Spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ himself.
Interpretation
Spiritual formation involves shaping one's inner self to reflect the qualities of Christ.
The quote by Dallas Willard discusses the concept of spiritual formation within Christianity, emphasizing that it is a transformative process guided by the Holy Spirit. This journey aims to cultivate one's inner character and values, aligning them with the essence of Christ, ultimately leading to a more authentic and spiritually mature life.
In practice
In a church sermon about personal growth, this quote can be used to inspire believers to seek deeper spiritual transformation.
The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.
The first act of love is always the giving of attention.
So many people would like to have guidance from God because obviously, if you have a word from God, it's the best possible thing. But they don't relate that to life as a whole. Often they want guidance as a way of opting out of the responsibility of making decisions.
What is truly profound is thought to be stupid and trivial, or worse, boring, while what is actually stupid and trivial is thought to be profound. That is what it means to fly upside down.
The basic question 'will I obey Christ 's teaching?' is rarely taken as a serious issue. For example, to take one of Jesus' commands, that is relevant to contemporary life, I don't know of any church that actually teaches a church how to bless people who curse them, yet this is a clear command.
When I left home after graduating high school, I left as a migrant agricultural worker with a Modern Library edition of Plato in my duffel bag. It sounds kind of crazy, but I loved it. I loved the stuff. Before I knew there was a subject called philosophy, I loved it.
Rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that somewhere, in some way, you are justified.
Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.
Everything is vain and tortures the spirit instead of calming and satisfying it.
It is characteristic of ideology to impose self-evident facts as self-evident facts.
I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.
When all actions are mathematically calculated, they also take on a stupid quality.
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