Chapter 7

This is an interesting conclusion:

"We have counted on preaching. teaching and knowledge or information to form faith in the hearer and have counted on faith to form the inner life and outer behvior of the Christian. But, for whatever reason, this strategy has not turned out well. The result is that we have multitudes of professing Christians who well may be ready to die but obviously are not ready to live, and can hardly get along with themselves, much less others."

It raises the question about the effectiveness of the church's efforts in bringing people to be actual disciples of Jesus instead of just followers of Jesus. Is there a difference?

Chapter 6 - Spiritual Formation in Christ

This chapter gets more lengthy and somewhat repetitive. Just a few thoughts:

1. Life in Christ has to do with obedience to his (Jesus') teaching.
2. "We have generated a body of people who consume Christian services and think that is Christian faith. Consumption of Christian services replaces obedience to Christ."
3. "Spiritual formation is to the process whereby the inmost being of the individual takes on the quality or character of Jesus himself."
4. "One of the greatest temptations that we face as evangelicals...is the idea that the personality an the heart are going to be transformed by some sort of lightning strike of the Spirit...suddenly you will be transformed in every aspect of your being. There will be no need for process - it will all be accomplished passively and immediately."

Willard focuses on the idea that it is a process by which we are transformed into the character of Christ, not by a lazy passive consumption of Christian goods and services. Do you think that is too strong a statement?

Chapter 5 - The Keys to the Kngdom

Several statements from this chapter are interesting:
"Grace is opposed to earning not, not to effort. And it is well-directed, decisive and sustained effort that is the key to the keys of the Kingdom and to the life of restful power in ministry and life that those keys open to us."

For a vast majority of people I believe the effort is lacking.

Willard mentions three practices that are helpful to Christians in understanding God's purpose for Sabbath rest:

1. Solitude - helps to break the power of busyness, haste, isolation and loneliness. It gives an anchor for your soul.
2. Silence - A pastor wrote - "As I have slowed my life down through silence and solitude, I have discovered both the wickedness hidden by a hurried life as well as the wonder and delight my Father has in me."
3. Fasting - Done so that we might experience the direct sustenance of God to our body and our whole person.

The lack of spiritual disciplines and effort in today's Christian community keep God distant from us even as God seeks to be near. Effort has nothing to do with earning salvation, but has everything to do with living in that salvation.

Chapter 4 - Looking Like Jesus

Now the practical things begin. Willard talks about the "golden triangle of spiritual transformation:

1. Faithful acceptance of everyday problems - the trial of everyday life must be dealt with in patience. When they control us, spiritual transformation is slowed (or stopped).
2. Interaction with God's Spirit in and around us - walking with the Spirit and keeping in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5) are part of the natural rhythm of spiritual transformation(fruits and gifts of the Spirit and more).
3. Spiritual disciplines - This our part and sometimes hard work!

Willard writes,

"The single most obvious trait of those who profess Christ but do not grow into Christ-likeness is teir refusal to take the reasonable and time-tested measures for spiritual growth. I almost never meet smeone in spiritual coldness, perplexity, distress and failure who is regular in the use of those spiritual exercises that will be obvious to anyone familiar with the contents of the New Testament."

The question for us, then, is, "Are we willing to do the hard work as our part in spiritual transformation?"

An Apprentice of Jesus,

Kevin

Chapter 3 - Who Is Your Teacher?

In the second paragraph of this chapter Willard writes,

"What happens to Jesus in the crush of the information pushers? Unfortunately, he is usually pushed aside. Many Christians do not even think of him as one with reliable information about their lives. Consequently they do not become his students. What does he (Jesus) have to teach them?"

Willard then says that if we would live the life which God made for us we must:

1. learn from him (Jesus) the reason why we live and why we do the things we do;
2. learn from Jesus a new internal character; and
3. learn of his positive interactions and involvements with us in the concrete occasions of our day-to-day activities.

The point of this chapter is that we must trust Jesus as our teacher if we really desire the life God has for us.

Who is the primary teacher of your life?

An Apprentice of Jesus,

Kevin

Dallas Willard Chapter 2

#3 – Why bother With Discipleship
Here is a term I have never heard before: “Christian vampire.” It describes someone who wants to feed on Jesus forgiveness (through the cleansing blood of Jesus), but doesn’t want to trust in Jesus for anything else. Of course, this is how American Christianity has proclaimed the gospel. It is marketed to get people in, but not to make disciples. We have created a generation of Christian vampires who do nothing but suck in forgiveness with no real change in their lives. That may be too harsh a statement, but it is very true. God expects more.

Willard closes the chapter with an intense statement, “Someone will say, can I not get 'saved' – that is, get into heaven when I die – without any of this (Biblical discipleship)? Perhaps you can. God’s goodness is so great, I am sure that he will let you in if he can find any basis at all to do so. But you might wish to think about what your life amounts to before you die, about what kind of person you are becoming, and about whether you really would be comfortable for all eternity in the presence of One whose company you have not found especially desirable for the few hours and days of your earthly existence.”

Strange isn’t it? We want to be with God for all eternity but really don’t want to spend any time with Him here. Does that really make any sense at all? It does if you are a Christian vampire….

Chapter 1 - The Great Omission

In chapter one (Discipleship: For Super Christians Only?) Willard focuses on the idea that in most American churches, discipleship is clearly optional. I would agree. I see many in the church who have actually said “No” to being or becoming a disciple of Jesus by their very actions of neglect of spiritual things. Year in and year out, nothing ever seems to chance in their behavior or thought-life. Prejudices still exist. The same sins are still habitual. Obedience to Jesus is lacking.

I have focused on the grace of Jesus Christ for entrance into the Kingdom of God (which is accurate) and the church, but have stopped there, figuring that people will grow as they can. I neglected the fact that faith without works is indeed dead (ineffectual). I have always been a self-starter as a Christian and went after my faith without any prodding from others. In some ways, I assumed that everyone would do that. But I have bought into a thought pattern that only concerns itself with others wanting to become disciples, not on my obedience to make disciples. I clearly need to change.

Now, if I can just figure out how…..

An Apprentice of Jesus,

Kevin

The Great Omission

As we begin the new year I thought I would give a chapter by chapter "thought" about Dallas Willard's book, "The Great Omission." I have only finished the first two chapters but I would highly reccommend it for any one who wants to really think about what disicpleship is all about.

#1 – I cannot even get out of the Introduction without feeling challenged about how the church has viewed discipleship during my lifetime. Willard acknowledges the disappointments many Christians have about their own walk with Christ and their own feelings that the Christian life just doesn’t “work.” He insists that it is because “we do not give ourselves to it in a way that allows our lives to be taken over by it.” He writes,

“Who, among Christians today, is a disciple of Jesus, in any substantive sense of the word “disciple?” A disciple is a learner, a student, an apprentice – a practitioner, even if only a beginner…disciples of Jesus are people who do not just profess certain views as their own but apply their growing understanding of life in the Kingdom of Heavens to every aspect of their life on earth. (Italics and underling from me)”

It’s the “every aspect of their life” part that we often exclude from people becoming Christians. Growing up I think I was focused on acting a certain way and knowing the right stuff. But what Willard is talking about digs much deeper into our life experience. This book is a challenge because it is less about theory and more about practice, and that begins to meddle in my (our) life!

How would you define a disciple?