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RENOVATION OF THE HEART
Dallas Willard
Page 20
Recently, however, a widespread and intense interest in spiritual formation,
under that very name, has arisen among many groups of Christians and their
leaders. Why is that? It is mainly due to a realization - confirmed now
by many thorough and careful studies, as well as overwhelming anecdotal
evidence - that, in its current and recent public forms, Christianity
has not been imparting effectual answers to the vital questions of human
existence. At least not to wide ranges of self-identifying Christians,
and obviously not to nonChristians. And spiritual formation has now presented
itself as a hopeful possibility for responding to the crying, unmet need
of the human soul. The hope springs once again for a response to the need
that is both deeply rooted in Christian traditions and powerfully relevant
to circumstances of contemporary life.
Distinctively Christian Spiritual Formation-page 22
We can say, in a preliminary manner, that spiritual formation for the
Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the
inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner
being of Christ himself.
A Brief Initial Survey of the Six Human Dimensions-page 32-37
Thought
Thought brings things before our minds in various ways (including perception
and imagination) and enables us to consider them in various respects and
trace out their interrelationships with one another.
Feelings
Feeling inclines us toward or away from things that come before our minds
in thought.
Will (Spirit, Heart)
Volition, or choice, is the exercise of will, the capacity of the person
to originate things and events that would not otherwise be or occur.
Without the inner "yes" there is no sin, for only that "yes"
(or "no") is just us. The thought if sin is not even a temptation.
Temptation is the thought plus the inclination to sin - possibly manifested
by lingering over the thought or seeking it out. But sin itself is when
we inwardly say "yes" to the temptation, when we would do the
deed, even though we do not actually do it.
And just as thought and feeling are inseparable, so volition is closely
intertwined with them. To choose, one must have some object or concept
before the mind and some feeling for or against it. There is no choice
that does not involve both thought and feeling. On the other hand, what
we feel and think is (or can and should be) to a very large degree a matter
of choice in competent adult persons, who will be very careful about what
they allow their mind to dwell upon or what they allow themselves to feel.
This is crucial to the practical methods of spiritual formation.
Body
The body is the focal point of our presence in the physical and social
world. In union with it we come into existence, and we become the person
we shall forever be. It is our primary energy source or "strength"
- our personalized "power pack" - a place where we can even
stand in defiance of God, at least for a while. And it is the point through
which we are stimulated by the world beyond ourselves and where we find
and are found by others.
But at the same time, this amazing capacity of the body means that it
(like the other dimensions of human life) can be re-formed to become our
ally in Christ likeness. Such a re-formation of the body is one major
part of the process of spiritual formation, as we shall see. The body
is not, in the biblical view, essentially evil; and, while it is infected
with evil, it can be delivered. Spiritual formation is also and essentially
a bodily process. It cannot succeed unless the body is also transformed.
Social Context
The human self requires rootedness in others. This is primarily an ontological
matter - a matter of being what we are. It is not just a moral matter,
a matter of what ought to be. And the moral aspect of it grows out of
the ontological.
Soul
The soul is that dimension of the person that interrelates all of the
other dimensions so that they form one life. It is like a meta-dimension
or higher-level dimension because its direct field of play consists of
the other dimensions (thought, body, and so on), and through them it reaches
ever deeper into the person's vast environment of God and his creation.
We must clearly understand that there is a rigorous consistency in the
human self and its actions. This is one of the things we are most inclined
to deceive ourselves about. If I do evil, I am the kind of person who
does evil; if I do good, I am the kind of person who does good (1 John
3:7-10). Actions are not impositions on who we are, but are expressions
of who we are. They come out of our heart and the inner realities it supervises
and interacts with.
Being Lost-page 55-59
Considerable confusion on this topic has resulted from trying to think
of being lost in terms of its outcome. Theologically, that outcome is
hell - a most uncomfortable notion. Certainly, if you are lost in any
sense there is little likelihood of your arriving where you want to be.
But the condition of lostness is not the same as the outcome to which
it leads. We're not lost because we are going to wind up in the wrong
place. We are going to wind up in the wrong place because we are lost.
