Practical Irrelevance of Actual Obedience to Christ
Quote: The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard
From introduction: pge. XV
"More than any other single thing, in any case, the practical irrelevance of actual obedience to Christ accounts for the weakened effect of Christianity in the world today, with its increasing tendency to emphasize political and social action as the primary way to serve God. It also accounts for the practical irrelevance of Christian faith to individual character development and overall personal sanity and well being."
"The most telling thing about the contemporary Christian is that he or she simply has no compelling sense that understanding of and conformity with the clear teachings of Christ is of any vital importance to his or her life, and certainly not that is in any way essential. We---including multitudes who have distanced themselves from any formal association with Him---still manage to feel guilty with referance to those teachings, with a nervous laugh and a knowing look. But more often than not, I think, such obedience is regarded as just out of the question or impossible. This largely is because obedience is thought of solely in terms of law."
"Individual Christians still hear Jesus say, "whoever hears these words of mine and does them is like those intelligent people who build their houses upon rock, "standing firm against every pressure of life (Matt. 7:24-25) How life-giving it would be if their understanding of the Gospel allowed them simply to reply, "I will do them! i will finf out how. I will devote my life to it! This is the best life strategy I ever heard of!" and then go off to their fellowship and its teachers, and into their daily life, to learn how to live in HIs Kingdom as Jesus indicated was best. "
Lord Jesus, may we have open hearts and minds to being obedient to Your Word in every part of our lives. May we be obedient children, obedient parents, obedient co-workers, obedient friends, obedient neighbors, obedient body of Christ. May people know we are your disciples by our obedience.
Training as an apprentice of Christ
Royal
posted by Royal | 11:46 AM
2 Comments:
to be obedient, even when it is NOT convenient ... to be obedient though i know a struggle will ensue ... to be obedient ... it IS tough - but only the tough will grow in grace ...
Good stuff, Royal. I think the whole idea isn't "Whoever hears these words of mine and agrees with them" but (as you quoted) "whoever puts them into practice."
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