where does evil get its power?

"be vigilant, be sober, because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour"     I Peter 5:8

"the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, I come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly"   John 10:10

Where does evil get its power? We see that the objective of evil is to destroy, to kill "life" (zoe, God's life) and evil "roams around seeking whom it may devour".  We know that for the unbeliever, evil is eternal separation from God (Hell). But for the believer, the consequences of evil are not death (eternal separation from God) but rather impotence. The power evil has over believers is to constrain their light and to steal their joy, to put them in a box where Christ stays private. This happens through shame, guilt, fear, pride, etc. of the believer. This gives evil its power.

Why does the believer feel these emotions that constrain their joy and make them hide their light under a basket? Well, I think it generally comes from our desire to please others, to be respected and liked by our peers. But its more than that. There are two sides to the equation.

While our nature is to seek our well being from the world around us and not the glory God has given us through Jesus, our reaction to our own transgressions feeds destruction of our pride resulting in our fear, shame, blame, and guilt. However, if those who witness our transgression responded to us in Grace, we the transgressor may be spared the consequences of Satan's desires, and thus not have the light in us extinguished. There's a case to be made that evil has no power unless the persons witnessing the transgression choose to give evil attention and react in judgment and gossip, not Grace.

I for one have made many mistakes, some significant ones even recently. As I pondered the shame and guilt from my actions, I realized that while I really offended God and should know better, my desire to withdraw and hide is mainly influenced by fearing the condemnation of others, not God. The thought occurred to me that if my friends never embellish evil's design on me, if they simply ignore what Satan has orchestrated and respond in unconditional love as God does, then "death and destruction" doesn't occur. The power evil has to shut me down and to steal  my joy may be as sourced in my brothers and sisters mistakes in how they respond to my mistake than in my mistake itself. This is not intended to be a deflection away from consequences of my own action, but a broader look from God's perspective of what is really happening.

In some ways a condemning response to another's transgression may be more destructive than the original mistake itself. While not excusing or rationalizing our sin, may God really be equally concerned by our giving evil its power when we respond to others in judgment rather than Grace?? Can we really take the sting out of evil and make it impotent instead by extending the Grace we have been blessed with to others as each of us in our own way fail in our actions.

certainly worth pondering .....

Will the real xxxxx please stand up?

What are we really like? What we think? How others perceive us? Is there a reality of self that both miss? Self-perception is an interesting phenomenon. Sometimes we see ourselves as we wish we were, or as we fear we are, or as others convince us we are. The degree we deceive ourselves about ourselves is the degree we fail to receive feedback from others about us. Its true that some feedback, if not all, is contaminated by the biases of the source of the feedback. The motive of the feedback source can reduce credibility of the message others have for us about our self. Yet information from others about us is necessary to challenge the tendencies we have to see our self as we want to and not as we really are.

In my organizational behavior class i require students to provide me with a write-up of their reflections on each chapter they read. I am currently reading the first write-ups form this semester's class. The chapter includes the topic of personality and how it informs behavior. Students had opportunity to take a personality survey on them selves to further grasp the topic of personality.

Here is one student's reflections: "The results show I have a distinctive preference for judging.... I see myself as not very judgmental... I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt."  The student then proceeds to slam "personality tests." She writes "I do not believe this is an accurate way of assessing one's personality... people perceive each other differently and a test cannot determine a universal way of knowing.... the model isn't a sure fire way of assessing who a person really is...I see myself differently than this test has scored me.... I believe I have a great personality.. the personality test I have taken would not agree.. its all how one perceives it (personality)."  REALLY???

I found this so interesting. Personality is merely the tendency to behave a certain way. There is no right or wrong personality. Depending on the desired behavior, some are more likely to produce the behavior than others.

This student announces the "test" pegged her incorrectly ( based on her own self-perception) but then spends the rest of her write-up (behavior) displaying her judgmentalism by condemning personality tests. I don't think I have ever witnessed a more blatant example of how one's behavior totally contradicts one's self-perception. So, what is this student really like - what she thinks or what some objective feedback suggests?

