Wat color your phone? Pt3
When we were running small groups in our house weekly, we would get ‘visitors’ every so often. People would be directed by our church to come visit our small group. Whenever new person walks into a new group, it is very clear one of the first questions he poses to himself (or herself) is … 1) do I like them?... and 2) will these people like me? Such is our need to be affirmed, loved, and accepted. ( I mean, even we as the small group we would wonder if that visitor would accept us, what more the new person in our midst…)
Funny, but if you were to ask any guy which team do they support in the BPL, chances are he will pick one of the Big Four, Man United (yay!), Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea. Even though he may know precious little about football, couldn’t care less who tops the table currently, but he will claim to be supporter of one. ???? Well, again, it boils down to the our need to be accepted ..as one of the guys (or gals), or at least identified as part of the group (even if we pick an opposing team . .. that’s ok)
Yeah, a dear old friend suggested perhaps the way we talk or mimic the other person (sometimes), could be revealing a desire to be accepted as one of the group. I think there is some merit to that observation. Of course, all with varying degrees of truth but you do get the point ?
Apart from the physical need to eat, the need to be accepted must be the most powerful emotion in humans. I guess that is what makes us human. (actually animals too..).
We all have a desire to be accepted by our peers.
But, at some point we are awaken to the need to be accepted by God. (After all if we are going to meet Creator someday shouldn’t we make sure we in His good books.)
ALL religious institutions understand this (our need to feel accepted by God) and to varying degrees manipulate their adherents to jump through these religious hoops (list of dos and don’ts ), so we can feel the acceptance of God over our lives. And with this backdrop we set ourselves to be controlled and manipulated by those of higher ups in religious hierarchy. Whether it is in the churches, mosques, or temples, we become their puppets and they the puppet masters.
And we accept what they say because they are the ‘authorities’.
We are told to pray more, serve more, volunteer more of our time and yes, money to the cause of our faith. It is ironic, the very people who desire to be pleasing and accepted by God end up with a burdensome stone to carry, to perform the ‘works’ to be accepted. In the end, many end up discouraged and with a feeling it is never enough, and perhaps feeling far from God.
Having somersaulted some of these ‘christian’ hoops myself, I can safely tell you if we focus our eyes on the hoops we will likely miss out on the real deal. Speaking primarily as one of the Christian faith, the works we do (religious piety) can never commend us to God; at best we are deceived, at worse it may develop into some sense of ‘holier than thou’ posture.
Folks, if pride is bad… religious pride is terrible.
Recently, I saw a sign in FB, under religious beliefs, and it said “We all guilty” (hehehe!) And how true it is ! We are.. all fallen short of the mark (the standard of God). Actually we don’t even have what it takes to even make it remotely near the mark … we are completely dependent on the grace of God. Jesus is the Son of God and we are accepted ONLY because we are found in the Son, not because of anything we have done or could do for him. (therefore no one can boast*…)
That should make us treasure and love our Savior more and run into the arms of our heavenly Daddy.
To bring clarity, we can never ‘work’ ourselves believing these works will somehow make our acceptance more palatable to God. If you purchase the most beautiful wrapping paper ever and wrap it over dung to give someone… it doesn’t matter how beautiful the wrapping is, it is still dung on the inside. (not too crude me hopes ). And that how God sees us.. ..on the inside. If we be honest, we don’t look too good, nor smell too good either… to God. Maybe to each other, we can compare and contrast our wrappings
If we do do any works at all, we do out of gratitude for what we have received from Him**.
So different, because we do not do them to be “accepted” (or to build up on our heavenly credits), rather it is an outflow from our hearts to the One who died for me … and rose again.
And when we come to realize this we break free from the performance mindset which is actually a bondage to the lie that says we somehow can ‘pay’ for our own way. Or at least ‘help’ part of the way.
No. Jesus did it all for us ..think that’s why they call it the ‘Good news’ ( ie. The Gospel).
The end
04.09.09
* 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.- (Eph 2:8-9)
** God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - (2Cor5:21)
Funny, but if you were to ask any guy which team do they support in the BPL, chances are he will pick one of the Big Four, Man United (yay!), Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea. Even though he may know precious little about football, couldn’t care less who tops the table currently, but he will claim to be supporter of one. ???? Well, again, it boils down to the our need to be accepted ..as one of the guys (or gals), or at least identified as part of the group (even if we pick an opposing team . .. that’s ok)
Yeah, a dear old friend suggested perhaps the way we talk or mimic the other person (sometimes), could be revealing a desire to be accepted as one of the group. I think there is some merit to that observation. Of course, all with varying degrees of truth but you do get the point ?
Apart from the physical need to eat, the need to be accepted must be the most powerful emotion in humans. I guess that is what makes us human. (actually animals too..).
We all have a desire to be accepted by our peers.
But, at some point we are awaken to the need to be accepted by God. (After all if we are going to meet Creator someday shouldn’t we make sure we in His good books.)
ALL religious institutions understand this (our need to feel accepted by God) and to varying degrees manipulate their adherents to jump through these religious hoops (list of dos and don’ts ), so we can feel the acceptance of God over our lives. And with this backdrop we set ourselves to be controlled and manipulated by those of higher ups in religious hierarchy. Whether it is in the churches, mosques, or temples, we become their puppets and they the puppet masters.
And we accept what they say because they are the ‘authorities’.
We are told to pray more, serve more, volunteer more of our time and yes, money to the cause of our faith. It is ironic, the very people who desire to be pleasing and accepted by God end up with a burdensome stone to carry, to perform the ‘works’ to be accepted. In the end, many end up discouraged and with a feeling it is never enough, and perhaps feeling far from God.
Having somersaulted some of these ‘christian’ hoops myself, I can safely tell you if we focus our eyes on the hoops we will likely miss out on the real deal. Speaking primarily as one of the Christian faith, the works we do (religious piety) can never commend us to God; at best we are deceived, at worse it may develop into some sense of ‘holier than thou’ posture.
Folks, if pride is bad… religious pride is terrible.
Recently, I saw a sign in FB, under religious beliefs, and it said “We all guilty” (hehehe!) And how true it is ! We are.. all fallen short of the mark (the standard of God). Actually we don’t even have what it takes to even make it remotely near the mark … we are completely dependent on the grace of God. Jesus is the Son of God and we are accepted ONLY because we are found in the Son, not because of anything we have done or could do for him. (therefore no one can boast*…)
That should make us treasure and love our Savior more and run into the arms of our heavenly Daddy.
To bring clarity, we can never ‘work’ ourselves believing these works will somehow make our acceptance more palatable to God. If you purchase the most beautiful wrapping paper ever and wrap it over dung to give someone… it doesn’t matter how beautiful the wrapping is, it is still dung on the inside. (not too crude me hopes ). And that how God sees us.. ..on the inside. If we be honest, we don’t look too good, nor smell too good either… to God. Maybe to each other, we can compare and contrast our wrappings
If we do do any works at all, we do out of gratitude for what we have received from Him**.
So different, because we do not do them to be “accepted” (or to build up on our heavenly credits), rather it is an outflow from our hearts to the One who died for me … and rose again.
And when we come to realize this we break free from the performance mindset which is actually a bondage to the lie that says we somehow can ‘pay’ for our own way. Or at least ‘help’ part of the way.
No. Jesus did it all for us ..think that’s why they call it the ‘Good news’ ( ie. The Gospel).
The end
04.09.09
* 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.- (Eph 2:8-9)
** God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - (2Cor5:21)
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