How To Be A Christian Without Being A Jerk

Faith in real life

Category Archives: personal discipleship

Soda Wars

June 20th, 2012

Enough of this soda thing. Another news story coming out of my own neighborhood. Why can’t the Coca-Cola lobby just make it all go away!

What I already know:

1. We are a settled-in-front of a screen society, and there is an issue with obesity in America.

2. I know that psychologically, if you limit the amount of beverage you can get at one time (16 oz. max rather than 44 oz. gigantic gulp or whatever it is) this will ultimately cut down on how much you consume. It just works that way.

3. I also know that fruit juice is filled with sugar, too. Why the pass?

4. I know that city parks and libraries need to provide more drinking fountains with colder water so City Councilman’s daughters can just have a go at the bubbler (Note I used two slang terms for  a water releasing public drinking apparatus, because I don’t know where you are from), rather than deciding to buy from a beverage machine and then having her dad end up proposing another ban. Though I do like her dad.

Everything is really a spiritual matter anyway. If you want to be healthy, you will work at being healthy and learn to say, “No,” to that which you want, but may be harmful for you down the road. It isn’t in our human nature to say, “No,” but it is in God’s nature to make us into the kind of people who can say, “No.” if we allow Him to. By saying, “No,” to other things.

No amount of government intervention is ultimately going to save us from getting what we think we absolutely must have. It starts on the inside and a change from within.

And government officials? Let’s keep our eye on the economic ball for a while, shall we?

Using a little “won’t” power

June 20th, 2012

“I am not going to get angry anymore. No, really I’m not. This time I really mean it! I AM NOT GOING TO GET ANGRY!!”

Whenever we want to change something about ourselves, the direct approach is usually the way we choose to go. We try “willpower.” It might as well be “won’t-power” because the direct method almost never works.

We can’t convince ourselves to change. For a while it may be possible. Then we come under stress and our changes change back. The harder we try the more frustrated we get. What is the problem?

The problem is commonly labeled, “Self-help.” Every self-help magazine article tells us that we can do it. Go to Barnes and Noble and check out the “Self-help” section.

If you can’t lose weight/ be friendlier/ be more confident in five easy steps, then there must be something wrong with you. “After all,” the author seems to say, “If I did it and wrote a book about it, then you can, too. Not write the book, of course, but you can change.”

So, why don’t you?

To change from the inside out doesn’t last on our own power. We need something more. Recovery groups like AA know this to be true.

They teach that you have to give yourself over to a higher power to be sober. You can’t fight unhealthy behavior directly. Alcoholics can stop drinking when they place their trust outside of themselves. This is a great start and if they want to do more than just get sober, they can live a transformed life by opening up to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus designed us and so, naturally, he holds the key to lasting change. Where could you use change in your life right now?


 

Who said, “Seeing is believing?”

June 19th, 2012

There really is no such thing as “science.” There are many different fields called “sciences,” but there is no theory that wraps them all together. Though there are scientists who make claims for a “theory of everything,” no one has come close.

Did you know that about 96% of the universe is composed of two things that astrophysicists label “dark matter” and “dark energy”? We know they are there, but can’t see them or directly measure them.

In other words, only about 4% of what most astrophysicists trust exists can be observed and directly measured. The other 96% is assumed based on the evidence of its effect. It appears that the vast majority of existence is considered reality through trust based on evidence.

Trust based on evidence. Does that sound familiar? It should. This is a good definition of faith!

What if God is real? What if God is the creator of all reality? Then if the sciences are considered our ultimate guide to all of existence, we miss out on the very center of life, God himself.

God is not physical, yet God exists. If God exists then there are dimensions to our lives that may not be physical but are real. If God is real then an education based on the sciences alone would miss out on the most important information of all. Knowledge of God would be absolutely essential. Without studying God, we would be, well, uneducated.

How can we have any knowledge of God if we can’t see him?

We don’t seem to have trouble claiming knowledge of a lot of stuff we can’t see. Like, maybe, 96% of everything?

What are reasons people give for not thinking there is a God? Which argument is the strongest?

 

Let’s Face It…

June 15th, 2012


It’s always hilarious when you see a news account of people who look like their dogs. There is research1done on this topic that reveals it is not that dogs and their owners (sorry, “caregivers” in LA, guardians in SF) resemble each other over time. It is more likely that the dog owner consciously or unconsciously chooses a pet with similar characteristics. We have a lab/ German shepherd mix named, “Nala.” She is a sweetheart of a dog, like my sweetheart, but when she snarls, she resembles the boy’s and me, on occasion.

I do think we take on the appearance of someone over time. Ourselves. Who we are on the inside begins to reflect more and more on the outside. I remember the story The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. Dorian is able to live a wild and crazy immoral life without physically affecting him. Booze, sex, destroying the lives of others- you name it, Dorian did it. Didn’t seem to age him a bit. Stayed the same young, good-looking guy. His secret?

He had a portrait of himself that would take in all his sin. It got uglier and more sinister looking. I won’t give away the ending in case you haven’t read it, but let’s just say Dorian found out the truth.

