Walk

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

IF YOUR FAITH IS OFF

2 Corinthians 5:7
We walk by faith, not by sight

When my son Karl was about eight years old, I introduced him to the game of golf. I gave him a little starter set of clubs and took him out to the course with me. Karl would tee up his ball and whale away at it with his mightiest swing. Usually he sprayed the ball all over the place. But since he could only hit it 60 or 70 yards at best, his direction could be off by 20 degrees and his ball would still be in the fairway.

As he grew up and got a bigger set of clubs, Karl was able to drive the ball off the tee 150 yards and farther. But if his drive was still 20 degrees off target, his ball no longer stayed in the fairway; it usually went into the rough. Accuracy is even more important for golfers who can blast a golf ball 200 to 250 yards off the tee. The same 20-degree deviation which allowed little Karl's short drive to remain in the fairway will send a longer drive soaring out of bounds.

This simple illustration pictures an important aspect of the life of faith: Your Christian walk is the direct result of what you believe about God and yourself. If your faith is off, your walk will be off. If your walk is off, you can be sure it's because your faith is off. As a new Christian, you needed some time to learn how to "hit the ball straight" in your belief system. You could be off 20 degrees in what you believed and still be on the fairway because you were still growing and had a lot to learn. But the longer you persist in a faulty belief system, the less fulfilling and productive your daily walk of faith will be. As you grow older you will find yourself stumbling through the rough or out of bounds spiritually if the course you have set for your life doesn't agree with Scripture.

For many adults, a mid-life crisis is the result of basing their concept of success and fulfillment on the world instead of on the Word of God. Tragically, many of our children and teenagers are heading for the same fall because their beliefs are not founded on Scripture. As a result, their lives are often bankrupt before they leave high school.

Prayer:

Lord, Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Teach me Your truth today that I may walk in it.

Abiding

Excerpt from beginning of "In the Beginning Was the Word" by John Piper

John 1:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The Gospel of John is a portrait of Jesus Christ and his saving work. It focuses on the last three years of Jesus’ life—and especially on his death and resurrection. It’s purpose is clear in John 20:30-31: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” The book is written to help people believe on Christ and have eternal life.

Written for Non-Christians—and Christians

But don’t get it in your head that the book is therefore only for unbelievers. Believers on Jesus must go on believing in Jesus in order to be saved in the end. Jesus said in John 15:6, “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” And in John 8:31, he said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.”

So when John says, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name,” he meant that he was writing to awaken faith in unbelievers and sustain faith in believers—and in that way lead both to eternal life. And there may be no better book in the Bible to help you keep on trusting and treasuring Christ above all.

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What Christ Has Done

From Miscellanies, "Hosea, Gomer, and Christ's Redemptive Love"

“To redeem something is to buy it back; to save it by purchasing it. The redemption described here [Ephesians 1] is deliverance by payment of a price. In the Old Testament book of Hosea we find an incredible story that illustrates the spiritual blessing that Jesus Christ has given us.

Hosea was an Old Testament prophet, and God called this man to marry a woman of ill repute. And so Hosea married this woman named Gomer. And she was unfaithful to him. She left him. She was an adulteress and even gave herself to prostitution. Her life was so degraded by her sin that eventually she became a slave.

And in the book of Hosea the story is told of Hosea walking through the marketplace and he comes upon the place in the market where the slaves are sold, where human beings are being sold to other people because of their debt. And Hosea comes upon his wife being auctioned off as a slave. And in a picture of God’s incredible love for his people, Hosea steps forward and lays the money on the table to purchase his wife back from slavery.

This woman who was unfaithful to him, this woman who broke his heart, this woman who is an adulteress, he buys back out of slavery and brings home to be his wife! This is an incredible picture of the love and care of God for us, his people. We have disobeyed him, we have been unfaithful to him, and yet he comes searching for us and he redeems us. And this is what Jesus has done for us!”

-Joshua Harris, sermon, “God’s Blessings in Salvation,” Ephesians 1:3-14, 9/21/08, at Covenant Life Church (Gaithersburg, MD); 15:06-17:17 markers.

