Renovation of the Heart
Transforming the Soul (1|4)
Pages 207-211
• Psalm 1 Man
• This Is Not the Ordinary Case
• Soul Unavoidable
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Psalm 1 (NIV) Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither - whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
Joshua 1:8-9 (NIV) Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
“The soul is that aspect of your whole being that correlates, integrates, and enlivens everything going on in the various dimensions of the self. It is the life-center of the human being. It regulates whatever is occurring in each of those dimensions and how they interact with each other and respond to surrounding events in the overall governance of your life. - In the person with the ‘well-kept heart,’ the soul will be itself properly ordered under God and in harmony with reality. The outcome will be, as we have said, ‘a person who is prepared for and capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are good and right.’ For such a person, the human spirit will be in correct relationship to God. With his assisting grace, it will bring the soul into subjection to God and the mind (thoughts, feelings) into subjection to the soul.”
How does the soul relate to intellectual and cultural tendencies of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? To biblical teachings?
Psalm 1 Man
“The man in Psalm 1 is first characterized in terms of what he does not do, which is perhaps the most immediately obvious thing about him. - He does not live as if God does not exist, nor does he make plans from within strictly human understanding. He plans on God. - In contrast, the Psalm 1 man delights in the law that God has given. He loves it, is thrilled by it, can’t keep his mind off it. He thinks it is beautiful, strong, wise, and an incredible gift of God’s mercy and grace. He therefore dwells upon it day and night, turning it over and over in his mind and speaking it to himself.”
Is “Psalm 1 (hu)man” realistic? For you? For others, you know? What would it look like on the job and in the home?
This Is Not the Ordinary Case
Ephesians 2:1-2 (NIV) As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. “Enslaved to their desires or their bodily habits or blinded by false ideas, distorted images, and misinformation, their souls cannot find their way into the life of consistent truth and harmonious pursuit of what is good. The soul is locked in a self-destructive struggle with itself and with all around it. Normally, unfulfilled desires and poisonous relationships are the most prominent features of such lives. - The individual soul’s specific formation - the character it has taken on through its life course - is seen in the details of how thoughts, feelings, social relations, bodily behaviors, and choices unfold, and especially how they interact with each other. In most actual cases, the individuals are not at harmony with themselves, much less with truth and with God. Their habitual condition is one of conflict and one of acting other than how they themselves intend or regard as wise.”
How is the enslavement to desires or bodily habits, distorted images, and misinformation set free? What is the solution if in most actual cases, the individuals are not at harmony with themselves?
“The failure of good intentions is the outcome of the underlying disconnects or ‘wrong connects’ between thoughts, feelings, and actions, permitted or enforced by their disordered souls. The dimensions of the self are not coherently drawn together by the soul to form a whole life devoted to God and to what is acknowledged as good. Such a person cannot ‘get it together’ or ‘get his (or her) act together,’ as we say now.”
How does the “failure of good intentions” relate to disorders of the soul?
“Truly we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14). The human soul is a vast spiritual (nonphysical) landscape, with resources and relationships that exceed human comprehension. It also exists within an infinite environment of which, at our best, we have little knowledge. We only know that God is over it all and that the soul, if it can only acknowledge its wounded condition, manifests amazing capacities for recovery when it finds its home in God and receives his grace.”
What does this mean and what is your response?
Soul Unavoidable
“‘Soul’ has become almost as attention-getting as ‘sex’ and is widely used as a selling point. People pride themselves on having and knowing and expressing ‘soul.’ - It is a natural reaction to a deeply felt need, for indeed the soul - or, more generally, the spiritual side of life - simply cannot be indefinitely suppressed. - It is possible that the reason modern intellectuals have failed to find soul is that soul really is no longer present in their individual lives. - That would explain why meaning is such a problem for human beings today.”
How would you define/articulate having and knowing and expressing ‘soul.’?
EXTRA READING:
“My friends, anyone who worships should remember the way in which the tax collector prayed in the temple alongside the Pharisees. He did not raise his eyes immodestly to heaven or lift up his hands arrogantly. Instead, he struck his breast, and confessing the sins hidden within his heart, he implored the assistance of God’s mercy. While the Pharisee was pleased with himself, the tax collector deserved to be cleansed much more because of the manner in which he prayed. For he did not place his hope of salvation in the certainty of his own innocence - indeed no one is innocent. Rather he prayed humbly, confessing his sins. And the Lord who forgives the lowly heard his prayer.”
- Cyprian of Carthage (210 - 258)