimately. The Bible can be living and personal when we approach it humbly in the Spirit. That is, it can be a connecting point with the Living God.]
Too many of our systems are devoted to taking care of the people who are already in the game (church, education, government, etc.)
The GC strips all of that away. Just do what it says.
Tit 2.11: Salvation in NT terms
We mistake grace for passivity
we have created a culture of consumer Xianity
The Gospel of the KoG and d’ship to X
Universal assumption: you can be a Xian and not a disciple
The Church’s primary need is never more money, influence, people, education, etc.
The basic need is the transformation/quality of the people
‘As a young minister, I realized I wasn’t saying anything to help people change.’
Navs had three classes of Xians: Xians, disciples (make Xians/evangelize) and workers (could make disciples)
‘I don’t have time to tell you all the things I don’t mean when I say that.’
Institutions are almost never able to repent
disciple: full-time student of J in the KoG
'Every man needs a wife b/c sooner or later something bad will happen that he can’t blame on the gov’t.' — Benjamin Franklin
Transformation into Xlikeness is what would make the Church what it is supposed to be
to make disciples, we have to first be a disciple
presumably, when you take a class you are committed to learning the content
we must begin by helping people get the vision of d’ship as the pearl of great price or the treasure in the field
if you are devoted to learning algebra, you will learn it. you just do the things that lead to learning the material
Learned to spell. Mary Frances said ‘All you have to do it repeat them.’
ultimately, if we don’t turn from sin and live in righteousness (to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees), it’s b/c we don’t intend to, we have not committed ourselves to learning to (like Algebra), to doing the things that will form us, to train
Read William Law’s Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, chapter 2
[part of the whole avoidance behavior here is we can say ‘well, i don’t really believe Dallas is right’ and then we can justify our continued inaction. it’s easy.]
How are you doing with your kingdom?
- Make disciples
- immerse them in Trinitarian reality
- worship service programming is not the key
- if you honor the Trinity, the Trinity will come
- you have to start with disciples (number 1) b/c you have to have people who honor the Trinity
- just b/c God has blessed something doesn’t mean He favors it
- rather, the people there are disciples looking for God’s presence
- teach them to obey
- if you try 3 w/o 1 and 2, you will get some kind of legalism
The key to church is disciples looking for the presence of God. (Dallas gets to this from the Great Commission: disciples, and the Trinity, 1 and 2)
Mt 28.19: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
[so, could we do that at CVLC? I've been thinking about spiritual formation and having a group for that. So, if we sought to be disciples and prayed for Your Trinitarian presence in our church, could that matter?]
do thorough, inductive Bible study of 'grace' and that will do you as much good as anything.
What is a disciple?
1. someone who is w/J learning to be like Him
you have to invoke and invite Him
realize what you do is not done in your own strength
Are you willing to start doing something you know you cannot do?
Jn 17.3: This is eternal life: that they would know you, the only true God, and JX whom You have sent.
We don’t know what is supposed to happen when we go into situations
2. I am learning from Him how to lead my life as He would lead my life if He were I
[Something that has been helpful for me in this area is thinking more about your presence with me, imagining it physically/visually as an aid]
The Gospel heard does not produce disciples. The central problem is in the message preached.
Sometimes what is heard is different from what is preached.
[Which is something to bear in mind in the preaching. What might people be mishearing? How do we dispel that?]
Your system is perfectly designed to produce the results you’re getting
It is the mark of a disordered mind to think you can repeat the same process and get a different result.
[Similar to one definition of insanity]
Discussion of Lordship Salvation controversy b/t John MacArthur and Ryrie et al.
[Part of the problem, as Dallas says, is some of the debate is misframed in almost solely life after death terms
A 15-Year Retrospective on the Lordship Controversy, http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/2263
MacArthur is also too focused on substitutionary atonement alone (strange that that’s where grace alone and faith alone have taken some of us
Both sides struggle with legalism. I find this especially ironic on the DTS side of the debate.
Part of the problem is Ryrie and his tribe want there to be a moment of assurance of salvation regardless of emotion. I don’t think this is the right way to go. I think we need to be more open to process or look to some historical Xians who struggled with sin and ultimately received assurance.]
