The Moral Argument for God's Existence: Some Resources

 

                                (Redeemer Church in Monroe)

The moral argument for God's existence is my favorite, among arguments for the existence of God. People have not stopped making moral judgments and pronouncements. But if these judgments are not grounded in the reality of a transcendent command-giver, and we are left with atheism, then they are mere subjective tastes.

To understand the moral argument, begin by reading "The Indispensability of Theological Meta-Ethical Foundations for Morality," by William Lane Craig.

Here are posts I have written on the moral argument for God's existence, and on moral-ethical issues in general related to this argument...

William Lane Craig's Moral Argument for God's Existence

The Most Compelling Argument for God's Existence

The Moral Argument for God's Existence (Facebook Live)

Moral Obligations to Tell People They Are Wrong

If There Is No God Then There Are No Moral Facts

Morality Is Non-binding if God Does Not Exist

Objective Moral Values and Duties Exist (Premise 2 of the Moral Argument for God's Existence)

Biological Determinism and Moral Responsibility

George Mavrodes On the Weirdness of Moral Obligations in a Russellian World

Metaethical Studies and Moral Nihilism

Explaining Objective and Subjective Moral Values

Is Paul Copan A Moral Relativist?

On Objective Moral Values

Science Says Nothing About Moral Values

What Is It Like to Be a (Moral) Bat?

Does Moral Action Depend on Reasoning? Part 1

The Naturalistic Fallacy (You Can't Derive Moral Facts from Scientific Facts)

Is God a Moral Monster? #2

Is God a Moral Monster?: #3

On the Moral Argument for God's Existence: Objective Moral Values Exist

Objective Moral Values - Another Example of Proper Basicality

The Difference Between Moral Ontology and Moral Epistemology

The Moral Argument for God's Existence - Going Deeper

Is God a Moral Monster?: #4a

Marcello Pera On the Moral Necessity of Assuming the Existence of God

How One Atheist Lives Without Morality

Christianity's Moral Claim

Is God a Moral Monster?: #5

Michael Shermer's Category Mistake About Moral Progress

Logic, Moral Reasoning, & the "Trolley Problem"

Atheists Who Agree That Without God There Are No Objective Moral Values

You Can't Derive "Ought" From "Is"

The Christian Roots of Atheistic Morality

Franz DeWaal & the Atheist Dilemma

Divine Command Theory and P1 of Craig's Metaethical Argument

On Evolutionary Accounts of Ethical Beliefs

The Euthyphro Dilemma

If There Is No God, then Right and Wrong Don't Exist (Moral Nihilism)

Just as I Am?

 

 

                                                                (Monroe County)

Does Jesus invite me to come to him "just as I am?" Thank God, yes!

When I follow Jesus will I stay "just as I am?" Thank God, no!

The book of Galatians explains both statements.

The first statement is about justification. Justification means being made right with God.

There was a teaching floating around in the early church that what Christ accomplished on the cross was not enough to justify us. More was needed, taught the Judaizers. In addition to Christ's atoning sacrificial death, one must also become a Jew, and, if male, be circumcised, and follow the Mosaic law and the dietary laws and keep the Jewish holy days. 

To this, Paul gives a resounding "NO!" That is a "different gospel - really, no gospel at all." (Gal. 1:6-7). Such teachings "pervert" the gospel of Christ.

But once we come to Jesus, just as we are, and are justified, are we then to stay just as we are? To that idea, Paul gives a resounding "No!" To explain this, Paul contrasts the works of the "flesh" (sinful inclinations) with the works of the Spirit. Works of the flesh include,

sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 

20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, 

fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 

21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. 

I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit are contrary to each other, are in conflict with each other. Paul's beautiful prayer for these new Christians was that they be "formed into Christlikeness," by the power of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 4:19).

