This is a book review of Renovated by Dr. Wilder. I’ve read this book many times and have most of Chapters 3 & 5 underlined. I was looking for answers to: “how is an individual transformed?” Most recently I have been reading through it along with one of my Joy Groups.
I highly recommend it for all pastors, spiritual formation leaders and anyone who is seriously interested in growing and transforming their personal relationship with Christ.
Why do I have most of Chapters 3 & 5 underlined?
In those chapters’ pages, I found several keys to spiritual transformation: learning how the right side of our brain works to change our character and our actions; learning to share a mutual mind with Jesus; and that transformation doesn’t happen by willing it to happen, but through our strong attachment to Jesus.
What is the big deal about how our brain works to change our character and actions?
You’ll want to read more about this yourself, but it has to do with the difference between the left side/slow track in our brain (our conscious mind) and our right side/fast track which runs faster than conscious thought. Before we have time to choose, we have already reacted to what is trained into our fast track.
Dr. Wilder explains the difference between the two sides of the brain with great illustrations. Most of us have thought all along that changing our character and actions starts with our conscious thoughts. Dr. Wilder talks about how this just doesn’t work.
Western Education and Christian life have come to rely on conscious thoughts formed in the slow-track systems of the brain. A soteriology of attachment shifts Christian life to the fast track, as we will see. Our methods become face-to-face and eye-to-eye. – Renovated, page 39
What does it mean to share a mutual mind with Jesus?
To me, it means I am seeing people and circumstances the way Jesus does as I work on my attachment to Him. When I notice I’m upset, I turn to Him to see what and how He sees. I want to be “thinking with God, not just about God.” Here’s something I have posted on my mirror: “if I’m upset about something, I’m not seeing it the way Jesus sees it. I’m not sharing a mind with Jesus. To stay in a mutual mind with Jesus depends on the strength of my attachment love to Jesus.”
There is a large difference between thinking about God being with us and thinking with God about our reality – Renovated, page 34
Transformation doesn’t come from choosing with our will.
We are transformed by whom we love and on whom we focus. An example of that is how babies become like the people who raise them. So, the more we focus on Jesus, and building our attachment to Him, the more we become like Him — the One we love.
We are transformed by who we love more than what we believe. – Renovated, page 98
Why do I recommend this book?
I recommend this book to others so that they can learn that just making right choices and having right beliefs doesn’t help us transform. In this book, Dr. Wilder teaches us about sharing a mutual mind with Jesus, growing our attachment with Jesus and how the brain really helps us grow in character.
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