Willard - Knowing Christ Today

Today, I'm just writing to quick update to say that I recently finished listening to the audiobook of Dallas Willard's newest book, Knowing Christ Today.

Like all of his other books, this one was rich. He is writing about a topic I have heard him speak about at length elsewhere: the Christian worldview as knowledge rather than mere belief.

I am going to have to go through the whole book again before I have really solid feedback on it. It is philosophical in nature, but very accessible to anyone who knows a bit of the "language."

What I'm interested in is what other readers think about Willard's "Christian Pluralism," which he discusses for a while in the book. I'm assuming it must be making warning bells go off for many evangelicals. I myself am not sure what to make of the idea. (One review on Amazon addresses the issue negatively.)

If you've read the book and have insights or opinions on the topic either way, please post your thoughts in the comments section. Don't just rant, please. I'm after fair-minded, thoughtful ideas.

I know this book contains a lot of ideas Willard has wanted to write about for some time. I'm looking forward to listening again. I'd love to hear your opinions as well.

May updates

I'm updating you today with a number of various topics. Thanks for reading.

Free Willard talks

As I continue on the journey as one of Christ's apprentices, I continue to find Dallas Willard's teaching to be the most helpful and thorough when it comes to training as a disciple of Jesus. I hope you'll head over to ChristianAudio.com and download all of the free Dallas Willard talks they have available there. As a matter of fact, I'll make it easy for you by linking to each one individually:

• The Cross and Discipleship (3 parts)
• Church Staff Retreat 2004 (3 parts)
• The With-God Life (parts 2 and 4 are Willard)
• What Does It Mean to Be Human?
• Interview on Renovation of the Heart
• Interview on Hearing God
• Interview on Knowing Christ Today

These audio files will give you a good idea as to what he writes about in his books. If you like what you hear, please read his books, beginning with Renovation of the Heart and The Divine Conspiracy. There's no better teaching on the topic of becoming an apprentice of Jesus and understanding the true gospel.

Willard's new book

It's been a few years since Renovation of the Heart, and now, Dallas Willard has finally authored another book, Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge. I am eager to acquire and read this book. Willard's website says: This book deals with the disastrous effects of divorcing the teachings of Jesus Christ and his people from the domain of human knowledge. Its aim is to reposition the substantial teachings of Christianity ("Mere" Christianity) as a body of knowledge in the contemporary world.This is a topic that J.P. Moreland wrote about in the first section of Kingdom Triangle, and I am looking forward to diving in deeper with Willard's long-awaited new book.

Designed for analogy

Have you noticed how useful analogy is for communication and understanding? We use analogy all the time to compare things and make our ideas more accessible to listeners. I have come to believe that God designed the world in such a way that analogy would be incredibly easy. He has created a cosmos in which parallels exist all over the place. And, just as analogy is useful in every topic of discussion, I think that God specifically intended that many things we experience and see on Earth would help us to better understand him. One obvious and common such analogy is that of a parent with his or her child. The things we can learn about God through our own parenting experience are many, and they are the kinds of things you won't learn by reading, but only through the experience of that analogous relationship. By training and observing our own children, and our responses to them, we can gain insight into God's role as our father. Analogy can also be useful in defending your Christian worldview. Just listen to someone like William Lane Craig or Greg Koukl teach and you'll see what I mean. As you observe the world around you, take note of how God created everything in such a way that analogy is easy, and it is everywhere.

A roleplaying analogy for the spiritual life

This morning, while thinking, a profound thought came to mind. It was a meaningful thought to me and I'll explain why.

I have been trying to learn to hear God (I recommend Willard's book, Hearing God). I heard J.P. Moreland say in one message that when the Spirit speaks to Christians, there is a certain "flavor" to the voice, and that learning to listen to God includes learning to recognize that unique flavor or tone. I'd call it a "vibe" in my own language. Well, I'm still struggling to understand listening to God, but when this interesting thought came to me this morning, it had the flavor of something that I wouldn't have come up with on my own. It just kind of popped into mind and made sense to me. I'm wondering if this is what the Spirit sounds like as he speaks to us?