Now, in Christ, we are new creations. God has put his Spirit in us. We are to walk in the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit, say "Yes" to the leadings of the Spirit. As we do this, the Holy Spirit grows "fruit of the Spirit" in us, which includes...

love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 2

3 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 

24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh 

with its passions and desires. 

25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 

All who have come to Christ, to include myself, were a hot mess. Yet we could come "Just as I am." That's justification. Thank God for it!

Then, all who abide in Christ and worship Him become different creations. That's sanctification. Thank God for it!

Here's the idea, again, from the apostle Paul.

Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral 

nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 

10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers 

nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 

11 And that is what some of you were. 

But you were washed, you were sanctified, 

you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ 

and by the Spirit of our God.

***

Want to dig deeper into the book of Galatians? I recommend...  

Craig Keener - Galatians: A Commentary

Ben Witherington - Grace in Galatia: A Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Galatians

Scot McKnight - Galatians: The NIV Application Commentary

N. T. Wright - Galatians

Tim Keller - Galatians for You

Spirituality of Howard Thurman

(I'm teaching Spiritual Formation at Payne Theological Seminary this week. Here are my notes on the prayer life and spiritual formation ideas of Howard Thurman. I've been reading Thurman for the past forty years, having been introduced to him in A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants.)

Spirituality of Howard Thurman

Howard Thurman is, I think, the person who has most influenced African American meditative and contemplative spirituality. Thurman is brilliant and deep, something that is always a deadly spiritual combination. He is Jesus-centered. And humble. Here is one who had real authority, who was used by God to influence many people, not the least of whom was Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of Thurman's quotes describes my Spiritual Formation class well. Thurman writes: “One of the great services that the Christian church can render to the community is to provide spells and spaces of quiet for the world-weary men and women whose needs are so desperate.” (HTEW, 57) This is what my class intends to do, not as a one-week experience, but as a lifetime spiritual habit.

*****
SPIRITUALITY OF HOWARD THURMAN

1. Influences on Thurman

Thurman said that he learned more “about the genius of the religion of Jesus from my grandmother than from all the men who taught me all… the Greek and the rest of it. Because she moved inside the experience [of the religion of Jesus] and lived out of that center.” (In L. Smith, Howard Thurman: The Essential Writings; hereafter HTEW, 15)

• To embody the Christian faith, rather than just head-know it.
• To actually know Christ, not to merely know about Christ.

Thurman was influenced by Quaker mystic, scholar, and social activist Rufus Jones.
• “Jones guided Thurman’s first extensive formal study of mysticism. Thurman described his time with Jones as ‘a watershed from which flowed much of the thought and endeavor to which I was to commit the rest of my working life.” (HTEW, 18)

Thurman met with Gandhi. (HTEW, 20)
• “They were the first African Americans to meet with Gandhi.” (L. Smith, HTEW, 20)
• When Thurman returned to the U.S. after meeting with Gandhi “he traveled throughout the country speaking about his time with Gandhi and the relevance of nonviolent resistance as a means for addressing racial injustices.” (L. Smith, HTEW, 20)
• L. Smith writes: “Directly and indirectly, Thurman was the messenger for connecting the spiritual methods of India’s struggle for independence to the need for a spiritually based nonviolent movement to transform racial injustices in the United States.” (L. Smith, HTEW, 20-21)

See also:

Luther Smith. Howard Thurman: The Mystic as Prophet.

Walter Fluker. They Looked for a City: A Comparative Analysis of the Ideal ofCommunity in the Thought of Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Howard Thurman. WithHead and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman.

2. Focus on the Timeless Issues of the Human Spirit 

Prof. George Cross advised HT – “Give yourself to the timeless issues of the human spirit.” (Luther Smith, Introduction, Howard Thurman: Essential Writings [HTEW], 13)
• Ontological issues.
• Cultivate an ontology of the human spirit.
• Nouwen – the deeper we go in persons, the more we are all the same.


