What happens when a society is ending?

 

Who are you...on the inside?

 

Our Souls Need Silence and Solitude

The relentless stimulation to which we are exposed along with our exhaustive busyness have an effect on the condition of our souls.  I know this is true for me.  On more than a few occasions, I have found that when I do have time to simply relax it is hard for me to do so.  My mind won’t turn off and I crave the stimulation and busyness from which I say I desire escape.  When I actually do have some free time my soul can feel uneasy and fragmented.

We can grow distant from God in the course of our relentless hurry because He does not force Himself on us.

In his insightful way, Dallas Willard writes, “God will, generally speaking, not compete for our attention.  If we will not withdraw from the things that obsess and exhaust us into solitude and silence, He will usually leave us to our own devices.  He calls us to ‘be still and know.’”

Silence, solitude and even rest are spiritual disciplines.  It’s helpful for us to gradually learn to practice these disciplines because the soul transformation we desire does not adequately happen in the midst of endless rushing.

(Please know that I’m admonishing myself with this post.)

Total Contentment, Joy And Confidence In Your Everyday Experience of God - A Healthy Soul

John Ortberg, a pastor of a large church, asked his friend and mentor, Dallas Willard, what he needed to do to help his church experience greater levels of spiritual growth.  John was frustrated because the people of his church were not “changing” in the positive spiritual ways he was hoping for.

After John’s question Dallas paused for a long time and said, “You must arrange your days so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life with God.”

John’s response to Dallas’ instruction was:  “Huh?”

They talked about Dallas’ answer and after some conversation back and forth John said this…

“But how can I have total contentment, joy, and confidence? … My work isn’t going nearly well enough.  Lots of people are not happy with me.  I am inadequate as a pastor, husband, and father.  Every week I carry the burden of delivering a sermon and knowing I’ll have to feel the pain it if doesn’t go well.”

Dallas then responded like this…

“I didn’t say you should experience total contentment, joy, and confidence in the remarkable adequacy of your competence or the amazingly successful circumstances of your life.  It’s total contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday experience of God.  This alone is what makes a soul healthy.”

John shares this exchange in his book, “Soul Keeping: Caring For The Most Important Part of You.”  What Dallas told John sounds like a very simple idea but it is profound.  I encourage you to take a moment to quietly, seriously ponder the truth of what he said.  When I read this story earlier today it touched, encouraged and challenged my heart in a significant way. 

I want to find contentment, joy and confidence in God.  I want to find delight in Him, in the midst of all the circumstances of life.  Is that really possible?  I believe it is. 

I hope, as you consider these thoughts, God uses them to do something significant for your heart, too.

Dan Marler

First Church of God

Oak Lawn, IL

Dallas Willard - A "Friend" And "Mentor"

A friend of mind died today.  Well, actually, Dallas Willard didn't know we were friends since we've never met. But through his books and lectures Dallas Willard was a friend and mentor to me in my journey with Christ. 

I first became acquainted with Dr. Willard's writings through his book, “Spirit of the Disciplines.” But his books that impacted me the most were “The Divine Conspiracy” and “Knowing Christ Today.”

Dr. Willard’s thinking and teaching on discipleship, life in God’s kingdom, and the nature of spiritual knowledge have been very helpful to me and have provided guidance and great insight as I have grown in my relationship with Christ.

Dallas Willard was a professor of philosophy as well as a Christian pastor and theologian.  God gave him an interesting and unique perspective which involved a rigorous, penetrating intellect as well as a serious, committed spiritual life.  I am richer because of his giftedness and his obedience to God.

I would greet the release of every new Dallas Willard book with enthusiasm and expectancy.  I’m sad that he will not be writing any more books.  I know that I will see my friend again, someday, but for now, I will surely miss him.

Dan Marler

Oak Lawn, IL

Dallas Willard Quotes:

"If you could find a better way, Jesus would be the first one to tell you to take it. And if you don't believe that about him, you don't have faith in him, because what you're really saying is that he would encourage you to believe something that is false."