So what was the "thought" I'm referring to? Hold on for one more minute while I give you a little background.

One of my favorite hobbies is participating in tabletop roleplaying games (RPGs). I join some friends of mine once a week at lunch to play an RPG. (I sometimes write about roleplaying here.) I'm sorry if the language I am about to use sounds like Greek to you, but I must explain it so that what follows will make sense.

The game we are currently using is called Spirit of the Century. In this game, characters can acquire a number of skills of different types. These skills explain the activities at which the character is good, great, or mediocre - like athletics, driving, sneaking, acts of strength, etc. There are two broad categories of skills in the system used by Spirit of the Century: active and passive. Active skills are those things that require an effort or action taken by the character. This requires an intentional act of the will to accomplish something, be it running a race, making a good first impression, or examining the details of a painting. Passive skills are those qualities that are always "on" in the character. For example, alertness, endurance, and resolve. A character doesn't actively try to be alert. They simply are alert or they aren't, by default, and there are varying degrees to how alert someone can be, by nature or by practice. Endurance means the person has a natural or practiced ability to hold up under pressure. This isn't a concsious effort - it just resides there in the person. Resolve is similar, but refers to endurance of the mind rather than the body.

So this morning, the thought that came to mind was something like: "In the spiritual life, our goal is to make the things of Christ into passive attributes within us. We are to transform our living from the active pursuit of well-doing to the changed nature of passive, ever-present, Christlikeness." This is really just a rewording of a principle that others have stated in better words.

I recently read an article from Christianity Today in which Dallas Willard and Richard Foster were interviewed. In this interview, Willard explains that spiritual formation (or "character formation") is not to be mistakenly understood as "behavior modification". Rather, spiritual formation is intended to change the heart (the deep part of a person that determines how we think and act) so that it becomes like that of Christ himself.

My sense is that this morning, the Spirit was giving me new wording for this principle to color it more vividly in my mind. And that's exactly what it did. The same principles I've read over and over in Willard's books were made all the more clear this morning as the idea of active vs. passive popped into my mind.

For instance, my nature is to be prideful. The antithesis of this condition is humility, which is not present in my nature. Being a follower of Christ, I know that I am to be humble and not improperly prideful. There are two options before me. The first option is to mentally "muscle it".

Given a situation where I feel my pride swelling and the urge to perhaps boast or make myself look good, I can remember the lessons I learned from Jesus and fight the pride down. I can tell myself, "You're not as great as you think you are." This is an act of humility. Active. Behavior modification. I am consciously struggling on a case by case basis against the flesh by my will to do good. But the goal of spiritual formation into Christlikeness is to make that humility passive. Then, in the same situation, there won't be a desire for boasting. That part of me has been taken away, or at least diminished in some measure. Where I used to desire attention for self, I now desire for attention to be directed to Christ, or the Father, or to the good of another person. This is passive - true transformation. It's always "on", rather than a case by case skill to exercise by willful exertion. This is the goal.

As another example, take giving in secret. I can consciously make myself give money or goods to someone in need, and I can even keep it secret. This is a choice to do what I know is right, the desire to do a good deed, the pursuit of a righteous action. Now, this isn't a bad thing. But again, the goal is to make is so that my nature is to behave in this way. So, rather than choosing on a case by case basis which good deeds to perform, I do these things by default, because my changed heart leads me to do it. My passive state of heart should become that of a secretive giver.

This applies to many sins and virtues. You can decide how it looks in your own life. Maybe you struggle with lust. The goal is to not fight down each case of lust day to day (active), but to lose that lustful desire altogether, redirecting that time and energy to the good of God's kingdom. Maybe you find yourself reluctant to serve others in any capacity. The goal is not to force yourself into every opportunity for service, but to regenerate that part of your heart to serve others joyfully by nature, as a passive state of being, so that it is no longer a struggle but a delight. Maybe you struggle with the delicious desire to gossip and slander. Rather than biting your tongue in each conversation with your friends as you avoid speaking those nasty thoughts, the goal is to reform that part of your heart so that you naturally see the good in people and delight in building others up, and living with a quieter tongue and a listening ear. The struggle flees as the passive state of the renewed heart takes over in you.

