Category Archives: Spiritual Formation

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Leadership Prayer: Bringing Our Desires to Fruition


It’s been a while since I posted something real time between posting my notes from the Knowing Christ conference in February (20 posts, more than 15,000 words. Whew!) and a few Easter season reposts on Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. (You can, by the way, access all of those “Knowing Christ” notes on a single page on my website now. So here’s a journal entry when I reflected on one of Paul’s prayers for a church:

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul’s leadership prayer for the Thesslonians in this case was to ask that God would do a work that enables them to be worthy of His choice of them. I understand this to be a worthiness of loving God back, not a worthiness of performance for God. It is living for God’s pleasure rather than my own (though the fact is that my truest and deepest pleasure actually is God’s for me).

Paul also prays that they would experience God’s empowerment and provision so that every good desire in their hearts would come to full fruition. Paul asks God to enable Christ’s followers in Thessalonica to do everything they have in their hearts to do to bring pleasure and credit to their Father in heaven. Paul believes that this will result in the beauty and weightiness of Christ to be with each of us and with all of us. And all this happens according to the generous favor of the Father and the Son.

What would it look like for this prayer to be answered in your life? In your family you’re your ministry? For whom would you like to offer up this prayer right now?

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Easter Sunday: He is Risen!


A model of a tomb with the stone rolled away in present-day Nazareth.

A model of a tomb with the stone rolled away in present-day Nazareth.

Three simple words capture the meaning of this day: “He is risen.” What does that little phrase mean to me today?

He is risen. Who is He? He is Jesus the Christ. He is the One who is God who came to dwell among us. He is the One who suffered, died and was buried. This is the he who is risen. Today is about him, not about a theological position about Him. Jesus is Risen. How is He inviting me to make him the focus of this day?

He is risen. He really is. The words aren’t, “He was risen” as a way of acknowledging a historical fact. He was indeed risen, but the message today isn’t just a bit of history. It is a living and present reality. He is risen. And the “is” speaks to our loving, trusting relationship with Him in the present. “Was” would focus on a past encounter with His risenness, but “is” says that he is risen today. Where do I need to encounter the power and vitality of His new life today?

He is risen. He is many things that I can celebrate. He is love. Amen. He is good. Absolutely. Today, though, I remember that He is risen. He really is vitally present with me. I am risen with him. And because he is risen, I can and will rightfully exalt him—lift him up. I can let him be risen in my thoughts and intentions. I can look up to the Risen One in this day of remembrance.

He is risen. He is risen indeed! Let’s set our hearts and minds on this good and vital reality today. Let’s be risen with Him. Relish in His risenness.

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Dallas Willard: Knowing Christ: Blessing and Commitment


In late February, I had the treat of sitting under the teaching of Dallas Willard and John Ortberg at the Knowing Christ Conference sponsored by the Martin Institute/Dallas Willard Center at Westmont College. I took dozens of pages of notes, which I’m editing and sharing over a number of posts.

My standard disclaimer is that these are insights that I gained from listening to Dallas. They are sometimes his exact words. They are sometimes my own words or reflections. So, don’t assume that every word here is straight from him. And these are lightly edited, so bear with possible typos or grammatical goofs. With that in mind, I pray these notes will help you in your own journey with Christ.

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We want to come to the point of constant blessing moving out through us to everyone around us. It doesn’t involve talking all the time, but Jesus promised that blessing from Him would flow through us. We need to consciously engage that. We’re not talking about a formal, pastoral blessing.

What is blessing? Blessing is the projection of good into the life of another. It isn’t merely words. It is the actual putting forth of your will for the good of another person. It always involves God. Only God is capable of bringing good to another. We naturally say, “God bless you,” and that’s right. You bless someone when you will their good by invoking God on their behalf. This is the nature of blessing. God wants us to receive blessing from Him and extend it to others. We should even bless those who curse us. A curse is the projection of evil into the life of another. Jesus wants us projecting good and not evil, no matter to whom.

We have to lay evil aside because it’s already here. So oppressive, so hurtful. Bless and curse not. We will the good of others, even enemies, under the invocation of God.

