counting the cost character transformation
TRANSCRIPT
THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES:
PRAYER
Counting the Cost
•Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried—G. K. Chesterton
The cost of discipleship
Counting the Cost
•Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried—G. K. Chesterton
•Lk 14:25-33
The cost of discipleship
Counting the Cost
•Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried—G. K. Chesterton
•Lk 14:25-33
The cost of discipleship
•Crushing burdens, failures, disappointments
The cost of nondiscipleship
Counting the Cost
•Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried—G. K. Chesterton
•Lk 14:25-33
The cost of discipleship
•Crushing burdens, failures, disappointments
•Unresolved problems
The cost of nondiscipleship
Counting the Cost
•Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried—G. K. Chesterton
•Lk 14:25-33
The cost of discipleship
•Crushing burdens, failures, disappointments
•Unresolved problems
•Mt 16:24-26
The cost of nondiscipleship
Character Transformation
Solid beliefs and doctrines
Character Transformation
Solid beliefs and doctrines
Definitive actions
A Holistic Salvation
Provides deliverance leading toward an abundant
spiritual life
A Holistic Salvation
Provides deliverance leading toward an abundant
spiritual life
Invites participatio
n in the reign of
God through bodily action
Spiritual Life - Willard
That range of activities in which people cooperatively interact with God and with the spiritual order, which flows from and through God’s personality and action.
Spiritual Person - Willard
One whose life is correctly integrated into and dominated by God’s Kingdom.
What spirituality is not
A lifestyle
What spirituality is not
A lifestyle
A commitment
What spirituality is not
A lifestyle
A commitment
A social or political stance
What spirituality is not
A lifestyle
A commitment
A social or political stance
An attempt to correct social and political
injustice
Christian spirituality includes…
Activities of mind and body purposefully undertaken to bring personality and being into effective cooperation with the divine order;
Christian spirituality includes…
Activities of mind and body purposefully undertaken to bring personality and being into effective cooperation with the divine order;
Bringing fulfillment to the body as well as to the spirit.
Christian spirituality includes…
Activities of mind and body purposefully undertaken to bring personality and being into effective cooperation with the divine order;
Bringing fulfillment to the body as well as to the spirit.
The idea that a lack of the disciplines associated with spirituality damages the body as well as the spirit
Elton Trueblood
What we are beginning to learn is that asceticism is a valid part of religion or of any other important enterprise.
Meditation Prayer
Fasting Study
Prayer
What is prayer? An attempt to define (Calhoun)
Relationship with GodAttention to GodDivine dialogue through intentional
encounter with God
Prayer
Why should disciples pray?Prayer catapults disciples into the frontier of
the spiritual life (Foster)To pray is to descend with the mind into the
heart and there stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all seeing, within you (Nouwen)
Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform his disciples (Foster)
Prayer
Something to be learned (Foster) Prayer disciplines provide ways to enter
into prayer (Calhoun)Breath – God becomes the “oxygen to the
soul”Centering – the act of quieting the spiritContemplative – the act of waiting with an
awake heartConversational – natural dialogue with God
Prayer
The practices of prayerSpiritual Practices (204-18)Spiritual Classics (31-2, 48ff)
Small Group Exercise – “Breath Prayer”
Prayer
Additional prayer disciplinesFixed-hourInner HealingIntercessoryLabyrinthLiturgicalPrayer PartnersPraying ScripturePrayer of RecollectionPrayer Walking