4. Personal Jesus

 

"The Joyless Pursuit of Creating God in Our Own Image" by Ronnie Martin

+What I rememeber is that I had a relationship with Christ that was based more on my fear of not performingwell than a godly fear and love for a Savior who had already completed the performance for me.

+I had been taught the verse about obedience being better than a sacrifice, but nobody ever told  me that there was thing called grace that transformed our acts of obedience into offerings of joy.

+My identity was so tied up in my persona as an artist that the idea that it also doubled as something I was "doing for God" simply gave me the justification neccessary to continue down my well-trodden path of self indulgence. 

+Had stopped lying to myself for even a miunute, I would´ve been face with this sobering truth: My heart had grown far from God as it swelled up in glory for me.

+The rality is that God  blesses us with joy so that regardless of amount of material blessings we receive in ths life, our hunger and thirst for Him is never replaced by those material things.

+When a Christian is truly immerse in the pursuit of the gospel, those material blessings function as occasions for thankfulness.

+Instead of glorifynig God for the small talents He had graciously given me, Iinstead worshiped what came as the result of that talents. Worse still, my life pursuit had become doing everything I could so others might worship my talent. The result? Anger, resentment, pride, arrogance, and a lifestyle that kept me pursuing self-worship like a drug addict searches maniacally for his next fix.

+One of the things we can count on God to do in the life of a beliver is to get really sever with our sins. Things like anger, pride, and arrigance don´t go unchecked in God´s economy forever. As a loving Father, God disciplines us and takes things away that hinder our growth, maturity, and love for Him.

+In reality, it´s only by God´s amzing grace we´re given anything at all. Sadly, our base tendency is to hoard, feed on, and become gluttons with the things god has privileged us to be stewards over.

+Instead of praising Him dor the portion He´s given us, we indulge in it because we don´t think God has been generous enough. We love our goods more than our God.

+Anytime we love our gifts more than the Giver of gifts, we eneter into a state of disharmony, dissatisfaction, and disarray, and plumge headlong into the dark side effects of those heart conditions. Becasuse we were created by a God who is above all else, we were never meant to put anything else above Him.

Leer: 3. How You Doin´?

ACERCA DEL AUTOR: Ronnie Martin

3. How You Doin´?

 

"Culture´s Obsession With Self-Sufficiency" by Ted Kluck

+ As Christians, we´re the onés who say we´re pilgrims in an imperfected, sinful woeld. Yet we´re the ones who want to go to the church on Sunday as though our lives and ourselves are unblemished and unaffected by the blight of sin. It´s been our experience that only the most extreme of challenges (public sin, death, etc.) cause church people to really become honest with eachother.

+ Let´s this become the typical "old guy ranting about Facebook" essay, he point here is we are our own American idols, and much of what we do, we do under the guise of self-sufficiency. We want people to know we´re okay.

+ Still, I think as a memoirist it´s important to be honest and not fabricate a version of myself that everybody will be more comfortable with. So far the record, if you love Great American Hero, send your Christian hate mail to anybody, because what happened with Hero (Christians hurting other Christians) is just an example of how life in a fallen, sinful world works. It´s an example of why we all need a Savior.

+The only problem with this perspective, for the Christian, is that it´s not only wildly unbiblical , it also negates the posibility of our ever being satisfied or ever giving God glory.

+ God, in His infinite wisdom, was using the circumstance to bring me to a place of total and complete brokenness and contrition before Him. But first He had to show me my bitter heart of stone, and begin to replace it with a heart of flesh. The process was the most painful yet redemptive, thinh I´ve ever experienced.

+ My mission, as I see it, is to abide in Him day by day, going to Him for forgiveness of my many sins, and sharing the hope of  salvation with others.

+My role isn´t to wallow in despondecy (more on the not wallowing later) or my church´s imperfections. My church´s job is to help me fight despondecy, and to battle the Enemy´s chief lie: that God cannot be trusted to meet my needs or satisfy me. 

Leer: 2. How Soon is Now?

Leer: 4. Personal Jesus

 ACERCA DEL AUTOR: Ted Kluck