In Reformed teaching, one approach is to say you’ll be so grateful that you will obey. But they have congregations full of people who are not grateful and obedient.
‘I think Regeneration comes first, then Justification, then Sanctification, then Glorification.’
The Scripture has deposited in it the information that we need to live now and forever.
do thorough, inductive Bible study of 'grace' and that will do you as much good as anything.
The Gospel: Put your confidence in Jesus and live with Him as His disciple in the present KoG.
The Gospel is you can trust Jesus.
Rom 8.1-14
Flesh is what you can do in your natural human abilities, you individually and you socially.
Jn 3.16 is not a forgiveness passage
Salvation is participating now in the life which J is now living on Earth.
Seeking the things that are above is active, not passive
Here's the crucial point for understanding the Divine Conspiracy: People who want to explain what God is doing in some other way will do that to their satisfaction (c.f. John 3.8). That is a part of what God has in mind with the whole process of things here on earth, to allow people who wish to go another way to go another way, but to allow people who wish to know Him to find Him. Because the promise in Jeremiah is that 'You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29.13)
Counting the cost means not only looking at what you pay but also at what you get
You have to understand the cost of non-discipleship
How about you writing a book on the cost of non-discipleship?
[What if we put together a book on that topic? Maybe some of Dallas’ friends could write for it. Or is there stuff already out there?
Dallas also said on this topic someone should write the book 'the hard sayings of the devil' to pair with The Hard Sayings of Jesus]
The Gospel is the Good News that we can live in the KoG through JX
must be emphasis on whole-life d’ship
3 areas
- learning to do the things that J said
- ie, becoming the kind of person who would naturally do them
- How to live life in areas where there is no explicit command
- How to act with power in the K
- We should always be undertaking things we can’t do
The book of Acts: putting J’ face on the K and the K is presented in terms of the King (Jesus)
Spirituality w/o ontology produces legalism
The sources of our behavior matter
We are spiritual beings
Religious people are often angry and can be mean b/c they are focusing on behavior and they’re judging themselves and everyone else in terms of it.
The significance of faith is not having the right answers but relating to reality rightly (b/c of having the truth).
one central theme in J’ teachings is the inversion of the two kingdoms
The world is socially organized, historically developing flesh.
Satan is the prince of this world and one of his main goals is to get people to believe the wrong thing, esp. about how people are ranked
children are brutal to one another on the playground
the first shall be last and the last shall be first
Jesus denies human ideas of respectability and the implicit resulting belief that God is on your side
esp. wealth, social influence, the right qualifications
Paul said his human qualifications were the best. cp. Phil 3
Paul was regarded as 'rich in spirit’ according to human thinking (cp. Mt 5 ‘poor in spirit’)
Great Inversion passages: Song of Miriam, Hannah’s celebration, many psalms, Magnificat, etc.
Lk 6 (cp. SotM)
Jesus generally teaches by contradicting prevailing assumptions
cp. Lk 14
contradicting prevailing belief that if you love and respect your father and mother you’ll do what they say forever
at a feast, don’t take the best place
J wasn’t concerned about that particular issue
The essential message of the inversion is ‘Whosoever will may come'
The meaning of the Beatitudes is the availability of the K to all who trust in J
The prophecy of Daniel
the kingdom that is a stone cut out w/o hands and comes and crushes human order and fills the whole earth and that’s the eventual outcome of the KoG.
The kingdom of this world is become the K of our Lord and of His X. ‘And that’s what puts the Hallelujah in the Hallelujah chorus.'
[have I been getting Dallas wrong on the Beatitudes (also in Lk)? He says ‘You’re blessed in the K even if people think you can’t be.’
And further in Luke: look out if your blessed according to conventional wisdom. Blessing is only in the K.]
'The whole point of the Beatitudes is the inversion of kingdoms and the availability of the KoG to people who are not blessed in the world’s view
[and the warning that those who are blessed in the world’s view should seek the real, eternal blessings that are in the K. Especially be careful not to regard your ‘blessings’ in such a way that you cut yourself off from the real, eternal blessings of the K.
Am I in the right place? Think about Jacob: God was in this place and I did not know it.
Could angels ascend and descend on you?
God is where we are and where we are is the doorway to heaven.
The message of the Beatitudes is that anyone can be blessed in the KoG.