3. The Relationship of the Particular to the Universal

L. Smith writes: “The major themes in Howard Thurman’s spirituality are:
• The significance of religious experience
• The hunger for community
• The realization of a true sense of self. (HTEW, 30)

“Within each of these themes, a proper understanding of particularity and universality is crucial.” (L Smith, HTEW, 30)

L. Smith – “Thurman’s social analysis and theology are based on understanding the relationship of the particular to the universal. Thurman believes that a particular contains the universal, and the universal is composed of particulars.” (Smith, in HTEW, 25)

• In relation to spirituality, and spiritual formation/transformation/renewal/restoration…, this means: the deeper we go inside people the more we are all the same.
• E.g. – when God deep-searches out my particular heart…, the ontological realities of my particular heart are the universal-ontological realities of the human heart.

Autobiography is connected to spirituality. Luther Smith: “Whatever one seeks to discover about the meaning of life in general must take into consideration how such meaning is found in one’s own life.” (HTEW, 14)

• Because the deeper we go into our own selves the more we are like others…
• …such autobiographical study and research provides keys to “the meaning of life in general.”
• Therefore, find the meaning of your own life.
• Soul-research. Be yourself searched-out by God.
• “Search me, O God, and know my heart.”


4. Spiritual Disciplines

HT relies on spiritual disciplines “to tutor our spiritual discernment so that both the familiar and the strange are understood in light of the desires of God’s heart.” (L. Smith, HTEW, 32)

• Spiritual disciplines “tutor our spiritual discernment.” This brings “understanding.”

Spiritual disciplines “are meant to ‘ready’ the mind, the emotions, the spirit. They are no guarantor of Presence… God reveals His Presence out of the mystery of Being. With all of my passionate endeavor, I cannot command that He obey.” (HTEW, 45)

• E.g. – if I played basketball. I engage in “training” so as to compete in the game.
• The training, the “disciplines,” prepare me for the game.
• Spiritual disciplines “train” the body and mind and spirit of a person.

In Disciplines of the Spirit HT identifies five spiritual disciplines:

• Commitment
• Growth
• Suffering
• Prayer
• Reconciliation

1. Commitment

“Commitment means that it is possible for a man to yield the nerve center of his consent to a purpose or cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to him than whether he lives or dies. The commitment is a self-conscious act of will by which he affirms his identification with what he is committed to. The character of his commitment is determined by that to which the center or core of his consent is given.” (HTEW, 46)

• In commitment there is a “yielding.” There is a “giving oneself to…”

“Commitment” is related to “surrender. “Whatever stands in the way of the complete and full surrender, we must search it out and remove it.” (HTEW, 48)

“Surrender your inner consent to God.” (HTEW, 48)

I think “commitment” and “surrender” are like: jumping out of the plane and trusting the parachute to open. It is a whole-being thing.

Like: “I surrender all…”


2. Growth

“Growth means development in the life of an organism. It means change manifest in structure.” (HETW, 51)

• “Change manifest in structure” is: transformation.
• Structural change.
• Systemic change.
• Which will lead to changes in attitude and behavior.

“There are many adults who for various reasons have escaped this essential discipline of their spirit. True, in terms of physical and intellectual development they have continued to grow. Their bodies and minds have moved through all the intervening stages to maturity, but they have remained essentially babies in what they expect of life.” (HETW, 52)

• It’s either deep change or slow death.
• It’s either maturing or endless baby-hood.
• It’s either dining on spiritual meat or drinking spiritual milk from the bottle.

One of the real challenges of growth is crisis, and the “real possibility of failure.” “To guard against this and be prepared to deal with it when it occurs is an authentic discipline of the spirit… And for the religious man, it is to grow not only in grace but also in the knowledge and experience of God.” (HETW, 54)

• Ongoing engagement in the spiritual disciplines prepares one for crises and failure.
• Always growing deeper… the body wastes away but the spirit is being renewed day after day after day… closer knowing and experiencing of God…

What HT says about “growth” sounds like what I mean by spiritual transformation; the pain of change.