Duh!!!!!

Genesis - and not the one from Hyundi

There's growing hype on Hyundi's new luxury car Genesis, especially where I live - someone is getting a new one for the first time almost monthly. When I bought mine I wondered why they picked that name. What could Hyundi be trying to communicate to car buyers with this name. For most of history Genesis has been associated with the first book of the Bible. I looked up genesis in 1828 Webster's dictionary, the first dictionary published in USA and the one I used in college (jk). The first reference of meaning was that Genesis is the first book of the Bible. I had always thought genesis primarily meant "the beginning". However, the only other reference to meaning of genesis in 1828 was an application in geometry, "the formation of a line, plane or solid by the motion or flux of a point, line or surface."

Here we see that in part genesis reflects the notion of beginning but more importantly denotes the act of formation. Formation is a bit more substantive than just the beginning because formation denotes source and intent, not just beginning. I guess buying a Hyundi Genesis represents not just a new beginning but the formation of a new driving experience desired by the engineers at Hyundi.

In the Bible Genesis then is not just the beginning of God's story but the formation of history as God desires it to be. The creation is God's original intent, His ordinances prior to sin, the fall of mankind. In the creation story we see God gives us His intent in at least 3 areas - work, worship, and relationship. The Fall of man contaminates these three areas of our life and the Cross redeems them back to the original design or genesis of life.

The creation account in Scripture has often been the central component of the scientific perspective of the origin of the universe. Does one day really mean 24 hours? How does theory of evolution contradict Genesis 1? However, references in the rest of Scripture doesn't seem to worry itself about these questions but rather we find the essence of the creation account - God sovereignly did it and it was good - as the basis for worship and pastoral endeavors. In other words the intent of Genesis 1 and 2 is not to answer the scientific debate on origin of universe but to establish the formational intent of life as one established by God for His purposes according to His ordinances. Its man who has attempted to imagine life as intended and sourced by other means, for other purposes, and with other ordinances.

Tim Keller once said unless "your God can outrage you and make you struggle will you know that you worship the real God and not a figment of your imagination." Those who reject Genesis (God's formational intent of life) have done so because their own imagination provides a comfort to them and does not challenge the notion that man alone is sufficient to deliver the soul's well being.

If our faith does not cause us to struggle against our carnal mindedness, then our imagination provides for us comfort in the illusion that we are the sovereign one ...........

Risky Business

A 1983 movie starring Tom Cruise chronicled a Chicago teenager looking for fun while his parents were out of town. The notion of risky here was putting his parents wrath in play in exchange for some teenage fun. Most peeps attempt to steer away from a risky lifestyle because they are not willing to exchange the displeasure of the world for personal pleasure. Of course the basis for risk here is the exchange of favor of the world for doing things the way the world expects. As I have blogged many times, this is simply carnal mindedness, which is the opposite of what we may think. We have been taught to believe "carnal minded" is the search for pleasure, but that is just hedonism. Carnal minded according to Scripture is seeking our well being by exchanging our behavior with the world to extract for ourselves what the world has to offer us (respect, love, comfort, safety, economic benefit, etc.).

What is risky business for the Kingdom minded peep? Consider that Grace compels us to give with no expectation of return and to receive with  no obligation to return. This suggests that what seems to be risky is really the path of least risk. Grace drives us to "recklessness". What? How so? That doesn't sound Christian, to live recklessly. Isn't that risky business?

"Reckless" means careless, or without care. So, if we don't care about fear, or pride, or hedonism, or worldly security, or comfort, then we seem reckless to the world. In this way Grace makes us reckless and appears as risky business.

Yet, Grace gives us joy, peace, eternal security, love, ........  So when we act in Thanksgiving (not duty) from the Grace we have received we can give, love, share, speak truth, wait, and so forth without any expectation of receiving because we already have everything we need for our well being forever. The world perceives us as risky when we move on the unctions of God because we do not appease the world, but in reality "reckless" Grace is the least risky lifestyle there is.

