Practice 2

Is there any biblical evidence for practice? Here are a few passages to meditate on:

From the mouth of Jesus: "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door…” Luke 13:24

From Paul: “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling."

From Peter: “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, …” 2 Peter 1

Whatever else we believe about grace, we have to reconcile verses like these with our notions of how grace works.

Probably the most compelling passage about practice may be when Jesus sent out the 12 (Matt 10; Mark 6; Luke 9), and at another time, sent out the 70 (Luke 10). He gave them some pretty specific instructions. With the 70, they went out and returned all pumped up. This took place probably somewhere between the first and second year in their 3 years of training. At that point in time, they did not have it all together, had not been baptized in the Holy Spirit, yet they were sent out and did some awesome things. Why did Jesus send them out? Was this practice part of their training? Were their cups “overflowing” before they went out? Did they wait until they were transformed before they acted?

Back to Dallas Willard's succinctly articulated statement: "Until you step out to do it, no help is on the way. But once you step out to do it, the help is already there." Is that what happened to the disciples? I wonder how this “practice” helped Peter and John in their faith and boldness during their encounter with the crippled beggar at the beginning of Acts 3?

Maybe grace and heart change will come as we step out and practice compassion, if we do it with an attitude of obedience and dependence on his grace. Let’s find out. Practice is scheduled for this Wednesday night. Questions to ponder: How does our theology relate grace and effort? Dallas Willard assumes that we are at the mercy of our ideas. How biblical are our ideas? How do our ideas about grace and effort affect our behavior and how we live our life, specifically as it relates to compassion? We will tackle these after we breath some sawdust with Crystal and her family in our minds and hearts.