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respond to this one if you guys wanna keep in touch, ill give you my number and address or sumthin.
r.i.p. xanga.
:::closes proverbial cyber-casket:::
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| Faith today is treated as something that only should make us different, not that actually does or can
make us different. In reality we vainly struggle against the evils of
this world, waiting to die and go to heaven. Somehow we've gotten the
idea that the essence of faith is entirely a mental and inward thing.
I don't think anyone wanted or planned this state of affairs. We have
simply let our thinking fall into the grip of a false opposition of
grace to "works" that was caused by a mistaken association of works
with "merit." And history has only made things worse. It has built a
wall between faith and grace, andwhat we actually do. Of course we know there must
be some connection between grace and life, but we can't seem to make it
intelligible to ourselves. So, worst of all, we're unable to use that
connection as the basis for specific guidance as to how to enter into
Christ's character and power.
Today, we think of Christ's
power entering our lives in various ways--through the sense of
forgiveness and love for God or through the awareness of truth, through
special experiences or the infusion of the Spirit, through the presence
of Christ in the inner life or through the power of ritual and liturgy
or the preaching of the Word, through the communion of the saints or
through a heightened consciousness of the depths and mystery of life.
All of these are doubtlessly real and of some good effect. However,
neither individually nor collectively do any of these ways reliably
produce large numbers of people who really are like Christ and his
closest followers throughout history. That is statistically verifiable fact.
I believe our present difficulty is one of misunderstanding how our
experiences and actions enable us to receive the grace of God. There is
a deep longing among Christians and non-Christians alike for the
personal purity and power to live as our hearts tell us we should. What
we need is a deeper insight into our practical relationship with God in
redemption. We need an understanding that can guide us into constant
interaction with the Kingdom of God as a real part of our daily lives,
an ongoing spiritual presence that is at the same time a psychological reality.
In other words, we must develop a psychologically sound theology of the
spiritual life and of its disciplines to guide us... -*excerpt from The Spirit of the Disciplines; Dallas Willard. |
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| whoo. only two exams to go: and they are take home. Now all's i gotta do it do em.
::sigh:: good semester. im ready for another. got a statistics summer class in june.
footbag still reigns supreme
it's to DIE for.... DIE!!!
i need some lunch... there are lots of cats here at Upstate by the way.
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