Self-Mutilation

Last week on the God Journey pod cast Wayne and Brad were discussing, “Troublesome Scriptures”, and its part of that I want to address, share the following thoughts.
The following scriptures in particular were some of those seen as troublesome. Was Jesus really describing ‘self-mutilation’ or as Wayne suggested, figurative language pointing to a far more serious form of dis-figuration?

Any fool can cut their right hand off, as well as gouge out their right eye, but in doing so I think sooner or later the sad conclusion they will arrive at is, the problem was far deeper and rooted within their flesh. Even in their maimed dis figurations, those inner inclinations were still very much in tact.

There is only one self that the Father of our spirit intends to display the wonder of His son in and through, but that transformation can be badly marred by listening and agreeing to the lies that we believe are in fact the truth.
The internal gouging, disfiguring, self-mutilation that is purposed by the father of lies within our flesh is keep the world from seeing the reality of the many forth coming sons being birthed as result of Jesus being the ‘first born’ of many sons.

We need to be as real as we know how to be with our Father.
Here is an example that hopefully will shed further light on my previous thoughts. We are told to “put on the new self” what does that look like?
If the best we have ever experienced is an unabated deep hunger every time we go to a restaurant, and while there we look at not only the description of the contents of a cheese burger deluxe, but the mouth water picture as well, is it any wonder when we leave without ordering what all of that pointed to, we go away hungrier than when we came in.

Our Father is not trying to torment us with just a pretty book; heck some even have wonderful pictures in it, the Bible.
He is inviting us to cry out to Him to make as real as only He can do, what it means to have His life fully formed in us as us.

There is a surgery that we are under going; it is with this One who has fully died only to become fully alive in order to fully form Christ in us! This ongoing and deeply necessary surgery is only going to cut away that which is trying to keep us from a deepened knowledge of the Truth. It will be this true knowledge of the Truth that will bring this self-mutilation to a halt.

Though He slays me, yet I will trust in HIM!

Rich

Darkness

Part one is over here.

The blindness of the world, both Christian and non-Christian, comes from within ourselves. Out of our desire to be ‘righteous’ through our own efforts we create blackness. It is through the desire of the self to see itself as moral and upright that we are led into the deepest deception.

In this regard those people who elect to follow Satan openly are possessed of a clearer vision of what they are about than most of humanity. Witches and Satan worshipers at least openly acknowledge and understand who it is they serve. They are deceived only in the understanding of the true nature of the one they serve.

Most of humanity serves Satan without knowing or admitting it. The unsaved world serves Satan while they think they are “looking out for number one.” Even Christians unwittingly serve the evil one when they insist on abiding in a physical orientation (practicing carnal Christianity). In all these cases the prop that Satan uses for his disguise is “self.”

When we allow the independent self to operate unchecked, we are allowing the leading of Satan to provide our moral direction. The self that is directed toward the flesh and primarily concerned with the physical world is influenced by the evil one. This is what Paul refers to as the “sinful nature”: “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” (Galatians 5:17).

Remember that Paul is addressing these comments to Christians and not to unbelievers. The only creature that desires what is contrary to the Spirit is Satan (John 8:44). The term “sinful nature” in the NIV rendering of this verse is translated more literally in the King James as “the flesh.” It is a hard truth but when we stop abiding in the Christ in our spirit we must seek elsewhere for our moral guidance. Once we turn our attention to the world we are open to the direction of Satan in our flesh.

Before we despair, we should remember that Christians have an advantage over the rest of the world in this matter. As Christian’s, we are advantaged over the world in this struggle in two key areas. First, we have the leading of God available to us. We have the life of Christ and the leading of the Holy Spirit resident in our spirit. This is the only cure the Father provides for this situation. The cure is provided but we must avail ourselves of it. Second, through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, we have the knowledge of the truth of this spiritual situation available to us. Again, however, we must avail ourselves of that truth.

