BP 229
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you” ~ Walt Whitman
I’ve always enjoyed pithy statements such as Whitman’s about how to live life. Even more, I love divine universal truths that instruct us how to conduct ourselves on this planet—truths that, if practiced, lead to tangibly positive results in all our relationships.
This blog post as well as next week’s post will highlight dozens of universal truths some of which have appeared in past DTFL posts that will help followers of Jesus Christ live victoriously in this world. Most of these items will not be fleshed out much at all here—just identified. As believers, we must seek out God’s truth wherever it is found whether that be in the Special Revelation of the Bible or in the General Revelation of the world around us including psychology (the study of the soul).
Below is this week’s installment of truths that will help you grow closer to Jesus and others and even your own self.
+ The Gospel is not about being good but about being perfect. You can’t be good enough. Christianity is the only faith that says, “don’t even try to be good.” Instead, know Jesus. Know the One who made you righteous and perfect. It’s not about Do but about Done.
+ When tempted, fight sin with all your might—even if your strategy, like Joseph, is to literally run from it. On those occasions when you lose the battle and you do sin, approach God’s throne immediately instead of punishing yourself or withdrawing and isolating in your shame. Running to the throne immediately does not minimize your sin—it exalts His grace. See Hebrews 4:14-16.
+ Our God is not a monad like Allah of the Muslim faith, existing all alone. No, He is a Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The reality of the Triune God means that your life is all about relationship since the three persons of God have been in relationship for all eternity. Forget about power and influence. It’s all about serving and loving.
+ The Gospel is about the battle between separation and “withness.” Satan is the thief who steals, kills and destroys. Satan is drooling to separate you from God and others while Jesus says, “Come.” Be with me. No need to run and hide. Satan separates, Jesus invites.
+ We are born condemned, already enslaved to sin, death, and shame. See John 3:16ff. God did not send His Son to condemn you or shame you or disqualify you, but to deliver you from the badness and condemnation we are all born under. So, do not run from Him; run toward Him as your Deliverer and Beautiful Defender.
+ God created you before time began, but because of original sin, you are born with a self that is broken and undeveloped. We don’t know how to love, how to comfort, how to delay gratification, how to forgive, or even who we are. Sanctification is the journey of self-development—becoming who God created us to be by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
+ As non-believers year after year conduct their lives distant from God, they become less human. The Imago Dei steadily fades in them. Believers in Jesus shine like a star in the Cosmos (Philippians 2:15) but non-believers grow dimmer ad dimmer until they are extinguished. See Jude and 2 Peter 2 and Romans 1:18-32 for a chilling description of those who drift farther and farther from their Creator. Walking in relationship with Jesus has so many benefits including becoming more human every day.
+ Objective identity is only found in the presence of Jesus. Subjective identity is what we resort to (or is the only option remaining) when we are separated from God, when we have forsaken True North.
+ Humans naturally rebel against authority. You have that rebel in you as well. Identify that rebel and surrender it to God.
+ Be kind to everyone, because everyone is fighting a terrible battle in their soul
+ You can choose to feel good, or you can choose to grow
+ Life will always be hard. You can have life hard now and easy later, or you can have it easy now and hard later. Which will you choose? Sometimes the hardness of life is thrust on us, but we still have the choice to manage these days and years well instead of practicing bitterness and victimhood.
+ We all have blind spots. The only problem is that we can’t see them because we’re blind to them. Be humble. Get feedback from others. Surround yourselves with wise mirrors who can help you see your strengths and blind spots.
+ Be teachable. Teachability is humility. Without it, you will not grow. Better said, you will refuse to grow.
+ There is the pain of staying the same, and there is the pain of growth. Either way it will be painful so you might as well choose growth. Don’t settle for the plateau. Be a climber.
+ The Bible is the word of God. It is not the end of all things, the height of the Christian faith, but the precious means to the end, namely The Word, Jesus Himself. Love the word of God as the avenue to knowing The Word of God not just in your head but in your heart.