Today: Blessed are the unemployed. Blessed are the fat. Blessed are the mentally ill.
Jews used KotHeavens b/c of their experience with God in the first heaven.
Entering the KotH and going to heaven when you die are two different things
The righteousness of the S and P is doing the right thing
A thief is not only someone who steals but someone who would steal in the right situation.
Leaven is a moving, living [and unseen] force
The leaven of the Ss and Ps hypocrisy. Why?
They wanted to do the right thing.
If you just try to do the right thing or not do the wrong thing you will certainly fail. You have to go to a deeper level of the self.
The mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart
We don’t just say or do the wrong thing. It comes out of our heart.
'As a young minister, Mt 23 got after me. I began to suspect all of the Pharisees weren’t dead.’
Was I helping people?
Clear implication of Mt 23: we should do what we say and we can do what Moses taught.
One of the greatest burdens that will ever fall off of your back is when you learn not to do anything to be seen of men.
'Xians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.’ There’s a lot of distance b/t perfect and forgiven. We want to make progress.
What would this mean in social relationships? We don’t reject others, even those we think are wrong.
How do you fire someone in love? Can you be a soldier and kill someone in battle in love?
Seek their good in the context of everyone involved.
We need to be prepared to do the right thing.
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.
The first thing [anyone] needs to do to stop being in trouble in life is to stop doing things that are wrong.
When we track with the law, God restores our soul and we are in tune with how God created the world to be.
[Jos 1.8]
We will have everything we need in the abundance of God’s provision
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not lack any good thing.
Restoration and Transformation can then bring different thoughts and feelings.
Then actions can be different.
What we think is not completely private, b/c it ultimately affects our actions.
E.g., pornography is not a private issue.
There are lots of things in our political lives that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to think. People of good character have always known that.
In God’s plan, the will trusts Him
In Satan’s plan, the will is absorbed in itself.
How does a sheep go astray? One blade of grass at a time. One nibble at a time.
Our culture is absorbed in sensuality.
There are two forms the will takes
Vital/Impulsive Will: Desire. If I want it, I go for it.
Why we can’t live by desire:
desires conflict with themselves
and conflict with desires of others
Has to have what they want when they want it
Rational/Moral Will: Should be normative for adults
Looks at larger picture
Asks not ‘what do I want?’ but ‘what is good?’
Living in the KoG is the best way to have the larger view of what is good
Character is will settled into habitual patterns of actions
D’ship is when the character of X becomes settled into out habitual patterns of action
We want disciples to be prepared to do what is right w/o thinking. It’s already been ‘outsourced’ to their body and social context.
Peter is the illustration. When he said ‘I won’t deny you’, he meant it
Jesus wasn’t questioning Peter’s intentions, but He knew what was in the rest of Peter and Peter didn’t.
Confession can open up the self to get help to change for the future
We want transparency. You can’t be transparent unless you have learned to trust God and receive forgiveness and are prepared to let Him handle your PR.
Not without grace and not without human effort.
We are commanded to grow in grace, which means we have something to do
'Without me you can do nothing.' Yes, but if we do nothing, it will be without him.'
Grace is God acting in our lives to bring about what we cannot do on our own. It's more than just unmerited favor.
Not opposed to effort, but to earning
Eph 3.8: unto me this grace is given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Grace
1 Cor 15.10: I labored more than all of them … but not I ...
Paul seems to have understood grace best [among the first followers]
2 Cor 9.8
My grace is sufficient for you
Thank God I’m weak b/c then I get to know the power of God working in me
the ordinary events of life are trials and temptations. but we’re not distressed b/c we expect God to act
[I really like Dallas’ personal stories. They help me connect with what he teaches and think ‘I could do this, too.’ A possible project would be to transcribe them for my use and others’ use.
Another project: what are Dallas’ emphases? What are his main ideas? Could these be roughly ranked/ordered using the material on the quotes page? Willard Words
Another: Is there a semi-systematic way to present D’ teaching? This series seems like one of the best outlines in that regard.]
VIM:
Vision -- of goodness of goal
Intention
Means
Desired to win souls. Saw that Jesus spent time alone. Spent time praying alone. Saw fruit. Backed into discipline of solitude.
