Interview: Dallas Willard on Renovation of the Heart
pressing need to make things clear
our real existence in ordinary life is the place where redemption is realized
we need help and challenge to become apprentices of Jesus in Kingdom living
very few people have been presented with that challenge
learn from Him to do everything, word and deed, in His name
we need to be gripped with the vision of what this would mean
might need to get clear first on understanding of life w/o Jesus
how would you like to be the person Jesus describes in Mt 5?
need to redirect mind. things that used to occupy it no longer do
eg, very little value in television
work with body. might need more rest. can't be focusing on pleasures of the body, pampering, etc.
moves amazingly fast once you start to do it
[has that been my experience? am I moving too slowly? I have seen some movement.]
have to stop doing many things
solitude is important in this pursuit
can't directly measure spiritual maturity, but some indicators are:
irritability (comes from over-concern, lack of rest, trying too hard to make things happen)
when you see an accident, where does your mind go? do you pray?
ease of obedience
capacity to pay attention to people
we're not waiting on God. He has already acted. His hand is at work. His Spirit is moving in us.
so what intelligent behaviors that we see in Jesus can we begin to practice to experience the interaction of God with us to a greater degree?
He will respond to us in ways that will change us and enable us to do things we can't and enable and encourage us and lead us onward to the kind of character that helps us to obey Jesus
some people who seem to be moving along well seem to get bored with it and want to take a vacation from God
[or it doesn't feel like the effort is worth the reward, which is just plain misapprehension, not remembering the hopelessness of being lost]
[sometimes, I think, our lives improve enough from following God that we don't feel the need to work as hard at it until they devolve back to more pain and lack of peace, etc. like with dieting, when some of the pain and pressure is removed by some weight loss.]
acedia
you have to re-start to meet God
[and you feel like you have tried it and it didn't work, so why bother?
God isn't going to meet me or help me so why bother seeking him? that's the feeling, in my experience]
usually they're stuck until they experience the bitterness of life w/o God, and then they're willing to pay the price to come back to Him
Jesus said if you obey my commandments, I and the Father will come and live with you. that will give your life the kind of strength and direction it's supposed to have
pastors and churches need to do less of what normally passes for normal church life and activity
[b/c we don't have a vision of what life can be and how we should be working on it]
focus for 6 weeks on how to bless those who curse you
do that on 2 or 3 things and everything else will be either easy or automatic b/c this is a way of life that carries over to all areas
No comments:
Post a Comment