I'm preaching a short series on the Christian spiritual life from the illustration of a jigsaw puzzle. It makes a picture. It's made of pieces. And there is a process of assembly. That's the series: the picture, the pieces, the process. This paragraph from an essay by Dallas Willard is about the picture, the vision of life with Jesus in the Kingdom of God.
"The vision that underlies spiritual (trans)formation into Christlikeness is, then, the vision of life now and forever in the range of God’s effective will. This means we are partaking of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1: 4; 1 John 3: 1–2) through a birth “from above,” and participating by our actions in what God is doing now in our lifetime on earth. Thus Paul tells us, “Whatever we do, speaking or acting, do all on behalf of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father” (Col. 3: 17, PAR). Being born into his kingdom, in everything we do we are permitted to do his work. That is what we are learning. That is the privilege extended to us in the gospel. What this vision calls us into is a life of abundance, available here and now, not just in the hereafter."
-Dallas Willard, from the essay "Living a Transformed Life" in Renewing the Christian Mind.
The Word:
(Click on the links below to read Sunday's passages)
First Reading: Isaiah 35:1-10
Second Reading: James 5:7-20
Gospel Reading: Matthew 11:2-19