Frank – Page 46 – Public Christianity

R12: Do you know God’s purpose for your life?

May 10, 2010Frank

This morning we continue, and conclude, the section on Sober Self-Assessment by answering the final life question, “what am I supposed to do?” This question weighs heavily on many of us and the answer is different at different times in our lives. For many, graduation is right around the corner and thousands are right now asking themselves this question. Some are praying about it, and some of those have a misguided doctrine of what they’re looking for for an answer. The book, Decision Making and the Will of God is outlined around a anecdotal case of an unmarried couple who is seeking God’s will in their lives. They become paralyzed by indecision because they don’t have a ‘religious experience’ or some audible answer to their prayers. They wrongly think that because they don’t feel a “calling” towards a particular vocation that that means they are not to pursue that path. They also “put out a fleece” for their relationship and are surprised that God does not answer those prayers either. These are common approaches to try and discern God’s will in our lives, but Biblically those methods are the exception, not the rule. Romans 12 has already taught us that discovering God’s will is as simple as wholly surrendering to Him.

Chip Ingram makes this simpler than voices from heaven, a stirring in your heart, or a wager with God. He points out that we all have been given spiritual gifts and that when our gifts are aligned with our passions, we are doing God’s will. That doesn’t mean ministry, that doesn’t mean jobs or marriage. Those big questions are better left surrendering to God that He knows best and then stepping out on faith. (another good book I recommend on this subject is Kevin DeYoung’s Just Do Something) But the daily living of a Christ-like life involves making decisions based on the best knowledge you have. If you have a sober self-assessment, are at peace with where God has placed you and a conviction that you belong to Christ’s Church as a unique part of His Body, then you need to next identify your spiritual gifts so that you can make the best choices you can.

I mentioned it before, but the Living on the Edge series, Your Divine Design, is a great resource to answer this question. And I don’t believe it is coincidence this series is going on right now. Without getting into the weeds on this subject (and avoiding the ongoing debate over what manifestations of the Holy Spirit apply today), let me just say that Romans 12:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 are the Biblical foundations to define these gifts. Some of these you may be familiar with, some may require an extra measure of faith to discern. But we all have at least one of these, and doing God’s will involves putting these gifts to use.

The best answer to the question “what am I supposed to do?”, is to identify your primary spiritual gift and aligning that gift with your personal passions. The former is a gift from God and should not change through your life, though it may mature and grow. The latter is a function of your station in life and changes with changing circumstances. A parent to young children have different passions than the graduate from high school, for example. And it’s also important to point out that spiritual gifts are not the same as natural talents. Natural talents you have from birth, but spiritual gifts are received in the waters of baptism. Spiritual gifts however, may leverage your natural talents.

So step back and look at where you are. Identify what you’re passionate about. (To get a feel for what I’m talking about, click the “ministry” label to the right, or just follow this link.) Study the passages above and discover your spiritual gifts. Then pray about how the three may align (I say three here because you may be passionate about the needs in Haiti and may have the spiritual gift of healing, but you have two infant children and a tight budget- I would argue that it wouldn’t be wise to sell everything you have to go on a mission trip to Haiti- while you need to be faithful, you also need to be wise). Remember also that you are part of Christ’s Body, so first seek how to employ your gifts and passions in service to the Church. I’ve found that usually everything then flows from there. And again, this changes with time and circumstance. I had to step back from leading the pre-teen ministry when my first child was born, but I continue to teach Sunday School and I mentor a teen so I didn’t bury my talent.

Finally, I cannot leave this subject without pounding my fist on this last point- the Church needs you to identify and use your spiritual gift. That may sound dramatic, but I have a strong conviction of this based on Ephesians 4:7-16 that the Church cannot and will not grow unless we are putting these gifts to use, until “each part does its work.”

Think: What is the value of discovering and deploying your primary spiritual gift?
Reflect: How have you thought about your spiritual gifts in the past? Highly important? Somewhat important? Mostly confused?
Understand: How clear are you on “what you are supposed to do” with your life? Do you feel motivated or confused by the question? What do you think your primary spiritual gift might be?
Surrender: Ask God to make clear what your Ephesians 2:10 “mission” is in this lift. Tell Jesus you are willing to follow if He will show you what you are supposed to do (John 7:17).
Take Action: As a quick shortcut to “test the waters,” ask yourself: “What do I love to do? What am I good at?” Then go try it for six weeks.
Motivation: Do whatever it takes to discover your primary spiritual gift. Determine a time to listen to the full-length audio message “How to Discover Your Primary Spiritual Gift” from the series “Your Divine Design” at R12 online. [follow the R12 button on the right and this message is found in the Self Assessment tab under “free resources” or you can also find this lesson right now from the Living on the Edge main page.]
Encourage Someone: Send a gift card this week to someone whose spiritual gift God has used to impact your life. Thank them for using the gift God gave them.