Sing to the Lord

"Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord:

'I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.'

Exod. 15:1

Salvation is God's act. The only appropriate response, therefore, is to attend to this God who saves. But the way in which this attention is given is critical. So far in Exodus, response has taken the form of telling the story and remembering the event in a ritual meal. What comes next? For many the next step in understanding salvation follows along the lines of study and analysis; we get out our concordances and lexicons and sharpen our pencils. But not here: here the God of salvation is worshiped. Story and ritual are now taken up into an act of worship that makes every Israelite a participant in salvation. Not a single Israelite, not even Moses, did one, solitary thing to bring about salvation. There is nothing to sing about on that front. So if neither Moses nor the Israelites are the subject and if human experience is not the subject, that leaves God as the subject: 'I will sing to the Lord . . . .' ."

Eugene Peterson

Walk in the Light

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

THE REALITY OF DEMONS

Luke 11:24, 26
When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, "I will return to my house from which I came." Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself

The Bible does not attempt to prove the existence of demons any more than it attempts to prove the existence of God. It simply reports on their activities as if its first readers accepted their existence. Nor did the early church fathers have a problem with the reality and personality of demons. Origen wrote: "In regard to the devil and his angels and opposing powers, the ecclesiastical teaching maintains that the beings do indeed exist; but what they are or how they exist is not explained with sufficient clarity. This opinion, however, is held by most: that the devil was an angel; and having apostatized, he persuaded as many angels as possible to fall away with himself; and these, even to the present time, are called his angels."

Luke 11:24-26 gives us a helpful view into the personality and individuality of evil spirits. We can glean several points of information about evil spirits from this passage. Demons can exist outside or inside humans. They are able to travel. They are able to communicate. Each one has a separate identity. They are able to remember and make plans. They are able to evaluate and make decisions. They are able to combine forces. They vary in degrees of wickedness.

But you need not fear Satan and his demons as long as you cling to God's truth. Their only weapon is deception. Irenaeus wrote, "The devil . . . can only go to this length, as he did at the beginning, to deceive and lead astray the mind of man into disobeying the commandments of God, and gradually to darken the hearts." If you continue to walk in the light, you don't need to be afraid of the darkness.

Prayer:

Lord, I accept the reality of the spiritual world and Your rule over it. I will walk in the light and not fear the darkness.

Displaced

We had an incredible presentation last night from Invisible Children.

Sing and Shout Our Praises

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

Romans 5: 6-11 (The Message)

Buildings

Excerpts from What the Unchurched See in a Building | Our of Ur

Does "sacred" space appeal to or repel the unchurched? A recent survey probed 1,700 unchurched American adults, putting photos of four different church exteriors in front of them. Respondents indicated their preferences by allocating 100 points across the four images, based on the appeal of the appearance.

The Gothic look averaged 48 points, more than double the next-highest finisher, a white-steeple-and-pillar exterior that averaged about 19 points. The other two churches, with more contemporary looks, averaged 18 points and 16 points, according to the study, commissioned by Cornerstone Knowledge Network and conducted by LifeWay Research.

So should churches opt for the cathedral look as a way to attract the unchurched?

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And one style that works for one church doesn't necessarily work for the next. Younger respondents in the study, for instance, rated exterior design as a higher priority, while older participants tended to prize a building's usefulness.

"The style is not as important as the integrity of the design," Couchenour says. Integrity starts with the church realizing what God has called it to be, what ministry needs it can meet, and how a building can help meet those needs. "People—churched or unchurched—can tell if it has integrity, if it feels right."

Salvation

"Any approach to salvation that does not eventually become worship, and the sooner the better, distorts and reduces salvation to a concept or a program or a technique that we can master and therefore control. But, of course, if we can do it or at least manage it, it is no longer salvation."

