Written by Dallas Willard (1935-2013), an American philosopher known for his writings on Christian spiritual formation. This is an excerpt from his book “Renovation of the Heart.”
In renewing the language and reality of “spiritual formation” in our time and in opening afresh the way to the reality of it, the Spirit of God now calls his people to live from an adequate basis for character transformation, resulting in obedience to and abundance in Christ. This really is something different. The present moment is not an occasion to keep on doing the same things Christians have been doing in the recent past – except now “really meaning it.” It is time to change our focus, individually and in our Christian groupings. If we as Christ’s people genuinely enter Christ’s way of the heart, individuals will find a sure path toward becoming the persons they were meant to be: thoroughly good and godly persons, yet purged of arrogance, insensitivity, and self-sufficiency. Christian assemblies will become what they have been in many periods of the past and what the world desperately call for today: incomparable schools of life—life that is eternal in quality now, as well as unending in quantity.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. [Colossians 3:16]
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