“If my pride is untouched when I pray for forgiveness, I have not prayed for forgiveness.  I don’t even understand it.”  The Divine Conspiracy

“…I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were I.  I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner that he did all that he did.”  The Divine Conspiracy

“It is now understood to be a part of the ‘good news’ that one does not have to be a life student of Jesus in order to be a Christian and receive forgiveness of sins.  This gives a precise meaning to the phrase ‘cheap grace,’ though it would be better described as ‘costly faithlessness.’”  The Divine Conspiracy

“…To enable people to become disciples we must change whatever it is in their actual belief system that bars confidence in Jesus as Master of the Universe.”  The Divine Conspiracy

“We often speak of people not living up to their faith.  But the cases in which we say this are not really cases of people behaving otherwise than they believe.  They are cases in which genuine beliefs are made obvious by what people do.  We always live up to our beliefs—or down to them, as the case may be.  Nothing else is possible.  It is the nature of belief.”  The Divine Conspiracy

“An understanding of ordinary logic is no longer a required part of university degree programs, as was almost universally the case sixty years ago.  Now, as a result, our world if full of uneducated people with higher degrees.  They have no independent logical judgment and simply conform to what their circle takes to be the ‘best professional opinion.’”  Knowing Christ Today

“God has room for people with very little sense, but He wants everyone to use what sense they have.”  Knowing Christ Today

“The central teachings of the Christian religion, such as those of the Apostles’ Creed, were from the beginning presented and accepted as knowledge—knowledge of what is real and what is right.  That is why they had the transforming effect they did on a world dead set against them.”  Knowing Christ Today

“We can never understand the life of faith seen in scripture and in serious Christian living unless we drop the idea of faith as a ‘blind leap’ and understand that faith is commitment to action, often beyond our natural abilities, based upon knowledge of God and God’s ways.”  Knowing Christ Today

“To know Christ in the modern world is to know him in your world now.  To know him in your world now is to live interactively with him right where you are in your daily activities.  This is the spiritual life in Christ.”  Knowing Christ Today

Bringing The Kingdom To Everyone

At the heart of His gospel was the fact that “Jesus was bringing the kingdom of God to those whom the authorities—the religious leaders, scribes, and Pharisees—thought were hopeless and should be shut out.”—Dallas Willard.  Over and over again, we see Jesus hanging out with the “least of these.”  He calls us to proclaim the Good News to even the most unlikely, as well.

Leading By Example . . . That's What's Needed

This article originally appeared in the Southtown Star Newspaper, August 9, 2009.

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It is unfortunate, to say the least, that one of the most significant aspects of true leadership appears to be embarrassingly absent in so many leaders today, whether it be in politics, business, religion, education, or media. And this missing aspect is arguably the most effective quality of true leadership. The missing aspect is: leadership by example.

Where are the leaders whose lives will authentically show us what their many words seem to be indicating? I don’t think people expect leaders to be perfect; we know they are human. However, we are all looking for some consistency between words and actions.

For all of the talk about different values in our culture, most leaders of the key influential cultural institutions still speak passionately about the importance of certain fundamental values that most people—no matter their background or worldview—can agree upon; values like: courage, generosity, compassion, integrity, responsibility, justice, human dignity, honesty, freedom.

Are we seeing clear examples of these values being shown to us in the lives of the various leaders in our nation? I suspect I could guess how the majority of people reading this would respond.

The authority and influence that so many leaders in our culture yield is merely the authority and influence that come from wealth, or position, or the respect—fading respect—that some people still have for the institutions they lead. And this authority has been greatly diminished precisely because people can see the lack of consistency between the stated values and the lives of the leaders. Some of our political leaders are an extraordinarily sad example of this inconsistency between talk and actions. Their disconnect in this regard is shameful. But they are certainly not the only ones.

As a leader in a church I am acutely aware that the authority and influence and credibility of my leadership is very directly tied to the degree to which my life matches what I teach. I confess the need to do much better, with God’s help. One of my old friends used to say, “Talk is cheap.” That’s an uncomfortable truth for a preacher to confront. But it is true, nevertheless.

Philosopher, Dallas Willard, writes, “ . . . what we know of human nature seems clearly to indicate that insight on how to live can be provided effectively only by those who are prepared to lead the way by example. Only by showing how to live can we teach how to live.”

It is high time for more business leaders, religious leaders, political leaders, media leaders, and education leaders to courageously show the way.

Dan Marler
Oak Lawn, IL