I've been working on a new book about faith, and the part it plays in our lives. My working title is The Faith Matrix. This subject has led me to study about the spiritual disciplines--meditation, prayer, fasting, Bible study, celebration, confession, service, submission, giving, and so on. I've found some really great books on the subject, Richard Foster's Celebration of Disciplkne, Gordon McDonald's Ordering hour Private World, and Donald Whitner's books on the spiritual disciplines, just to mention a very few. But as I have studied the others, one author keeps coming up in the works of the others--Dallas Willard. Willard is a weird combination of evangelical Christian and philosopher, who writes broadly and deeply about Christian spirituality in his book, Spirit of the Disciplines.
At first I was put off by the book, It's very thickly written, and full of references to a broad range of Christian thinkers, from fundamentalists to liberation theologians. However, once I took the time to take it slowly, I started to realize just how deep this book really is.
I can't possibly discuss everything worthwhile in the book in a few short paragraphs, but one concept I will mention. It is impossible to be spiritual without being physical. We are physical creatures, impossible to separate completely from this world. We were set on this earth to have dominion over it. To fulfill the first command of God we had to multiply and rule over the world. That involves a bodily presence on the earth. Jesus redeemed us in the body, by dying on the cross. He taught us salvation and gave us means of grace to receive His gift. We take communion, are baptized. To show his love for his disicples, he washed his disciples feet.
Jesus expressed his love for God physical ways, too--fasting for forty days in the desert, going away for long periods of time in prayer. Risking His life to go back and forth to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. He put his body into it. Jesus devoted himself to spiritual disciplines by physical actions.
Consider how we worship God. We can think of all kinds of ways to keep from going out of our way to worship. We tell ourselves that special times of prayer are not necessary. We can pray in the shower or in the car. We don't have to gather in churches. (What a hassle the traffic can be!) No, we can turn on the TV and hear a good sermon. We can encourage our brothers on facebook. If we could skype our prayers, we would.
The same thing is true of the disciplines of denial. Why deny the flesh with fasting--or even dieting? Why practice simplicity, when it is so much fun to shop? We need to listen to the news, so we can know what to pray about, don't we? Somehow, we manage to find ways of avoiding every difficult aspect of Christian self denial, finding reasons for believing different in our minds, but keeping our habits just like everyone else's.
I do not believe that our actions gets us one whit closer to God than our inaction. God brought grace to us through Christ, we don't earn it. Nevertheless, we weren't just saved from something, such as sin. We were saved for something, which is to serve God with our bodies.
Paul put it very well when he said "For it is by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." In other words, God saved our souls from sin, but he saved our bodies for His work. That is what we are meant to do. Prayer, fasting, service, submission, and loving others by actions are not just good ideas. They are our purpose in life.
At first I was put off by the book, It's very thickly written, and full of references to a broad range of Christian thinkers, from fundamentalists to liberation theologians. However, once I took the time to take it slowly, I started to realize just how deep this book really is.
I can't possibly discuss everything worthwhile in the book in a few short paragraphs, but one concept I will mention. It is impossible to be spiritual without being physical. We are physical creatures, impossible to separate completely from this world. We were set on this earth to have dominion over it. To fulfill the first command of God we had to multiply and rule over the world. That involves a bodily presence on the earth. Jesus redeemed us in the body, by dying on the cross. He taught us salvation and gave us means of grace to receive His gift. We take communion, are baptized. To show his love for his disicples, he washed his disciples feet.
Jesus expressed his love for God physical ways, too--fasting for forty days in the desert, going away for long periods of time in prayer. Risking His life to go back and forth to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. He put his body into it. Jesus devoted himself to spiritual disciplines by physical actions.
Consider how we worship God. We can think of all kinds of ways to keep from going out of our way to worship. We tell ourselves that special times of prayer are not necessary. We can pray in the shower or in the car. We don't have to gather in churches. (What a hassle the traffic can be!) No, we can turn on the TV and hear a good sermon. We can encourage our brothers on facebook. If we could skype our prayers, we would.
The same thing is true of the disciplines of denial. Why deny the flesh with fasting--or even dieting? Why practice simplicity, when it is so much fun to shop? We need to listen to the news, so we can know what to pray about, don't we? Somehow, we manage to find ways of avoiding every difficult aspect of Christian self denial, finding reasons for believing different in our minds, but keeping our habits just like everyone else's.
I do not believe that our actions gets us one whit closer to God than our inaction. God brought grace to us through Christ, we don't earn it. Nevertheless, we weren't just saved from something, such as sin. We were saved for something, which is to serve God with our bodies.
Paul put it very well when he said "For it is by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." In other words, God saved our souls from sin, but he saved our bodies for His work. That is what we are meant to do. Prayer, fasting, service, submission, and loving others by actions are not just good ideas. They are our purpose in life.
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