A Curriculum in Christlikeness Notes from Chapter 9, fr “The Divine Conspiracy” by Dallas Willard (excellent re becoming a Disciple)
“…those who hear me and do what I say…” Matt. 7.24-‐25 “Train them to do…” Matt. 28.20 -‐ Jesus’ words show “that it must be possible to hear and do what he said.” (p. 311) -‐ our world is “consumer Christianity”, where we pick and choose what we want – instead of “be doers of the Word, and not hearers only.” -‐ obedience and abundance are inseparable – to become the S-‐on-‐the-‐Mt person, in all its richness, it requires obedience -‐ we must be trained to “hear and do” – sadly, this type of training is rare in the church -‐ “non-‐discipleship is ‘the elephant in the church’” (p. 313) -‐ church too often teaches concepts, not practice -‐ “When you teach children or adults to ride a bicycle or swim, they actually do ride bikes or swim on appropriate occasions. You don’t teach them that they ought to ride bicycles, or that it is good to ride bicycles, or that they should be ashamed if they don’t.” (p. 314) -‐ we need a curriculum to address this vacuum of no-‐obedience, no-‐abundance -‐ and we seldom see Jesus as our actual teacher… -‐ it’s not just more information – most have enough info; we are like Peter, who recognized Jesus as Messiah, but “had no real idea of what it meant” (p. 317) -‐ so we must not only get the answers right – we must believe them -‐ “in our culture one is considered educated if one ‘knows the right answers’” (p. 317) – but belief isn’t required -‐ to start, we must bring disciples “to actually believe all the things they have already heard.” (p. 317) – we have far more info than we have practice -‐ eg: most Christians have info about the Trinity – “but to have the ‘right’ answers re the Trinity… and to actually believe in the reality of the Trinity…” (p. 318) – a great difference
-‐ we must live as if the Trinity is real – that the universe has “a self-‐sufficing community of unspeakably magnificent personal beings of boundless love, knowledge and power.” (p. 318) -‐ therefore much disc. training is “bringing people to believe with their whole being the info they already have as a result of their initial confidence in Jesus.” (p. 318) -‐ a disciple is a person-‐in-‐process – Jesus’ disciples first realized he is right. – they have him – but they don’t yet have it. They increasingly get “it” as they learn from him – so with us -‐ they believe, and want help to believe more – like the biblical prayer, “I believe! Help my unbelief!” -‐ it takes time for us to go from believing in God, to daily, comprehensive “reliance on God” (p. 319) -‐ “…we pass thru a course of training, fr having faith in Christ to having the faith of Christ.” (p. 320) Four Not-‐Primary Objectives -‐ often we have as primary goals, “external conformity” and “profession of perfectly correct doctrine” – but these don’t produce disciples – often they crush the spirit, or produce legalists -‐ same with insistence on faithful participation of church activities, and seeking special spiritual experiences – they don’t in themselves produce transformation The two Primary Objectives -‐ first: “bring apprentices to the point where they dearly love and constantly delight in [the] ‘heavenly Father’…” (p. 321) -‐ John, in 1 John 1 says, “this is the msg we heard from Jesus…” – how would church members etc complete that sentence? we might be amazed at the answer -‐ John says, “God is light – no darkness in him…” -‐ the msg that gives us assurance that “his universe is ‘a perfectly safe place for us to be.” (p. 321)
-‐ second: remove our automatic responses against the kingdom of God, the enslavements, the automatic patterns of response – the “sin that is in my members” (Rom. 7.18) -‐ much of this is embedded deeply in us, below our thinking processes – we must disrupt “these ‘automatic’ thoughts, feelings and actions by doing different things with our body.” (p. 322) -‐ this requires discipline – the spiritual disciplines -‐ both objectives, loving God and freeing our bodies, are done hand in hand Objective One: Enthralling our Mind with God -‐ question: How do we get people to love what is lovely? -‐ we do it by helping them “place their minds on the lovely thing concerned.” (p. 323) – to contemplate God’s person and perfections -‐ “love follows knowledge” (p. 323) -‐ we bring the ‘lovely thing” – God – before a disciple with all our efforts -‐ but the disciple must respond – “…the soul selects her own society, then shuts the door” (Emily Dickinson) – we ask and encourage, but they must respond -‐ God won’t take this key to one’s soul -‐ we can’t either -‐ like the saying “take time to smell the roses”, we must do this with God – get close, and linger, delight in him -‐ like the rose, we must bring God’s reality before our minds, and kept there – the only way to love him -‐ so the simple process is: bring God to the mind/spirit of the disciple, so they love and delight in him -‐ a truth: “what simply occupies our mind very largely governs what we do” (p. 324) -‐ our greatest freedom: what we will think of, where we place our mind -‐ “the deepest revelation of our character is what we choose to dwell on in thought…” (p. 324)
