God has come to visit us in this world. Jesus was very specific telling us how we can and should live to have the best possible life here. We call his list of simple directions the "Beatitudes".
We can also see this list as God's list which helps us decide our directions for mastering life in this world. "If you do this, you will have the good life!".
As the congregation or community group explores its own mission it will provide the experiences to help its people master living in this world. Thus Personal Mastery is at the core of the life of the church.
___/___ Personal Mastery in Community
The members of the community consistently and with the support of the whole community move toward Personal Mastery of the skills and motivation needed for community and personal life, even life itself. Spiritual life, ethics, emotional well being, social comprehension and inner peace are realities deemed valuable to the whole person.
Psalm 23
King David was considered to be a master at living. He had a strength of spirituality, of war, of poetry, of love and many other areas. He was welcomed to the throne by many who recognized this mastery.
It turned out that David had another mastery, that of introspection. At the death of his son, David was despondent, for he knew the fault was clearly his own. Much of this introspection comes out in his Psalms. "Yea, though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." The strength of this self-understanding braced him up for the down periods of life.
Yet it is important with David as with all the others mentioned that no one is master of everything. David seems to have come up short in family life. He could build a great government, write powerful poetry and express the reality of the human situation in flowing rituals. But David had little clue when dealing with his own family.