Deepening that beyond a verbal performance. And not “bless you” through gritted teeth. It’s a generous outpouring of our whole being into blessing the other. Blessings shouldn’t be hurried or thoughtless. We put our whole self into our blessing. Thoughtful. Unhurried. One of the challenges is to get the other person to hold still long enough to receive a blessing.

I’ll be asking you to bless one another. We need to be careful when we are receiving to not think yet about blessing someone back. It’s a challenge to just receive. It’s part of the grace of life to receive blessing without immediate thought of debt. It is an act of grace and not indebtedness. We must have time to do this. A calm soul can receive a blessing.

Church benedictions are usually a moment when we’re already thinking of where we’re heading next (Lunch? Home?)

            Think about saying this to someone, if possible, looking in their eyes. Underline “you”. I mean “you” as a unique person.

Numbers 6:24-26 (with commentary included)

  • 24“ ‘ “The Lord bless you (God send good to you)
  • and keep you; (protection, the Spirit be over you)
  • 25the Lord make his face shine on you (The shining face of God. Living before the shining face of God. Think of a grandparent’s face shining on their grandchild. Radiance. Our faces were meant to shine. Glory was meant to shine through our countenance. Glory always shines.)
  • and be gracious to you; (I welcome the flow of love and God’s activity in creating what is good in another’s life).
  • 26the Lord turn his face toward you (or “lift up his countenance.” May the Lord look right at you personally. The manifest presence of God is basically what this is about. He is everywhere, but not manifest everywhere.)
  • and give you peace.”’ (Peace comes in the presence of God. To have God’s shining face over us and to have Him looking to us. Peace. God is open to our lives, our concerns. We’re asking the blessing that another would abide in the peace of God. That the atmosphere of God’s reality would rest upon the one we are blessing).

 

You certainly can use other language, but it’s hard to improve on God’s language here.

What if we thought of church as a place of receiving and giving blessing? Do we provide time and space for such blessing?

Blessing puts me in a place to stand and do the things Jesus taught. It’s a place of secure and reliable grace. If I struggle somewhere, bring the blessing into that place. It is impossible to bless another and harm them at the same time. This can transform all of life.

Imagine now becoming a person of blessing, and that this characterizes me. I can be a person so full of grace and blessing that it flows from me to many others. The reality of the church becomes an overwhelming presence of blessing.

I can come to think of myself as a person of blessing from whom overflows a continual expression of grace.

I wish for you hope and inspiration in these sessions, that you would find it rising up within you that you could be a blessed person who has plenty of blessing to share with others. This can become my identity. Keep that blessing flowing.

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John Ortberg: Knowing Christ: Disciplines for Christian Leaders (Part 3)


jortberg_0In late February, I had the treat of sitting under the teaching of Dallas Willard and John Ortberg at the Knowing Christ Conference sponsored by the Martin Institute/Dallas Willard Center at Westmont College. I took dozens of pages of notes, which I’m editing and sharing over a number of posts.

My standard disclaimer is that these are insights that I gained from listening to John. They are sometimes his exact words. They are sometimes my own words or reflections. So, don’t assume that every word here is straight from him. And these are lightly edited, so bear with possible typos or grammatical goofs. With that in mind, I pray these notes will help you in your own journey with Christ.

- – -

      What would have it been like to be at that little Friends church with Richard Foster as pastor and a Sunday school teacher like Dallas Willard.

What if the work that Dallas has given his life to recapture of the beauty of the kingdom in our day and to make the pursuit of the “with God” life and human transformation an accessible reality for ordinary people did not rise and fall with him, but became a river, and then a great flood of life? What if, by the hundreds and thousands, men and women in our day should turn again to the living Jesus as their actual Friend, Teacher, Guide and Power? What if the experiential knowledge of God—wisdom about the nature of the human condition and its transformation became standard operating procedure in the church? What if leaders of all types were first of all devoted to transformation of ourselves, and then found a way to make it available to others? What if churches became schools of life? What if people in the surrounding community flocked to learn how to live? We can’t engineer a revolution, but we have a part to play.