Active vs. passive. This is the meaningful thought that came to mind this morning, and I am thankful. It has given me another way to meditate on the journey of character formation. This all sounds very good, you might think, but it sounds so difficult. Maybe you've been wanting to change for months or years, but there is very little change. Let me encourage you by saying that there is a way to pursue change. You are not powerless. Let me direct you to some resources that will guide you in the journey of heart transformation. All you need to do is carefully and thoughtfully read about and put into practice what these authors advise. Pick up the following list of books, in this order, and you will learn something very valuable about spiritual formation into Christlikeness. Also make note of the other books listed in the right-hand column of this blog. If we are going to grow and change, we need to be intentional about our pursuit. These books tell us how and why.

Renovation of the Heart: A thorough overview of transformation of the inmost depths of your being.
The Spirit of the Disciplines: A theoretical, historical, and practical overview of Christian spiritual disciplines.
Celebration of Discipline: A very practical and detailed guide to several classic Christian spiritual disciplines.
The Divine Conspiracy: A comprehensive look at discipleship and the life of the disciple.

Re-visioning God

My current reading includes Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy. I shouldn't be surprised, but this book, as with any other book by Willard, is absolutely masterful. Willard has, again, skillfully clarified a series of important features of the Christian life. In this book, he does so by taking a nice long look at the sermon on the mount - the most in-depth and helpful teaching I've ever heard on Jesus' "discourse on the hill" as Willard calls it. From there, he develops the topic of discipleship, which is one of Willard's passions, as you may know from his other writings. If you are interested in studying discipleship, start here. Other authors will tell you the same thing: "Here's what I want to teach you. But I must recommend you read Dallas Willard's book, because he wrote about the topic best, and I'm not going to try to rewrite it here." (Not an actual quote, just my summary of what I've seen in other books).

Writer Janet Batchler has commented on The Divine Conspiracy before, in better words than I ever could. Make sure to check out her posts:

Book Thoughts: The Divine Conspiracy
Notes from The Divine Conspiracy

As I've been swimming through the richness of this book, I've found numerous quotes and passage which I would love to share with you. There are so many that I would be breaking copyright laws to post them all here for you. So, all I can say is: if you want to grow and train as an apprentice of Jesus Christ, read this book. It's up to you to sink the bucks and devote the time.

Today, I have chosen one little topic and a few quotes to share with you. Hopefully this will be a pleasant appetizer for you. This is only a crumb of the goodness in this book.

Early in the book, Willard explains the importance of re-visioning God in our current lives. It is essential to view God in a certain way, to behold him and give him the proper consideration that is due him by his very nature. It is not only easy to forget how grand God is and who he is, but it is also easy to make him something he isn't, in our own minds. If we understood God as he truly is, it would be impossible to belittle him as we tend to do. Willard says:

"Central to the understanding and proclamation of the Christian gospel today, as in Jesus' day, is a re-visioning of what God's own life is like and how the physical cosmos fits into it." (The Divine Conspiracy, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997, p.62)

All things point to our great God, the Father, whom Jesus proclaimed. If this is so, then it follows that we should properly understand and imagine God. He is as he is, not as we want him to be, and not who we make him to be for our own uses. Willard goes back to appreciating and loving God much later in the book, when writing about discipleship. But how can we love a God we do not properly understand?

Willard goes on:

"We should, to begin with, think that God leads a very interesting life, and that he is full of joy. Undoubtedly he is the most joyous being in the universe. The abundance of his love and generosity is inseparable from his infinite joy. All of the good and beautiful things from which we occasionally drink tiny droplets of soul-exhilarating joy, God continuously experiences in all their breadth and depth and richness."