You begin to notice that about people. Those of us who have been around a while show who we are on the inside by what we look like on the outside. Our faces take on smile lines or frown lines. Anger, like a twisted plastic surgeon, etches pain felt and pain dished out. Botox is no antidote for bile.

So, what do you do? Changing the inside changes the outside. You have a choice in life. There is a God who forgives what’s on the inside so you can be transformed into the kind of person who will shine with his glory on the outside. You are more than just your physical body.

Look closely at your own face. Especially around your eyes and the corners of your mouth. What do you see?


 

To Begin Again

June 13th, 2012

First in a series on transformation from the inside out. This is a book based on the teachings of Dallas Willard, in particular from Renovation of the Heart. Start here, be open to the Holy Spirit, and get ready to go!

We are designed to be in relationship with Jesus. The Christian life is not a set of rules and regulations. The Bible is not a rulebook, but a description of this way of life. We do not have a list of laws that we follow to become worthy of attention from God. To grow in faith, we live the life we are designed to live, and we are transformed from the inside out.

This is the key. Inside out. Not a flurry of activities that make us acceptable to receive God’s love. God already loves us and we are open to being changed from the inside out.

We don’t do good things to please God. We become the kind of persons who can do good things naturally because we are being transformed. It is out of the “becoming” that the “doing” follows.

(Note: Each day you will have the chance to think deeply or do something. Why not?)

What is the most important class you have ever taken? Why was it so key?


 

heart

July 24th, 2009

We use the word “heart” a lot. Even with young children. We often teach little ones to love Jesus with all their heart. We ask them, “Where is Jesus?” They reply, “Jesus is in my heart,” as they point to their tummies. I don’t teach Jesus this way with small children. I teach them Jesus is all around them covering them everywhere.

Then what about the heart? The biblical understanding of the word, when it is not referring to the actual physical organ in your body, has to do with your choices. “Will,” “spirit” and “heart” are basically interchangeable words in the Bible. Your “heart” has to do with the choices you make. Your “will” and your “spirit” have to do with choices. You can substitute “choices” when you see these words and it will usually be an accurate understanding.

Choice assumes action. To choose is to exercise your own freedom. When you “love the Lord God with all your heart,” you seek the good of God’s plan through your choices. You actively partner with God to bring about what he wants brought about in the life you are leading together. To put your heart into it is to live as if it were so.

 

What is a choice that you are putting off? 

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Who am I?

July 23rd, 2009

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: `Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
(Mark 12:29-31 NLT)

God designs us. We are all wired a certain way. What we have in common you could call, “The essense of our humanity.” Or, “the dimensions of our existence.” What makes a person a person? 

Jesus gives us an understanding of what our human nature is made of in his answer to a lawyer’s question, “What is the most important commandment?”

‘Love God and neighbor with everything you are.’

What are we?

Jesus breaks it down to five parts:

Heart

Soul

Mind

Strength (body)

Neighbor (social dimension)

If I can understand what makes me human, then I can begin to see how transformation affects all parts of my life. Let’s look at each of these dimensions and their relationship to spiritual formation. Tomorrow we begin with “heart.”

Think on the word, “dimension.”

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is it all good?

July 22nd, 2009

When we declare something good, it doesn’t mean it’s all good. There is a phrase that has been around for awhile that shows this.

“It’s all good.”

I wish I knew where this phrase originated. I want to know the situation in which the person spoke. Why am I interested?

It’s not all good.

There are people who think of ways to destroy you and they don’t even know you. That’s not all good. There are people whom you will come to trust who will betray you when you least expect it. That’s not all good. What can you do?

When we say, “It’s all good,” though we know deep down that it’s not all good, we say the words like some kind of magical chant in order to convince ourselves that it doesn’t matter. Yet, we know it matters. Perhaps we don’t think anyone else cares enough to actually be concerned that it’s not “all good” in our lives. Yet, there is one who does care. It starts with being open and vulnerable to him. How?

We become the kind of people who can care. When Jesus transforms us from the inside out, then we can see things through his eyes for the first time. Then, we don’t declare, “It’s all good,” but we can say with confidence, “There is hope and it starts with Jesus working through me.”

What do you need to be completely honest with God about? What is holding you back from opening up all the way to him?

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sinking into the role

July 21st, 2009

A few years ago, Jamie Fox won an Oscar for Ray. The acting was so good; it’s as if he was Ray Charles. You could say, Fox really “sunk into the role.”


In the language of the Bible there is a word for this “sinking into.” enduo. Romans 13:14 reads,


Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ…(Romans 13:14)


We are to literally, “sink into” our role as followers of Jesus. This doesn’t mean we try to look like him on the outside. Did you know there are still groups of people who wander around in robes and sandals warning about the end of the world? 

 

They think they are supposed to look like Jesus. That’s not the point. It’s not trying to look like Jesus (who knows what he looked like anyway?) that is important. It’s sinking into the role of being like Jesus on the inside.


To clothe yourself with Jesus is part of that inside/ out process we have been talking about. We become like Jesus on the inside so that the things we do on the outside are done as Jesus would them if he were us in any given situation.

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How To Be A Christian Without Being A Jerk

Faith in real life