Churchianity versus the "V-I-M" pattern of growth
Growing up for me it felt as though often there was a wall of misery and pang that the Christian was beholden to and in a kind of stunting way. The framework of "miserable sinner" Christianity as mentioned in Renovation of the heart I think fits this. And while I love the church and so many are do so much good, I think some my experience would fall in line with some presumption - Oh my I'll never be good or God will never accept me and that there is a concrete black + white spaces of Christian living (sacred vs secular). As Christians we are encouraged to be changed from what we were (Eph 4:22-24) and we are being changed (Eph 2:8-9) and so sometimes traditions of consuming and being born again (a great goodness in evangelicalism), can sometimes be amiss to follow through for the next portion (the upbringing of the person). Because of this a philosophical approach to the Christian life seems necessary. The trouble of what our contemporary Church has faced in Western 21st century America is this kind of consumptive, and less deeply transformed devotion to Christ. Recently I saw an intellectual man who happens to be a Christian sharing about how our habits can change our lives and he recommended the book (The power of habit and atomic habits). The spiritual life has some of this and more - but I like and agree with what Dallas has to say of effort and earning. That is spiritually there is not generally issues with "effort" but that of earning (again Eph 2:8-9). If anything is good is in us it is of Christ. And the old self, it is being transformed. And so I agree with Dallas that is not a Christian life of being set to still in our hearts, souls and minds as miserable sinners who keep coming back to God perennially stuck in the same sin (though in Romans 6 and 7 Paul does display sentiment of this). Yet we while we "groan" (Romans 8) we also grow. Telling someone to change cold turkey spiritually is impossible. But as we are in Christ the death that we would incur changes... and we are changed. For it is impossible for us to be with Him without becoming like Him. "There is therefore no no condemnation for this who are in Christ Jesus. For in Christ Jesus the Law of the spirit of freedom and life has set me free from the law of sin and death." An so a pattern of change for you and I can be set similar to a language. If I want to learn a language it might be ineffective devoid of reason for the undertaking; and so "V" stands for Vision. So the vision I have to become closer to Jesus is this new view of my self. As for learning a language you must do the thing and so "I" here is "intention." The Christian has a vision and desire to see that come to pass which he or she heartily undertakes. Then there is the person learning a language and they must concretely put some sort of foot (feet?) to the pavement. They might plan a trip to the a foreign country to learn about the Lord and all He is doing. They might go to areas of their city where people speak the language and commit to a period of time intentionally to learn the language. These are the "M - Means." And so the Christian also has means to become the person that they are called to become. Again pardon if this is a lot at once (you might slow down and go through portions of Dallas' book section by section) and this is not some just overnight undertaking but, for the Christian once Brought to faith, They undertake what it is that God has designed them for which is to know and follow Him and become Like Jesus. To do this we can apply ourselves like the disciples to follow Jesus. As a tradesman or someone of old followed a tutor in order to gain understanding and skills to become like Jesus it is the normal course for the Christian to undertake examining closely who Jesus is and then following closely that we might become like him ("Means"). So in one case we have a model to go to church (one Sunday a week for an hour), and yet what should become apparent for us is that Christ compels our attention so becoming like Him is not a stretch, not a perpetual grind, His divine plan for us and as we ask the Holy Spirit as we are going is to make disciples, baptizing them in the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey what He has commanded. He is with us in this.
