The Gospel of Self-Esteem

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes to you from Prof. Archibald Hart, PhD.  He is professor of psychology at the Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary.  Hart is the the author 24 books, including: "Thrilled to Death: How the Endless Pursuit of Pleasure is Leaving Us Numb."

     This particular thought deals with the American obsession with self-esteem and offers us some balanced and helpful insights. Many of the things he points out will not come as a surprise to you, since both experience and common sense would affirm the statements and findings he cites. As with many widely embraced cultural trends, they can tend to go to unwise and even counter-intuitive excesses and extremes before people realize the claims of their wonder-working power were grossly exaggerated.

     This article comes from "Faith and Culture," a book that offers a collection of articles on hundreds of topics relating faith to culture.  It is by Kelly Monroe Kullberg and Lael Arrington. If you are looking for a book with short and interesting articles across a span of topics, this is a book you may consider purchasing. This particular article is entitled: "The Gospel of Self-Esteem."

The Gospel of Self-Esteem

     "Is high self-esteem all its cracked up to be?  If you suffer from low self-esteem are you doomed to failure?  What new picture of self-esteem is emerging from the science of psychology, and how does it agree with God's Word on the subject?  In the upheaval of the late 60's and early 70's, the concept of self-esteem took off. "If only we can help people to feel better about themselves, we will solve many social problems and mental illnesses" became the driving force that sent teachers, parents, and even the states of California and New York in the 1980's scurrying to set up commissions and task forces on self-esteem. It became a national preoccupation that has now ended as a hopeless quest.  Research now conclusively shows that such efforts do little to improve social problems, academic performance, success in the workplace, or even to enhance our happiness.

     The bottom line is that while everyone intuitively recognizes the reality of "self-esteem," there is no evidence that by boosting these self-feelings one can accomplish more in life.  Research psychologists have now clearly demonstrated that self-esteem is the CONSEQUENCE of accomplishing something significant in life, not the CAUSE of accomplishments or failures.  In his 1994 presidential address to the American Psychological Association, Martin Seligman, a significant leader in the new "positive psychology" movement, denounced several "sacred cows" of psychotherapy, one being that in order to reduce mental illness we should try to increase the self-esteem of our children.  He stated: "undeniably, depressed people have low self-esteem. But bolstering self-esteem without changing hopelessness... accomplishes nothing."  He received a standing ovation!  His research shows that teens from the ghettos have the highest self-esteem ratings of any group, not the lowest!  The problem is that their self-esteem is "unwarranted."  As we teach and counsel others, we must caution one another to identify and address the myths that have penetrated the whole concept of self-esteem. Sermons abound on how one is to "love oneself," but we need to carefully interpret Matthew 19:19. We must be mindful that our participation in newly emerging worship styles is radically God-centered and not unduly influenced by the self-esteem movements emphasis on my needs and my feelings.

     Perhaps we need to pay more attention to the wisdom that Paul expresses in Romans 12:3 which tells us all we need to know about the self-esteem problem even though its focus is not on low self-esteem, but rather on an inflated and distorted sense of self.

"For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you."  Romans 12:3

     Paul outlines the essential ingredients for building a Christian understanding of what I call "authentic self-esteem," an understanding and acceptance of yourself for who you really are. There is nothing wrong with being imperfect. Sometimes feeling bad acts as a stimulus to do better or try something different.  It can prompt confession, change, and courage.  One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a parent is to always protect your children from pain or failure. By cushioning them from feeling bad, the self-esteem movement has made it harder for us to feel good. It has encouraged cheap success. From the words of Paul I deduce that the essence of a healthy self-attitude must be based, first, on an honest and truthful self-understanding and image ("Think... with sober [honest] judgment); then, second, on a willingness to accept that you are who you are, created in God's image ("in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you"). All other self-feelings lead to self-hate. Your attitude to yourself (which is what self-esteem is really all about) must be based plainly and simply on thinking about yourself with complete honesty. You must own your flaws and your strengths.  It must never be dishonest (Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought"), not exaggerated or distorted.

