Thursday, January 30, 2014

Dallas Notes: Understanding the Person: Including the Invisible Parts (February 22, 2013)

This was a talk Dallas gave at the February 2013 Dallas Willard Center "Knowing Christ Today" conference in Santa Barbara, California.

IVP has made them available on a DVD called Living in Christ's Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God and this is talk five.


Grace is God acting in our lives to do what we cannot do on our own
it goes beyond unmerited favor

Present your body, a living and holy sacrifice
     we are a nonphysical being with a physical body
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind

If we don't think Jesus was the smartest man who ever lived, we will think someone else is...

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. Mk 12

Heart
the will or spirit
source of creativity, power to originate
executive center of self
have will set on what is best for God above everything else, that's how you love God with all your heart
love is the disposition to bring good into the object that is loved
we are able to participate in His life by setting our will toward what is good for Him
to love God with all your heart is to have your will and spirit entirely set on what is good for God

Mind
thoughts and feeling, capacity to represent things
will depends on mind and vice versa
what is on your mind sets scene for will to choose
and reflects where heart is
to love God with all of your mind is to take your feelings and thoughts and devote them entirely to what is good for God
when this happens, many things won't show up in your mind
and, therefore, you'll never think about doing it
revealing of character: if you have to think about whether or not you're going to do things that are wrong, there's something wrong with your mind. you have to work on your mind. may be feelings or representations (and they go together)
what you habitually feel is a major feature of your mind and it is tied to what you think about

Social
to love God is to love neighbor as self
inject what is good for God in all relationships

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