3. Suffering

“When a man is driven by suffering to make the most fundamental inquiries the meaning of life, he has to assess and re-assess his total experience. It may be that… he has never thought seriously of God. He has taken his life and all of life for granted. Now under the assault of pain he is led to wonder about the mystery of life. Why do men suffer? He asks himself. He sorts out the answers available to him…” (HTEW, 55)

“What would life be like if there were no suffering, no pain? The startling discovery is made that if there were no suffering there would be no freedom. Men could make no mistakes, consciously or unconsciously. The race could make no mistakes. There would be no error. There would be no possibility of choice at any point, or in any sense whatsoever… Freedom therefore cannot be separated from suffering. This, then, may be one of the ways in which suffering pays for its ride…” (HTEW, 55)

“Why do men suffer? They suffer as part of the experience of freedom. They suffer as part of the growth of life itself.” (HTEW, 55)

“Without suffering there is no freedom for man.” (HTEW, 56)

“What hostility may do is to serve as a guide through the wilderness of our suffering until we are brought to the door of the temple.” (HTEW, 56)

“There are many people who would feel cheated if suddenly they were deprived of the ego definition that their suffering gives them.” (HTEW, 56)

o Which means: some people are self-defined by their suffering. They are men and women of sorrows, and that is all. So to free them of their sufferings, to redeem them, would be to deprive them of their core identity. Such people resist the redemptive activity of God. They need their sufferings.

They will feel they are a nobody should their being-abused cease.

Prisonhood is their "normal"; freedom is abnormal and alien to them. Therefore one of the ways that people stay enchained and enslaved is that their chains define and delimit them. For such people to escape this horrible life-condition requires a revelation of their true self, their true identity, as children of God and made in God's image. Only then will they be horrified by their chains and suffering and cry out for release and redemption.


5. Prayer

First of all, “prayer… means the method by which the individual makes his way to the temple of quiet within his own spirit and the activity of his spirit within its walls. Prayer is not only the participation in communication with God in the encounter of religious experience, but it is also the “readying” of the spirit for such communication. It is the total process of quieting down and to that extent must not be separated from meditation. Perhaps, as important as prayer itself, is the “readying” of the spirit for the experience.” (HTEW, 57)

• Thurman: “When one has thus been prepared, a strange thing happens. It is very difficult to put into words. The initiative slips out of one’s hands and into the hands of God, the other Principal in the religious experience. The self moves towards God. Such movement seems to have the quality of innate and fundamental stirring. The self does not see itself as being violated, though it may be challenged, stimulated, inspired, conditioned, but all of this takes place in a frame of reference that is completely permissive. There is another movement which is at once merged with the movement of the self. God touches the spirit and the will and a wholly new character in terms of dimension enters the experience. In this sense prayer may be regarded as an open-end experience.”

“Fundamental to the total fact of prayer in the Christian religion is the persuasive affirmation that the God of religious experience is a seeking and a beseeching God.” (HTEW, 57)

“I agree most heartily with Rufus Jones when he says that prayer at its best is when the soul enjoys God and prays out of sheer love for him.” (HTEW, 59-60)

On the “problem” of intercessory prayer – see (HTEW, 58-59)


6. Non-Discursive Experience

By the phrase "non-discursive experience" I mean: experience that one cannot fully discourse about. (See here, here, and here.)

“Religious experience is interpreted to mean the conscious and direct exposure of the individual to God.” (HTEW, 37)

This is what William James called “acquaintance-knowledge,” contrasted with “knowledge about.”

It is “immediate experience,” if not quite “purely immediate.” (HTEW, 37-38)

“The individual is never completely one with his experiences. He remains always observer and participant. This is very important to remember.” (HTEW, 38)

• So… no metaphysical union; no essential union with God.