Thank you, Dr. Willard for reminding us of the vast good of God. God is so wonderful, so terrible, that it is difficult for us to find fitting words. Our minds can hardly begin to grasp it without straining and bursting. Only when we see God as Willard describes him, can we learn to love him as he is. Oh, but when we do see him and love him as he is, this is the seed that will grow in our hearts, beginning our transformation. This is a big point late in the book.

As humans, we often live for great experiences. As physical beings, we desire to squeeze the value out of life by experiencing good and grand things, and sharing them with others. Willard says:

"We treasure our great experiences for a lifetime, and we may have very few of them. But he is simply one great inexhaustible and eternal experience of all that is good and true and beautiful and right." (p.63)

These quotes from Willard are just tidbits. With them, I hope to turn your mind to your love for the Holy God. And in that place of love, I hope you will take time to read The Divine Conspiracy and allow yourself to receive Willard's unique training. This training will lead the intentional reader toward the transformed life of those who aspire to be true apprentices of Jesus of Nazareth.

It's always the little things

I recently heard Erik Thoennes - a great preacher, teacher, and theologian - mention something very appropriate in a sermon. He mentioned it in passing, really - the sermon was about something else. He reminded us of Paul's words from Philippians 2:14-16:

“Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life - in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.” (NIV)

“Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” (ESV)

The real emphasis I want to highlight here is verse 14: “Do everything without complaining or arguing”. The ESV says “grumbling or questioning”, and the NASB says “grumbling or disputing”. No matter how it's worded, we get the point, don't we?

During his sermon, Thoennes stopped to talk about complaining, which is what inspired me to write about it - even now, weeks after hearing the sermon. It was such a good thought, that it has stayed in my mind until now.

Why do we complain so much?

What does complaining accomplish?

Isn't it easy to complain? Think about how ready we are to complain. It is one of the easiest ways we have to get out our frustration and dissatisfaction with life and its direct effect on us.

But Thoennes had a thoughtful statement. I don't remember the wording now, but the idea was: Imagine what life would be like if we never complained. Imagine what a huge step that would be in living a righteous life. Imagine how a person like this would stand out, amidst a culture of epidemic complaining.

He went on to say that small things like this are what glorify God - doing the little things well, being faithful with the little he's given us. Thoennes says:

“Most of the time, glorifying God looks really normal. We glorify God when we refuse to gossip. We glorify God when we love our wife as Christ loves the church, even though she doesn't always make that easy. We glorify God by being men and women of integrity and doing what we say we will do. We glorify God by being patient with one another, bearing one another's burdens, and serving self-sacrificially when we want to be self-focused; by pursuing holy lives and dying to self and forsaking at times our image or our reputation; to suffer in light of the calling God has for us, with hope and with confidence in God. That's glorifying him - when you have gut-wrenching anguish in your life, and you refuse to curse God's name, refuse to just live in the disappointment, and you're willing to move beyond it and say, “I trust you, Lord, because you're good, and I know you're good, and I don't feel that right now, but I know it's true.”

I remember reading in my textbook for Intro to Psychology in college something to the effect of: It isn't the really big problems in life that push us over the edge and stress us out the most - it's the little things, like the broken shoelace with no time left.

There is a lot of truth there. Think about how many little things we gripe about. That's what I think of when I imagine complaining - griping. It isn't constructive or useful or beneficial for anyone. It's simply stating how dissatisfied we are with the realities of a fallen world.

What contradicts complaining? Isn't it contentedness? Do you find it difficult to be content? I know I do. Contentedness is a huge challenge in much of the world today, and strikingly so in American culture. If we allow ourselves to observe or listen to the many voices speaking to us (TV, music, movies, books) they will convince us that we are not content. We're somehow always being shorted, being stifled by “The Man”, missing out on something great.