-‐ and when we learn to place our mind on the proper thing, it enables us to do other, better things as a result – The AA twelve step program shows this – first, taking care of the “direct placement of his or her mind” (p. 324) -‐ the challenge: “we think by fits and starts.” (AE Houseman) -‐ so we must form habits in a disciple, to help them focus their minds on God -‐ Ps. 16 talks of this: “My mind teaches me… I hold the Lord continually before me…” – with the resulting guidance from God, and “everlasting pleasures” -‐ the challenge: we are bent away from this – we refuse “to dwell in our minds on right things in the right way.” (p. 325) How to Bring God before the mind: three ways -‐ we have 3 ways to bring God before the mind: thru creation, thru his acts in history, thru experiences of ourselves and others
Through Creation -‐ helping a disciple know that God is the maker/sustainer of everything, that he is “God most high” (Gen. 14.18-‐19) -‐ the natural reality, with its order and magnificence, owes existence to God – this is known to everyone (Rom. 1.19-‐20) -‐ and more than knowing this intuitively, we “sense” it – his thoughts, his presence -‐ so the task is, bringing “God the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth” before disciples, so they see his beauty and strength, and deepen in love to him -‐ in doing this, we must listen to questions/responses – what are the puzzles and ambiguities? what doesn’t make sense? if we don’t deal with these, we’ll lose confidence and love -‐ the Spirit will help us as we do this, touching our imagination and mind, using art and poetry and song, as well as words -‐ liberal Christianity presents a God unworthy of being loved – it’s more, Love falling in Love with Love”
-‐ sadly, the theology of the right often wants right doctrines/traditions, “without ever moving on to consuming admiration of, delight in, and devotion of the God of the universe.” (p. 329) -‐ question: is the God presented one that can be loved, heart, soul, mind and strength?”– a “lovable God – a radiant, happy, friendly, accessible and totally competent being…” (p. 329) -‐ we need God’s self-‐disclosures, and Jesus’ help, to make this happen Two harmful myths -‐ Myth #1: questions about God as creator are now settled conclusively, in the negative -‐ a hundred yrs ago, it was the opposite of now: “God was regarded as manifestly present in nature.” (p. 330) – and taught in school -‐ today it is the opposite: a “socially enforced readiness to disbelieve.” (p. 330) -‐ the reality: “…God currently forms no part of recognized human competence in any field of knowledge or practice.” (p. 331) -‐ so the “lords of knowledge” have made “what is surely the greatest mistake in human history…” (p. 331) -‐ we must fight this battle – not give in to the teaching that spiritual realities are “illusions” – and teach disciples to take a stand… -‐ Myth #2: that one has to be a technical scholar to deal with questions re God as Creator -‐ no, we can do this, we all can do this – take time to study, depend on the Lord – and address this -‐ key: changing one’s beliefs – “you cannot change character or behavior and leave beliefs intact.” (p. 331) -‐ and if one learns to love God, then the “hearing and doing” will follow
Through God’s actions in history
-‐ creation isn’t enough to know the “father-‐heart” of God – he has shown himself in history, interacting with and blessing humans -‐ even the angels don’t understand this (1 Peter 1.12) – this is the “covenant God”, added to the “faithful Creator” -‐ the prayer in Neh 9.5-‐38 shows God as Creator and Covenant-‐ Maker’ – Jesus-‐ believers are part of the Abraham-‐covenant line – Jesus is “the seed of Abraham” -‐ Acts 4 prayer shows this same Creator-‐God and Covenant-‐God – this is how we know God -‐ by showing disciples who Jesus is, we “bring the heart-‐wrenching goodness of God, his incomprehensible graciousness and generosity” before them (p. 334) -‐ in Jesus’ answer to Philip’s “show us the Father…”, we realize, “Could the character of God really be that of Jesus? The stunning answer is, ‘Yes, indeed.’” (p. 334) -‐ so we must see Jesus, and concentrate on him, and adore him -‐ four ways we do this o first: teach Jesus’ beauty, truth and power when he lived – the Gospel stories o second: teach how he walked to execution like a common criminal for us – don’t expect to fully understand – but do absorb it; this is who God is: “…he permitted his son to die on the cross to reach our to all… even people who hated him. That is who God is. [Jesus] is God looking at me from the cross…” (p. 335) – see Rom. 8:31ff o third: teach the reality of Jesus risen – he’s here, present among his people, the continuing incarnation o four: teach Jesus as master of created universe and human history – he holds it all together; he’s king of all the kings -‐ this is how to adore him – “Once you come to know the love of Jesus Christ, nothing else in the world will seem as beautiful or desirable.” (quoted by Brennan Manning)