Today continues our “virtual small group” covering the book Living On The Edge. For how this group is going to work, read this entry. For an introduction with disclaimers, click here. For some numbers from Barna to motivate you to continue reading, go here. For the R12 videos, click the R12 button on the sidebar to the right. Finally, as we move forward through the book you can always catch up by clicking the R12 label at the end of each post.

R12: Where do you fit in God’s family?

May 7, 2010Frank

Knowing who you are is only a start. You need to know where you belong. As the book puts it, it’s like getting all dressed up with nowhere to go. To follow an old adage, in order to know where you’re going, you need to know where you’ve been. Another paraphrase that I’ve heard is where you are depends on where you started. So I pray you’ve been taking the lessons from earlier this week seriously and taking time for some hardcore spiritual introspection.

But now we’re here. The past behind us, the future ahead. We need to know where we’re going. The second of life’s major questions, following “who am I?” is “where do I belong?” This is another question that the world has long deceived us. We join clubs for similar interests, we flock around people like us, we describe ourselves by what we do instead of where we belong. Our fast-paced online world has created virtual communities through Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Sometimes our best friend is the stranger that we only know by their user name on World of Warcraft. But we fool ourselves into believing that there we belong.

The world fails us in this relationship and sadly the church has too. We sit with best friends and seldom venture outside of our comfort zone, too many congregations are racially segregated, and small groups form around like hobbies instead of shared needs. Yet the answer to this question, “where do I belong” is answered by the church. The “where?” isn’t so much as a “to what?” Where we belong is the same as to what we belong. The where isn’t the address of your church, the what is the Body of Christ. Romans 12:4-5 reads:

“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

The Apostle Paul describes this in greater detail in 1 Corinthians 12, noting that some of us are like “hands” and others “eyes”. We can’t say to parts not like us that they do not belong, but recognize that they serve a different function. And we have to see the bigger picture, the Body needs both the eyes and the hands.

Think about this for a moment. The Body needs you! You are uniquely created by God (Psalm 139:13-14) for a purpose (Ephesians 2:10). There is no one else in the world like you. No one else has the same abilities, talents, and spiritual gifts. No one else has the unique wisdom from your personal experience. And the Body is not whole without you. (As an aside, this should stir our heart for evangelism as well. That stranger down the street is unique and Christ’s Body is not complete without her.)

Besides being needed to make the Body whole, notice how Romans 12:5 ends, “each member belongs to all the others.” This isn’t possessive. I can’t boss you around and treat you like I own you. Instead we need to look at one another as a mutually symbiotic relationship, where we rely on one another to survive, rather than a parasitic relationship where we suck the life out of those closest to us or vice versa. If you’ve ever served in a teen ministry or a recovery ministry, you can relate to that last one. At the same time, if you’ve ever been a teenager (and we all have) or have struggled through serious sin in your life (and we all have ), then you’ve sucked the spiritual life out of someone who cared, prayed, and fought for you. While we’re human, and we suck, the truth is we need one another to survive.

I’m tempted to slam the church. In fact, I probably do that too often on this blog. So let me quote from the book for a moment.

But before we begin to blame the church- the institutional church- and take potshots at all that is wrong, I suggest that equal weight must fall upon our shoulders; individual Christians like you and me who have gladly bought
into the consumer mind-set of the contemporary church.

Sadly, the mantra of the average believer in the contemporary church is, “Ask not what you can do for your church, but ask what your church can do for you.” Our consumer attitude shows up as parents shop churches for the best-themed children’s program. (“I don’t’ think we’ll go to this church- we’re looking for a more Noah’s Ark theme). We’ve run from program to program and to the hottest new-thing in the community to get our needs met and our kids helped with as little involvement as possible.

Becoming a Romans 12 Christian is not about slamming the pastor or taking potshots at sincere ministries’ and churches’ best efforts; it’s seeing where we are today and putting into practice the raw and radical commands of Scripture in our own personal relational networks to become the kind of people Jesus called to be “salt and light”.

So how do we flip the question? Ask not what the church can do for you, but what can you do for the church? The first step is to identify our strengths and weaknesses. We should contribute our strengths to the church and share our weaknesses so that our needs can be met. Mutually symbiotic-I give, you give, we both grow. I don’t think it’s coincidental that Living on the Edge just started their series Your Divine Design. This lesson series focuses on our spiritual gifts and using them to build up the church. I strongly encourage you to follow these lessons. Subscribe to the podcast, bookmark the site, whatever you need to do to identify what you have and why you need to contribute it to the Church.