Eugene Peterson

Identity in Christ

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

YOUR CHILD'S SELF-PERCEPTION

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it

Your primary responsibility as a parent is to lead your child to Christ and help him establish his identity in Christ. When a child comes into the world, he is completely dependent on his earthly parents to feed him, change his dirty diapers and provide shelter. Childhood and adolescence is the process of moving from total dependence as a child to total independence as an adult. In the process of finding out who they are as individuals, children gradually move away from many of the people, thoughts, and ideas they have experienced through their parents and move toward the people, thoughts, and ideas which they have made their own.

A child is capable of understanding God's love and protection and receiving Jesus Christ as Savior at a very early age. But understanding his spiritual identity is a process that takes place over the years of his childhood. It is the process of shifting his dependence from parents to God.

Children wrestle with identity around age 12. Researchers of cognitive development say that most 12-year-olds can think as adults. They are capable of abstract thinking and understanding symbolism. This is significant when you remember that Jesus appeared out of obscurity at age 12. Furthermore, the Jewish bar mitzvah has been celebrated for centuries when a boy turns 12, the age at which Jews believe that a boy becomes a man. Many churches have confirmation for children at or near the age of 12.

I believe age 12 is the approximate time in a child's life when we should help him establish his spiritual identity. Evangelicals have tended to minimize junior high ministry and focus on high school. High school is too late for some kids to be challenged with their spiritual identity. Don't make that mistake with your children. You must begin early helping them understand who they are as children of God and what their identity means to them spiritually. Seeing themselves as God sees them is the most important perception your children will ever have. If your kids don't find their identity in Christ, they will find it in the world.

Prayer:

Help me guide my children into a relationship with You, dear Father, so they may establish their identity in Christ.

Inspiring

Christian Working Woman Transcript

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - THINK

Have you inspired anyone lately? You may not think about it in those terms, but each day we have opportunities to inspire people. To inspire them to be kind, to inspire them to be encouraged–and on and on. And usually that inspiration comes through the words we speak.

I’m looking at how to think before we speak, so that when we speak, we say the right things in the right way. The Bible has lots to say about guarding our words carefully.

We’re looking at an acrostic of the word think, which can help us determine whether we should say what we’re just getting ready to say. T means true, make sure it’s true. H means helpful, make sure it will benefit those who listen.

I stands for inspiring.

Will your words inspire the person who hears them in some way, even if it’s very small? If not, maybe you don’t need to say them.

Now I need to make it clear that I’m talking about inspiring someone for good purposes, because it’s possible to inspire someone to do something wrong. But how wonderful it is when someone speaks inspiring words to us. Just recently, on a day when I particularly needed some encouragement, out of the clear blue a friend simply said something to me that inspired me. It gave me the encouragement I needed at that moment to keep on keepin’ on, as we say.

I often try to remember to say anything nice that I think, whether it’s a compliment on someone’s outfit, or a word of appreciation for their help. If you’re thinking something nice about someone, then why not express it in words and then you speak words of inspiration. So, if we think before we speak, we will not only be careful not to say things we should not say, but it will remind us to say those inspiring things that we often think but don’t say.

Remember, your words have power; use that power wisely to inspire others. They will come back to you in a wonderful way.

T.H.I.N.K. before your speak! Are you words…True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, Kind?

Concept created by Carol Schweig: thinkbracelets@yahoo.com.

Helpful?

Christian Working Woman Transcript

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - THINK


The Bible says that the tongue has the power of life and death. When we speak before we think, we often use our tongue as a death weapon. I want to encourage you to think before you speak.

This acrostic for Think will help you think before you speak. Yesterday we saw that T stands for true. Speak only what you know to be true.

H is helpful.

Are the words you’re just getting ready to say going to help anyone? If not, don’t say them.

Ephesians 4:29 is one of the most powerful verses in the Bible, in my opinion, and if we practiced it, we definitely would think before we speak. It says, Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Some years ago I began praying this verse into my life, and I encourage you to do the same. Then I noticed that when I would start to say something, I would often hear that inaudible voice of God’s Spirit saying, “Is this going to help anyone else; will it benefit those who listen?” That has caused me to stop in the middle of lots of sentences, as I realized that I didn’t need to say what I was planning to say because it wasn’t helpful to anyone else.