Through God’s hand in a disciple’s life -‐ we learn to love God by appreciating his goodness to us, the life he has set out for us
-‐ disciples must “see their very own life within the framework of unqualified goodness.” (p. 337) -‐ like Saint Clare’s last words, “Lord God, blessed be thou for having created me!” (p. 337) -‐ we will love God heartily when we accept that “it is good for us to be, and to be who we are.” (p. 337) -‐ many resent God, think his commandments are for his benefit, not ours – can’t live a S-‐on-‐the-‐Mt life like that -‐ example of seeing God’s hand: Joseph, in Genesis – he knew God intended for him to experience good -‐ as part of this, we must learn to honour father/mother – it is our roots -‐ “we cannot be thankful for who we are without being thankful for our parents, thru whom our life came.” (p. 339) -‐ to reject them is it damage ourselves – “we cannot reject ourselves and love God.” (p. 339) -‐ a major way to help disciples “hear and do” is to help them honour their parents – meaning honesty about who they are, true feelings, confession of wrong attitudes/actions, even having mercy on them, forgiving them -‐ can take time and guidance and much prayer… -‐ then helping a disciple to be thankful for “body, love and sexuality, marriage and children, success with work and jobs” (p. 340) – learning to accept and thank God for… -‐ we let God heal wounds, and stop demanding – we recognize we are included in his life, his love (p. 340) – like Paul to Corinth, “All things belong to you…” (3.21ff) -‐ you must find the goodness of God in your life – “there is no other ‘you’ apart from your actual life.” (p. 341) – recognize that Father/Son/Spirit “desire to dwell with you in your life and make glorious every aspect of it…” (p. 341) Second Objective: Breaking the “sin in our body” slavery
-‐ Some feel this is impossible, that sin is like AIDS, with a life of its own, growing and taking over -‐ our consumer Christianity is very weak re breaking sin’s control – no training re how to give thought life, feelings, intentions, actions, words over to God’s rule -‐ so Christians remain dominated by fear, greed, impatience, ego, desires, etc… -‐ danger: if we think “sin in our members” is irresistible, and we’re helpless, then we give in -‐ better to say “they are simply our habits, our largely automatic responses…” (p. 343) -‐ often it just “acts”, and we’re left to deal with what’s already done – so we deny, mislead, rationalize -‐ instead, we must learn to replace these habits, if we are to “hear and do” what Jesus said -‐ the evil is in us – not “out there”, or in world/Satan – we must address our inner condition, our obsessive desires -‐ these are among what “our body ‘knows’ to do” (p. 344) – some is good, our automatic responses when driving, when eating, etc – but also we do “automatic” evil -‐ important: “nothing has power to tempt me or move me to wrong action that I have not given power by what I permit to be in me.” (p. 344) -‐ this is “death to self” – realizing that life will still go on, even though we don’t follow these habitual desires -‐ eg: we can change habits of anger, or lust – these can be changed, with God’s help, our willingness -‐ important: the training will not be done for us – we must do it, in coop with HS; “Another person cannot learn Spanish for me, nor can someone else lift weights to improve my muscles.” (p. 346) – we must act ourselves -‐ how? first, copying Jesus – “let this mind be in you…” (Phil. 2.6ff) – like him, determine to be “the loving servant to the good of others.” (p. 346) – and we work at it seriously (Phil. 2.12) – but beyond us, God is at work to produce this in us (v. 13)
The Threefold Dynamic (“Golden Triangle” of spiritual growth)
-‐ -‐ -‐ -‐
-‐ -‐ -‐ -‐
Function of HS first, moves in our souls to present Jesus and his kingdom’s reality: the gospel; only thru HS can we find this and participate when we receive Christ’s life, HS enables us to do Jesus’ works, and grows our inward character (“fruit”) danger: sole emph on this aspect, like a “revival”, overwhelmed by HS “…the action of the Spirit must be accompanied by our response… [not] by anyone other than ourselves.” (p. 348) – our active participation Indispensible Role of Ordinary Events: “Tests” God works in the midst of our circumstances – “God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are…” (p. 348) these are our tasks, trials and tribulations – “in Biblical language they are all ‘temptations’” (p. 349) in all these, God will confirm his goodness and greatness – so we can welcome them all – “consider it all joy…” (James 1.2ff) but it takes HS’s activity and the spiritual disciplines, to find the joy in circumstances (Rom. 5.1-‐5)