Finally to close, I’m going to quote from Ephesians 4:7-13 with emphasis added:

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why
it says:
“When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train and
gave gifts to men.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended
to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended
higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who
gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some
to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so
that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Amen.

Think: What thought or concept was most important to you in this chapter [post]? Why?
Reflect: Do you know “where you belong”? What’s good? What’s missing?
Understand: Was it easier to list your strengths or weaknesses? Why do you think that was true for you?
Surrender: Sit queitly before the Lord and thank Him for your strengths and your weaknesses. Open your hands (palms up) to offer to God afresh your strengths to serve His Body and your weaknesses to receive grace from others.
Take Action: Fill out the three-strengths-and-weaknesses card in the book. [basically list your top three strengths and your top (or bottom, I guess) three weaknesses on a 3×5 card. Do this before Undersand and Surrender above]
Motivation: ask two or three friends what they think your top three strengths are and compare with what you wrote down.
Encourage Someone: Jot a handwritten note to someone whose strengths have been God’s love expression to some need in your life. Thank them for using their strengths to make Christ known to you.

This is where the healing begins

May 6, 2010Frank

I fell behind on my reading (and my Tweeting) so I’m going to diverge a little today. (If you missed yesterday’s post, because I never got around to linking it in Twitter, you can check that out here)

Tenth Avenue North has a new song out, This is Where the Healing Begins, that I encourage you to check out their video journal explaining the song here. Meanwhile, look at the lyrics (emphasis added):

So you thought you had to keep this up
All the work that you do
So we think that you’re good
And you can’t believe it’s not enough
All the walls you built up
Are just glass on the outside

So let ’em fall down
There’s freedom waiting in the sound
When you let your walls fall to the ground
We’re here now

This is where the healing begins, oh
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you’re broken within
The light meets the dark
The light meets the dark

Afraid to let your secrets out
Everything that you hide
Can come crashing through the door now
But too scared to face all your fear
So you hide but you find
That the shame won’t disappear

So let it fall down
There’s freedom waiting in the sound
When you let your walls fall to the ground
We’re here now
We’re here now, oh

This is where the healing begins, oh
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you’re broken within
The light meets the dark
The light meets the dark

Sparks will fly as grace collides
With the dark inside of us
So please don’t fight
This coming light
Let this blood come cover us
His blood can cover us

This is where the healing begins, oh
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you’re broken within
The light meets the dark
The light meets the dark (C) Tenth Avenue North

I heard this coming home from work yesterday and the highlighted sections stuck in my head thinking about where we’re at going through the R12 book- “Coming to grips with the real you”. I just couldn’t shake these lyrics. The word “wall” kept resonating in my mind.

I was thinking about walls and I thought of The Wall, by Pink Floyd. I have to admit I was psyched when I heard recently that Roger Waters is going to tour for the anniversary of this album. Maybe that’s why The Wall was fresh in my head, I don’t know. I was sober the first time I saw the Wall (really!) and like many in my generation, I heard the album before I ever saw the movie. So I had a preconceived notion of an Orwellian/Phillip Dick sci-fi-ish movie and I was surprised by what I saw. No, not by the nearly pornographic animation, but by the darkness of underlying story. I admit that I instantly related. Roger Waters is soliciting videos and names of friends or family who have died in the wars going on overseas to include in his stage show. He freely admits the strong anti-war sentiment that runs through the storyline. However, this part of the plot only deflects from the real story- the Walls “Pink” built around himself. The irony is that Waters embraces the anti-war message, which is one of the bricks in Pink’s wall. Relating back to R12, Pink denies part of himself by using the War, and the loss of his father, as an excuse for is antisocial anarchist behavior. (He also blames his mom for his relationships with women, but that’s a whole other story) Even though he sings the song, and the animation shows the wall coming down, he is never really free. He never comes to grips with the real him.

I had quite a few Facebook comments on Tuesday’s post. An old friend that I grew up with reminded me that there are a lot of things out of our control (our gender, our parents) that shape who we are. I agree, except that our character is defined by how we respond to those things. We can either blame shift (my dad was an alcoholic, my parents divorced when I was young…) or we can do something about it. Yes, those things affect who we are, but God frees us from all of that.

So how do we do it? How do we come to grips with the real us? Yes, Romans 12:3-8 is a good start and a great scriptural foundation to build on. But the truth is, we’ll never break down the walls we built around us until we open up about who we are; share our deepest and darkest secrets; and stop blaming what we cannot control for who we are. And that is where the healing begins.

R12: Have you discovered the real you?

