Jan Johnson - Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice: Experiments in Spiritual Transformation

What a great team! A master craftsman and veteran interior designer join forces to help with the most important renovation project ever our own hearts. This wonderful lab manual includes devotion-sized quotes and daily experiments that will help you be with God through daily interactions with his power and presence.

GARY W. MOON , MDiv, PhD, professor of psychology and spirituality at the Psychological Studies Institute and author of Falling for God

Beware! If you are content with a superficial walk with God, this book will be a nagging irritant. But if you long to go deeper with him not to memorize Scripture out of duty or to practice your faith out of routine or obligation read this book! Dallas Willards theological expertise, combined with Jan Johnsons daily experiments and the Holy Spirits renewal of your heart, will result in the Christian life youve always wanted.

CAROL KENT , speaker and author

No one on the contemporary scene articulates the concepts of spiritual formation and discipleship to Jesus more accurately or more biblically than does Dallas Willard, and no one translates these concepts into everyday experience and practices more helpfully than Jan Johnson. Dare to combine these two, and you have an explosive transforming power nitroglycerin for the spirit. I see no way to work through these experiments without being radically changed from the inside out.

HOWARD BAKER , instructor of Christian formation and chaplain, Denver Seminary; author of Soul Keeping

NavPress is the publishing ministry of The Navigators, an international Christian organization and leader in personal spiritual development. NavPress is committed to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical.

For more information, visit www.NavPress.com.

Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice: Experiments in Spiritual Transformation

Devotions copyright 2006 by Jan Johnson. All rights reserved.

Original material from Renovation of the Heart copyright 2002 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved.

A NavPress resource published in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

NAVPRESS and the NAVPRESS logo are registered trademarks of NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, CO. Absence of in connection with marks of NavPress or other parties does not indicate an absence of registration of those marks. TYNDALE is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Cover design by Disciple Design

Cover illustration by Disciple Design

Creative Team: Don Simpson, Kathy Mosier, Arvid Wallen, Laura Spray

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. The authors paraphrases and translations are marked as PAR. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

Some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Willard, Dallas, 1935

Renovation of the heart in daily practice : experiments in spiritual transformation / Dallas Willard and Jan Johnson.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-57683-809-9

1. Spiritual life Christianity. 2. Spiritual exercises. 3. Spiritual transformation. I. Johnson, Jan, 1947- . II. Title.

BV4501.3.W5533 2006

248.4 dc22

2006019085

Build: 2021-04-21 22:34:38 EPUB 3.0

Sometimes its not enough just to read a book. There are books whose ideas demand we interact with them and soak our souls in them. Such a book is Dallas Willards Renovation of the Heart. It cant be quickly devoured, as we say. It calls for our interaction.

C. S. Lewis talks about receiving a book instead of using it. A user sees reading as a pastime, but a recipient rests in the ideas. To receive a book is to explore what is being said and to let the author take you on the bicycle ride of your life. You take in all the scenery and let yourself be challenged. You respond to God about what youve read. When you receive a book in this way instead of just using it, it adds to your life.

This book you hold is designed to help you interact with the rich material in Renovation of the Heart in a few specific ways. First, you get to see how someone else has interacted with it. Each selection from Renovation of the Heart is followed by my description of how one might process the content and what it might look like to walk it out.

Each of my entries also includes Todays Experiment, which varies from engaging in simple activities you might use to explore the ideas (often interpersonal or physical activities) to interacting with Gods written Word in a right-brain imaginative way (to help you hear God) to pondering a few reflective questions. These experiments are not hard work; in fact, many are fun. If you dont resonate with a particular exercise, you can tweak it to fit who you are.

You may want to get a spiral notebook for the purpose of doing the exercises and responding to God. Dont be intimidated by the idea of journaling. Call it scribbling if you like. If possible, begin by addressing God, but dont be afraid to be exactly who you are in your scribbling. Engagement in open, honest, back-and-forth conversation with God is what I hope this book will inspire.

This book also invites you to interact with Renovations ideas by jotting down notes as you go along. These arent notes like the ones you took in school, but notes to yourself deep yet practical things you dont want to forget. These notes may actually become part of your interaction with God. So I invite you to underline phrases in this book that speak to you. You may want to consider marking the text in this way:

• star = key ideas to remember
• your initials = next steps for you

Be open to God speaking to you, even in the smallest phrases. An idea may be a key one for you because youve been hearing it from God in several ways during the last year. And if you reread the book two or three years from now, you may mark different things.

You may even want to keep a favorite phrase list of the ideas that spoke most deeply to you. If so, go back to this list often. Pray about those ideas and discuss them with friends.

My goal is that you will truly interact with God not just read a book.