Hell
But their orientation toward self leads them to become the kind of
person for whom away-from-God is the only place for which they are suited.
It is a place they would, in the end, choose for themselves, rather than
come to humble themselves before God and accept who he is.
One should seriously inquire if to live in a world permeated with God
and the knowledge of God is something they themselves truly desire. If
not, they can be assured that God will excuse them from his presence.
We should be very sure that the ruined soul is not one who has missed
a few more or less important theological points and will flunk a theological
examination at the end of life. Hell is not an "oops!" or a
slip. One does not miss heaven by a hair, but by constant effort to avoid
and escape God. "Outer darkness" is for one who, everything
said, wants it, whose entire orientation has slowly and firmly set itself
against God and therefore against how the universe actually is.
Spiritual Change
The Reliable Pattern-page 77
We have looked, now, at the basic dimensions of the human self and at
the central principle of its dysfunctionality and corruption (that is,
self-denial). Spiritual formation in Christ is the process by which one
moves and is moved from self-worship to Christ-centered self-denial as
a general condition of life in God's present and eternal kingdom.
Page 85
Any successful plan for spiritual formation, whether for the individual
or group, will in fact be significantly similar to the Alcoholics Anonymous
program. There can be no doubt that the AA program originated and gained
its power from Christian sources, to meet needs that Christian institutions
at the time should have been meeting but were not. It works in terms of
essential structures of the human self- revealed by God through his people.
< Vision
< Intention
< Means
Page 91
So the problem of spiritual transformation (the normal lack thereof) among
those who identify themselves as Christians today is not that it is impossible
or that effectual means to it are not available. The problem is that it
is not intended. People do not see it and its value and decide to carry
through with it. They do not decide to do the things Jesus did and said.
Page 99
Jesus of curse understood the great significance of images and has, indeed,
become one himself. Intentionally. He also carefully selected an image
that brilliantly conveys himself and his message: the cross. The cross
presents the lostness of man as well as the sacrifice of God and the abandonment
to God that brings redemption. No doubt it is the all-time most powerful
image and symbol of human history. Need we say he knew what he was doing
in selecting it? He planned it all and is also the Master of images. For
their own benefit, his followers need to keep the image of the cross vividly
present in their mind.
Page 100
Ideas and images are, accordingly, the primary focus of Satan's efforts
to defeat God's purposes with and for humankind. When we are subject to
his chosen ideas and images, he can take a nap or a holiday. Thus when
he undertook to draw Eve away from God, he did not hit her with a stick,
but with an idea. It was with the idea that God could not be trusted and
that she must act on her own to secure her own well being.
This is the basic idea back of all temptation: God is presented as depriving
us by his commands of what is good, so we think we must take matters into
our own hands and act contrary to what he has said.
Page 101
To manipulate images - and thereby people - is the work of the propagandist
and the advertiser.
The Vision of Oneself As Really Different-page 120
For most people all of this only comes to them after they "hit bottom"
and discover the total hopelessness of being who they are. Most people
cannot envision who they would be without the fears, angers, lusts, power
ploys, and woundedness with which they have lived so long.
How The Mind Depends On The Will-page 142-143
What we think is, in the adult person, very much a matter of what we
allow ourselves to think, and what we feel is very much a matter of what
we allow ourselves to feel. Moreover, what we think is very much a matter
of what we wish and seek to think, and what we feel is very much a matter
of what we wish and seek to feel. In short, the condition of our mind
is very much a matter of the direction in which our will is set.
If I do not want that, it will be necessary to changes my thoughts and
feelings. Just resolving "not to do it again" will be of little
use. Will alone cannot carry us to change. But will implemented through
changing my thoughts and feelings can result in my becoming the kind of
person who just doesn't do that kind of thing anymore.
So we have the answer to our question: Single-minded and joyous devotion
to God and his will, to what god wants for us - and to service to him
and to others because of him - is what the will transformed into Christlikeness
looks like. That is the outcome of Christian spiritual formation with
reference to the will, heart, or spirit. And this outcome becomes our
character when it has become the governing response of every dimension
of our being. Then we can truly be said to have "put on Christ."