When you feel constrained from responding as God has prompted you because of what others may think, then you have risked the quality of life that is our privilege as a child of the Kingdom!! Just look at all the actions Jesus took that shocked the world's establishment.

Something to ponder .....

If I were only just a little ....

How often have we heard someone say, "I wish I were a little bigger, or a little smaller, especially here or there"? Or "I wish I were a little more like this or less like that"? Heck, maybe we say something like this ourself oh so often!!

Being obsessed with one's perceived physical appearance or personality flaws is quite common, especially in Western cultures. Why is this so common? Is there something wrong with the culture? Or is there something in each of us that sources this obsession? Maybe its the combination of the two?

We know that culture is a sociological phenomenon that influences what people value and what is normal. When society values certain forms of appearance and certain kinds of behavior over others (and I believe all do), then peeps are prone to attach what makes them acceptable and important to these social norms and values. Couple this with the carnal mind's notion that I get what makes me happy by exchanging what I have with what the world wants to get what it has for me in return. Obsession is born.

Now many if not all of you reading this know that our self worth is not in what we do or how we look. The Kingdom mind learns that value and identity is granted to us by God's grace (the atonement of the Cross).

Kingdom minded peeps want to be healthy and behave in respectable ways because excellence is God's way and these add quality to the testimony of our life.Yet we still obsess. We forever fall prey to the forces of culture.

The fact is we KNOW this, the question is why don't we act on what we know.

The answer may be in that knowledge does not equal belief and without belief there is no action.

What keeps us from believing what we know??  

Now that is worth pondering ........

A different perspective on tattoos

I was doing my power walk on the Red Neck Riviera beach (Gulf Shores, Al) this morning. Of course there are many young peeps there and therefore many tattoos. I thought to myself that the main problem these young peeps have is that their instant gratification of being cool will be with them for their whole life and eventually the tattoos will sag with the natural process of aging. This was verified as I witnessed some not so young peeps who got their tattoo years ago.

                           

The thought then hit me is that its us older peeps that should be getting the tattoos. The rest of our life is not that long anymore and what's gonna sag has. Furthermore, it gets more difficult to find ways to be cool. Its the perfect time!!!

This just goes to show that everything eventually is a matter of personal perspective and perspective comes from our own power to rationalize ......

Oh, then there is absolute truth, what do we do with it??? 

In what do we boast?

Webster 1828 dictionary says to boast is to glory in something, such as to speak of with laudable pride and ostentation (ambitious display) of merit or worth. It seems that the act of boasting itself is not the issue then, but the target of our boasting. That's why the question - in what do we boast?

I think most of us would confess that while we do sometimes direct our attention to the greatness around us, our most natural desire is to boast in ourselves - to want others to think well of us, to see us as worthy, desirable peeps. Even when we have low esteem and practice self-deprivation, we are boasting in pride of our self, focusing on projecting what we want others to think, to agree with us about our sense of unworthiness.The issue with boasting is not whether we think highly or lowly of ourselves, its that self is the target and source of our identity and value.


The prophet Jeremiah  (9: 23-24) reminds us "let man boast in this, that He (God) understands and knows me." Here the target of our boasting is not us but God. If we are to have any pride in our self its that God is the author of our self. He defines our identity and our value. He receives the glory, the laudable praise for everything about us. Our ambition becomes to display His merit and worth.

The Apostle Paul states that his ambition is to please God, which is to trust Him completely for well being of our self. When Paul looks at his own resume, he reminds us that he is Grade A prime beef. No one could boast about themselves as he could. Yet his resume is just, well lets say BS (manure), compared to his life being defined by faith in Jesus. 

In a world that is so unstable, where is stability? With a nature that desires to glorify self, in what should we boast?

A little pondering here can go a long way .....