Paul's words have been a great challenge to me:

“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” - Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV)

This is a passage that I have memorized and meditated on over and over. You will notice that if you try speaking scripture out loud, you must decide how to place emphasis in the reading. On the concluding sentence in this little passage, I have come to place the emphasis on “him”, rather than “everything”, which I have heard a few times from other readers. I don't think Paul's goal is to emphasize how much he can do, but rather, who it is that enables him to do everything he does - Jesus. He is saying that Jesus provides the power for contentedness in every situation on life's spectrum.

For added encouragement, I'll give you a couple more bits of scripture:

“The fear of the Lord leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.” - Proverbs 19:23

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?' “ - Hebrews 13:5-6

What can we do to gain contentedness? Surely we desire this as followers of Christ. I think a good way to gain contentedness is by gaining humility. But how do we gain humility? That's a tricky question as well. I think one way that God has provided for us to gain humility which leads to contentedness is through several spiritual disciplines. Again, I must direct you to the writings of Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, and Klaus Issler who have discussed this topic thoroughly. I always recommend first reading Willard's Spirit of the Disciplines, as this book gives theory and history behind the practice of spiritual disciplines. From there, Foster and Issler provide more insights and practical applications.

A few examples that come to mind are the disciplines of fasting, secrecy, and silence.

In fasting, we confront our dependence on food, physical sustenance. Even beyond our body's needed nourishment, I think we also deal with the issue of comfort and security which we gain from food, emotionally and mentally. In fasting, we allow ourselves into this weakened condition so that we can draw life from the true source - God himself. The act of fasting itself does nothing. It is God who does the work through the practice of fasting.

In secrecy, we keep the good things we do out of the sight and knowledge of others, allowing God alone to acknowledge us. Rather than performing good works for others to see, we do them privately, secretly. Rather than reporting to others (no matter how subtly) the good we've done, we let God alone observe it. Rather than receiving our glory from man, we receive it from God. This helps us learn to give up our need for man's approval and praise.

In silence, we allow ourselves to escape the clatter and noise of the world. As much as we might claim to dislike the noise of the world - we might find that it is actually comforting. Noise allows our minds to stay comfortably distracted, ignoring the realities we don't want to face in ourselves. The inseparable sibling to silence is the discipline of solitude. When we are alone, in the quiet, with only God to see and hear us, we open ourselves to scrutiny and observation. Not only by God, but also by ourselves. We must now deal with the self, confronting the ugly “us” that we have been hiding behind the busy-ness of life. Here, we are spiritually naked before God, ready for him to show us what he will. No friends, family, or tools can help us here. We become aware of who we are. This experience can be, and should be, very humbling.

Gaining humility is only one benefit of these disciplines. All of them have ways of drawing us into Christlikeness and maturing us in the spiritual life.

Having thought about these things, our goal should now be to live consciously aware of the words we speak, and the heart with which we speak them. The heart is the issue. If we find ourselves complaining, we need to examine our hearts and wonder, “Where did that come from? Who am I, that I complain like this? What condition is my heart in?” If we can curb our complaining habits, I think we will start to see good kinds of fruit, and we will be a blessing and encouragement to those around us. I am far from mastering this. We must remember that it is the little things that will catch us off guard. We must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in us, guiding and cautioning us. Let us work at it, always in the power of Christ alone.

NOTE: When I say "complain", I am talking about a type of communication that comes from a heart that is not rightly content and properly humble. This is different than sharing valid feelings. I never think we should hold back clear communication about facts and real life concerns. The difference between stating a genuine concern and complaining is really a matter of the motives and intentions of our hearts. And, I also encourage you to remember that it is often the difference between the little things and the bigger things that actually do need to be talked about. Body language and tone are also a clear indicator of our intentions. For instance, there is an obvious difference between, "I don't wanna do the dishes!!" and "I really wish this migraine would stop hurting..." Hopefully you see the difference, as it is an important one. Communication is of the utmost importance, so don't keep yourself from clearly expressing your feelings and discussing your thoughts.