     Many psychologists have pointed out that the struggle often is with an "internal filter system" we develop early in life that tends to deny our successes and hoards the memories of failures. Self-honesty requires one to be diligent in challenging these denials. After all, in God's kingdom there is always forgiveness and restoration.  No matter how inadequate you may feel about yourself, or how insignificant your life may appear to be on the outside, you should always remember that the grace of God covers every shortcoming.  You will always be precious to him, however you feel about yourself.  One can never go beyond the reach of his grace and forgiveness. Here lies the key to how you should feel about yourself: Your self needs to become more and more transparent to itself as you become less and less self-conscious. This is authentic self-esteem. You need to know who you are, how you have been redeemed, and how precious you are to God -- NOT because you are wonderful, but because he has made you his child."

     As I mentioned, experience and common sense would lead us to many of the same conclusions.  I once had a foster daughter who did not do well in school.  All of a sudden, in one marking period, she went from failing to straight A's. She came home ecstatic!  But we wondered how it had happened, since she hadn't studied any harder nor done any more work then she ever had?  It did boost her feelings about herself for a short three or four weeks, but she soon began to realize she got an "A" pretty much no matter what she did, and was allowed to re-take tests as many times as she needed to get it. She even came to feel somewhat betrayed and foolish and resent their manipulative attempt to play with her mind and "boost her self-esteem" by giving her grades she did nothing to deserve. In essence, it back-fired, since like most kids she knew it was all a game.  She knew, and we knew, that despite what studies at that time were saying, there is no evidence that by boosting these self-feelings one can accomplish more in life...  self-esteem is the CONSEQUENCE of accomplishing something significant in life, not the CAUSE of accomplishments or failures."

     Just some wise, insightful, and much needed food for thought, Pastor Jeff

God in the Whirlwind

Greetings All,

     Today I would like to do something I have never done before -- re-post a "thought" I posted almost two years ago.  It is by David F. Wells, a gracious man I have both met and spoken with.  He was a professor at Gordon-Conwell, a prolific writer, a rigorous researcher, and a profound thinker committed to pursuing and understanding truth. His book, from which I have taken this excerpt, is entitled: "God in the Whirlwind."

     I share it because recently I have been looking at figures regarding the current state of the Church/Christianity in America, and I have sought to understand "why"?  Figures like, 4000-7000 churches are closing their doors every year.  Figures that tell us that 70.6 Americans identify themselves as Christian while less than 20% ever actually go to church.  Figures that show that at the turn of the last century (1900) there were approximately 27 churches for every 10,000 people, but at the turn of this century (2000), there were only 11 churches for every 10,000 people.  Or the recent Barna study which found that only two in every 10 Americans under the age of 30 believe attending church is either important or worthwhile.

     Some of this disillusionment is surely the fruit of scandals that have rocked the church - both evangelical and Catholic - which eroded people's confidence in organized religion. That must obviously be said. Yet in this thought, Dr. Wells hits on a few other significant issues that have led to such statistics. I found them helpful. I trust you may as well. Enjoy.

     "Many therapists are now finding that although young people grew up in good homes, had all they wanted, went on to college, and (perhaps) entered the workplace, they are nevertheless baffled by the emptiness they feel. Their self-esteem is high but their self is empty. They grew up being told they could be anything they wanted to be, but they do not know what they want to be. They are more connected to more people through the internet, and yet they have never felt more lonely. They want to be accepted, and yet they often feel alienated. Never have we had so much; never have we had so little. That is our paradox...

     On the one hand, the experience of abundance, of seemingly unlimited options, of opportunity, of ever-rising levels of affluence, almost inevitably produces an attitude of entitlement. Each successive generation, until recently, has assumed it will do better than the previous generation... It is not difficult to see how this sense of entitlement naturally carries over into our attitude toward God and his dealings with us. It is what leads us to think of him as a cheerleader who only wants our success. He is a booster, an inspiring coach, a source of endless prosperity for us...  Purveyors of the health-and-wealth "gospel" that is being exported from the West to the underdeveloped parts of the world, seem quite oblivious to the fact that their take of Christian faith is rooted in this kind of experience. Had they not enjoyed Western medical expertise and Western affluence, it is rather doubtful that they would have thought that Christianity is all about being healthy and wealthy. At least in the church's long, winding journey through history, we have never heard anything exactly like this before...

