Well then. Guys, I am so sorry to be so late at this. As it turned out, I had one page to finish, but didn't realize it.
I gotta say that the more I hear about this subject, the more confused I become. This chapter confused me more than any of the others. Probably not because of Willard, but in trying to fit it into everything else that confuses me about it. So what I take away is the same thing I always take away from discussions on this topic. The need for trust. Gotta trust that God is True, victorious, sovereign, because I can't make heads or tails out of what to expect as the time nears and when it gets here. How many centuries since someone did a study of what we're told rather than a topical proof of what they already believe?
Ok, in my confusion and anticipation, my question will probably sound a little twisted, but here is what I'd like to toss out based on what ifs and so whats and new questions of soteriology and morality and loving and kingdom living that have come up since we started consuming and ruminating the wisdom of Willard.
There are some topics I'd like to bring to the deck community that I think I've got to come to Godly grips with in order to develop a Godly heart to people around me. If I'm going to learn to love and serve people into the Kingdom, I've got try to feel the way God feels about some things.
Can I gather some biblical wisdom from my more biblically educated comrades that would shed some light on these things among others?:
Soteriology (not how it is provided for, but how it is obtained)
Sexual (im)morality
I need to learn to love, counsel and lead believers as well as love unbelievers to a saving knowledge of Jesus.
So this is a humiliating thing to admit. I'm not only confused about the future.
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I too, am sad for the end of this book's interweaving of our lives and minds. As a road map for the future, it left me scratching my head. The final chapter fizzled like a dud firecracker on the fourth of July. Maybe the mystery of the kingdom will be forever just that -- a mystery. The Apostle Paul took many stabs at explaining it and even he had to resort to calling the gospel a mystery. However, i still wonder...
Could we, (as spiritual journeymen) work on writing our own conclusion to the book? Or maybe just to the premise of living out the Kingdom Among Us. Could we (as Greg has queried) put together a set of core "mount disciplines" and then a work out a few strategies to begin implementing them into our own lives (and churches) with some intentionality? Maybe it could be written with no "periods" at the end of the sentences, but with a fluid sense of motion inherent in its nature? any way----just a thought.
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