 

Conversation:

John: Is the church at a point of decision? As we think about the future for the church, talk about what it could be like.

Dallas: Could, should and is—disciples of Jesus would be conscious of one another beyond the boundaries of their local organizations or assemblies. When you look at the emergence of Jesus and his followers, this was the predominant fact. They supported and affirmed one another. That stands out. Paul’s letters were to the holy ones in [city]. He didn’t write to many different churches in one city. The main step in the move forward is that disciples become conscious of others nearby. A different quality of fellowship and life would emerge. The manifest presence of God in an area might rise through united followers in that place.

We should talk about the body of Christ built by the Trinity in an area without regard for differences in tradition or denomination.

John: How do we do that in a way that works? Interfaith councils almost never feel life-giving like you’ve just described.

Dallas: We arrange our time together where we actually share what is going on in our souls. We don’t talk about community affairs, ecumenical efforts, church comparisons, etc. Exchanging soul work is what needs to go on in these gatherings. Sharing lives, sharing experiences of Christ together. Share about their families. Share intimate things rather than peripheral things.

The real work is sharing our lives. Don’t mistake church services for the real life of Christ. Remember what is central. What is our “seek first”?

One thing that is the mark of the disciplines is simply: loving one another. God’s business is to love the world. We should care about it, but don’t have the capacity to love it as God does. We should focus first on loving other disciples. And they aren’t partitioned into different traditions. One body. One Spirit. Etc. This something would begin to move of its own power.

John: How do we help people ask questions about their soul formation?

Dallas: Slowly. One-at-a-time. Listen well. Ask the question: What’s bothering you? Listen more. How are you and God doing? That might be revolutionary. It would be getting closer to the AA model.

If you are in recovery, how’s that going? What hindering you? How can we help? Address those issues. Get to the heart of things. Quit dancing around the edges. This is a divine work not a technique.

John: We often end up either talking about abstract theology, or religious exercises, or therapeutic talk with a few Bible verse. You’re talking about really sharing our lives and their concrete realities and deeply tied to Jesus and His way.

Dallas: At 11:00, we’re going to talk about blessing one another. It’s rare. It only seems to be an occasional and official act. Blessing souls. We don’t go there for fear of judgment. Rejection is one of the most brutal things that we do to one another—in word or deed.

The shepherd is meant to become involved in the lives of persons. We have to find freedom to be totally vulnerable in a safe place. We have to be prepared to trust God entirely with what will happen when I go into these places with others. That’s the easy yoke and light burden. Getting there is our main problem.

Ask what’s bothering people, and not what they think is supposed to be bothering them. Listen for what God is doing alongside listen to another.

Ch. 1 of Life Together is priceless (Bonhoeffer). When I meet with another, we meet in the presence of Christ.

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John Ortberg: Knowing Christ: Disciplines for Christian Leaders (Part 2)


jortberg_0In late February, I had the treat of sitting under the teaching of Dallas Willard and John Ortberg at the Knowing Christ Conference sponsored by the Martin Institute/Dallas Willard Center at Westmont College. I took dozens of pages of notes, which I’m editing and sharing over a number of posts.

My standard disclaimer is that these are insights that I gained from listening to John. They are sometimes his exact words. They are sometimes my own words or reflections. So, don’t assume that every word here is straight from him. And these are lightly edited, so bear with possible typos or grammatical goofs. With that in mind, I pray these notes will help you in your own journey with Christ.

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      Disciplines disrupt the normal pattern of thoughts and feelings in me to give room for new ones. You can’t so much choose your attitude, but you can, over time, disrupt one attitude and gradually replace it with another.

Joy? One of the great invitations and commands. What disciplines would help? OT Feasts, for example. Eat good food you love. Deut. 14 – Those at a distance use their tithe to buy the best food for a great feast.

The discipline of celebration. Maybe one day a week you eat and drink what you love, listen to great music. Wear comfortable, attractive clothes. Etc.

Solitude: I deliberately withdraw from people, work, external stimulation. Dallas talks about disciplines of abstinence (non-doing, or maybe undoing) and disciplines of engagement (doing). Fasting and silence are abstaining from food or conversation. Sins of omission (don’t do right) and commission (do what’s wrong). Is my doing muscle or non-doing muscle strong or weak?