May 5, 2010Frank

We’ve spent the last couple of days digging in, preparing ourselves to wrestle with God over our identity. Now it’s time to start answering these questions: who are you, where do you belong, what are you supposed to do? We find the answers in Romans 12:3-8.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. [who you are] Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. [where you belong] We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. [what you are supposed to do]

Today, we are going to look at ourselves with sober judgement, in other words clear-minded. You might read this and think, “do not think of yourself more highly than you ought? That’s easy! I’m a Christian and I know pride is a sin.” Of course, that’s easier said than done. In some Christian circles pride is so emphasized that a false-humility abounds; everyone puts on a mask. The other extreme is “meek is weak”- the assumption that humility is a sign of weakness. Both are wrong and miss the point of this passage. This isn’t about pride, per se, but about not measuring ourselves against anyone or anything but Christ. The obvious pride expressed as “I’m better than you” is just as sinful as feeling hurt because “this person didn’t treat me like I think I should be treated” and is just as sinful as the low esteemed “woe is me” who may not be conscious of it, but is seeking the same level of attention as the first two. Truth is, we need to think of ourselves, not based on anyone else’s opinion, but on the grace of God expressed through Jesus.

This expresses itself with humbly acknowledging that we are sinners saved by grace. “[F]or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23, emphasis added) We have to embrace God’s love for us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) And we have to live free from the burdens of sin, including the temptations of the world, the deceptions of Satan, and the cravings of our sinful nature. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Doing so is the first step in stripping down naked and seeing who we really are in God’s sight (the only opinion that matters).

Next, we need to think of ourselves “in accordance with the measure of faith God has given us.” This is accomplished somewhat above, but goes further and hints towards the next two questions. As I’ve said before, we need to see who we are before we can see who God wants us to be. We’re naked and exposed before God, so who does he want us to be? By the grace of God, we are new creations. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) And he’s given us the tools to live as a new creation. “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23a)

Chip Ingram gives some good self-help tools to help us along this path. If you have the book, I encourage you to follow his direction with the 3×5 cards. If you’re only following along here, take some time to meditate on each of these scriptures.

Appearance (Psalm 139:13-17)
Belongingness (Romans 8:31-32, Ephesians 1:18)
Worthiness (2 Corinthians 5:17, Isaiah 61:10)
Security (Romans 8:38-39)
Competence (Philippians 2:13, 4:13, Ephesians 2:10)

Tomorrow, we’ll be answering the second question.

Think: What does sober self-assessment mean to you?
Reflect: On a scale of one to ten, how accurately do you think your view of yourself is? Why?
Understand: What is your understanding of your position in Christ? Do you think it is important to appropriate what you already possess (faith) versus trying hard to live up to God’s standards?
Surrender: Ask God for the power to obey the command in Romans 12:3 to “think accurately about yourself.”
Take Action: Make a copy of the cards in the chapter and review them daily for six weeks. [or take the scriptures above, write them down and meditate on them for six weeks.]
Motivation: Ladies, if you need some hope, listen first-hand to [Chip’s] wife Theresa’s story in her series “Precious in His Sight” at the R12 online resources. This teaching grew out of her own journey toward sober self-assessment.
Encourage someone: As you review these identity cards for the next six weeks, make an extra set and give them to a friend.

R12: Have you answered life’s biggest questions?

May 4, 2010Frank

(No Blog Carnival for me this week, but I strongly encourage you to check out everyone else’s contributions here.)

Go to a public place with large crowds and look around. I travel a lot and love to do this at airports. Depending on one’s demeanor, I sometimes try and guess what that person is thinking about or why they’re traveling. I like to look at families and watch the interplay between parents and children who are trying to run off. I watch people as they’re sitting- what are they doing? I watch as they run through the crowds to catch their connection- where are they going? In every case, it’s humbling to look at these people and remember that they are people, children of God, and each has their unique story.

It is also fun to see how these people identify themselves. The business traveler in a suit, the retired couple going on vacation in their shorts and Hawaiian shirts, the sports fan with a jersey of his favorite player. We project an identity by all of these things whether we’re conscious of doing so or not. There’s a reason you put that TapOut t-shirt on, there’s a reason you put the NOTW sticker on your car. And I’m guilty to, I wear my Chicago Cubs hat when I know I’m connecting through Chicago, or a Wyoming or Colorado t-shirt when I’m connecting through Denver. We want to be identified a certain way and the world has trained us to identify ourselves with name brands and external labels. It is virtually impossible to project to the world your unique identity free from any other “tag”. That is, unless you choose to strip down bare and present yourself naked to the world.

While I don’t recommend this (though this is one motivation in nudist colonies), it brings up a challenge. We don’t want to be naked to the world. That would be embarrassing, indecent. So we understand we need to cover ourselves up, and we do so with labels, brand-names, external facades to hide what is truly underneath.