     And while it is the case that we moderns have had this experience of plenty, it also the case -- and this is the other side of the paradox -- that our experience of plenty is accompanied by the experience of emptiness and loss. We carry within us many deficits -- a sense of life's harshness, frustrations at work, bruised and broken relationships, shattered families, inability to sustain enduring friendships, lack of a sense of belonging in this world and a sense that this world is vacant and hostile.  So we look to God for some internal balm, some relief from these wounds. We become inclined to think of God as our Therapist. It is comfort, healing, and inspiration that we want most deeply. That is what we seek from him. That, too, is what we want most from our church experience.  We want it to be comforting, uplifting, inspiring, and easy on the mind. We do not want Sunday (or perhaps Saturday evening) to be another workday, another burden, something that requires effort and concentration. We already have enough burdens and struggles, enough things to concentrate on in our workweek. On the weekend, we want relief.

     It is not difficult to see, then, how this two-sided experience, this paradox, has shaped our understanding of God... It is the end product of at least two closely related mega-changes that have been underway in our culture since at least the 1960's.  FIRST, in our minds, we have exited the older moral world in which God was transcendent and holy, and we have entered a new psychological world in which he is only immanent and only loving. This is the framework in which we now understand everything.   SECOND, we are now thinking of ourselves in terms, not of human nature, but of the self. And the self is simply an internal core of intuitions. It is the place where our own unique biography, gender, ethnicity, and life-experience all come together in a single center of self-consciousness. And every self is unique because no one has exactly the same set of personal factors.  It is no surprise that we are now inclined to see life, to understand what is true, to think of right and wrong, in uniquely individual ways. We each have our own perspective on life, and its meaning, and each perspective is as valid as any other. And none of it is framed by absolute moral norms.

     This is where the overwhelming majority of Americans live... And out of this has come what Philip Rieff has called "psychological man." This is the person who is stripped of all reference points outside of him or herself. There is no moral world, no ultimate rights and wrongs, and no one to whom he or she is accountable. This person's own interior reality is all that counts, and it is untouched by any obligation to community, or understanding from the past, or even by the intrusions of God from the outside. The basis on which lives are being built is that there is nothing outside the self on which they can be built. And this self wants only to be pleased. It sees no reason to be saved. This is therapeutic deism, where morals are self-focused and self-generated... 

     The institutional aspect of the Christian faith, the church, came to be viewed with skepticism. Credence was given instead to what is internal. Not to church doctrine, which others had formulated. Not to church authority.  Indeed, not to any external authority at all.  Rather, it is in private intuitions that God is found... Here were the seeds that by the end of the 1990's had produced throughout the West millions of people who were spiritual but not religious. In both America and Europe, around 80 percent said they were spiritual, but were decidedly hostile to all religions. They were opposed to doctrines they were expected to believe, rules they had to follow, and churches they were expected to attend. They resisted each of these... The impulses that began in the 1960's had by the 90's become dominant... Robert Nisbit in his book, "Twilight of Authority" says, "Across the board, given our self-preoccupation and our total self-focus, there is a retreat from what is important to the community to what is important only to the individual, from the weighty to the ephemeral, from others to ourselves"...

     There come those times in a nation's life, Os Guinness has written, when its people rise up against the founding principles of their own nation. This is one of those times in America. It is far more dangerous than any terrorist attack. It is, in fact, "a free people's suicide," as Guinness put it in the title of his book.  Why? Because what holds the republic together has never been simply the Constitution and our laws. The law is an exceedingly blunt instrument when it comes to controlling human behavior. There are many things that are unethical that are not illegal. Most lying, for example, is not illegal but it is always unethical. Our criminal and civil laws can control only so much of our behavior.  It is virtue that does the rest.  And that is precisely what is being eroded in this self-oriented, self-consumed culture.  Here is the acid that is eating away at the nation's foundations, degrading objective values, uprooting older customs, and leaving people with no clear sense of purpose and, indeed, no purpose at all other than their own self-interest.  Under the postmodern sun, everyone has a right to their own version of reality. When this comes about, any culture loses its ability to renew its own life." 

     I share this not to be pessimistic. God is not bound by our statistics or cultural trends.  I share it as a way of asking the one question that always confronts the Church in any such situation -- how will we respond?  What will we do?  Our society (even the world) seems to be at a turning point. You can feel it in the air. Yet it lacks a consensus (a "common sense" regarding the core truths of life). And thus we must ask what will hold it together as the tension of conflicting ideologies threaten to tear it apart?