I used to preach fast b/c I didn’t want to give people time to think. I just wanted them to do what I said.
Focus more on who you are and what you’re becoming than what you’re doing
The most important thing God gets out of my life is the person I become. (And that’s the most important thing I get, too.)
disciplines of abstinence and engagement
engagement w/o abstinence can burn you out
Solitude, silence and fasting are the big three for abstinence
I would encourage anyone to begin to try to have substantial amounts of time every week when they are alone doing nothing. connected to Sabbath, which is a moral law, b/c it has much to do with your well being and the well being of those around you
need to experiment with disciplines. they will confirm themselves to you. expect the Lord to lead you and be with you and He will. if you don't succeed, don't worry. figure out what went wrong, try to fix it and try again.
disciplines are not righteousness, but wisdom
you will begin to experience from God and from your own nature and soul a kind of renewal and strength that will put you in a position to engage in study and worship and celebration in a way you have never done before
and out of this will come a richness of your life in the Kingdom that will allow you to do the things that Jesus said at a walk. and all of the struggle and tension will gradually move out of your life, and you'll understand what it means when Jesus says 'My yoke is easy and my burden is light' (Mt 11.30).
You decide to live as Jesus' student. You begin to obey His teachings. When you fail, you observe why. And then do in reliance on the Spirit what will remove the causes of these failures. You will find that they are disciplines.
You will get out of improper subordination in yourself, where body is running the show, soul is subordinate to that, the mind to the soul, the spirit to the mind and God to the whole shebang.
We have to want to not want what we now want
We have to desire to not have desires we now have
We have to want to not think as we now think
Instead of promising to pray, pray in the moment
Church practice tends to be more traditional than driven by vision or wise to do
Communities used to gather in churches (more or less)
Eph 4
no rejection. offenses dealt with with forbearance and forgiveness. actual communication. no withdrawing and sulking (activities bring people together)
the one thing Xians are known by is loving one another (normatively)
problems are solvable
gifts are active in extraordinary power to accomplish these ends
one of the worst things that happens to the visible people of X is they wind up just being humanly engineered instead
one version of church growth is not more but bigger Xians
people are so solid that they don’t get led astray
‘lay aside’ is something we have to do
mortify — let it die. kill it off. (like a mortgage)
when you’re angry, there needs to be a limit. don’t sin and don’t let the sun go down
passages like this are not the same b/c they aren’t laws. they’re describing a kind of life.
if you become the kind of person who can do one of these things (e.g., bless those who curse you), you will have become the kind of person who can do these other things
we need to develop habits and character b/c (among other reason) the problem with legalism is that you have to be thinking all the time to keep it up and you can’t succeed at that
Leith Anderson quote: Most of the things we worry about most in the church are not mentioned in the NT
Jesus assumed quality of life of disciples would attract people
Logistically, in big cities, we can’t get everyone together at once in one place. There are too many people. We have to change our model.
We tend to think of success in terms of the ABCs of church growth: Attendance, Buildings, Cash
[I think when Dallas is talking about 'ground-zero planning’ he means something more like ‘zero-based budgeting’]
2 Cor 4.7: treasure and vessel
people grow older and weaker
so do institutions. they get inhabited with people who do not share the vision and intention of people who founded
you can almost say that in religion nothing fails like success: the more successful the group becomes, the more people are drawn in that don’t share the essential enthusiasm, spirit, fullness of the HS, zeal for righteousness and X
I was determined to know nothing among except X and Him crucified
We need to grow in prayer so that when we grow old and can’t do much else we are still mighty in prayer
What are you going to be doing 10,000 years from now?
We should have more and more power over the goods of this world for the benefit of those who are here and for the glory of God, maybe through people you minister to.
the primary field of evangelism today is the American church
We have accepted a version of Xianity that does not entail d’ship and people simply don’t see the connection. To present something different is received as bait and switch. ‘I’m a Xian. I’ve accepted Jesus. I’m going to heaven when I die. Why do I need to worry about d’ship?’