Each of us struggles with three questions throughout our lives: who am I, where do I belong and what am I supposed to do. Wild at Heart answers this with the three points: an adventure to live, a battle to fight and a beauty to save, all in the context of living how God created us. Chip Ingram digs deeper in LOTE: The Book by turning our attention to the first people to ask themselves these questions. Genesis 3 describes the “Fall of Man”. After Eve is tempted by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, Adam also succumbs and they are faced with these questions. Who are they with their new identity having eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil? Where do they belong since they disobeyed God’s word? And what are they supposed to do now? Instead of answering these questions, they hide and set the standard for every relationship throughout history- between mankind and God, between others, and with themselves. They were naked, and they didn’t like it.

They were afraid and naked so they hid. And when finally confronted, Adam blamed both Eve and God. He did not take responsibility. (Eve didn’t either, but Adam set the standard) This sequence- fear, shame, and blame- continues to play out throughout history. It is the tools we use to identify ourselves and they are the means by which Satan keeps us from discovering our God-given identity. Following this pattern: Adam and Eve were afraid because of what they had done, they were naked and insecure, and they blame shifted. Sounds a lot like us, doesn’t it?

These are each described in more detail in the book. Personally, I would switch the descriptions between fear and insecurity, but they do blend together. We are ashamed of who we are and what we’ve done. We don’t want anyone to know our sinful nature, our struggles, our failures. So we are afraid. In some cases of success, in others failure. But most importantly, we’re afraid of being found out, exposed, naked. This then makes us insecure. We’re convinced the things we’ve done or who we are make us lesser. So we hide behind labels and images. We get tattoos or piercings, drive fast cars, and make sure the color our shoes match our shirt and cap (guys) or turn to plastic surgery, makeup, designer shoes/purses/clothes (girls) because that’s the cool thing to do. We hide underneath the world’s definitions of masculinity or femininity, success or strength, belonging or rebelling. Finally, when we can no longer run from who we are, we blame others- our upbringing (most often), our culture, our disease, even both Satan and God are blamed for our own behavior and character. “I’m not a sinner, Satan tricked me!” “God made me like this, I don’t have a choice.” So many turn from God because of this: “The church I grew up in was…” “People judged…” “If God really loved us, why does he allow…?” “How can God condemn what he created in our nature?” We hide and do not take responsibility for who we are and the choices we make.

Obviously this is not how God intends for us to live. But before we can be naked to the world, we need to be naked to ourselves. We need to be honest with ourselves of who we are and what we’ve done. We need to own up to the choice we’ve made to our Creator in heaven and trust in his forgiveness and grace. We need to take courage that God created us for a purpose beyond any worldly label and humbly seek out His will. It all starts with that first step. Strip down. Look at yourself in the mirror. This is who you are. Embrace it. Praise God for it.

Think: What are the three barriers that keep us from discovering who we are?
Reflect: How have you seen these barriers play out it your relationships?
Understand: When and with whom do you have the greatest freedom to be yourself? In what situations do you find yourself projecting strong or weak reactions to keep people at a distance?
Surrender: Admit to God and yourself that you are desperately insecure and need to find your security in Christ- not in your appearance, performance, or possessions.
Take Action: Take off your mask with one trusted friend this week and discuss what you are learning in this chapter about how these three barriers play out in your life and relationships.
Motivation: Download the audio message “How to come to grips with the real you” following the R12 button on the right, going to the “Self Assessment” tab and looking under free resources.
Encourage Someone: Choose to look beyond the irritating strong or weak reactions of someone you don’t particularly enjoy being around. In the next few days, seek to understand why they are hiding, blaming, or pretending. Where possible, affirm the person hiding behind the mask by demonstrating the compassion of Christ.

R12: How to come to grips with the real you

May 3, 2010Frank

Coming to grips with the real you is the theme of the next relationship: sober in self assessment. Ironically this was the theme of a men’s retreat I attended this weekend. There, the example was given of Jacob, wrestling with God and being given a new name. To get to that point however, Jacob had to reap the consequences of his character- the deceiver had to be deceived to be humble enough to see who he really was. Only then could he be ready wrestle with God. During the struggle, he was permanently wounded, but he was rewarded for it.

God has a new name for us too (Revelation 2:17). But we often aren’t willing to humbly admit who we are. We want the blessing without the pain necessary to prepare ourselves for it. But God doesn’t work that way. He cannot reveal who he wants us to be if we can’t see who we are. And that only comes by painfully digging to the very roots of our character. But instead we hide. We bury who we are under the front we present to the rest of the world. We do this for so long we forget who we really are so far underneath.