      Disciplines of disengagement help me overcome sins of commission. Disciplines of engagement help me overcome sins of omission.

The discipline of fasting helps with issues of lustful behaviors, for example.

We aren’t going for records of spirituality. We are seeking to train ourselves for godliness.

Creativity and spontaneity is good. They can accompany a life of discipline.

Dallas story: We were talking about reading. What should I read? “When it comes to reading, aim at depth, not breadth. If you get depth, you will have breadth thrown in. If you aim at bredth, you get neither.” I read Dallas’s book over and over and over. Osmosis.

When it comes to disciplines, solitude is a basic practice. So is community. Certain practices will always be fundamental.

Solitude is about what I don’t do. Deliberate withdrawal to be alone with the Father. Eliminate all the scaffolding in my life. Jesus practices this so regularly. 40 days in the wilderness. Mark 1:35. Before choosing disciplines. After feeding 5,000. I might meditate. I might study. I might pray. There might be engagement. But what matters in solitude most is the non-doing. Undistracted, I find out what is in my mind.

In the beginning, solitude felt to me like an enormous waste of time. That’s not a bad definition of it. Just waste time with God.

Easy for me in the church to think my identity is determined by the opinions of others. In solitude, I feel that leave my body. I hear the voice of the Father, “You are my beloved son.”

In solitude, I’m free. Disciplines are always about producing freedom. Discipline frees a musician to play a challenging piece well and easily. If a discipline does not produce freedom, something’s not right.

Study: I immerse my mind in thoughts that lead towards the kingdom. “Flow.” Consciousness is central to what it means to be human. “When left to itself, the mind turns to bad thoughts, trivial plans, sad memories and worries about the future.”

Paul tells us that the mind controlled by the sinful nature is death.

The discipline of service: How do you pursue humility? Do you ‘try’ to be humble? The next thing that happens is, “Look at my humility!” Servanthood as a practice indirectly develops humility.

Romans 12:1-2 – “Beseech” (an appeal to the will), offer your bodies, be transformed by the renewing of your minds. How?

Information does not change my physical reality. It isn’t sufficient. By experiment, we can come to believe in our bodies that we are safe.

We need a ropes course for discipleship so we come to believe with our whole bodies what we believe about discipleship. Even my sweat glands, hormones, etc. come to believe. Spiritual disciplines help my body learn new habits.

“Present your body” is making it available to God through practices.

Through regular practices, transformation eventually wins. The spiritual life is a domain of actual practice.

I once asked Dallas where are the churches doing this? Many do teaching, music, evangelism, assimilation, justice/compassion amazingly. Where are the churches producing abnormally loving, joyful, courageous people in inexplicably high percentages?

Not a question of technique or methodology.

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John Ortberg: Knowing Christ: Disciplines for Christian Leaders (Part 1)


jortberg_0In late February, I had the treat of sitting under the teaching of Dallas Willard and John Ortberg at the Knowing Christ Conference sponsored by the Martin Institute/Dallas Willard Center at Westmont College. I took dozens of pages of notes, which I’m editing and sharing over a number of posts.

My standard disclaimer is that these are insights that I gained from listening to John. They are sometimes his exact words. They are sometimes my own words or reflections. So, don’t assume that every word here is straight from him. And these are lightly edited, so bear with possible typos or grammatical goofs. With that in mind, I pray these notes will help you in your own journey with Christ.

- – -

Now we get to some of the “how” of what we’ve been talking about.

Two extended passages: Colossians 3:1-14. Set our hearts/minds on the kingdom. What will it be like to appear gloriously. And 2 Peter 1:1-11.

Can we just live in this counsel. Is my church producing people like these passages describe?

The “how” is answered with insights from spiritual practices.

I didn’t like Dallas’s Spirit of the Disciplines when I first read it. Felt guilty about the disciplines I was already struggling to practice, let alone ones I wasn’t yet.

Authentic transformation is possible and God wants it to happen. There must, therefore, be things I can do in cooperation with Him.

