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Journeys in Spiritual Care and Transformation Final Paper guidelines
What ?false selves? you have identified as being at work in your life? How have they manifested and how do they impact the way you ?walk in the world? and your relationship with God?
What do you think the origins of these false selves may be? (Remember the discussion of the ?primal wounds? we often receive when we are young? or sometimes not so young).
What spiritual disciplines / practices might help you to relinquish these false selves to God? Or, to use Willard?s terms, what disciplines will help shape and mold you into a whole ?embodied self?? Are there things you believe it would be helpful to work on with a counselor or
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This means that I was living my life daily in a state of a false self. I was able to identify that my false self was in a pattern of how I didn?t allow God to be the center or control of my life. Studying deeper in God?s word it was pointed out to me they were no way I could do such a thing. God is and always will be all knowing and all seeing. So what was left for me to figure out and understand better that in my behavior I was portraying false self? Being in that state of my mind I was living in fear, had no patience, and absolutely no time for devotion with God, perhaps even staying out of the way of everyone else that I came in contact with. Fear and no patience had a very serious impact on my life as well as having no …show more content…
At that time they were so many other members shouting in loud voices, that I was so excited as well and perhaps didn?t understand or aware of all that was being shared too me. I did not have a mask on my face, but I had a scarf on my head and what looked like a hander hick over my face as I was lower in the pool.
So then according to what I thought about my experience it did not fit in place for me. Never the less as I continue to reach and search for what my relationship with God should be all about is better understood with along with relying on how to become spiritual discipline.
I would like to define the meaning of spiritual discipline is? According to Dallas Willard in his book title ?The Spirit of the Disciplines?, on page 151, he define spiritual disciplines as follow; in the embodied personality that is the carrier of our abilities (and disabilities!) a readiness and an ability to interact with God and our surroundings in a way not directly under our control; wanting to have our self in the condition of our body and mind to secure the Father in assistance to stand as firmly as Jesus did. The mark of a disciplined person is one that is able to do what needs to be done when it needs to be
Discipline is the quality of being able to behave and work in a controlled way which involves obeying particular rules or standards. However, it can be interpreted in an alternative way; if you refer to an activity or situation as a discipline, you mean that, in order to be successful in it, you need to behave in a strictly controlled way and obey particular rules or standards. Punishment can be used to correct disobedience in some circumstances.
Self deception is the process or fact of misleading ourselves to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid. Self deception, in short, is a way we justify false beliefs to ourselves. There is no doubt that sometimes we are not realistic. Not all of our actions are rational or intentional. Sometimes we avoid reality, we deny the truth, and we fool ourselves. In some cases we may see the world the way we want to, and not the way it is. Self deception raises basic questions about the nature of belief and the relation of belief to thought, desire, and will.
In the beginning, I felt Anderson’s heart when he wrote, “there is no replacement for a deep and abiding experiential relationship with God when it comes to authentic spirituality” (pg. 51). God is always available at the surface level, but it is down deep into the soil of one’s heart where the authentic growth and development will blossom. One must invite and permit God to come in and began that relationship that cultivates authentic encounters that transforms life from dark to light.
What do you think the origins of these false selves may be? (Remember the discussion of the ?primal wounds? we often receive when we are young? or sometimes not so young).
Fast forward, the Lord guided me through the U.S. Marine Corps, Desert Storm and four tours of U.S. Embassy duty, it was not easy as in those days you had to fight daily as a Marine. It was just par for the course, so to speak, this I believed harden my spirit along with frequent drinking. I think the drinking became a way of coping with the tragic death of my mother among other things. While in the Marine and living in Africa I had a vision of a mountain and a gathering of people dressed in white. I later determine that the mountain and the people were in Ethiopia. The people all looked as though they were in a trance and were walking to and from the mountain. When I would walk up and asked them what they were doing, they would only say one word to me "Exodus" the Greek word meaning to depart just as the Israelites had departed Egypt. At the moment I did not truly understand what God was saying, but I now I realize that God was telling me to turn away from my worldly ways. See as a Marine I became very aggressive and would fight at the drop of a hat. I was a drinker and womanizer and the more of both I had, the better I thought I was doing. That said, the vision I had was the embarkation line of my departure from the Egypt of my flesh and the beginning of my journey and transformation; not to say I am perfect now because I am still a finite being, but I am not who I used to be.
In today’s culture there is something undermining everyone’s spiritual formation to some degree, it is the “empty self”. The “empty self” is inordinately individualistic, infantile, narcissistic, and passive. Moreland explains that in order
We should show and be proud of who we are because we only have one life to live and we shouldn’t waste it by hiding it behind a big wall of fake. I take part in my school's GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) club which was made by a fellow band member who found out that they were transgender. This particular person has been a role model for me because they didn’t hide who they were. He made that change for him, not anyone else. Even if his family didn’t like it, he still made that choice to be who he is. He surrounded himself with people who accepted him and is living the life he was dealt.
Inward, outward, and corporate disciplines contained in Celebration of Discipline are created with the single purpose of develop and growth your spiritual path as a believer and disciple. It is an instrument for human transformation and we must not think that it is intended to be a list of commands and musts, but rather the explanation of the practices one needs to follow in order to nurture, cultivate, attain and maintain spiritual growth and maturity.
Spiritual disciplines will prepare us for our journey in Christ. I feel if understanding correctly, the classical Christian Pilgrimage remind us that we all have issues requiring regular examination. In chapter eight, the classical Christian Pilgrimage tells us we are at different stages on the path of wholeness in Christ. However, in my thoughts some areas of our Christian journey we may be doing well, but in other areas we have not touched at all. Not to mention, these are the place we are not ready or capable of handling yet, however, as we mature in God and He knows what we can handle, then we are awakened. God awakens us to our true selves which have not been completely revealed. In reality, once we reach maturity to God, he reveals all that is hidden deep inside of us (the real us/you). By the same token, he let us see the inner behaviors, attitudes, desires, in fact how we measure up in them being Christ-like. I feel the awakening stage deals with the comfort of being set free of these issues that are holding us back also causing detours on our path to wholeness in Christ. Equally, the threat is being afraid to see who we really are; also how far from Christ-like we really are. We must first be awakened from our separation also alienation from God (Mulholland 79-82).
Although I consider myself to be an overall honest person, lying is a part of my daily life. I use these lies when they are more convenient to me or to another person, and when they will get me out of trouble. The following are some of the ways I lie regularly.
Do you struggle with shame or unrepentant guilt? If so, list them here, on a separate piece of paper, or simply speak them to God. Ask for His mercy, His grace, His forgiveness, and His healing.
Having certain things happen in my past have allowed me to distort God’s image in my mind and I believe this is the reason I struggle with this so
I’d like to state the most obvious observation that I’ve made about spiritual formation; that is that I will always need to be seeking for ways to nurture my personal spirituality throughout my life. I know that to most people this may sound like a “duh” statement, but for me it has truly become a reality and one that I must admit I have been struggling to embrace. I was brought up in a church that, like most traditional churches, stayed happy living in the “comfort zone” of their Christianity. They took everything that the Bible said at face value without digging in to find out why they believed what they believed. I had never been challenged to look deeper into the text. In the past few years I have felt the need to tunnel out of this
The word discipline comes from the Latin word disciplīna which means "to instruct". Discipline is a specific form of instruction which develops self-control, character, and efficiency.
3 Before I begin to analyse all my analytical analysis, we may need to define some terms and terminologies for us to have a proper comprehension. Discipline is defined as a method of training your body and mind or of controlling