     Obviously, I don't have all the answers.  But I have been praying.  Praying for wisdom.  Praying for compassion.  Praying for the Church and the world we all live in. Praying for the Spirit of Jesus to fill human hearts and replace all the hostile rhetoric.  Praying for a Church that often seems more captive to culture and political allegiances than to Christ to get back to her roots of trusting in the power of the Gospel to redeem and fill people's hearts with love -- even for those they disagree with. In fact, even for their enemies, as Jesus made so clear in Matthew 5:44, where He laid that out as one of the defining characteristics of someone who claimed to be a disciple that bore His name. Praying all the more earnestly for divine intervention every day - as one who believes the self must be built -- for it is deeply reliant, whether it admits it or not -- on things outside itself.

Just some food for thought!  Pastor Jeff

Brokenness

Greetings All!

     Just this week a good brother blessed me with a copy of a classic Christian book on revival that I did not have. Yet even better than receiving the book was the content within it. Only two chapters into it I found myself nodding and agreeing (from Scripture and experience) with much of what he was saying.

     The author is Roy Hession (1908-1992) and the book's title is "The Calvary Road."   Hession had been doing full-time evangelistic work in Great Britain for years, but in 1947 (by his own admission) he had fallen into a state of deep spiritual need, somehow having lost the power of the Holy Spirit that he had once known in the Lord's work.  It brought him to lament, "I still had to conduct evangelistic campaigns, but without His power -- a terrible experience."  As a pastor, I have known such periods too.  And yes, it is a terrible experience!
     Realizing he lacked spiritual power, he simply worked harder and increased his efforts, which made him increasingly tense and forceful - "a poor substitute,"he says, "for the Spirit's gentle penetrating power."  Yet, during this season of spiritual dryness, he invited some missionaries from the East African Revival Movement to speak at an Easter conference he had organized. And from that week on, everything changed. Their strong emphasis on a personal implementation of the basics of the Christian faith, and in particular, the healing powers of openness, transparency, and repentance made a profound impact on his life.  And as Hession wrote in the preface to the 1973 edition, "This little book expresses the truths that lie at the heart of revival, simply because it is the product of revival."  Enjoy.

BROKENNESS

     "We want to be very simple in this matter of Revival. Revival is just the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts... Whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, He is never defeated. His power is boundless. And we, on our part, have only to get into a right relationship with Him, and we shall see His power being demonstrated in our hearts and lives and service, and victorious life will fill us and overflow through us to others. And that is Revival in its essence.

     If, however, we are to come into this right relationship with Him, the first thing we must learn is that our wills must be broken to His will. To be broken is the beginning of Revival. It is painful and humiliating, but it is the only way... The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through us until the proud self within us is broken. 

     This simply means that the hard unyielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God's will, admits it's wrong, gives up its own way to Jesus' way, surrenders its rights and discards its own glory - that the Lord Jesus might have all and be all. In other words, it is dying to self and self-attitudes. 

     As we look honestly at our Christian lives, we can see how much of this self there is in each of us. It is so often self who tries to live the Christian life... and self, too, who is often doing Christian work. It is always self who gets irritable and envious and resentful and critical and worried. It is the self who is hard and unyielding in its attitudes to others. It is the self who is shy and self-conscious and reserved. No wonder we need breaking!  As long as self is in control, God can do little with us, for all the fruits of the Spirit (they are enumerated in Galatians 5), with which God longs to fill us, are the complete antithesis of the hard, unbroken spirit within us and presupposes that it has been crucified...

     Brokenness in daily experience is simply the response of humility to the conviction of God. And inasmuch as this conviction is continuous, we shall need to be broken continually. And this can be very costly when we see all the yielding of rights and selfish interests that this will involve, and the confessions and restitutions that may be sometimes necessary. For this reason, we are not likely to be broken except at the Cross of Jesus. The willingness of Jesus to be broken for us is the all-compelling motive in our being broken too. We see Him, who is in the form of God, counting not equality with God a prize to be grasped or hung on to, but letting it go for us, and taking upon Himself the form of a Servant - God's Servant, man's Servant.  We see Him willing to have no rights of His own, no home of His own, no possessions of His own, willing to let men revile Him and not revile in return, willing to let men tread on Him and not retaliate or defend Himself. Above all, we see Him broken as He meekly goes to Calvary to become men's scapegoat by bearing their sins in His own body on the Tree.