You have to renegotiate the contract
Lesson of Uzza: you have to be willing to let the Ark fall or let God save it but not step in and and make something happen in your own power
How a church would do this
1. identify as disciples in the ‘business’ of making disciples
2. teach members to obey J
Yes yes and no no
When we try to manipulate, God will not work in that situation for us, including in church
Our churches often choose b/t the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit. One w/o the other is unbalanced. You need them both together
e.g. Wesleyan class meetings
‘We teach people to do the things Jesus said.’
Love those who don’t go along [in established groups]
The parable of the sower applies to d’ship evangelism, maybe more than anywhere else.
Aim at inward transformation. Obedience to X is the result.
Most of what we do in our churches is not clearly directed to inner transformation.
Look at historical instances, including in the early history of most denominations
You will know people by their fruits
Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the KotH
Not talking about heaven after you die
It is possible to do impressive things (cp. Samson), even with God’s strength, and still not be in rela’p with God
God sometimes does mighty deeds through flawed people b/c He has something He wants to accomplish.
1 Cor is about character problems, though they had plenty of gifts
Some gifts look like you have to be not well balanced to bear them
How can we think we don’t have to do what J said?
Dispensationalism
Southern Baptist Bibles wear out at Rom 1
Charismatic Bibles wear out at Acts 2 or 1 Cor 12 and 14.
But the Gospels remain pristine
Do we believe we can and should do what Jesus said?
We believe we don't have to and probably can't.
goal: talk about the SotM in a way that it will become the substance of our teaching and our lives in such a way that each of us will say 'Yes, this is for me.' and each of us will determine to live out the things Jesus says and become the kind of person who does what He says with the kind of inner life that makes it easy to do.
a roomful of people doing this would turn the world on its ear -- your own transformation spreading out to other people
Another title for the SotM: The Heart that Jesus Gives
- Mt 5.21-26: Lives that are free of anger and contempt
- Mt 5.27-32: Lives that are free of sexual lust and disgust
- Mt 5.33-37: Lives that are free from the desire to dominate and control verbally
- Mt 5.38-42: Lives that are free from grudges, fairness issues and paying back
- Mt 5.43-48: Lives that are free to bless enemies and love those who curse
- Mt 6.1-18: Lives that are free from performance orientation (good deeds), or trusting in your reputation
- Mt 6.19-34: Lives that are free from trust in physical substances, or trusting in money
- Mt 7.1-12: Lives that are free from managing others with condemnation engineering, Lives that are free to live in prayer
- Mt 7.13-27 : Lives that do the Sermon and don't just hear it
- we've established a culture of hearing and not doing
You are the salt of the earth
We can put God in charge of our PR
the true ecumenism these days is obedience to X
if you have a spiritual life that can be hidden, maybe it should be
where you are, that's your appointment, that's what God foresaw for you
you are the light of the world by by living out the Kingdom of God in that place
You're going to do the right thing b/c you're a person of love and you live in faith, a faith that allows you to know that if you do the right thing, God will stand with you
You never have to do anything wrong
When do people say ‘business is business’? When they’re getting ready to do something wrong.
Business is never just business
The order of the S is fundamental, and anyone who does not know where their blessedness is will not be able to go beyond the righteousness of the S and the P
anger is the most fundamental problem in human life (not systematically, but if you aim to transform people)
Jesus isn’t giving theory (which is needed), but He’s founding a com’ty of change
elders should not be quick to anger
love is not easily provoked and it doesn’t stay provoked
anger is dangerous b/c it gets us on a path that leads to harming others
anger is actually will to harm
that’s why we feel hurt when someone is angry at us
anger announces to us that something needs to be changed
anger in emotional realm is like pain in the physical realm, and it is a kind of pain, an uncomfortable feeling
getting caught up in anger sets you on a course of harm
[I wonder if part of the problem of anger is the dissonance for those of us who are committed to not harming. E.g., I might be angry with my child, but also committed to not harming him. If I don’t know how to deal with anger the right way, that’s going to create tension, at least.]