A week ago I posted a little introduction to myself and my blog. While that gives a simple “who am I” it doesn’t reveal anything about the depth of my character. It does not describe who I am on the road to becoming who God wants me to be. At the time, it wasn’t meant to deliberately hide my character or intentionally not be vulnerable. There are times and places for that. Well, this is that time.

I appreciate the openness Chip Ingram has shown as he shares about his past, his faith, and his struggles to get to where he is now. For myself, I’ve been through many of the same battles. Like him, I am insecure, though it shows itself in different ways. As I “wrestled with God” this weekend, my insecurities were ever before me. This isn’t new. It was revealed during my recovery and I face it every day at my job and in my home. But I bury it. I don’t deal with it. And it finds new ways to cripple me. I don’t intend to put on a false front. And I try to not let my insecurities paralyze me in fear. But I still hold myself back. I’m not as close in my relationships as I need to be. To be blunt, I don’t let anyone in. And that has prevented me from being all that God wants me to be. So I’m going to battle through this. Wrestle with God. And not let go until I receive his blessing. This chapter comes at the perfect time. Join me in this battle. Wrestle with me.

Think: What went through your mind as you read this?
Reflect: What parts of my story [or Chip’s in the book] could you identify with? What aspects of your story are different?
Understand: When was the last time you thought seriously about the question, “Who am I?” What part of answering this question makes you uncomfortable? Excited? Afraid?
Surrender: Ask God to help you see yourself the way He sees you.
Take Action: Write down the top three people and events that you think have most shaped how you view yourself today.
Motivation: Watch the thirteen-minute video on R12 online titled “How to Come to Grips With the Real You” by clicking the R12 button to the right and going to the “Self Assessment” tab.
Encourage Someone: Think of someone who has a low or untrue view of themselves and share two positive character qualities you see in their life. Tell them it’s an assignment for a spiritual formation project you’re working on so they don’t feel awkward.

R12: Chapters 8 & 9 follow-up, It’s All About Me!

April 30, 2010Frank

I have to follow up on the last two chapters. Each time I’ve sat down to start punching away on my keyboard, my train of thought finds a point and steamrolls me through to the end of the post. And then I realize I never got around to some of the points I wanted to make in the first place. I spent a lot of time on Chapter 8, defining the temptations of the World, and by the length of my post it is no surprise this is one of the longest chapters in the book. Chapter 9 follows with the “hows” to combat the temptations in Chapter 8. And I spent most of this morning’s post instead talking about the “whys”.

Something I inadvertently left out of both of these however is one major roadblock we all have to face in order to “not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [our] minds.” I mentioned before that both commands here are passive. So while we’re commanded to do this, we’re not expected to do it on our own. So the obstacle to overcoming the world and transforming as God intends is ourselves. This is too important a point to be left out.

Chip paints this perfectly in Chapter 8:

I am personally convinced that much of our worldliness is a total misunderstanding of the real issue. There are far too many people who are stuck in cycles of sin that they repeat over and over again because they think the issue is their actual behavior. Behavior is almost always only the symptom. The real issue is far deeper…

I’m amazed that even in our sin we figure a way to make it “about us.” My sin, my problem, my behavior, my addiction, my struggles, my difficult background, are all words and phrases that focus on us.

This comes up again in Chapter 9 as we’re reminded that we are not the ones who do the transforming, we are the ones transformed. And this fact, that sounds so simple, is why religion so often fails. We have to remember that religion is a man-made institution designed to draw us close to God. It is man-made however, meaning it is imperfect. And over time traditions set in, cliques form, apathy and ambivalence creep in, and generation after generation see splits, revivals, restorations and the cycle begins anew. Religion does not save. Church programs do not heal. Our fellowship should not be our object of worship. These belong to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father.

So the World tricks us into thinking it’s all about ourselves and religion buys into it. My sin drags me down. But if I do this and I do not do that I will overcome. Our spirituality becomes a checklist, our relationship with God becomes about rules, and we forget the grace of God that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8) (Remember that Romans 12 begins with “Therefore…” after following chapters 1-11) This is not to excuse sin. This is not to advocate some private, personal ascension to holiness independent from the Church. This is to plead that we step out of the way and let God do what he wants to do in our lives. When we do, repentance becomes easier, resistance to temptations becomes natural, and holiness becomes who we are.