     In a pathetic passage in a prophetic Psalm (a Messianic Psalm about Jesus), He says, "I am a worm and not a man" (Psa 22:6). Those who have been in tropical lands tell us that there is a big difference between a snake and a worm. When you attempt to strike at them the snake rears itself up and hisses and tries to strike back - a true picture of self.  But a worm offers no resistance. It allows you to do what you like with it, kick it or squash it under your heel - a picture of true brokenness.  And Jesus was willing to become just that for us - a worm and not a man. And He did so because that is what He saw us to be --  worms having forfeited all rights by our sin, except to deserve hell. And He now calls us to take our rightful place as worms for Him and with Him. The whole Sermon on the Mount with its teaching of non-retaliation, love for enemies, and selfless giving, assumes that that is our position. But only the vision of the Love that was willing to be broken for us can constrain us to be willing for that.

     But dying to self is not a thing we do once for all. There may be an initial dying when God first shows these things, but ever after it will be a constant dying, for only so can the Lord Jesus be revealed constantly through us (2 Cor 4:10). All day long the choice will be before us in a thousand ways. It will mean no plans, no time, no money, no pleasure of our own. It will mean a constant yielding to those around us, for our yieldedness to God is measured by our yieldedness to man. Every humiliation, everyone who tries and vexes us, is God's way of breaking us, so that there is a yet deeper channel in us for the Life of Christ. You see, the only life that pleases God and that can be victorious is His life - never our life, no matter how hard we try. But inasmuch as our self-centered life is the exact opposite of His, we can never be filled with His life -- unless we are prepared for God to bring our (self) life constantly to death. And in that, we must co-operate by our moral choice."

     Hard words for the modern day person -- steeped in psychology and not Scripture -- to accept. In the Bible, there are not many passages that speak specifically of revival, but one does confirm what Hession has said here. It is found in Isaiah 57:15-16.  There God speaks through his prophet and says: "This is what the high and lofty One says -- He who lives forever and whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to REVIVE the spirit of the lowly and to REVIVE the heart of the contrite."  And the context that follows suggests that this "contriteness" and "lowliness" stems from a remorse over their sin, wickedness and selfish greed.

     That's what we need to see. Revival does not come to those who think they are fine just the way they are. It does not come to those who believe they have what it takes or have their act together. It does not come to the proud, the holier-than-thou, the self-satisfied, or self-sufficient.  It comes to those who have been broken and humbled by the convicting work of the Holy Spirit and thereby made contrite by seeing the ungodliness and sin that exists in their soul, and their desperate need for God's grace in Jesus.

     It comes to those who KNOW they are entirely lost without God, spiritually dead without Jesus, and powerless apart from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  It comes to those whose inner awareness of personal sin and need causes them to fall on their faces in humbled lowliness and plead for that which they cannot produce, or receive, except by the graciousness of God who gives them what they could never deserve.  It is the lowly and contrite whom God revives, not the proud or haughty or self-contented.  Or to use a more contemporary term, it does not come to those who have a wonderful, glowing and undeflateably good self-esteem.

     God ever calls us to come before Him in prayer.  With what shall we come?  Requests that He notice how good we've been doing in our Christian walk?  Hopes that He sees what fine specimens we are?  Or with honest transparency that openly confesses our sin and lack and our desperate need for His grace?  It has often been said that, "To be full of God's Spirit you cannot be full of yourself."  It's true. For God does not dwell with the haughty and self-satisfied, but the lowly and contrite -- "to revive the spirit of the lowly, and revive the heart of the contrite."

With prayers for personal and corporate revival, Pastor Jeff

God in the Whirlwind

Greetings All,

This week's 'thought' comes from a professor at my Alma Mater -- Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary -- David F. Wells.   He is a gracious person, a prolific writer, a rigorous researcher, and profound thinker committed to pursuing truth. His book,from which I have taken this excerpt, is entitled: "God in the Whirlwind."  In it he points out some of the cultural trends that have affected Western thought and society and also influenced the modern-day Church. I know it's a bit lengthy, but please don't let that deter you!  I believe you will find it well-worth your time in reading it -- whether you agree with all of what he says or not. Enjoy.