Page 214
The basic practice of Western Christianity today is, I fear, strongly
antinomian. Here is a true story from the current Christian scene. Test
our theology on it: A Man - a long-time, faithful church member - comes
to his pastor and says, "I'm going to divorce my wife and marry someone
else." The pastor, aghast, says, "You can't do that! You're
a devoted Christian, and so is your wife. Divorce in these circumstances
is clearly wrong." "Yes, " the man replies, "I know
that, but I'm going to do it anyway. I just can't stand her any longer.
I know it's wrong, but after it's all over Ill ask God for forgiveness
and he will forgive me. He must, because I believe that Christ died for
me. That's what you teach."
You can extend this to imaginary cases: murdering someone who "deserves
it," a once-in-a-lifetime, career-making, crooked deal, and so forth.
How precisely, does our version of salvation rule out a judicious use
of sin? And what does growth in Christlikeness mean if one can hold such
a use in reserve? Just something to think about.
Page 238
Now I must say something you can be mad at me about. A fundamental mistake
of the conservative side of the American church today, and much of the
Western church, is that it takes as its basic goal to get as many people
as possible ready to die and go to heaven. It aims to get people into
heaven rather than to get heaven into people. This of course requires
that these people, who are going to be "in," must be right on
what is basic. You can't really quarrel with that. But it turns out that
to be right on "what is basic" is to be right in terms of the
particular church vessel or tradition in question, not in terms of Christlikeness.
Page 239
As a result they actually fall far short of getting as many people as
possible ready to die, because the lives of the "converted"
testify against the reality of "the life that is life indeed"
(ontos zoas, 1 Timothy 6:19, PAR). The way to get as many people into
heaven as you can is to get heaven into as many people as you can - that
is, to follow the path of genuine spiritual transformation or full-throttle
discipleship to Jesus Christ. When we are counting up results we also
need to keep in mind the multitudes of people (surrounded by churches)
who will not be in heaven because they have never, to their knowledge,
seen the reality of Christ in a living human being.
Page 243
Most professing Christians today have "prayed to receive Christ"
because they felt a need and would like him to help them deal with it.
Now, one cannot lay a satisfactory foundation for spiritual formation
or growth in grace by approaching people in terms of "the trouble
they are in." I do not say that "felt needs" are to be
disregarded, but in human affairs the "presenting problem" -
the thing that needs to be fixed now - is rarely the real problem. One
should of course be sympathetic with people who are lonely, guilt-ridden,
and incapable of dealing with life, and so on, but these are not their
problem.
Their problem is that they have rejected God, for whatever reason, and
have chosen to live life on their own. They have not surrendered their
will to him. They do not want to do what God says to do, but what they
think is best. And they are lost because of that, in the sense explained
in an earlier chapter. They do not know what their real needs are and
do not think of themselves as rebels and outlaws who must radically change
because they are not acceptable to God. They do not think they need the
grace of God for radical transformation of who they are, but that they
just need a little help. They are good people. Or so it seems to them.
Page 246
So what should we expect of a local congregation of disciples of Jesus.
If we come at it from the viewpoint of New Testament realities - "principles
and absolutes" - and the highest ideals of historic Christianity,
we should expect it to be a place where divine life and power is manifestly
present to glorify God and meet the needs of repentant human beings. This
would imply an atmosphere of honesty, openness, indiscriminate acceptance
of all, supernatural caring, with utter admiration for and confidence
in Jesus.
Eliminating Performance-page 246
Performance is where we try to make an impression rather than just be
what we are. The element of performance would be absent in the Trinitarian
gathering, as would constant solicitude concerning "How did the service
go?" God is the primary agent in the gathering. The truth is, from
the only point of view that matters - God's - it is very likely no human
knows how the service went; and in any case that cannot be judged by reading
overt responses of the attendees.
Copyright
©2003 by Wade Hodges, All Rights Reserved
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