Egomania

What I am about to write may sound like just a bunch of hot air and maybe it is…..but actually I think it is incredibly important. Christianity is not about hating and condemning other people. It’s actually about doing what Jesus said: taking his yoke (which involves trust if you are attached to someone) and learning about him for he is meek and lowly in heart. We spend so much time elevating ourselves and who we are and our accomplishments — our importance.

We’re a bunch of egomaniacs trying to be better than each other and it’s sad. When a person’s focus is on himself and how great he is, others suffer. And from my observation, that’s the heart of what’s wrong with the world and what so many Christians either have forgotten or simply never knew. Jesus lived a life of sacrifice, not self-realization, and He is our model.

True Christianity vs New Age

Please NOTE:  In my blogs, when I use the word “Lord,” I am meaning Jesus.

We must be careful to not let church attendance and involvement interfere with our relationship with the Lord. I think for many it has become a substitute.

This was never meant to be.

I say we have substituted church attendance for taking time to know Jesus and letting Him change our lives. Which means yielding to Him. “No thank, you, I will hang on to my Self and who I am. ” And this is the lure of New Age. Self. Worship of Self.

Every day I see friends leaving Christianity because they feel like it let them down. The reality is that the “church” they were a part of and the people in it let them down. But because the way they lived out their Christianity was by attending church (and maybe even being more involved) , they did not realize they had substituted their church for the Lord. So as long as they went to church, they expected the Lord to take of them and meet all their needs. And so, they were hurt, let down, disappointed, and eventually turned their back “on the Lord,” not realizing their real Lord was the church. They never knew Jesus.

And often these now-professed non-believers turn to and embrace New Age gurus and concepts. Why? Because they are hungering for the depth of spirituality that they did not find in the “church.” The tragedy is that true Christianity offers everything the New Age movement does. We have lost the spirituality of it and substituted church attendance (and “fellowship”).

You can read ANY guru’s postings and 99% of what is written is true Christianity. (See link below, beginning at paragraph 4.) The last 1% leaves Jesus out and puts one’s Self in. And therein lies the deception. We are a New Creation, hidden in Him, and it is He that lives in us, to do all the changing that New Age says we can do for ourselves. We can’t.

The Shaman — or Jesus?

Fears

Ah…the tragedy of fear. It enslaves.

The Kingdom of Self

Just ran across a book I read years ago and one which had a definite positive impact on my life. Helped me really get a better perspective on my own enemy: self. The book is entitled The Kingdom of Self, by Earl Jabay.

It had an excellent review that I am posting here, with a couple of editorial changes. I could not say it better. The review is by Steven J. Petznick

“Wow! What a great book! Yes, it was written in the 1970’s, but the content was strikingly honest, concise and revealing. It clearly lays out what exactly a life looks like that is too self absorbed.

Sadly, what is discovered is that in working so hard to be self seeking, one’s self destruction is what is found.

Health, relationships, success….hardcore selfishness is the enemy and not a positive attribute!”

The Shaman — or Jesus?

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When I first became a Christian, I felt like scales had been removed from my eyes and I saw the beauty and riches of the life that held Jesus first. But I also saw the relationship between my worship of Him and the natural consequence of my living my life of grace according to His Word in a moral sense; i.e. the value and richness of living the moral life of the scriptures.

Interestingly, during that same time period, I ran across an old friend who was being instructed by Jehovah Witnesses and who felt her own life being transformed. The drawing card? The “sense” it made in the natural and the security she felt in having a “system” that made sense and the moral codes it offered. (I truly believe that in this decadent society we live, this “structured code” is one reason that both JW’s and Mormonism are growing so. [Too often, we preach it, but don’t live it. They at least seem to have a better handle on living it.] However, we know that Christianity is so much more than that.)