Can you even imagine the wonderful changes that would take place on our jobs, in our churches, and in our homes if we determined not to speak any words that were unwholesome, that did not benefit others? That would eliminate griping and complaining; it would keep us from nagging people; it would cause us to stop passing on gossip. My goodness, it would make a difference in the way we live.

So think about what you’re going to say before you say it. It’s so much easier to swallow those unhelpful words than it is to try to recover from them once they are said. If it’s not helpful, just don’t say it.

T.H.I.N.K. before your speak! Are you words…True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, Kind?

Concept created by Carol Schweig: thinkbracelets@yahoo.com.

Choose the Higher Life

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

THE VIEW FROM THE CROSS

Matthew 16:25, 26
Whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul?

Three guidelines from these verses summarize the view from the cross, which we must adopt to counteract the self-centered worldview promoted by the god of this world.

First, we must sacrifice the lower life to gain the higher life. If you want to save your natural life (i.e., find your identity and sense of self-worth in positions, titles, accomplishments and possessions and seek only worldly well-being), you will lose it. At best you can only possess these temporal values for a lifetime, only to lose everything for eternity.

Furthermore, in all your efforts to possess these earthly treasures, you will fail to gain all that can be yours in Christ. Shoot for this world and that's all you'll get, and eventually you will lose even that. But shoot for the next world and God will throw in the benefits of knowing Him in this present life as well. Paul put it this way: "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come" (1 Timothy 4:7, 8).

Second, sacrifice the pleasure of things to gain the pleasure of life. What would you accept in trade for the fruit of the Spirit in your life? What material possession, what amount of money, what position or title would you exchange for the love, joy, peace and patience that you enjoy in Christ? "Nothing," we all probably agree. Victory over self comes as we learn to love people and use things instead of using people and loving things.

Third, sacrifice the temporal to gain the eternal. Possibly the greatest sign of spiritual maturity is the ability to postpone rewards. It is far better to know that we are the children of God than to gain anything that the world calls valuable. Even if following Christ results in hardships in this life, He will make it right in eternity.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, You alone are God. Help me to choose the higher life today instead of seeking the pleasures of this world.

Emerging Church

A few excerpts from The Emerging Church: 5 Years Later -- The definition has changed by Dan Kimball

I am going to write a couple of posts on the book "The Emerging Church" and what has changed from my perspective since the 5 years it came out. Each post will address something I have learned or has changed or has stayed the same and has been further affirmed.

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The term "emerging church" isn't new, it was used for a book called "The Emerging Church" in 1970 by Bruce Larson and Ralph Osborne. I have read that book and it was mainly about change needed in the church for the advancement of the gospel in the "emerging" world of 1970. When I wrote the book of the same name in 2003, that was pretty much the same thing but 33 years later. There will always be change needed in the church for the mission we are on as different time periods of history emerge and cultures change and develop. Perhaps in 33 more years the term will resurface again and someone who is 5 years old right now will write a book caled "The Emerging Church" about what is "emerging" and changing in the mission of the church in the year 2042.

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As I think of the future, I want to focus on the reason I got into the whole emerging church world. It was about evangelism - as in seeing "lost" people (using that word in a healthy way) come to a saving knowledge of Jesus, repenting, experiencing grace and receiving new life by the Spirit and joining in on the mission. Things needed to be "deconstructed" in the church, so there was deconstruction for the sale of evangelism and mission.

My entry into the emerging church world was because of the reality of the increasing amount of people who aren't Christians and weren't experiencing the joy of salvation and knowing Jesus in this life and the reality of eternal heaven and eternal hell in the life-to-come is a reality. I fully know the Kingdom of God is here and now and Jesus' teaching was more focused on how we live life now, not the here-after. But at the same time, hell still exists and if you want to know more about what I think about hell I wrote about it here). This urgency about the Kingdom here and now and about heaven and hell to come (I am fully aware and in alignmnet with N.T. Wright on how we have incorrectly talked about the after-life). But never-the-less, this is exactly what fueled the passion of why Josh Fox, myself and a core team planted Vintage Faith Church in 2004. People who don't know Jesus or experienced the gospel yet. Underneath all the emerging church discussion for me, was evangelism and Jesus' words from Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8.