     "Many therapists are now finding that although young people grew up in good homes, had all they wanted, went on to college, and (perhaps) entered the workplace, they are nevertheless baffled by the emptiness they feel. Their self-esteem is high but their self is empty. They grew up being told they could be anything they wanted to be, but they do not know what they want to be. They are more connected to more people through the internet, and yet they have never felt more lonely. They want to be accepted, and yet they often feel alienated. Never have we had so much; never have we had so little. That is our paradox...

     On the one hand, the experience of abundance, of seemingly unlimited options, of opportunity, of ever-rising levels of affluence, almost inevitably produces an attitude of entitlement. Each successive generation, until recently, has assumed it will do better than the previous generation... It is not difficult to see how this sense of entitlement naturally carries over into our attitude toward God and his dealings with us. It is what leads is to think of him as a cheerleader who only wants our success. He is a booster, an inspiring coach, a source of endless prosperity for us...

     Purveyors of the health-and-wealth "gospel" that is being exported from the West to the underdeveloped parts of the world, seem quite oblivious to the fact that their take of Christian faith is rooted in this kind of experience. Had they not enjoyed Western medical expertise and Western affluence, it is rather doubtful that they would have thought that Christianity is all about being healthy and wealthy. At least in the church's long, winding journey through history, we have never heard anything exactly like this before...

     And while it is the case that we moderns have had this experience of plenty, it also the case -- and this is the other side of the paradox -- that our experience of plenty is accompanied by the experience of emptiness and loss. We carry within us many deficits -- a sense of life's harshness, frustrations at work, bruised and broken relationships, shattered families, inability to sustain enduring friendships, lack of a sense of belonging in this world (teens are committing suicide at the highest rate ever, and in 2012 in America, 53% of children were born out of wedlock), and a sense that this world is vacant and hostile.

     So we look to God for some internal balm, some relief from these wounds. We become inclined to think of God as our Therapist. It is comfort, healing, and inspiration that we want most deeply. That is what we seek from him. That, too, is what we want most from our church experience.  We want it to be comforting, uplifting, inspiring, and easy on the mind. We do not want Sunday (or perhaps Saturday evening) to be another workday, another burden, something that requires effort and concentration. We already have enough burdens and struggles, enough things to concentrate on in our workweek. On the weekend, we want relief.

     It is not difficult to see, then, how this two-sided experience, this paradox, has shaped our understanding of God... It is the end product of at least two closely related mega-changes that have been underway in our culture since at least the 1960's.

          FIRST, in our minds we have exited the older moral world in which God was transcendent and holy, and we have entered a new psychological world in which he is only immanent and only loving. This is the framework in which we now understand everything.

     SECOND, we are now thinking of ourselves in terms, not of human nature, but of the self. And the self is simply an internal core of intuitions. It is the place where our own unique biography, gender, ethnicity, and life-experience all come together in a single center of self-consciousness. And every self is unique, because no one has exactly the same set of personal factors.

     It is no surprise that we are now inclined to see life, to understand what is true, to think of right and wrong, in uniquely individual ways. We each have our own perspective on life and its meaning, and each perspective is as valid as any other. And none of it is framed by absolute moral norms. This is where the overwhelming majority of Americans live... And out of this has come what Philip Rieff has called "psychological man." This is the person who is stripped of all reference points outside of him or herself. There is no moral world, no ultimate rights and wrongs, and no one to whom he or she is accountable. This person's own interior reality is all that counts, and it is untouched by any obligation to community, or understanding from the past, or even by the intrusions of God from the outside. The basis on which lives are being built is that there is nothing outside the self on which they can be built. And this self wants only to be pleased. It sees no reason to be saved. This is therapeutic deism, where morals are self-focused and self-generated.

     In the aftermath of the 1960's, the words that came into vogue to describe all this were individualism, narcissism, and the "Me" generation... In time the new therapeutic preoccupations of this Me generation would, of course, seep into the church -- although in less glaring and more sanitized versions... The institutional aspect of the Christian faith, the church, came to be viewed with skepticism. Credence was given instead to what is internal. Not to church doctrine, which others had formulated. Not to church authority.  Indeed, not to any external authority at all.  Rather, it is in private intuitions that God is found...