Some of these thoughts are mine, but most are from my friend Bill Landon, from his book: The Rise and Fall of Self

Rich

The Kingdom of Self

Bang, right off the bat someone chimes in, ‘I’m not religious, I don’t even believe in God, and there is no God’.
The interesting thing is that all of us worship self; even the child of God who turns from abiding in Christ will demonstrate this same self-centeredness. I see this trait of self-centered living as one of the most compelling practical evidences that Satan dwells in our flesh. This evidence is seen in the sadly universal demonstration of self-centeredness in all humanity. The evil one is in the flesh of both the saved and the unsaved and continually prompts us to a self-centered view of life.

In turning to self, is it any wonder we can’t see the forest for the trees, we blindly ask the Father, ‘please make me more loving’-sadly discovering that living apart from him is a placebo at best.
Not realizing we are meant to live as the result of the life of another living in us as us.
It is in turning, surrendering moment by moment to Him our only Life that we begin to discover He is an endless flow of love, a self-for-others!
This life I’m learning by unlearning is that I was designed to be dependent upon another for life and living as a 'self-for-others' is always going to be a choice. Now that’s what I call, ‘Good News.’

Rich

Misplaced Anger: Self-Deception

I’m curious about something. When Jesus advised the disciples that they were to beware of the leaven (or the teaching) of the Pharisees, what was that all about? Why was Jesus so insistent about this issue that he would take the time to warn them?

Later, Paul had to address a very similar situation with some other followers of Christ: You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

A lot of believers who have made the exodus from organized religion are angry, hurt and wounded at the institution and its leaders. But could it be their anger is misplaced? Note that Jesus did NOT say to beware of the religious leaders - but to beware of their 'leaven' (a type of yeast that caused fermentation in bread or liquid). Could it be that He knew how easily we would fall for this well-disguised, baited hook of corruption masquerading as truth? I mean, is it possible that Jesus initially gave this warning to ‘beware of the leaven' of the religious leaders because He knew that in our very flesh exists an innate liking, appetite or desire for this very leaven? Could it be that at one point in our lives leaven, or religion, was mighty attractive to us? Maybe our heavenly Father wants those who are still blaming their former religious leaders to take a sobering look at the possibility of the real fact - that hidden within their very own flesh is the very same spirit that was working in and through those they now blame for all of the religion-induced pain they are grappling with today. Why, then, should those who have left the institution be so angry at its hierarchy? Have those leaders not been duped by religion as well?

Here in my opinion is a real brain freeze! All of this misplaced anger is amounting to nothing but keeping believers locked up even further and longer in their own self-made prison. "But" many would argue, "I was but an innocent lamb, a pawn, duped into this entrapment! And the leaders were the ones who kept me enslaved!" Seems to me, if you read the biblical account of the fall in Paradise, that after Adam and Eve's moment of supposed enlightenment proposed by the father of lies (the serpent) Adam, speaking to God, retorts, 'I would have never been deceived or wouldn't have disobeyed you, had it not been for this darn woman!'. Then the woman goes straight for the jugular: 'I too am not responsible! It's all that darn snake's fault! He made me do it!'

I know of no greater lie or deception than being SELF-deceived, and then passing the buck and blaming everyone else rather than seeing all that we have gone through as a wonderful wake-up call from our loving heavenly Father. Maybe He is bringing us to the place of recognizing for the first time the depth of the utter and total depravity of our fleshly thinking and the hidden inclination within US, to turn our lives over to somebody or something other than the Father of our spirit? Could it be that religion was instituted by Satan himself in the Garden for the sole purpose of enticing humanity with a substitute for the real thing (freedom) - and from that point on ALL humanity has fallen for the lie?

Jesus once said to his disciples that there were many things he would like to have told them but that they weren't able comprehend it (like Jack Nicholson's character says in "A Few Good Men": "You can't handle the truth!). Maybe coming to grips with the fact that it's not the religious leaders, but the pervasive world-system of religious thinking, which is the leavening agent within our corrupt flesh - that is to blame for our deception. However, it is necessary to note that this covert and subtle suducing away from Christ as our only Life is totally impotent as long as we don't give a 'mind' to it (see Galatians 3:1-3).

Rich