But...back to what has changed since the 5 or 6 years since The Emerging Church was written.

If you were to have asked me about what the core of the emerging church is, I would have responded with "evangelism and mission in our emerging culture to emerging generations". And from that, other things were of course included, alternative worship, discussions on ecclesiolgy etc. as a means for fruitful evangelism. But evangelism for me was underneath it all. Today, I certainly sense if you asked someone what is "the emerging church" it would mean a whole lot of of different things than that. In fact, I don't even think the word "evangelism" comes up when I start hearing about "the emerging church" for the most part anymore. It means so many different things theologically today. I will talk about theology in a later post, but over the 10 years the emerging church world has also become so theologically diverse that it has become understandably confusing. I can't defend or even explain theologically what is now known broadly as "the emerging church" anymore, because it has developed into so many significantly different theological strands. Some I strongly would disagree with (as I assume they would strongly disagree with me). So that has changed as well from my perspective.

So.... the first thing that has changed in the 5 years since the book The Emerging Church came out is that in my opinion, the definition has changed. I am not wedded to any term and I don't think most people are. I, like most others, are wedded to the gospel and to Jesus' command of making new disciples - not a term to describe it. I have gone through the disiullusionment stage about church, and been hurt by the church and the whole deconstruction phase and questioning phase.

So I understand that very deeply. But the urgency of eternity here and the here-after and the people who are not yet Christians who need to hear about experience in this life the saving gospel of Jesus is what enabled me to rise me out of that. I want to focus time, prayer and energy on healthy evangelism and new disciples of Jesus being made who weren't Christians before in our new cultures and new generations. That may involve all varieties of conversations including anything from music and art to justice to leadership to all types of thing. But underneath it is evangelism and the words of Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8 and mission driving it all. So in moving ahead, I don't think using the term "emerging church" as it is generally defined today, describes this like it used to.

I am using "missional" more these days, although that term has different meanings too and knowing human tendencies that will prpbably go through definition changes. (For a good web site about what "missional" is, go here) Defintions come and go. The mission of Jesus doesn't. The urgency of the gospel doesn't (until Jesus returns).

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Praying

Colossians 1: 9-12 (The Message)

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

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A good prayer for you to pray for our body of believers.

THINK

Christian Working Woman Transcript

Monday, September 15, 2008 - THINK

Years ago my professional career began with IBM, and they had a motto then which was conspicuously displayed all around the offices. It was one simple word: Think. Just “Think.”

I remember wondering why they would choose such a motto for the company. Doesn’t everybody think? I thought. Now I understand the importance of that simple one-word motto, because often we just don’t think enough. For example, how frequently are we engaging our mouths, saying things without thinking? And that usually ends up causing all kinds of trouble.

Recently a friend told me that her teenage daughter and she had agreed to each wear a bracelet that says “Think”, as a way to remind them to think before they speak. Well, I got to thinking about that, and decided that was a good idea.

Psalm 141:3 says, Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.

I want to give you an acrostic of the word think, to help you determine whether you should say what you are starting to say or not. We start with:

T – True

Is it true? Do you know for certain that what you are just about to say is true? If not, don’t say it.

If we think before we speak and determine that we’re not sure what we’re about to say is true, this will eliminate most gossip. Gossip is usually something we’ve heard but don’t really know for sure, but we freely pass it on. After all, it’s juicy and we just want to tell somebody that juicy tidbit. But if we start to think before we speak, and ask ourselves, “Is this true?”, we’ll go a long way to eliminating gossipy talk–and that’s a very good thing.

Also, it will keep us from imagining bad things that could happen, like “They’ll probably lay off a lot of us,” or “I think he is going to divorce her.” You don’t know those imagined bad things to be true, so don’t say them to yourself or anyone else.