There is something “extraordinary” in religious experience. This is: “awareness of meeting God… the individual is seen as being exposed to direct knowledge of ultimate meaning, ne plus ultra being… He is face to face with something which is so much more, and so much more inclusive, than all of his awareness of himself that for him, in the moment, there are no questions. Without asking, somehow he knows.” (HTEW, 38-39)

“The experience is beyond or inclusive of the discursive. It is not other than the discursive, but somehow it is inclusive of the discursive… ‘IT is the knowledge of the subject of all predicates’ [Bennett].” (HETW, 39)

• To meet God. To know God, and be known by God.

“The goal of life is God! The source of life is God! That out of which life comes is that into which life goes. God is the goal of man’s life, the end of all his seeking, the meaning of all his striving. God is the guarantor of all his values, the ultimate meaning – the timeless frame of reference… ‘Thou hast made us for thyself and our souls are restless till they find their rest in thee,” says Augustine.” (HTEW, 40-41)

Sheer rational and reflective processes cannot bring us to the God-conclusion. “This is the great disclosure: that there is at the heart of life a Heart… Wade in the water, because God is troubling the water.” (HTEW, 41)

Faith is a way of knowing, a form of knowledge. (HTEW, 43)

“Religious experience in its profoundest dimension is the finding of man by God and the finding of God by man. This is the inner witness.” (HTEW, 43)

“The religious experience is always current, always fresh. In it I hear His Voice in my own tongue and in accordance with the grain in my own wood. In that glorious and transcendent moment, it may easily seem to me that all there is, is God.” (HTEW, 46)

• The constant need for NEW words from God.
• For me, e.g., every Sunday is a “new Word” Sunday.

“Through religious experience… the individual comes to know God’s loving presence in a personal and private way.” (L. Smith, HTEW, 35)

L. Smith – Thurman “laments the tendency of the church to substitute creeds, doctrines, dogma, and ritual for religious experience.” (HTEW, 37)

• It’s all about the God-encounter that happens in religious experience.

At Howard U “Thurman crafted liturgies that introduced dance and other artistic expressions to university worship.” (L. Smith, HTEW, 21)

Thurman’s “speaking style captivated audiences. He was a master in the use of silence. At times, he would be so overwhelmed by an understanding that he seemed to be in a trance.” (L. Smith, HTEW, 22)


7. Mysticism

The word “mysticism” comes from the Greek word muo, which means: “to conceal.”

L. Smith – “Thurman is a mystic. He describes mysticism as a form of religious experience where the awareness of a “conscious and direct exposure” to God is more intense. Thurman does not consider mysticism as a superior religious experience, only different.” (HTEW, 35)


8. Waiting on the Lord

“In the total religious experience we learn how to wait; we learn how to ready the mind and the spirit. It is in the waiting, brooding, lingering, tarrying timeless moments that the essence of the religious experience becomes most fruitful. It is here that I learn to listen, to swing wide the very doors of my being, to clean out the corners and the crevices of my life – so that when His presence invades, I am free to enjoy His coming to Himself in me.” (HTEW, 45)

• Cf. Nouwen’s distinction between “waiting” as expectation, and “wishing.”


9. On “Jesus and the Disinherited

Jesus and the Disinherited is a beautiful, loving, and powerful book. It is Thurman’s most famous text.

The most-quoted phrase from Jesus and the Disinherited is: “What, then, is the word of the religion of Jesus to those who stand with their backs to the wall?”

• The question is: “Does Jesus offer any answers that help the disinherited in this predicament of no exit?” (L. Smith, in HTEW, 27)
• This is redemptive stuff. This is “buying-out-of-bondage” stuff. This is “Exodus-stuff.”
• “James Cone identifies JD as an influential book for his development of a black theology of liberation.” (L Smith, HTEW, 28)
• Martin Luther King carried JD with him during the Montgomery Boycott. (L Smith, HTEW, 28)

***

Prayer and Stillness

Howard Thurman writes: "There is no argument needed for the necessity of taking time out for being alone, for withdrawal, for being quiet without and still within. The sheer physical necessity is urgent because the body and the entire nervous system cry out for the healing waters of silence. One could not begin the cultivation of the prayer life at a more practical point than deliberately to seek each day, and several times a day, a lull in the rhythm of daily doing, a period when nothing happens that demands active participation...