+ Remember that there is explicit and Implicit faith. Head and heart knowledge. Don’t stop with head knowledge that produces solid theological truth and intellectual knowledge. Head knowledge is never the end of it all. Learn how to move your explicit faith to your heart so that you will be able to love God and others implicitly in deep, intimate ways that the head cannot do.
+ Read 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. Good psychological therapy is always about helping people use their divine weapons to identify, challenge, and destroy obstacles to knowing Jesus, others, and oneself. Notice that the word “destroy” is mentioned twice. All healthy growth is about tearing down all the things that interfere with deep intimacy and love.
+ Your relationship with other people may not always build your character, but it certainly will reveal your character. Don’t stop at simply being revealed. Be teachable and ask the Spirit to build your character (see 2 Peter 1:3-11).
+ If you can never be wrong, you cannot be a believer because to come to Christ, you must admit and confess your sin. You must cry out that you are sick and need The Physician.
+ The Incarnation is the most fascinating entrance by God into the human condition. He wore our skin? He suffered in the body? How can I not love this God who did not remain in the safety of heaven and the Father’s presence but choose to enter into my world and my fallen condition?
+ Reading Scripture is like making deposits in a retirement account or maybe lifting weights day after day. You will not see results immediately, but over time you will become amazingly rich and strong in faith. Over the years, anxiety will become a distant memory for you.
+ Life is ultimately about the three relationships: with God, others, and yourself. If there is a deep disruption in one domain, the others will be impacted as well.
+ God is more interested in what He can do IN you than what He can do FOR you.
+ Be aware of the counterfeit qualities that look so good on the outside: compliance v. obedience; people pleasing v. servanthood; being nice v. loving; being a peacekeeper instead of a peacemaker.
+ There are two types of love in this world speaking very broadly: I love you for what you do for me (Jesus might say that even the Gentiles do that) and loving someone for who they are instead of for what you want from them. The first example is not really about loving others but about using them.
+ You have three options in dealing with God and people. You can move against. You can move away from. You can move toward.
+ Learn the difference between Satan’s shame and God’s correction. They sometimes may superficially look the same (barely), but they are diametrically opposite. One destroys (John 10:10) while the other gives life. One kills while the other grows.
+ Know your defenses: intellectualization, denial, suppression, etc. PROJECTION may be the most dangerous and evil. Two sins are involved here. You reject God as the One who died for your sins (the first sin) so then you must place your sins onto others and then hate them for your badness in them (the second sin). The sin of projection is behind cancel culture. Instead of hating and killing the badness in yourself, you hate and kill others for your badness in them. If you don’t have Jesus to forgive your sins, you must find another way to rid yourself of them. Besides denial of sin, projection appears to be the only other option. Blaming. Scapegoating.
+ Beware of living your life combat ready. If this battle mentality is how you live life, you will always be ready to defend and fight instead of listening and loving.
+ Two thoughts about forgiveness that are not original to me: bitterness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies while forgiveness is almost a selfish act because of the great benefit to the one who forgives.
+ God gave you three ways to be seen and known: through words that travel from your mind to your mouth; through the emotions of your heart that might be expressed in tears, sighs, and facial expressions; and through your body. If your words and emotions get shut down because the environment is not safe or because someone communicated to you that your words and your feelings were selfish or hurtful to them, your body will begin to speak through the medium of pain (headaches, stomach issues, joint pain, sleeping issues, autoimmune system issues, etc.) If you shut down all three avenues of communication, you will die.
Okay, I will wrap up here for this week’s post. Next week, I will add maybe another three dozen truths that will help you mature in how you relate to God, other people, and your own self. In the meantime, always remember that being a follower of Jesus is about growth, never about being comfortable. Growth is never comfortable.
Yes, Jesus promises you peace, but He also loves you so much that He will not leave you treading the waters of sameness and boring mundanity. After all, He wants you to be like Him.
”And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” ~ 2 Corinthians 3:18
“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.’
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” ~ Hebrews 12:5-11
