Preface - "The Spirit of the Disciplines" by Dallas Willard

Under these tags I will take notes from the book I am reading for the conference we will attend in January. No time for translation. Sorry.

“The Spirit of the Disciplines. Understanding how God changing lives” by Dallas Willard.

Preface

Chistianity can only succeed as a guide for current humanity if it does two things:
1) it must take the need for human transformation as seriously as do modern revolutionary movements;
2) it needs to clarify and exemplify realistic methods of human transformation. It must show how the ordinary individuals ... can become, through the grace of Christ, a love-filled, effective, and powerful community.

This book is about 2).

We can become like Christ ... by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself. If we have faith in Christ, we must believe he knows how to live. We can, through faith and grace, become like Christ by practicing the types of activities he engaged in, by arranging oue whole lives around the activities he himself practiced in order to remain constantly at home in the fellowship of his Father.

Christ’s activities: solitude, silence, prayer, simple and sacrificial living, intense study and meditation upon the God’s Word and God’s ways, service to others.

The Spirit of Disciplines is nothing but the love of Jesus, with its resolute will to be like him whom we love.

The book is to help you understand the absolute necessity of the spiritual disciplines for our faith, and revolutionary results of practicing these disciplines intelligently and enthusiastically through a full, grace-filled, Christlike life.