...At first the quiet times might be quite barren or a retreat from exhaustion. One has to get used to the stillness even after it has been achieved. The time may be used for taking stock, for examining one's life direction, one's plans, one's relations, and the like. This in itself is most profitable. It is like cleaning out the closets, or the desk drawers, and getting things in order.

The time may be used for focusing or re-focusing one's purposes in the light of what at first may be only one's idea of the best and the highest. Then quiet changes begin to take place. Somewhere along the way, one's idea of the best and the highest takes on a transcendent character and one begins to commune, to communicate with one's idea of the best and the highest - only a man does not talk to, or with, an idea. When the awareness of God comes in - how He entered, one does not know - one is certain that he has been there all the time. This assurance is categorical and becomes the very core of one's faith; indeed, it becomes more and more one's faith." (Thurman, Meditations of the Heart, 27-28)

I love how Thurman puts the idea of getting still in the presence of God.

·                     Withdraw daily from the rat-race of life

·                     Get still in your heart

·                     Your physical body cries out for such heart-and-space stillness

·                     Take time to "do nothing" but be with God

·                     If you're new at this, tiredness and exhaustion will take over, and the God-times may seem barren and dry

·                     Our world does not train us for this kind of stillness, so it takes getting used-to

·                     Once achieved as a lifestyle it becomes the gateway to the Source of Life

·                     In the stillness be examined by God, as you engage in listening prayer

·                     In the stillness "spring cleaning" happens every day (there's a lot of useless garbage in the human heart, which accrues in inverse proportion to the amount of "still time" with God)

·                     Then... God breaks in, creativity happens, life results, energy gets restored, purpose gets defined, direction is given, transcendence takes over, and one communes (dwells/abides) with God.

Heaven, the Soul, and the Afterlife (Begins Monday Night, Sept. 16!)

 

Live at Redeemer, and live-zoomed.

Four 1-hour sessions.

9/16, 9/23, 9/30, 10/7

8-9 PM EST

Cost: $5 (or free if that helps)

Register at hsrm.org - HERE. 

What happens to us when we die?

What will the afterlife be like?

How does the Bible describe the afterlife?

Why is it important to understand that you have a soul?

How can we know that persons have souls?

Will we be with our loved ones in eternity?

What will we do for all eternity?

How does belief in everlasting life inform 

how we now live on earth?

How do we talk with our children about death and the afterlife? (Co-taught with Linda.)

Spiritual Maturity - It Takes a Lifetime



(Pear, on my neighbor's tree)

Our neighbor has two old pear trees adjacent to our property line. I am allowed to pick them. In late summer any unharvested, mature pears fall onto the ground. 

It takes a whole season of connectedness for the pear to mature from what began as a flower. The pear-as-flower-bud is immature. It is far from fully formed.

In the spiritual life things are the same. The new Jesus-follower is young and, ipso facto, immature. This is not a criticism, just a reality. Just as Mc-Pears don't exist, neither does Mc-Spirituality. Yes, they can know Christ and be known by Christ. No, they are not and cannot be, e.g., a "mature worshiper." 

As a pear-flower matures into an edible pear, a baby Christian can mature into Christlikeness. This is a process. It takes time. Praise God for Jesus-followers who are young adults. If they live lives that abide in Christ, like branches attached to Jesus the Vine, they will grow towards maturity. But they cannot, at their age, be "mature," because this takes time.