Dependent

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

FOLLOWING HIM

Matthew 16:24
If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him . . . follow Me

Seeking to overcome self by self-effort is a hopeless struggle. Self will never cast out self, because an independent self motivated by the flesh still wants to be God. We must follow Christ by being led by the Holy Spirit down the path of death to self-rule. As Paul wrote: "We who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

This may sound like a dismal path to walk, but I assure you that it is not. It is a tremendous experience to be known by the Shepherd and to follow Him as obedient, dependent sheep (John 10:27). The fact that we are led by the Spirit of God, even when it results in the death to self-rule, is our assurance of sonship (Romans 8;14). We were not designed to function independently of God. Only when we are dependent on Him and intent on following Christ are we complete and free to prove that the will of God is good, acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).

Self-rule is motivated by self-interest and supported only by self-centered resources. When we come to the end of our resources, we discover God's resources. God will let us do our thing and patiently wait until self-interest and self-rule leave us spiritually and emotionally bankrupt. We can turn to God any time we weary of trying to run our own lives independently of Him. He doesn't force Himself on us; He just simply says, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him . . . follow Me." Are you willing to forsake self-rule and follow Him?

Prayer:

Loving Shepherd, I desire Your will for my life, and I purpose today to follow You in obedience and dependence.

God's Work

"You would think that believing that Jesus is God among us would be the hardest thing. It is not. It turns out that the hardest thing is to believe that God's work -- this dazzling creation, this astonishing salvation, this cascade of blessings -- is all being worked out in and under the conditions of our humanity: at picnics and around dinner tables, in conversations and while walking along roads, in puzzled questions and homely stories, with blind beggars and suppurating lepers, at weddings and funerals. Everything that Jesus does and says takes place within the limits and conditions of our humanity. No fireworks. No special effects. Yes, there are miracles, plenty of them. But because for the most part they are so much a part of the fabric of everyday life, very few notice. The miraculousness of miracle is obscured by the familiarity of the setting, the ordinariness of the people involved."

Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places

Like God

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

ONLY GOD IS GOD

Genesis 3:4, 5
The serpent said . . . "you will be like God, knowing good and evil"

Adam was the first to be tempted by the notion that he could "be like God" (Genesis 3:5), which is the essence of the self-centered worldview that Satan promotes. Millions have been seduced by Satan into believing that they are God. The New Age Movement is promoting this lie on a grand and international scale.

However, the biblical account of creation clearly establishes that only God the Creator is truly God. Adam and his ancestors are not gods; we are created beings which cannot exist apart from God. The diabolical idea that man is his own god is the primary link in the chain of spiritual bondage to the kingdom of darkness.

The problem with man's attempt at being his own god is that he was never designed to occupy that role. He lacks the necessary attributes to determine his own destiny. Even sinless, spiritually alive Adam in the Garden of Eden before the Fall wasn't equipped to be his own god. Contrary to what the New Agers tell us, the potential to be a god never was in you, isn't in you now, and never will be in you. Being God is God's capacity alone.

If you desire to live in freedom from the bondage of the world, the flesh and the devil, this primary link in the chain must be renounced. The self-centered worldview which Satan and his emissaries are promoting must be replaced by the perspective that Jesus introduced to His disciples in the wake of Peter's self-preserving rebuke in Matthew 16: "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it" (verses 24, 25). In the next several days, we will examine the view from the cross.

Prayer:

Father, forgive me for the occasions when I have usurped Your place in my life. You are my Lord and my God.

Cart and Horse

"It's not an issue of whether or not we should engage moral evil and politics, but is it our primary job? It's not the main job of the church to be running the government or to influence legislation. The main job is to live out the kingdom. I feel like some Christians put the political cart before the kingdom horse. Christians in America differ very, very little from the broader American culture. We're almost indistinguishable. I'm focused on getting my congregation to live out radical kingdom principles 24/7. If we get that done, I think we'll have a lot of clarity about how to engage the culture, including politics."

Gregory Boyd | Out of Ur