Renovation of the Heart
The Heart in the System of Human Life (4|4)
Pages 34-40
• Influence on Action
• Israel and Us
• “Helter-Skelter”
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
1 John 3:7-10 (NIV) Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
Colossians 3:15-17 (NIV) Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
1 Corinthians 14:33 (NIV) God is not a God of disorder but of peace —as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
Influence on Action
”One thing we are most inclined to deceive ourselves about - If I do evil, I am the kind of person who does evil; if I do good, I am the kind of person who does good. Actions are not important impositions of who we are but are expressions of who we are. They come out of the heart and the inner realities it supervises and interacts with.”
Do you agree or disagree that actions really do tell who we are?
“The spirit must first come alive to and through God, of course. Otherwise, we remain dead to Him in ‘trespasses and sins.’ But once the spirit comes alive in God, the lengthy process of subduing all aspects of the self under God can begin. This is the process of spiritual formation viewed in its entirety.”
What does this mean? What is your response to this statement?
Israel and Us
“This eternal kind of life is not a passive life. Passivity was for the Israelites, and it is for us, one of the greatest dangers and difficulties of our spiritual existence. The land promised to them was one of incredible goodness - ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is repeatedly described. But it still had to be conquered by careful, persistent, and intelligent human action, over a long period of time. - The work of spiritual formation in Christlikeness is the work of claiming the land of milk and honey in which we are, individually and collectively, to dwell with God.”
Do you struggle with passivity? What areas in your life is passivity most prevalent? What would be helpful for you to move from passivity toward a promised land? Is this the same as the “prosperity gospel?”
“What was then true of the Promised Land of the Israelites was then and is now true of individual human beings who come to God. The Israelites were saved or delivered by grace as surely as we are. But in both cases ‘grace’ means we are to be, and are enabled to be, active to a degree we have never been before.”
Is the comparison between Isreal taking the Promised Land and conquering by grace and action all the dimensions of our personality a valid one?
”Helter-Skelter”
“Resolute action for the good requires that things make sense. Life makes sense only if you understand its basic components and how they interrelate to form the whole. Evil, on the other hand, thrives on confusion. God is not the author of confusion.”
What is your response to this statement?
EXTRA READING:
“We have real difficulty here because everyone thinks of changing the world, but where, oh where, are those who think of changing themselves? People may genuinely want to be good, but seldom are they prepared to do what it takes to produce the inward life of goodness that can form the soul. Personal formation into the likeness of Christ is arduous and lifelong.”
- Richard Foster (born 1942) theologian and author