"Maturing" is not some "quality time" thing, as if a pear would decide to spend a few quality hours attached to the tree. Spiritual maturity requires constant attachment, being broken and re-broken by God, over time, so as to be more greatly formed in Christ. This is how spiritual oak trees are made.

The flower-blossom-pear is in it for the long haul. So am I. And, probably, you, if you are reading this. To mature spiritually requires a lifetime. 

Continue dwelling in Christ.

Be patient. Long-suffer.

Stay attached. 

***
My books are:

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God. 

Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

Deconstructing Progressive Christianity

31 Letters to the Church on Discipleship

31 Letters to the Church on Praying

Encounters with the Holy Spirit  (co-edited with Janice Trigg)

Jesus Is Looking for Followers, Not People Who "Make a Decision"

Custer Airport, Monroe

To the Church in America: Focus on making disciples, rather than providing programs to entertain and hopefully retain the deciders. 

Jesus commanded us to make followers. Invest resources in this. 

Many make "decisions" for Christ and stop there, or fade out. Some of these deciders become disciples - praise God! Others don't.

Jesus is not trying to get people to some decision point, with discipleship as a nice, but unnecessary, add-on. For Jesus it's all about being a disciple and following after him. It's in following Jesus that we come to see that a person's decision was real.

Is it possible to make a decision to follow Christ as Lord and not follow him? No, it's not. It makes as much sense as saying, "I have decided to take up the game of golf," and then not take up the game of golf. Or, proclaiming in front of hundreds of people, "I have decided to eat this banana," and then proceeding to not eat it.

Here is Dallas Willard's definition of a "disciple" of Jesus:

"A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. A disciple is not a person who has things under control, or knows a lot of things. Disciples simply are people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus."

Disciple-making is not popular in American entertainment-driven, consumer churches. For one reason, disciples cannot be microwaved. But a life of slow-cooked Jesus-following is vastly more satisfying, as any of Jesus' disciples know.

***
Two of my books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

Better Is One Experience Than a Thousand Theories

 

(Art Arfons and his "Green Monster")

When I was a teen, my father took me to watch fast cars race a quarter mile at the Rockford Dragway. The steward of the dragway was a friend of dad. We were given pit passes to see the cars and drivers up close. 

That night was special. A drag racer named Art Arfons was there, with his famous “Green Monster.” This vehicle was a jet engine fastened to the frame of a car. As we entered the pit we were handed ear plugs. The Green Monster held the world land speed record of 576 mph. It went from 0-60 in three seconds. It was loud! At the time, my mode of transportation was a red Nash Rambler. It accelerated from 0-60 in three minutes. It, too, was loud, but for different reasons. 

That was an exciting night! It was made even better when dad’s friend showed me his car. It was a 1963 Ford Shelby Cobra. Just the name “Cobra” exudes danger, in a way “Rambler” does not. I have an image of my Rambler sauntering, strolling, and meandering down the quarter mile strip on its way to a picnic. 

The Cobra went 0-60 in five seconds. Dad’s friend looked at me and asked, “Would you like to ride with me to open up the evening?” Yes (power!). And no (danger!).

I said yes.

I sat in the passenger’s seat, and went for the fastest quarter mile I had ever experienced. What teenaged boy didn’t like fast cars? That night I grew in knowledge of power and speed. I had seen magazines and television shows on drag racing. I loved looking at cool cars. But all the reading in the world did not compare with experiencing the Shelby Cobra for myself. 

In this book I am arguing that churches must be presence-driven, because experience gives knowledge that theory cannot. Better is one quarter mile raced, than a thousand automotive theories read. 

It is the same with God.

- From John Piippo, Leading the Presence-Driven Church, Kindle Locations 132-147

We Belong to Alliance Defending Freedom

 

           (With Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary doctoral graduates

             - a long time ago!)

Our church belongs to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

Michael Brown has a nice article on ADF. I was not aware that Bill Bright founded ADF.

See "We Need to Change Both Hearts and Laws."