Here’s a helpful distinction: There is a great difference between trying and training. Think about 1 Cor 9:24-27. Run to get the prize. Go into strict training. They do it for a temporary crown, but we for an eternal crown. Not aimless. Not ineffectual. Beating my body, making it a servant of my mind and will. My body is a good servant, but a bad master.

Training. When it comes to physical transformation, how many could go run every step of a marathon today? Few. Even if you tried really hard? No. We would have to train first. Training is arranging my life around those practices which will enable me to do what I cannot now do by direct effort. Training gives me power to do something I cannot do now by willpower alone.

      Transformation involves training, not just trying. This is true of learning a musical instrument, a new language and living the spiritual life. 1 Tim 4:7 – train yourself in godliness. Luke 6:40 – every disciple when fully trained will be like the master. There is a close and obvious connection between disciple and discipline.

A discipline is a practice I engage in to receive power. We tend to exaggerate the power of trying and underappreciate the power of training. We kill people with “trying harder to be like Jesus.” Trying harder doesn’t work with anything I cannot currently do under my own power.

Spiritual practices are training exercises. Unfortunately, discipline conjures up self-effort. They aren’t a way I gain credit from God. There are no gold stars for multiplying practices. They aren’t necessarily unpleasant. What counts is based on what you are training for. If I am training for a life of joy and love, disciplines for this life may not be unpleasant at all.

Disciplines themselves aren’t a gauge of maturity. The disciplined person is able to do the right thing at the right time in the right spirit. Don’t do disciplines for their own sake. Do them for what you are training for.

For those of you who don’t much like journaling, remember that Jesus never journalled!

Journal if it helps you gain insight or unpack something.

Remember that disciplines are a means to an end. Grace is critical.

Bonhoeffer: Discipleship is the reception of grace. As a general rule we’re good at teaching that we are saved by grace, but we have sucked at teaching people how to live by grace.

Dallas says that saints burn grace like a 747 burns jet fuel. We receive grace through disciplines, for one. Sometimes God uses experiences. Suffering is one of those experiences that sometimes become an unexpected means of grace.

Disciplines and the fruit of the Spirit. We know thse fruit are to be marks of our lives. But we think we need to try harder to produce them.

How do we actually grow in patience? How do I know to ask which disciplines to practice? What would living in the kingdom look like? What barriers are there to this? What practices would free me of those barriers? These are questions to help us determine the disciplines that will train us in this way of responding.

God is interested in my life, not something called a “spiritual life.”

Dallas once said to me: Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from my life. Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life in our day. Disciplines? Drive in the slow lane on purpose. Choose the longest line at grocery. Eat your food…and actually chew!

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Dallas Willard: Knowing Christ–Understanding the Person (Part 4)


In late February, I had the treat of sitting under the teaching of Dallas Willard and John Ortberg at the Knowing Christ Conference sponsored by the Martin Institute/Dallas Willard Center at Westmont College. I took dozens of pages of notes, which I’m editing and sharing over a number of posts. Below are the part of my notes from his second presentation, “Understanding the Person: Including the Hidden Parts”

My standard disclaimer is that these are insights that I gained from listening to Dallas. They are sometimes his exact words. They are sometimes my own words or reflections. So, don’t assume that every word here is straight from him. And these are lightly edited, so bear with possible typos or grammatical goofs. With that in mind, I pray these notes will help you in your own journey with Christ.

- – -

Conversation (continued):

John: Speak to the discouraged. How do we help them?

Dallas: Listen to them. Help them understand why they say what they say. You don’t have to go too far before people see a light. Listen. We don’t do enough listening. In listening, we begin to perceive the roots of behavior. This opens a door, perhaps, a chance for wise, situational teaching.

Spiritual direction is mainly helping people find ways of responding that will bring them in touch with the saving grace of God where they are. Listen and help others see why they are feeling what they feel.

A long time back, I realized my words weren’t helping many people. I wasn’t helping them with what was actually defeating them.

John: Spiritual disciplines sometime sound like purely human activities. Where is the Spirit in that?

