…the greatest need you and I have—the greatest need of collective humanity—is renovation of our heart. That spiritual place within us from which outlook, choices, and actions come has been formed by a world away from God. Now it must be transformed.
[Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, 14]
Today, we look a little closer at the Heart and the Mind. Often, people are confused about the “psychology” – the teaching about our “inner selves” – of the Bible. We are going to try and clarify some of the key ideas that help us understand what is going on within ourselves – in our thoughts, desires and emotions. These things are important to understand because these are the places where Father God does His work within us.
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Yesterday we introduced an illustration using circles to represent who we are as humans created in the image of God. Today we are going to introduce a few more key ideas that we will develop as we go along. What does it mean that we were created in the “Image” and “Likeness” of the Lord God?
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The week, we get to work. As with any creative project, the first thing we need to do is get to know our tools and how to use them. We are going to begin with two basic “tools” that we will be applying throughout this whole study: 1) a way to visualize who we are as humans, and 2) a reliable pattern of transformation. We will start with seeking to understand who we are and how we are designed as human beings.
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Christianity is built on the work and teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life…” This one statement is where we get the titles for the three phases of our MilktoMeat study: Discovering The Way, Walking in the The Truth, Living The Life. Jesus is The Way—the “path,” the “road” —that leads us back to Father God. But Jesus also teaches us a Way of living in the Truth. In our readings, we will be discussing both how Jesus is THE Way and also the WAY He taught us to live.
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As we have already discussed briefly, Jesus is calling us into His Kingdom. When that Kingdom comes in full, everything will be set right, all things will be healed, all things will be made new.
But here is the catch: the only people who will be able to live joyously in this Kingdom are those who can submit to the Truth, Goodness, and Glory of God in this present life. The truth of The Kingdom of God calls us to change the way we think about everything. That is what Jesus is asking us to do when He says, “Repent and believe the Gospel!”
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As we move through these readings together, you will see that we are often discussing truths related to our PAST and also our FUTURE. Understanding the PAST helps us to get our bearings in terms of where we have come from. Looking to the FUTURE helps to see where we are going. From this Past>Future perspective we are able to understand our present. What we will discover is that Jesus is at the beginning of things and He is at the end of things. Knowing Him is vitally important to understanding what life is really about.
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