Anger reposes in the bosom of fools
Anger is the response to our will being crossed
Anger is not a sin, it’s natural, but only solid Xian character can keep you safe with anger
God and Jesus get angry, but we can trust them with things we can’t trust ourselves with
[As D said earlier, one big problem with anger is it makes you feel justified]
It can lead to change, and that can be better than other emotions or nothing
acting in anger will provoke anger from the other side
Repression and denial are bad, too
Solution is to learn to lay aside anger
Even warfare can be conducted without anger and contempt (but almost never is). It’s many times worse w/ anger and contempt
Everything you do with anger can be done better without it
[So much of my anger comes from taking things personally that were not meant that way or don’t have to be taken that way]
Many 'leaders’ ‘rule’ by the threat of anger
anger is in our body. we farm character out to our bodies. that’s why it so easily bypasses our mind and spirit. so we act in anger before we think
that’s why we have mean Xians
We have so many angry Xians b/c they’re not taught and trained out of it
[As I struggle with anger this morning, it feels like if I lay it aside the people will get away what they did.
But D talks about this: we can still hold people responsible. We can address the problems, but not in anger.]
Stepping out of anger
It’s a will phenomenon, so you have to begin there
Presupposes that you have surrendered your will to God [which I have not permanently done]
You have accepted the fact that you don’t have to have your way.
[There’s the problem. And why should they get to have their way? And why can’t they be considerate of me?
Surely that’s pure flesh talking.]
Surrendering to the will of God effects a pervasive change in all of our life
This is the meaning of the Cross in spiritual growth and redemption
J did not die on the Cross so that we would not have to. He died on the Cross so that we could join Him.
I have been crucified with X. I have accepted the same posture in my life that He did
If you murmur and complain about life, you lack the first principle of religion: right belief in God. Thankfulness is the right response to God. Complaints express God’s lack of goodness to you. The greatest saint in the world can always thank God. — William Law [paraphrase]
We know that God is taking care of us and our interests are safe.
Example of confronting guy who parked in your space
Responsible humanity means thinking in terms of relationships
God loves that person and me
At this point, not getting what you want is not a big deal
The meaning of the Cross is there is life outside any one particular event
Contempt
regard them as less worthy or worthless, which makes it easier to be angry at them or harm them
[As Keller says, the Germans had to continue holding the Jews in contempt to justify their behavior toward them.
I have seen this in the case of a couple of selfish women who didn’t want to be married anymore.]
Give up perceived ‘right’ to be contemptuous of people
A great moment in our spiritual life is when we give up the right to be angry or contemptuous
Do inductive Bible study of anger/angry
[Dallas doesn't say much about how depression results from repressing anger]
‘Everything I say to you has to come out of the Bible. If it’s not Biblical, we don’t want it.’
Then Jesus goes on to the positive side: If you remember your brother has something against you, leave your offering…
[If we haven’t gotten to the place where we see the necessity of this, it’s b/c we don’t have the vision of the goodness of obeying Jesus and we haven’t decided to learn to do it. I’ve been stuck in between belief and obedience for 30 years b/c no one could point me in the right direction.]
Jesus picks a case where we are tempted to value the ritual over the moral
Lust
Distinguish:
1. thought
2. inclination (temptation)
3. readiness
We give ourselves over to imagining. It’s part of our sensual culture, cherishing feelings
If we view the other person as God does, it will disarm lust
Old cues to lust become cues to pray and bless
Since we have already surrendered self-will, we will not feel deprived
go through VIM:
V: I will be ok
I: Decide to be a different kind of person
M: Take intelligent necessary steps
Ps 16.8: I have set the Lord always before me. He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Don’t resist them the same way they’re resisting you. Don’t slap them back. Remain vulnerable.
We can’t do all these things in ch 5 in our own strength, by our control
But if we’ve given up that method, we will be able to do theses things as we are transformed
usually you will give to those who ask of you when they have a need
there will be times when you don’t b/c love obliges you to do something different
Jesus is contradicting the conventional wisdom, teaching that children in the K will, in many cases, contravene that thinking
Turning Jesus’ teachings into legalism makes Him look like an idiot.
[However, this is no door for antinomianism. He still wants us to obey His commands.]
‘Telioi’ doesn’t mean ‘legal perfection’. It means ‘functional completeness, ’ it means function in love and K reality as your Father in Heaven does.
[If ‘telioi’ means ‘functional completeness’ is it in the neighborhood of the wholeness of ‘shalom’?]
Divine Conspiracy 12: Prayer
SotM ch6
Jesus is not giving laws. You have to read this rightly or it will drive you nuts.