Think: What action is commanded in Romans 12:2 that results in transformation? How does this action differ from ways you have attempted to be more Christ-like?
Reflect: How would you characterize your mental and spiritual diet? What correlation might there be between areas where you “struggle” and what is going into your mind?
Understand: What is your biggest barrier to renewing your mind? Don’t know where to begin? Don’t have a plan? Don’t have the discipline?
Surrender: Ask God to create an appetite in your heart for Him and His Word. Ask Him to show you where to read in the Bible.
Take Action: Set your alarm clock back twenty minutes each day for two weeks and meet with God to start your day.
Motivation: Listen to “Peace and Power of a Prioritized Life” which shows you a simple but powerful way to read adn hear God’s voice. [Found by clicking the R12 button to the right and going to the Free Resources under the “Separate” tab]
Encourage Someone: Ask someone to make the two-week commitment with you to meet with God first daily. Text each other at noon in order to hold each other accountable.

R12: Could your mental diet be killing your soul?

April 29, 2010Frank

Before I move on to the next chapter, I have to cover some more ground from last time. The post was pretty long as it was and I neglected a few points that tie us into today’s topic.

While I spent a lot of time describing those things that compete with God for our affection, I didn’t talk much about us being lovers of God. If our faith is weak or nonexistent, or if we’ve been hurt by the religious (and often blame that on God) why would we choose to love God over the pleasures of this world? 1 John 2:17 touches on this, “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Even if we don’t believe in God, we know that our lives are going to end. On one hand, that means that our pleasures in this world are all we have and we should chase after them exhaustively. On the other hand, it means that whatever pleasures we enjoy in this life are meaningless since we’re just going to die anyway and we will have no memory of those pleasures. God offers a third option, an eternity with him where the pleasures of this world are insignificant in comparison to the joys of being united with our Creator in heaven. Now, that’s hard to wrap our minds around. God could just as easily be the Flying Spaghetti Monster with a promise such as this. So we need to establish why we should take God at his word.

Remember that Romans 12 begins with “Therefore, in view of God’s mercy…” after following a crash course of Jewish history and theology in chapters 1-11. We have to know who God is and what he has done, both throughout history and personally in each of our lives. Then the opening paragraph of Romans 12 ends with “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” There’s a promise at the end and we have to trust that God has our best in mind.

But the world wants us to think differently. This is the focus of Chapter 9- the battle in our mind. The world fools us with its pleasures into thinking “to feel, to have and to be” are ends, not means. So our goal should be those pleasures instead of experiencing those pleasures as our goals are of a higher calling. Take sex, for example. Sex is great! Sex is fun! Sex feels good! (How many more times do I have to type sex for my blog hits to triple?) And sex was designed by God for us to enjoy. But he gave us the context of marriage, or for the more liberally minded (though I do not agree) the context of a monogamous relationship. Here the “joy of sex” is not the ends, but the means to emotionally and spiritually bond with your spouse. It can be effectively argued that the best sex is when you are most giving (verbally, emotionally, or physically) and the worst is when you are the most selfish. There’s a reason for this. It is not the ends, but the means to an end.

You could describe any of yesterday’s temptations the same way. We need to eat and food tastes good, but food is not an end, but a means to nourish our bodies. And so on, and so on.

So there is this battle in our minds that tries to convince us that these temporary pleasures are worth sacrificing eternal joy. And we are easily duped. “I’m sad right now, what good does eternal joy do me now when who knows how long I will live or if heaven is even real?” So we give into wordly pleasures to satisfy the right now.

So we need our thoughts to be eternally minded. We need to “take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:15) and “whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8) We need to win the battle in our minds.

But how? By feeding it spiritual thoughts. Think about a 40 hour workweek, 6 hours of sleep every night, and two hours of church on a Sunday. The balance is filled with errand-running, TV watching, bill paying, and if there’s enough time you might actually sit down for meal. And if not, you can always get something on the road. What dominates your attention? What is filling your mind during these times? So you need a steady diet of spirituality to overcome the diet of the world that dominates our time. We can’t read our Bibles 24/7 or lock ourselves away in a monastery or convent. But we can read the Word every day, we can surround ourselves with spiritual people every chance we get, we can listen to spiritual music, we can “pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) by guiding our thoughts towards seeking God’s will- asking yourself WWJD.

But we have to build strength to overcome. Like I said, just based on time, the world dominates. So we need to train our thoughts. We can’t just open the Bible randomly and be encouraged by a Proverb. We need to study something specific, otherwise we’re just spinning our spiritual wheels. Likewise, we need to train our minds to always be thinking about God’s will by filling our thoughts with Scripture. This comes from memorization. I admit I’m not good in this area. But Chip gives a very compelling example of why and how this benefits.