Dallas: Of course disciplines are a human activity. All religion is. The thing is that all these human activities are designed to meet the grace of God. Silence helps us realize that we don’t stop breathing when we begin to stop talking. We are meant to engage the grace of God. That is the purpose of our work life, family life—meeting the grace of God.

John: What about the “soul”. How do you know when the soul comes out?

Dallas: You’ll likely miss it if you approach with anxiety. The disciplines standardly give us indirection. It doesn’t try to find the soul, but practices something to allow the soul to make itself known. Soul is experienced as a sort of inner force, like an inner river, that pulls our world together and makes our experiences one thing. When the soul isn’t functional, our lives are fractured and lacking in integration or integrity. The mind shows up in thinking, feeling, choosing. We need those with experience and intelligence to help us wait on the soul, and on God to come with the soul.

In solitude and silence, we discover we have a soul. Jesus: What shall we give in exchange for our soul? Losing our soul means we don’t have a center that organizes our activities. God must restore the soul…the center. Inner healing prayer is soul work. It nearly always involves waiting for the Lord to make a context to be honest about what is in our soul.

John: How did you become aware that you had a soul?

Dallas: Through realizing I wasn’t a whole person because there wasn’t an organizing principle bringing everything in me together. Then, I began to experience God’s work in my life. This involved some confession. I got some help from skilled people. I discovered a dimension of myself that I hadn’t suspected. I experienced soul restoration. Confession is very important to discovering your soul. It can be revolutionary by going deep into the unity of a person. You there give up splitting the self. Sin always splits the self to some degree. You know you’ve harmed yourself or others, but probably won’t come to terms with it. You’ll carry on a charade of righteousness. Confession is deep in discovering the soul.

When churches experience the Spirit, confession is nearly always part of this kind of revival.  Confession breaks through hindrances. We stop trying to save face.

John: Why is confession so common at AA but not in the church?

Dallas: AA got their stuff from the church, but sadly too many churches have lost what AA saved. Perhaps our services are designed to save us from confession rather than help us enter into confession. Appearance management. Everything is O.K.

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Dallas Willard: Knowing Christ–Understanding the Person (Part 3)


In late February, I had the treat of sitting under the teaching of Dallas Willard and John Ortberg at the Knowing Christ Conference sponsored by the Martin Institute/Dallas Willard Center at Westmont College. I took dozens of pages of notes, which I’m editing and sharing over a number of posts. Below are the part of my notes from his second presentation, “Understanding the Person: Including the Hidden Parts”

My standard disclaimer is that these are insights that I gained from listening to Dallas. They are sometimes his exact words. They are sometimes my own words or reflections. So, don’t assume that every word here is straight from him. And these are lightly edited, so bear with possible typos or grammatical goofs. With that in mind, I pray these notes will help you in your own journey with Christ.

- – -

 

Change the message and reality of redemptive life in community. Realize that we are individuals gifted by God help one another to discern and speak to one another and change things in one another that we cannot change on our own.

Sometimes disciplines of solitude, silence, service, scripture memorization can do wonders. Worship is the single most complete discipline available to us. .

We need the ministry of gifted members of the body.

The righteousness of the scribe and Pharisees is running “successful” services. Each of us needs to think about what we take as a mark of success for our lives and ministries. This always involves the transformation of character. At the close of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks about people who did many great and amazing things for him, But, he said that he did not know them because they were not allied with Him in all their works for Him.

Disciples go through the process of transformation and come out loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, as well as their neighbor as themselves. Easy, routine obedience is the good fruit that comes from a good tree. Make the tree good. Don’t keep trying to improve the fruit directly.

We teach people so that they routinely do what Jesus taught. Not that they ought to do these things. It isn’t so much a “should” but a capability and a confidence.

Conversation:

John: What would you say to the person, hungry for change, and who has been in the church a long time, and who feels change is so hard? I talk too much. I’m fearful. Why is change so hard? How do you encourage the frustrated?

Dallas: The person who talks too much does so for a reason. Why do they talk so much? Don’t just try to stop talking too much. Change the why and the problem takes care of itself. We want to encourage people to not think what they now think, not want what they now want, not feel what they now feel. Vital!

