Chapter 6: INVESTING IN THE HEAVENS:
ESCAPING THE DECEPTIONS OF REPUTATION AND WEALTH
“Jesus now, in Matthew 6, alerts us to the two main things that will block or hinder a life constantly interactive with God and healthy growth in the kingdom. These are the desire to have the approval of others, especially for being devout, and the desire to secure ourselves by means of material wealth.”
The Respectability Trap
The Lure of Religious Honors. “Desire for religious respect or reputation will immediately drag us into the rightness of scribes and Pharisees because that desire always focuses entirely upon the visible action, not on the source of action in the heart.”
Playing to the Audience of One. That matters are the intentions of our heart before God.
Don’t Let the Left Hand Know.
And When You Pray. “Prayer, it is rightly said, is the method of genuine theological research, the method of understanding what and who God is.” “… we cannot say too often that in the Sermon on the Mount we are not looking at laws, but at a life: a life in which the genuine laws of God eventually become naturally fulfilled.”
Fasting Before God Alone.
Manna as One Kind of Word of God.
Feasting on Jesus Himself. Jesus tells us to eat his body. We can get spiritual sustenance from him and can fast for manna to our benefit.
Secrecy as a Fundamental Discipline. While Jesus tells us to do good deeds in secret, it is a discipline, not a law.
"Religious Evasion”. “The adult members of churches today rarely raise serious religious questions for fear of revealing their doubts or being thought of as strange. There is an implicit conspiracy of silence on religious matters in the churches. This conspiracy covers up the fact that the churches do not change lives or influence conduct to any appreciable degree.” “Often the “eyeservice” that occurs in present-day church services comes in the form of trying to “move” people. “Wasn’t that a great service,” we often say. But what do we mean?”
The Bondage of Wealth
Where Your Treasure Is. “The most important commandment of the Judeo-Christian tradition is to treasure God and his realm more than anything else. That is what it means to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It means to treasure him, …” We all treasure something or someone. We try to keep or treasure safe.
Beyond Moths, Corrosion, and Thieves.
Life Organizes Around Out Heart. “Your heart will be where what you treasure is,” Jesus tells us (Matt. 6:21). Remember that our heart is our will, or our spirit: the center of our being from which our life flows. It is what gives orientation to everything we do. A heart rightly directed therefore brings health and wholeness to the entire personality.”
The Treasures in the Heavens Are Now. “But the treasure we have in heaven is also something very much available to us now. We can and should draw upon it as needed, for it is nothing less than God himself and the wonderful society of his kingdom even now interwoven in my life.”
How Many Birds Are You Worth. For many people, what they treasure most is staying alive on earth. As a result they live in bondage to fear of death.
And the Lilies.
In the World You Are Distressed. “We are dominated by the essentially Enlightenment values that rule American culture: pursuit of happiness, unrestricted freedom of choice, disdain of authority. The prosperity gospels, the gospels of liberation, and the comfortable sense of “what life is all about” that fills the minds of most devout Christians in our circles are the result. How different is the gritty realization of James: “Friends of the world (kosmou) are enemies of God” (James 4:4) And John: “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (2 John 2:15)”
Quotes from: Dallas Willard. “The Divine Conspiracy.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-divine-conspiracy/id360632495