We also have to cut out the junk. I love Doritos. I can’t get enough when I eat them. But they don’t satisfy any craving. So when I eat them, I want more and more and more. Junk food is like that. I can’t live off of Doritos, I need real sustenance. Likewise, the world feeds us junk. We can’t live off of it and it doesn’t satisfy. So we need to cut back on TV, music (most of what fills the Pop charts is moral filth), gossip in the workplace, etc.

In encourage you to find the junk in your life and cut it out. Feed yourself some real spiritual nourishment that satisfies. And “be transformed by the renewing of your mind“

(Not going to do TRUST ME yet. This subject demands another post. Look for it later today.)

R12: Why is the Christian life so difficult?

April 27, 2010Frank

Reposted from last week to get back on a M-F schedule…

The title speaks for itself. I could leave it there and open up for discussion on Romans 12:2 and satisfy [last] week’s blog carnival on self-control all at once. But I won’t leave it there. We need to answer this question. We need to know how to overcome.

Chapter 7 in Living On The Edge lays the groundwork to answer this in future chapters, I’m sorry to tease. But the set up is just as valuable. We can’t answer this question because we don’t know why it’s an issue to begin with. This week’s blog carnival is on self-control. The question is bound to be asked, “why, as Christians, do we still struggle with sin?” Chip Ingram poses that the reason is because we do not understand the struggle. As I mentioned last time, I learned from the book Wild At Heart that our struggle against sin has three enemies- Satan, the World, and our sinful nature. Chip comes to the same conclusion but words it differently- the who, where, and what of sin. If our religious tradition focuses only on one, or even two, of these but not all three, we are destined to fail. This is because Satan wants us to fail, we live in a world designed to discourage us, and we desire comfort that satisfies our sinful nature. We need to overcome each of these.

Chip goes into the grammar of verse 2, but I’ll spare you. One important point in each of the verbs is important though: “conform” and “transform” are both passive. That means it’s not us doing it. The world conforms us with external pressure and only God can transform us by the power of His Holy Spirit. So much of my struggle against sin is relying on my own strength. I will always fail so long as I continue to rely on myself. Trying hard to ‘do right’ or be religious cannot overcome Satan’s schemes or the World system.

So we need to come to terms with who overcomes and how. It is not us. It is not our church. It is not some self-help book or any special preacher or brand of Christianity. It is Christ alone. And we need to ask ourselves why. To be more moral than someone else? To be more holy? Will that elevate us to some closer level to God? No! We need to remember that God is our Father and as His children He only wants the best for us. So we turn ourselves over to him so that we can “test and approve” His will.

R12: Are you getting God’s best?

April 26, 2010Frank

Reposted from last week to get back on a M-F schedule…

The first part of Romans 12 focused on Surrender and the first relationship is with God. The second part of Romans 12 focuses on Separate and our relationship with the World:

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

My eyes were opened reading Wild At Heart when it was pointed out that we have three enemies. Often we focus all of our attention on Satan and use his schemes to excuse our own sinful nature. But the third that is often neglected, is the world, but they all go hand in hand. Romans 12 calls our attention to fight two of the three. Fight our sinful natures, transforming our minds, by resisting the temptations of the world.

Sounds easy, right? It is the world that distracts us and keeps us from “fix[ing] our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) I think of the scene in the Matrix with the woman in the red dress. A pretty good speech for evangelism. But also a good example of the world as our enemy. The truth is, the values, temptations, and “patterns” of this world are contrary to the will of God. We desire to know God’s will, but neglect that the world keeps us from fully experiencing it. So Paul challenges us to “test and approve” it which we cannot do so long as we continue to be tied in any way to this world.

What ties us to this world? Family, friendships, wealth, fame? Lately the Church has established roots deeply into the realm of politics- governing in this world. Sadly this has paralyzed many. Regardless of the nobility of their goals, they will forever be unable to “test and approve God’s will” because of this tie to the world.

So the question is, are you getting God’s best, his good, pleasing and perfect will? If not, what is tying you to this world?

Think: Read Romans 12:2 over slowly, with special emphasis on the last nineteen words.
Reflect: What comes to mind when you think about doing God’s will? Does your mind gravitate to words like difficult, painful, distasteful, or do you find his will to be good, pleasing and perfect? Why?
Understand: How and where have you struggled the most in your journey with Christ? What habits, sins, or setbacks seem to thwart your relationship with Christ?
Surrender: Ask God to begin opening your eyes and your heart to what His good and pleasing will is for your life.
Take Action: Watch How to Get God’s Best for Your Life at the R12 online resources.
Motivation: Write out this prayer, or a personalized version, on a 3×5: Father, help me not to let this world squeeze me into its mold, but transform me from the inside out as I meditate and apply Your Word to my life.
Encourage someone: Write a note to someone who knows Christ, but is not walking with Him. Let them know you care and are praying for them today.