Renovation of the Heart
Radical Goodness Restored to the Soul (1|3)
Pages 63-67
• The True Meaning of the Cross and “Counting the Costs”
• The Cross and the Call to the Great Life
• The Centrality of Giving
• Supported on the Kingdom
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
1 Peter 1:8-9 (NIV) Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 2:23-25 (NIV) When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Philippians 2:12-16 (NIV) Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
The True Meaning of the Cross and “Counting the Costs”
”The impression gained by most who hear about ‘counting the cost’ of following Jesus is one of how terrible and painful that cost is. But to count the cost is to take into consideration both the losses and the gains of all possible courses of action, to see which is most beneficial.”
What is it to ‘count the cost’? What are the gains as well as the expenses of discipleship?
The Cross and the Call to the Great Life
“Imagine that you discovered gold or oil on a certain property, and no one else knew about it. Can you see yourself being sad and feeling deprived for having to gather all your resources and ‘sacrifice’ them in order to buy that property? Hardly! Some pain in included, no doubt, because the old attachments are still there in our hearts and lives. They never all disappear at once. And we may experience some uncertainty from time to time, especially at the start. The new vision becomes attachment and takes on an ever greater reality as we progress; and that, in turn, pushes the old attachments toward the exits of our lives - which we then are not sad to see go. We come to want to not want what we now want, and to want to not think of what now lives before our minds; and we come to want to be made willing for what we are not now really willing.” - try reading that last sentence fast 3 times in a row ;)
Tongue-twisters aside - what does that statement mean?
The Centrality of Giving
“For the productive character giving has an entirely different meaning. Giving is the highest expression of potency. In the very act of giving I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. The experience of heightened vitality fills me with joy. I experience myself as overflowing, spending, alive, hence as joyous. Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because it is deprivation, but because in the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness.” - Enrich Fromm (1900 - 1980)
Why is giving so central to the restoration of the soul? How does giving depend on the reality of the kingdom?
Supported on the Kingdom
“In laying down my life I must experience much more than ‘my strength, my wealth, my power.’ There must be a realism to it. Otherwise one is in danger of falling into the same kind of cheery falseness that characterizes so much current talk of self-esteem. The necessary support for giving and forgiving is abundantly supplied by Jesus through the reality of the kingdom of God that he brings into our lives. He makes this available to us in response to our confidence in Him.”
What does this mean? What is your response?
EXTRA READING:
“Love the poor and love poverty, for it is by such love that we become truly poor. As the Scripture says, we become like the things we love. If you love the poor you will share their poverty and be poor like them. If you love the poor be often with them. Be glad to see them in your own home and to visit with them in theirs. Be glad to talk to them and be pleased to have them near you in church, on the street, and elsewhere. Be poor in conversing with them and speak to them as their companions do, but be rich in assisting them by sharing some of your more abundant goods with them.”
- Francis de Sales (1567 - 1622)