Teaching Through Struggles

I've been thinking about teaching life lessons through your own struggles of the heart or spirit.

There are two schools of thought here:

1. You wear these struggles openly and in public.
2. Or you hide them behind a front of some sort. This doesn't always involve the practice of deception. I can think of times when something like this is absolutely necessary.

The advantage of the first is transparency. The disadvantage of the first is that you are perceived by others as weak.

The advantage of the second is that people count on you because you're strong and don't have "troubles." The disadvantage of the second is that noone knows whether or not you need help.

Which is best? Is there a best?

On Beginning Spiritual Work

From a letter C. S. Lewis sent to Arthur Greeves, 15 June, 1930:

"Another fine thing in The Princess and Curdie [by George MacDonald] is where Curdie, in a dream, keeps on dreaming that he has waked up and then finding that he is still in bed. This means the same as the passage where Adam says to Lilith 'Unless you unclose your hand you will never die and therefore never wake. You may think you have died and even that you have risen again: but both will be a dream.'

"This has a terrible meaning, specially for imaginitive people. We read of spiritual efforts, and imagination makes us believe that, because we enjoy the idea of doing them, we have done them. I am apalled to see how much of the change which I thought I had undergone lately was only imaginary. The real work seems still to be done. It is so fatally easy to confuse an aesthetic appreciation with the spiritual life with the life itself--to dream that you have waked, washed, and dressed, and then to find yourself still in bed."

Who You Are in Christ

Speaking of identity, here is an episode of Look at the Book by John Piper covering Who You Are in Christ. (Scroll down and click on the w link to view the video.)

Piper discusses an exposition of Philippians 3:1-3.

If you’re like me, you might ask, “What does it mean to put no confidence in the flesh?” Then, look at the next video.

A Sense of Self

We were talking on Sunday going through The Truth Project Lesson 4 about our ability to know ourselves only through the process of knowing God.

In secular psychology, identity is defined “as an enduring and continuous sense of who we are.”

As Christians, however, we define ourselves in light of the revealed nature of God. Out identity is not who we think we are, but who God thinks we are.

Some resources from the bibliography that may help clarify your thinking on this issue:

Packer, J. I. 1973. Knowing God, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Pink, Arthur W. 1972 The Attributes of God, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Sproul, R. C. 1985 The Holiness of God, Wheaton, IL: Tyndale Momentum; 2nd Revised, Expanded ed. edition (July 1, 2000)

Tozer, A. W. 1961 The Knowledge of the Holy. Lincoln, NE: Back to the Bible Broadcast.

On Baptism

Here are the references I cited during the baptism we celebrated on Sunday:

We identify with Christ’s death:

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

Romans 6:3-5

Jesus identifies with us not as God, but as a man:

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’”

Matthew 3:13-15

Being raised from death is a powerful working of God:

“In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in a powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven all your trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

Colossians 2-11-14

We become sons of God through faith as we put on Christ:

“Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”

Galatians 3:23-29

Why am I here?

This worldview question is important but most often ignored.

Here are four reasons we ignore answering this question: 

1. It seems we can never know the answer.
2. It seems the answer most often offered makes us uncomfortable.
3. It seems the incomplete answer we provide for ourselves is enough.
4. It seems the answer is irrelevant because, really, there is no answer.

For Christians, the answer to this question is simple: I am here to glorify God.

“I will say to the north,

give up,

and to the south, do

not withhold;

bring my sons from afar

and my daughters from

the end of the earth,

every one who is called

by my name,

whom I created for

my glory,

whom I formed

and made.”

Isaiah 43:6-7

“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:11-12

"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen."

Rom. 11:36

". . . for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

1 Cor. 6:20

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

1 Cor. 10:31

“All the nations you have made shall come

    and worship before you, O Lord,

    and shall glorify your name.

For you are great and do wondrous things;

    you alone are God.

Teach me your way, O Lord,

    that I may walk in your truth;

    unite my heart to fear your name.

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,

    and I will glorify your name forever.”

Ps. 86:9-12

Who am I?

I (we) am (are) made in the image of God. . .

 “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’

So God created man in his own image

In the image of God he created him;

male and female he

created them.

And God blessed them…”

Genesis 1:26-28a

. . .and as such, I (we) have intrinsic worth.

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”

Genesis 9:6

“For man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. . .”

1 Corinthians 11:7

“With it [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.”

James 3:9