-‐ these tasks, trials and tribulations are the very place to confirm God’s competence and faithfulness How to develop Kingdom Habits – Bible doesn’t say precisely -‐ we walk with a Person, so the Bible does not give us formulas of how to progress -‐ and it’s individual – it’s customized -‐ Psalms and Proverbs are a great help – the assumption: we will do whatever to help us grow -‐ best overall statement of spiritual formation: Colossians; ch. 1-‐2 are the “curriculum” (who God is in creation, history and in Jesus); ch. 3-‐4 are the formation of habits and disciplines -‐ the emph in ch. 3-‐4 is on what we are to do -‐ interesting: Paul doesn’t tell the Col Christians how to do it – they understand, bec of the emphasis on imitating Jesus, imitating Chr leaders (1 Cor. 11.1; Phil. 4.9) -‐ esp we imitate Jesus – what he said to do, and what he did himself (eg: his times of solitude, his study of the scriptures, his worship/prayer, his serving actions -‐ key to this: soul-‐care, meditation – “put everything you have into the care of your heart…” (Prov. 4.23; and Ps. 1.2, Is. 26.3, Josh. 1.8) -‐ leaders must become a pattern for others (1 Tim. 4.12-‐16) – an order of life, the Col. 3 actions/attitudes Planned Disciplines to put on the New Heart -‐ disciplines enable us to “do what we cannot do by direct effort.” (p. 352) -‐ practice is part of a discipline, but not all discipline is practice (eg: the discipline of rest/sleep) -‐ spiritual discipline: “designed to help us withdraw fr total dependence on the merely human… and depend on the ultimate reality… God and his kingdom.” (p. 353) -‐ these spiritual disciplines actually address bodily behaviors -‐ “the body is the first field of energy beyond our thoughts that we have direction over…” (p. 353)
-‐ and it contains the wrong habits we must set aside, and in for which we must develop new ones… -‐ we must direct our bodies into activities that empower inner/outer person to relate to/be like God -‐ spiritual discipline is, then the task of using the body differently – the thoughts, feelings and actions -‐ “the spirit is willing, flesh weak” at the start – but we can strengthen the spirit… Modeled upon Jesus Himself -‐ we learn to follow Jesus in his practices, and others who have followed him -‐ eg: if he needed 40 days of solitude, perhaps we could use three or four at a certain point… -‐ “the ones who have made great spiritual progress all seriously engaged with a fairly standard list of disciplines for the spiritual life.” (p. 355) -‐ NB: they are not academic studies – we must enter them with Jesus as teacher, offering our bodies Doing the same Thing Differently -‐ “intensity is crucial for any progress in spiritual perception and understanding” – like a shower, a drop every 5 min won’t get you clean – “you need a lot of water at once” – so with the written Word. (p. 356) -‐ with prayer too, one needs intensity – can’t just “tack it on” – “One must not be agitated, hurried or exhausted…” (p. 356) -‐ although there many be many disciplines, four of them are absolutely essential: solitude and silence (the abstinence side) and study and worship (the energetic side) Abstinence: Solitude and Silence -‐ solitude is “being out of human contact.. for lengthy periods of time” (p. 357) -‐ silence is part of solitude, “to escape from sounds, noises, other than the gentle ones of nature [and] not talking” (p. 357)
-‐ these “break the power of our ready responses to do the opposite of what Jesus teaches…” (p. 357) – often “automatic” responses, at the level where most of life is lived -‐ solitude and silence “create a kind of inner space” ( p. 358) – to help us be aware of our actions, intentions -‐ “one of the greatest of spiritual attainments is the capacity to do nothing.” (p. 358) – often terrifying to people -‐ it stills our soul, and lets God quietly talk to us “Generally speaking, he will not compete for our attention…” (p. 359) -‐ actually, 1/7th of our time “should be devoted to doing nothing…” (p. 359) -‐ so don’t go into solitude/silence with a list… -‐ what you’ll discover: you have a soul; God is near; the universe brims with goodness; others aren’t as bad as you think -‐ the cure for busy-‐ness is solitude/silence; same with loneliness -‐ take time to rest – “sleep until you wake up truly refreshed” p. 359) -‐ it lessens the “I have to do this/that” and tames your desires – and you will learn how to really love people -‐ and most of all, you’ll develop increased capacity to “love God with all…” Study and Worship – positive disciplines -‐ the silence/solitude changes our emotional state, and so our body itself -‐ study: we “place our minds fully on God and his kingdom” (p. 361) -‐ to study is to bring the order/nature of something into ourselves -‐ eg: to learn the alphabet is to then use it for many things we couldn’t do before – same with evil: we “take on an order and powers of evil – or they take us.” (p. 361) –and same with plumbing, or singing, et al -‐ disciples of Jesus want to take the order of his Kingdom within themselves – live as Jesus did -‐ study is the way we do this: the written Word, the study of other practitioners… -‐ “…let your mind dwell on them…” (Phil. 4.8-‐9)