Where does an engagement with pornography come from? Will alone will not help. Why do people want to view images like this? What is the reason? Deal with the reason, and the issue dissipates.

Credit cards are one of the great threats to practical wisdom. They enable you to do things you can’t otherwise do, but in a way that traps us rather than empowering us.

If you are willing to not want what you now want, there is a way forward for you. This is the sort of work we could be doing in our fellowships. Do a six-week seminar on anger. Invite those who want to overcome anger habits to work on this. Find the source of their anger.

We need to be careful about announcing revolutions. Seek God first. Work on what needs to change. Revolution will be a fruit of that.

John: How much change are we capable of?

Dallas: You are capable, by God’s grace, to do whatever Jesus teaches. You must change the roots of behavior, and behavior will change. Everything Jesus taught we can learn if we will go to the roots of behavior. What parts need to change and are currently the source of our behaviors?

Psalm 119 talks about the power of God’s word as a protection against waywardness. Psalm 1 one is another illustration.

We learn to listen to another voice.

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Dallas Willard: Knowing Christ–Understanding the Person (Part 2)


In late February, I had the treat of sitting under the teaching of Dallas Willard and John Ortberg at the Knowing Christ Conference sponsored by the Martin Institute/Dallas Willard Center at Westmont College. I took dozens of pages of notes, which I’m editing and sharing over a number of posts. Below are the part of my notes from his second presentation, “Understanding the Person: Including the Hidden Parts”

My standard disclaimer is that these are insights that I gained from listening to Dallas. They are sometimes his exact words. They are sometimes my own words or reflections. So, don’t assume that every word here is straight from him. And these are lightly edited, so bear with possible typos or grammatical goofs. With that in mind, I pray these notes will help you in your own journey with Christ.

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      2. Mind (thoughts, feelings). Capacity to represent things. The will depends on the mind, and vice versa. Each aspect interacts with the others. What is on your mind sets the scene for your will to choose. It is also a reflection of where your heart is. Loving God with all your mind is to take your feelings and thoughts and devote them to what is good for God. Believing. Thinking. You don’t have to think about things you shouldn’t do. They do not have to linger in your mind. Work on your mind, whether feelings or representations. What you habitually feel is a major feature of your mind. It is tied up in what you think about. We must turn our minds to the love of God.

3. Social context (relations to others). People are relational beings. This is why the truth of the Trinity is so important for us. We are not made to live alone. We can’t actually do that. But our relationships to others must be a place where the love of God dwells. To love God, we must love our neighbor as ourselves. We must inject what is good for God into all of our relationships. Attack and withdrawal is a sad reality in most human relationships. This makes loving our neighbor impossible. We don’t attack people or withdraw from them in the love of God. You can’t love God and not love your neighbor. It doesn’t fit. God actually does love your neighbor. You can’t love God and hate someone He loves. That just doesn’t work. The best thing that could happen to our enemy is that they would come to love the God we know. They would cease, perhaps, to be our enemy. Often, the worst thing for a human being is to get their own way.

4. Strength (bodily dispositions and habits). The body is our power pack to live in on earth. It works mainly by habit, which is a good thing. This is a gift from God. Spiritual disciplines disrupt bad habits and replace them with good ones. Habits are what we do without thinking. We can’t actually live physically if we have to think about everything we do. Imagine walking while having to think about each muscle, about breathing, about moving your eyes to the next place you’ll step, etc. We really do need habits. We need good habits. We need to form them over time.

5. Soul. This is our deepest place. It is the integrative part. You aren’t your soul. Your soul isn’t going alone to heaven. You save people. You have to, though, to reach this part of a person to bring them to wholeness. You don’t often have direct access to this place. Occasionally, if you’re very quiet, the soul might show up. Disciplines allow the soul to surface, be recognized and be restored. Our souls can be restored. David reminds us of this in Psalm 23. The law restores the soul by bringing it into harmony with what God is doing.

Sometimes the soul is so broken that it requires special ministry. Each part of the person may need special attention for restoration. Psychologists and psychiatrists can help us. Medical doctors can help, too.

