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Saturday, March 27, 2010

Hagberg, J. O. (2004). The Critical Journey, Stages in the Life of Faith, Second Edition (2nd ed.). Salem, WI: Sheffield Publishing Company. 

Spirituality = the way in which we live out our response to God. Unless we find this personal, transformational meaning in its fullest sense, the struggle for wholeness will remai unresolved. pp3

God created us for a relationship with him and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in God pp3

In each of us a wide mixture of behaviour both wise abd unwise, healthy and unhealthy, appears.... when that behaviour begins to dominate or when we become obsessed with how we need to behave or how others need to behave, then we have a clear sig that we are becoming caged. Another sign of stuckness is having to be right abd convincing others of our rightness.... rightness becomes more important than the journey pp11

Summary of Stage 1
The Recognition of God
Faith is the discovery or recognition of GOd
Characteristics
A sense of Awe
A sense of Need
A Natura Awareness
Greater Menaing in Life
A sense of innicence

Caged
Worthlessness, Spiritual Bankruptcy, Martyrdom,Ignorance

Moving on
Bcome Part of a Strong Group, Le life take on more significance, find a charismatic leader to follow, discover the way,

Catalyst
Accept Self worth, reduce isolation

Question
How and when did you first recognise God in your life?
How do you experience God most, by awe, a sense of need, nature, or a search for greater meaning?
When have you recognised or felt God strongly in your life?
pp 49



Summary of Stage 2

The life of discipleship
Faith is learning about GOd

CHR
Meaning from belonging
Answers found in a leader, cause, or belief system
sense of rightness
security in Our faith

Caged
Rigid in Righteousness, we agaist them
Switchers searchers

Moving On
recognise uniqueness, identify gifts, recog contributions, seek responsibility

Moving to stage 3 we begin to see ourselves as contributors to others in leadership, service, ideas, actual proucts, teaching, counseling, music, instead of viewing ourselves primarily as receipients from others pp 65

Catalyst
Risk taking, acceptace of gifts

Question
When have you felt a part of a faith or spiritual community? p 67


Summary of stage 3 - The productive life
Faith is working for God

CHR
Uniqueness in the community
Responsibility
Value placed on symbols
A spiritual Goal reached

Caged
Overly zealous
Weary in well doing
self centred
life as a performance

Moving on
Loss of certainty
Experience personal/ faith crisis
Feel abandoned
Look for direction

Catalyst
Let go of success
accept vulnerability

Question
Which of your talents /gifts do you feel good about and are willing to share? p86

occassionally we need ot take our spiritual temperature. It can tell us how we are experiencing teh richness of teh faith. One simple way to check is to list thet fruit of the spirit and ask which we are experiencing and in what amount. Use the list on strong neutral weak pp 88-89

Summary of Stage 4 - The Journey Inward
Faith is rediscovering God

CHR
Life of faith crisis
loss of certainties in life and faith
a search for direction, not answers
pursuit of persoanl integrity in relation to God
God released for box
apparent loss of faith

caged
Always questioning
consumed by self assesment
immoblized

moving on
Let go of spiritual ego
accept God's purpose for our lives
seek wholeness through personal healing and pilgramage
be willing to commit to whatever it takes

catalyst
finding peace through giving up the search for self
allowing for new certainty in God
open to the cost of obedience

Question
Has your faith fallen apart? When? Why? pp110

Types of resistenace at eth wall
Strong Ego's
Self deprecators
Guilt /shame ridden
intelectuals
high achievers
Doctrinaire - rest in ambiguity difficult
Ordained - spiritual pride . pp 118

We do not get rid of ego or will. We release them. We let them be turned inside out so that unconditional love can emerge. 119

ourney outward - we have experienced new wholeness. We are aware of our faults and have a fresh desire to be in God's will rather than our own. We know we are surrendering to a much wiser, more vital Spirit. We sense a looser grip on ourselves and a willingness to be conduits for Gods work in our lives and others' lives. We endure suffering gracefully, because our confidence is in God. 133

Summary of Satge 5 The Journey outward
Faith is surrendering to GOd

CHR
renewrd sense of God's acceptanc
A new sense of teh horizontal life
sense of calling, vocation or ministry
concern and focus on others' best interests
deep calm or stillness

Caged
out f touch with pratical concerns
careless about important things

Mving on
No striving, just evolving - growing deeper
seeing god in all of life
being God's person