They’re expressions of a kind of life. You get it and you will see these kinds of things happen.
v1-18: not performing for human consumption, to impress people
we have a big problem with this in our churches
often there’s a good motive: we want to keep people coming back
there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good service, but that’s not the object
the object is to bring people closer to X and more fulfilled in the kind of life that is in Him
the way church services are approached is most like theater
that becomes a grind for the leaders and we have to reject it
the three main areas of performance are:
- giving
- being noticed is not the problem, but doing things to be noticed
- can counteract w/ discipline of secrecy
- fasting
- the purpose of fasting is to align ourselves w/ what God is doing
- when you are fasting, you are receiving from God
- man does not live by bread alone…
- I have food to eat that you don’t know…
- fasting is feasting on another world
- fasting affirms the reality of that world and draws upon it
- study fasting inductively
- prayer
we don’t give to the church b/c the church needs it, but to be a part of what God is doing
last half of Mt 6 is about trusting money
don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…
how do you lay up treasure in heaven? you can’t send money there. the only thing that goes to heaven is people.
the treasure in heaven is God
the only way to send money to heaven is to invest it in people and God
we need money, but we trust God to supply it and not the apparent sources
this is the only way, ironically, to escape worry
sometimes we need to look back and see how God has provided in the past b/c it’s easy to forget
discipline of Celebration can help: enjoying things in the memory of the good that God has done for us
Celebration is counting your blessings. God has provided
since God has provided in the past, we can trust Him in the future
the person who trusts God is no more worried about the future than he is about the past — Jeremy Taylor
you need money and you can ask for it or work, but you’re not trusting those means, but the God who provides
Give us this day, bread for today
not for tomorrow. God will be there tomorrow
[manna is in view, which can only be collected for today (excluding the Sabbath)]
[also, Rollin Grams referred to Proverbs 30:
8b give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.]
Mt 7.1-12: Living in the non-condemning com’ty of prayer
trying to manipulate people by condemnation
even if the goal is good behavior
difference b/t condemnation/judging and discerning
judgment includes condemnation, superiority and even contempt
the log is condemnation
ways we try to help people that don’t work
don’t give holy things to dogs or hogs
not: don’t waste holy things on hopeless people
rather: give people something they can use
many people are loath to give up unforgiveness b/c they think it’s a means of pressuring people into doing the right thing, like if we don’t forgive maybe they’ll stop. or if I forgive, they’ll get off w/o paying
this teaching does not mean we don’t try to help people or that we let things go that should be addressed
instead, we should ask them, seek and knock (progressive)
[At first blush, my thought is we’re supposed to ask, seek, knock God about them instead of condemning them.
This is normally taken as teaching about prayer, but in the flow, with the Golden Rule coming next, it makes sense to interpret as how to help people
But Dallas could be right, of course :-)]
asking is a great power
some people will cross the street so as not to be asked by a beggar
a dog watching you eat is a compelling form of asking
One big function of Peter is to be able to see what to do and what not to do
Lk 22
Satan has asked to sift you
Jesus didn’t forbid it. He prayed for Peter to make it through
[What did Satan ask re: Judas? What did Jesus pray for him?]
Prayer is a way for us to inquire of God about things that are too big for us to address otherwise
Prayer is talking to God about what we’re doing together
John Wimber’s method: talk to people, pray for what they need, ask if anything is happening, pray more adjusted by feedback
we have a part to play and something to do, but we can’t make it happen
like power steering
as you pray, the answer will often not be what you had in mind
the parable of the unjust judge
parable of the man who asks for bread late at night
the power of the request. shamelessness
[and children don’t need to feel shame to ask from their parent]
prayer allows us to count: to be free, but also significant
it’s God’s arrangement
does prayer change what God wasn’t going to do or was going to do?
does prayer make a difference? is the universe the kind of place that is affected by prayer?
the arrangement allows us to be involved and to begin to make a difference
the smallest can make a contribution that God can act with
acting with God is the secret of life in the KoG
you can step in and begin without hurting yourself
the widow’s two mites
how could she have put in more than all the rest? she acted with God.
Little is much if God is in it
The Lord’s Prayer
Dallas’ version
[What do you consider more likely: That Jesus never really said those things that make us uncomfortable or that He did and we have explained them away?]
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