The great commandment of Mark 12 lists every dimension under Jesus’s kind of love. We must understand this. We are learning to do the things he said. We bring all parts of our person under His reign. Each part plays such an important role together in how we actually live. This is part of what going beyond Pharisee righteousness involves. Working with these parts is part of it. Jesus said that a good tree can’t produce bad fruit as an illustration. We are apt not to believe that a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit. And so we don’t cultivate the good tree. You have to go to the depth of the person before you can begin to understand how the harmony of goodness and godliness can come into life. This happens in redemptive community. It would help if there were people close to you, perhaps even our churches, seeking to live this way together.

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Dallas Willard: Knowing Christ–Understanding the Person (Part 1)


In late February, I had the treat of sitting under the teaching of Dallas Willard and John Ortberg at the Knowing Christ Conference sponsored by the Martin Institute/Dallas Willard Center at Westmont College. I took dozens of pages of notes, which I’m editing and sharing over a number of posts. Below are the first portion of my notes from his second presentation, “Understanding the Person: Including the Hidden Parts”

My standard disclaimer is that these are insights that I gained from listening to Dallas. They are sometimes his exact words. They are sometimes my own words or reflections. So, don’t assume that every word here is straight from him. And these are lightly edited, so bear with possible typos or grammatical goofs. With that in mind, I pray these notes will help you in your own journey with Christ.

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Richard Foster and Renovare have been such an important voice in the work Christ has been doing in the last few decades. We’ve been blessed in so many ways. They reminded us of the importance of actually learning how to live the spiritual life. Celebration of Discipline contributed so much!

Review: We’re trying to show how the deep truths and realities of Christ are actually accessible to every person. The scriptures and Jesus are true…and work. Nothing compares with this.

This is the knowledge of reality that we hold in ourselves, both gently and firmly. Jesus invites us to “continue in my word,” to live in it.

I long for us to get past so many petty things that occupy our time and energy in the church.

We started with Mt 11, “Come to me those of you who labor (under religion).” Come and accept your life with Me in the kingdom of God as a little child. Mt 28 then spells out how you actually do that and commissions us to do so.

The main field for discipleship evangelism today is the church itself. We must present the gospel and the kingdom of God in the context of our churches and faith communities. This would cause disciples to emerge. They would come together in a unity that is Trinitarian. We would then teach ourselves and them how to do everything Jesus taught. There isn’t a thing Jesus said or taught that is impossible for any of us. He makes sure of that. We really can live under his counsel and his direction.

Intentionality here is critical. It’s sad that so many seem to be proclaiming the bad news that “You cannot actually do this.” Grace is here to make obedience possible. Grace is acting in our lives to accomplish what we cannot accomplish on our own. Grace is God acting in my life. This is His kingdom–His reign–in my life.

One big thought I want to get on your plate: If you’re going to be transformed, you have to transform that parts of who you are. Christian growth is defeated as we fail to attend to the parts of the person.

For example, our body is an important part of us. You are a non-physical entity with a physical body. Romans 12 invites us to present our bodies as living sacrifices. We aren’t to be conforming to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The mind is another part of us. We must transform our minds. Different thinking will change the rest of our parts.

We are complex beings. We have essential parts that work differently in some people. Spiritual disciplines don’t work the same way for everyone. Some need more work on their body, some on their mind, some in their soul. Some are caught in a web of social relations that are destroying them. Take care of all the parts, and the whole will take care of itself.

Jesus was the smartest, strongest, wisest person ever. He can show us what it looks like to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, strength.

We tend to put far too much pressure on the will. This is the “trying harder” that doesn’t work. So back to the parts.

1. Heart (will, spirit). The source of creativity. Power to originate. Executive center of the self. Jesus says to love God with our whole heart. This is to have your will set on what is best for Him above everything else. Love is the disposition to bring good into the object that is loved. God has disposed us towards creation, human creation especially, so that we are able to participate in His life by setting our will towards what is good for Him. We have our will, our spirit, entirely set on what is good for God. Crucial. We sing the hymn, “I Surrender All.” This is a will totally devoted to what is good for God.

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This does not add to the cost of your order, but provides a referral fee to this ministry.
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