Category Archives: Spiritual Life

What does it mean to be unified?

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I came across this statement today. It struck me so strongly that I listened and listened until I could type it.

It starts with the most influential… actually loving one another and scheduling appointments to get together and to work on  a friendship. Not just hosting events.

When Christians think of unity they think of events. Events are nothing more than political statesmanship.

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Unity is really less about doing events together and it’s more about doing life together and building friendship. — Mark Driscoll | Redeem Cities 2010: Mark Driscoll Session 2 

This applies to pastors working together. And to everyone else in the church.

How does God treat me if I don’t follow His way?

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Recently, some of us were chatting together about C.S. Lewis and his Chronicles. If you’ve read them you know that he admits into the kingdom a person who was not trusting in Aslan.

One of the guys commented, “I was reading someone writing on this and he said, ‘Lewis was wrong.'” I agree. Lewis was wrong. He’s been wrong about a number of things — eschatology and his thoughts of household pets, but I am sure that I am wrong about loads more than that.

Coincidental to that conversation, I bumped into this passage in That Hideous Strength — a passage that kind of cleared the muddy water for me. In context, Jane is deciding to cooperate with the Director and do the right thing. She’s not sold on following Maleldil (God) yet.

“Sir,” said Jane, “I know nothing of Maleldil. But I place myself in obedience to you.”

“It is enough for the present,” said the Director. “This is the courtesy of Deep Heaven: that when you mean well, He always takes you to have meant better than you knew. It will not be enough for always; He is very jealous. He will have you  for no one but Himself in the end. But for tonight, it is enough.” — C. S. Lewis, in That Hideous Strength

I only object to this thinking on Lewis’ part if he considers one may die in such a state and still be in God’s good graces. Francis Chan has done a great job addressing that folly in the past couple of months.

However, I do see that God graciously accepts us where we are, to move us to where we should be. It is the courtesy of Deep Heaven — the grace of God.

Protecting your spirit from Identity Theft…

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I think that sometimes we forget who we are. When I get a migraine, sometimes I say and do things I would otherwise not do. Afterward, I say to my wife, “Man – I really was not myself. I am not sure who I was, but I wasn’t myself.”

You hear people in sports say this sometimes. They have a bad showing on the field and they say, “We let ourselves down today by playing poorly. We forgot who we were.”

You hear Christians say this sometimes. “I forgot myself and I behaved poorly.” I spoke to a young woman once who, during her post-teen years, had done things she was very ashamed of. She had been raised in a Christ-honoring environment, saved — opened her own heart to receive Christ — years earlier. But along the way, she let herself drift from who she had become in Christ. She said to me, “I kind of forgot who I was.”

I believe that one of the most damaging tactics the enemy – Satan – has is to cause you to forget what Christ has done in your life.

This podcast reveals some of Satan’s tactics and offers steps to avoiding the loss of our realization of our identity in Christ.

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