     Here were the seeds that by the end of the 1990's had produced throughout the West millions of people who were spiritual but not religious. In both America and Europe, around 80 percent said they were spiritual, but were decidedly hostile to all religions. They were opposed to doctrines they were expected to believe, rules they had to follow, and churches they were expected to attend. They resisted each of these...

     The impulses that began in the 1960's had by the 90's become dominant... Those that followed the Boomers -- the Gen Xers and then the Millennials -- had exactly the same habits... [Robert Nisbit in his book, "Twilight of Authority" says]  Across the board given our self-preoccupation and our total self-focus, there is a retreat from what is important to the community to what is important only to the individual, from the weighty to the ephemeral, from others to ourselves...

     There come those times in a nation's life, Os Guinness has written, when its people rise up against the founding principles of their own nation. This is one of those times in America. It is far more dangerous than any terrorist attack. It is, in fact, "a free people's suicide," as Guinness put it in the title of his book.

     Why? Because what holds the republic together has never been simply the Constitution and our laws. The law is an exceedingly blunt instrument when it comes to controlling human behavior. There are many things that are unethical that are not illegal. Most lying, for example, in not illegal but it is always unethical. Our criminal and civil laws can control only so much of our behavior.  It is virtue that does the rest.  And that is precisely what is being eroded in this self-oriented, self-consumed culture.

     Here is the acid that is eating away at the nation's foundations, degrading objective values, uprooting older customs, and leaving people with no clear sense of purpose and, indeed, no purpose at all other than their own self-interest.  Under the postmodern sun, everyone has a right to their own version of reality. When this comes about, any culture loses its ability to renew its own life."

     I share this not to be pessimistic. I share it as a way of asking the one question that always confronts the church in any such situation -- how will the Church respond?  What will we do? The overwhelming majority of people, and the strongest influences of society are carrying us in a direction that can only end in polarization and disintegration.

     Yet the Scriptures remind us that 12 men of faith (or 120 men and women of faith, if we look to Acts 2) -- convinced of the Gospel, and the power of prayer, and aided by the Spirit of God -- set out against all odds to change the world... and did.   Not without great sacrifice, and not without great cost to themselves personally.  But they did, and we can, aided and empowered by nothing more than they were.

The times have set before the Church a challenge.  Will the Church rise gloriously to the occasion? 

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Seeing God - Twelve Reliable Signs of True Spirituality

Greetings All,

     Today's thought has to do with change. Real change. True change.  Lasting change -- and how that comes about. This selection comes from the book, "Seeing God - Twelve Reliable Signs of True Spirituality" by Gerald McDermott.
     It contains a mix of personal stories related to biblical truth. His point is well taken -- can you point to any true change?  Enjoy.

The Seventh Reliable Sign -- A Change of Nature

     "Jay is a Vietnam-era veteran who used to get his kicks by enticing gay men to a hotel room with the implicit promise of a sexual encounter. Once there, he would mug the unsuspecting man and run off with his cash and valuables. In the mid-1970's Jay had a powerful conversion experience. Some time ago he described it to me in a letter.

     "I didn't turn to Christ because of conviction of sin -- that came later -- but by extreme poverty of spirit. I was empty inside. I was tired of bars, drugs and the friends I did these things with. Life seemed to have no meaning or purpose. One day, I remember, as I was driving to my construction job in Milwaukee, I felt like I didn't have the strength to live one more day. I drove by the job site to a park on Lake Michigan. I sat in the car, looking at the lake, not knowing what to do or where to go.  Suddenly it occurred to me to take my new BMW motorcycle that I had just bought -- the best that was then made -- and head for South America. That week, without going back to work, I started planning my trip, with no intention of returning.  I figured I would probably die on the way.

     But God had other plans for me. A friend from Madison happened to drop by to give me a copy of a book entitled, 'Be Here Now.' This was something of a classic in the sixties and seventies. It was filled with sayings from religious teachers and philosophers, mostly from the East. I took the book to my room the next day and started to read it. Something strange started happening: I felt my inner spirit being lifted or stirred. For the first time in years I felt a glimmer of hope. Then I came across the teaching of Jesus about not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Nothing profound, but it triggered a battle in my soul. A voice inside me insisted: "This is what you need; Jesus is the way."

