R12: Have you discovered the real you?

Frank

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.

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.

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: Have you discovered the real you?

Frank

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.

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.

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: Have you answered life’s biggest questions?

Frank

(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.

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: Have you answered life’s biggest questions?

Frank

(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.

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: How to come to grips with the real you

Frank

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.

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: How to come to grips with the real you

Frank

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.

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

Frank

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

Frank

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?

Frank

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.)

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: Could your mental diet be killing your soul?

Frank

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.)

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.