Catalyst
vocation is satisfying
being whole seems enough

Question
Do you have a glimpse of GOd's purpose for your life? pp148

Summary 6 - life of love
Faith is reflecting GOd

CHR
Christ like living in total obediece to GOd
Wisdom gained from life's struggles
compassionate living for others
detachment from things and stress
life underneath or on top -do whtever God asks
life abandoned - disregard for self

caged
separation from the world
neglect of self
apparent waste of life

Question
How is God everything to you? 159

Each stage has a profound imapcat and role in our lives.
1 - humbles us
2 - grounds us
3- rewards and exalts us
4 - unsettles us
teh wall unmasks us
5 - transforms us
6 - transcends us

Irenaeus - The creator is always the same, but those who are created must pass from a beginning and through a middle course, a growth, and progression. And it is for this increase and progress that God has formed them. 164

On earth we are wayfarers, always on the go. This means that we have to keep on moving forward. Therefore be always unhappy about what you are if you want to reach what you are not. If you are pleased with what you are, you have stopped already. If you say: "It is enough," you are lost. Keep on walking, moving forward, trying for the goal. Don't try to stop on the way, or to go back, or to deviate from it. Sermon 169, 18 - St. Augustine pp 164

The wall is the stopping place - where our wills meet God's will face to face, and we are asked to relinquish our egos, our wounds, and all else that stands between us God. It is teh palce in which we heal spiritually and emotionally. It is a difficult place to visit, much less live in for any period of time. And, even if it doesn't feel this way, God is intimeately involved in the invitation, facilitation, enabling, honouring, an rewarding of all of our activities in teh wall. pp203

The wall
Move beyond one's intellect
letting go
embracing one's shadow
going to one's core
finding intimacy with one's higher power
glimpsing wisdom

what holds people back - one's will. 224

As long as we hold onto how this or that person hurt or dishonoured us, we are trapped in a dance of suffering with that person forever 235

Enaegram - a model describing people's motivations and how to transfrom these motivations from being self-directed to life- transforming 235

"I have come to believe that by and large the human family all has the same secrets, which are both very telling and very important to tell. They are telling in the sense that they tell what is perhaps the central paradox of our condition—that what we hunger for perhaps more than anything else is to be known in our full humanness, and yet that is often just what we also fear more than anything else. It is important to tell at least from time to time the secret of who we truly and fully are—even if we tell it only to ourselves—because otherwise we run the risk of losing track of who we truly and fully are and little by little come to accept instead the highly edited version which we put forth in hope that the world will find it more acceptable than the real thing. It is important to tell our secrets too because it makes it easier that way to see where we have been in our lives and where we are going. It also makes it easier for other people to tell us a secret or two of their own, and exchanges like that have a lot to do with what being a family is all about and what being human is all about."
Frederick Buechner (Telling Secrets) 239

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Saturday, March 06, 2010

Willard, D(2010). Personal Religion, Public Reality?: Towards a Knowledge of Faith 

trivialisation of faith apart from from knowledge and with the diastrous effects of a repositioning of faith in Jesus Christ, and of life as his students, outside the category of knowledge. pp1

One result of the displacemnt of faith from knowledge is that many people now believe you do not need to think deeply abd carefully to flollow Christ. pp12

NT defines or sdescribes eternal life as knowledge. Jesus speaks of teh eternal kind of life he brings to his people 'and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent' Jo 177:3, 1 jo 1:1-5 4:7-8, 13 pp23

mere belief and commitment, though they have their unique places, cannot be substituted for knowledge, but actuallt depend upon it in crucial ways. to live by faith does not mena that they live by blind and irresponsible leaps in total absence, or even defiance, of knowledge. 41

worlview questions -what is it to real, who is well-off (blessed), who is a really good person? how does one become a genuinely good person? 61

progression towards knowledge, in real life, is always rather messy 69

root of failure... is unwillingness to submit human desire, especially as indicated by love.. 104

the readiness to sacrifice ia a presupposition of ethical living, of being a good pertson... you can not suceed in being ethical in act or character unless you have abandoned having your way, fulfilling your own desires as the rule of your life. modeled by JC 105

Amoug teh many misunderstandings Jesus had to counteract in his taeching was teh one that held the kingdom to be some gigantic event in some special place. This was human thinking about human kingdoms, which always fit that description.

not new deut 30:9-14 pp 178

Chriatain higher education from 238

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