     But other voices within me argued that I didn't want Jesus and offered several reasons why. The debate continued for quite a while and increased in intensity. While I sat on the edge of my bed, the call to follow Jesus got stronger and stronger, and I kept resisting harder and harder.  Then I stood up and paced back and forth from one end of my small room to the other. There was now a battle raging within my soul, with one part of me afraid to let go of my old life, and the other crying out for freedom. Finally I fell to my knees and shouted: "I GIVE UP!"  In that split second of time my life changed. My soul and spirit were flooded with a peace and hope I had never felt before. The battle was won. I knew who I was going to live for the rest of my life." 

     Jay has grown in the Lord ever since. He is now a deeply committed Christian who works with the youth ministry of his church... His experience is typical of the millions of true conversions that have occurred since the birth of the Church two thousand years ago.  There is a spiritual enlightening that transforms. It changes the nature of the soul so that one's life is different ever after.

     The change is not always outwardly visible, at least for a while, but what happens on the inside changes one's very nature. And eventually the inner change will manifest itself in a different kind of life -- a different pattern of thinking, feeling and acting.... This kind of fundamental change requires far more than willpower or a new way of thinking. It is possible only through a basic change of heart -- a change of affection -- that God alone can give.

     Those who have struggled with addiction know what I am talking about. They know the need for fundamental change and the futility of New Year's resolutions and self-help formulas. So does psychiatrist Gerald May who started his career with the confidence that his psychiatric training would equip him to change lives... [Yet] he discovered that the best of human knowledge and effort was not enough. "With all the energy that might be expected of a young doctor, I applied my best psychiatric methods to the treatment of addictions. None of them worked."  Then May did some informal research. He identified a few people who had overcome serious addictions to drugs and alcohol and asked them how they did it. "All of them described some sort of spiritual experience," he reports. They said they had gotten some professional help, but that was not the source of their healing. "It had to do with God."  None of them pointed to anything but God. No willpower, or self-discipline, or meditation, or using their own spiritual energy, or self-esteem. All testified to a power that came from outside themselves...

    The transformation that comes in true spirituality is a revolution from the inside out. The authors of Scripture make it clear that this inner revolution is the implantation of a new nature. They call it being "born again," becoming a "new creature," "rising from the dead," becoming "renewed in the spirit of your mind," "dying to sin and living to Christ," "putting off the old man and putting on the new man," having a "divine seed implanted in your heart" and being made "partakers of the divine nature."

     If the inner transformation is real, it is lasting. But if the change is only temporary, it is not the result of genuine conversion. Many people dabble with various spiritualities before they are converted by the grace of Jesus. While experimenting with these spiritualities, they make some changes in their lifestyle and habits... Their old nature tries to do something only a new nature can do consistently and over the long haul. There has been no new creation, and without that fundamental transformation of the heart, neither moral change nor religious activity has any lasting value."

     Becoming a changed person is not simply a matter of making a decision. It is not a matter of making a commitment. It is not a matter of cranking up our will-power or making an earnest determination to change.  It's not pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps or any other "natural" human attempt to change. Such resolutions often make Pharisees, but not changed Christians.  Because human choices and decisions last only as long as human strength has the power to resist that which it hopes to conquer -- which usually isn't that long (as New Year's Resolutions habitually testify).

     To fight against sin by human strength alone is to lose -- always. That's what the Bible teaches. True change is a matter of God, by His grace, making a supernatural and miraculous change in the core of our being. It is discovering ourselves to be different and not knowing why.  It is sensing new affections for new and good things, and seeing other negative things fall away -- and not being able to fully explain how it happened. And for good reason -- since we didn't do it, God did.

     And because HE did it and not us (altering our nature in the process) the change lasts.  We may slip and fall, but because our nature has been made new (having been given a new heart and a new spirit) the slip is temporary and not a permanent return to our old ways.  In fact, if the return is permanent, its an evidence that our nature had not been truly changed.

Thankful, as we ever must be, for the unspeakable gift of God's grace in Jesus!  Pastor Jeff