-‐ eg: the impact of internalizing Ps 23, sermon on the mount, Romans 8, Col. 3, Phil. 2-‐ 4, etc – “should be meditated on in depth and much of them memorized.” (p. 362) -‐ we add to our study worship – it completes our mind renewal by becoming absorbed in this radiant Person, Jesus -‐ can’t just study – must mingle it with worship, or it distorts the things of God -‐ worship requires all our being – sensuous, conceptual, active, creative; “poetry and song, color and texture, food and incense, dance and procession… to exalt God” (p. 363) -‐ worship causes “radical disruption of the powers of evil in and around us.” (p. 363) -‐ these are the four main disciplines – others are fasting, service to others, fellowship, etc -‐ need a definite plan, with the three components of the “golden Triangle” -‐ question: “What is my plan for doing that?” Practical steps: -‐ to review, we must enthrall the mind with God and break power of evil in our bodies – how? -‐ example: helping someone tame their anger -‐ key: aim at the heart – “make the tree good” (p. 364), not just change behavior – so the right behavior is “in spirit and truth”, not just performance -‐ not enough to give rules – you could follow the rules and still be full of anger -‐ must see God over all, see own value and security – “I do not need to ‘put others down’ in order for me to be ‘up’” (p. 365) -‐ so give assignments: keep a journal – what episodes happened? how to adjust -‐ example: bullying people with our “vows” – we are coercing them by “swearing” – instead, we must respect them and allow them to make their own judgments, be yes/no
-‐ must help the person see how our “swear by…” is really loveless, hurtful to others – “teach them how to leave others in the hands of God through prayer and our own example.” (p. 365) -‐ so train with a pattern: o clearly give context: heavenly Father’s present rule thru Jesus o walk person through actual cases to give experience-‐adjustment and assurance Five dimensions/stages of the Eternal Kind of Life -‐ we should expect to progress from stage to stage – fr that of “obedient servant” to close friends of Jesus -‐ Jesus shows this in Jn 14-‐16: “you are my friends if…” – a promotion in their relationship – “I no more call you slaves… you have become my friends…” -‐ now our servant hood is on a different basis, “…of loving cooperation, of shared endeavor…” (p. 367) -‐ five dimensions of our eternal kind of life: o confidence in/reliance upon Jesus: as Son of man come to save us o a desire to be his apprentice: living in his word, putting his teachings into practice (John 8.31), becoming integrated as a person, “free indeed” (Jn. 8.36) o obedience: we begin to love Jesus and the Father with our whole being, and love to obey him (Jn. 14.15, 21) – the love sustains us in a course of discipline training… o pervasive inner transformation of the heart/soul: now the fruit of Spirit are evident – “love is genuine to our deepest core” (p. 368) o power to work the works of the kingdom: the shocking statement of Jesus comes true, “[you shall] do the works I do and even greater…” (Jn 14.12) – great power “requires great character” (p. 368) – God’s intent: that we “should have as much power as we can bear for good” (p. 369) -‐ by actively participating in these stages/dimensions, we are “mortifying the life of the flesh” (Rom. 8.13) -‐ again, we must ask ourselves: how am I doing this?
-‐ -‐ -‐
-‐ -‐ -‐
-‐ -‐ -‐ -‐
This curriculum in the Life of the Church the above seems radical – it is to our consumer Christianity – actually it’s normative – this was the apostle Paul’s training (see Col., Eph…) our contemporary form of Christianity, “bar-‐code” Christianity, sees this discipline as craziness eg: Calvin in Book III of Institutes, sums up Chr life with one term: “self-‐denial” – not today’s “self-‐esteem” or personal fulfillment – no: obedience and discipline Practical Points, esp for Pastors plan to do certain things more than talk a lot about them 1st, make sure these disciplines are our own life – we are determined to “…love the Lord with all…” 2nd, prayerfully study lives around is – who has shown they are “ravished with the kingdom of God” (p. 372) – consciously help them – pour life into them, rather than the whole congr. – they can make other disciples 3rd, speak, teach and preach the kingdom in its fullness – focus on the Gospels, on Jesus’ teaching don’t be judgmental of those who aren’t yet disciples… expect difficulties expect crowds to get smaller!... – but you’ll get “bigger Christians” (p. 373)
