Foster Transformed Into His Image

Hidden Steps on the Journey to Christlikeness
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9645000-4-4
Verlag: Pure Passion Media
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 254 Seiten

We are all called to be saints, to give our lives in service to the King and Creator of all things, to be empowered by His living presence within us, indeed, to lawfully wed our Bridegroom-Jesus Christ. This book will call you deeper into the life that God created you to have and show you God's provision for making it possible. Come discover the often hidden landmarks along the path to Christlikeness that will make your life supernaturally powerful and fruitful.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Foster, David Kyle

Leseproben

I know the plans I have for you … plans to prosper you … to give you a hope and a future.

(Jeremiah 29:11)

Many of us have lost the vision of who God saved us to be. Our cultural environment has become so toxic to a Kingdom perspective that many Christians are ignorant of their true high calling.

According to George Barna’s research:

• Most first-time decisions for Christ do not last beyond eight weeks.
• Most new believers never move from decision to conversion.
• Almost half the adults in this country are functionally illiterate and so cannot receive much of the teaching of the church.
• Because of the influence of media, people today have a six-to eight-minute attention span.
• Linear thinking has been replaced with mosaic thinking: People are synthesizing their own faith from pieces of numerous religions.
• They fashion a personal faith that revolves around themselves rather than God.
• God is consulted solely for their utility and benefit.1

The church’s greatest fault, says Barna, is in not applying what it believes in compelling ways, and in failing to address the fears and anxieties of the people.2 His solution is:

• a rekindling of our passion for God,
• a rethinking of our strategies to reach the world,
• and the recapturing of an urgency to do so.3

There is a problem inside so-called “believing” churches as well.

• Twenty percent of all churchgoers attend multiple churches on a rotating basis.
• The really committed ones give only two blocks of their time to church per week (down from four, 20 years ago).
• We see religion as a commodity that we consume, rather than one in which we invest ourselves. (e.g., “Oh, I loved the worship today,” or “That sermon didn’t move me.”)
• We see religion as a source to draw on rather than one in which we must also invest.4

Postmodern attitudes predominate more and more, such as:

• moral relativity
• political correctness
• live for the moment mentality
• time is money
• avoid commitment
• maintain independence and individuality at all costs
• trust feelings to guide you
• pursue love and acceptance from others with abandon
• develop competence only in areas of interest to you
• immediate gratification rules
• have fun
• stay in control of your life at all costs
• Christian values (e.g., commitment, sacrifice) appear to be limiting, unrealistic; relative to one’s personal opinion; and outdated.5

Barna writes:

… the culture encourages us to treat God as an equity partner focused on our personal development.6

… In short, the spirituality of most Americans is Christian in name only. We desire experience more than knowledge. We prefer choices to absolutes. We embrace preferences rather than truths. We seek comfort rather than growth. Faith must come on our terms or we reject it. We have enthroned ourselves as the final arbiters of righteousness, the ultimate rulers of our own experience and destiny. We are the Pharisees of the new millennium.7

Barna says that the only hope now is to restore the Church and all in it to spiritual wholeness. We must ruthlessly root out the ways we limit or deceive ourselves from seeing things the way they truly are.8

I believe that another huge phenomenal shift that has taken place in our culture over the last few generations is the replacement of real relationships with “holodeck relationships” (a “holodeck” is a Star Trek engineering feat where false realities are created by computers through holographic images to satisfy the fantasies of the individual). These contrived and controlled “holodecks” serve to protect us from the possibility of rejection, humiliation, failure, or abandonment by real people. They serve to make our world safe and predictable and they eventually become more real than reality itself to the person they serve. How real depends on how fervently the person needs for them to be real. It’s the power of faith being used for evil.

One common modern holodeck is the media, which creates an unending supply of unrealistic media-worlds that present caricatures of reality according to our fantasies, prejudices or the brainwashing goals of those who control its production. This has produced what I call “media mind” (where an image is more real to you than an actual person) and “media think” (where the so-called facts and assumptions of media words and images are unconsciously assumed to be accurate reflections of reality). Most people fall into these traps—even those who believe they are intelligent or sophisticated enough to prevent themselves from becoming victims —because the emotional buttons pushed in us by media images and stories cause our brains to disconnect from most of their critical defenses. We are taken along on a carpet ride of feeling and emotion simply because it feels better than reality and because we are naive to the real dangers presented by the carpetbaggers on whose carpets we ride. That is why advertising works and why advertisers spend billions of dollars on media.

People today trust and find reality in media images more than in real people. Let me provide an example. Have you ever had a good seat at a concert, yet, still watched the big screens rather than looking at the live person onstage? Somehow the image on the screen was more real, more intimate, more desirable. Believe it or not, we are so thoroughly saturated with media images these days that video and film images are more real, more compelling than actual people. If you don’t believe me, try giving a twenty minute lecture, followed by a twenty minute film on the same topic and then ask the audience which they found more motivating, and which they found more memorable.

The use of media implies relevance to many minds. It creates an aura of legitimacy for the message. In addition, the media safely replaces our need for social interaction. I can have friendships and love affairs with the media people and avoid all the risk of real people. (A related phenomenon is the growing world of pornography and cybersex that often replaces a spouse as the “partner of choice” in meeting personal sexual need).

Another common holodeck in today’s world is the relationship between a psychologist and a client.

Psychologists have become necessary in our culture because of the lack of interpersonal connectedness today. Studies have shown that the counsel of a friend can be just as healing as that of a psychotherapist, yet we continue to opt for the “paid friendship” that a therapist provides.

Why?

• Because the world of the paid friendship is safely controlled.
• The chances of embarrassment, rejection and humiliation are minimized. None of one’s friends and associates need know that you have a weakness or vulnerability.
• There is a belief that the chances of getting bad advice are also being minimized, but owing to the moral and philosophical corruption found in the therapeutic world today, in many cases, this is not true at all.
• And when it is all over, the only commitment required is the dollar.

Have you noticed that it’s only when the power goes out or during some disaster that we seem to ever meet and interact with our neighbors? Yet when the power is restored, we retreat back to our image-filled enclaves. Holodeck relationships are safer because they are controlled. They can be terminated if one becomes bored. No responsibility and no commitment is required. They are perfect for the self-centered post-modern man.

Only the impact of authentic love, unconditional and servant-like, can break through such defenses.

So, again I submit: we have lost the vision of who God saved us to be and what He wants us to do while still on this earth. With smoke and mirrors, the world has diverted our attention and seduced us into compromising our purpose. We have given in to our fallen desires and forsaken the real purpose of God for our life. No wonder our methods of ministry are so ineffective. Our first task must be to rouse ourselves back to our high calling in Christ and to sharpen our focus once again. What is that focus?

• to be holy, as He is holy
• to love Christ above all things9
• to love our neighbor as ourself
• to take up our cross and follow Him
• to be conformed to His image
• to be reflectors of His glory
• to be ambassadors of His Kingdom
• to be magnets that draw the world to come to Christ for salvation

We’ve got to wake up and break free from the deceptive images projected by this world system. We have to take an honest look at our penchant to compromise and then reason our way out of it at those times when it’s easier to feed the flesh than to deny it.

Avoiding failure has sometimes become the controlling watchword, rather than becoming of no reputation. Perfectionism is often a dominating power in many of our lives—a perfectionism that doesn’t want to attempt something that cannot be perfectly achieved.10

Let God do it for you. Let God live His righteousness through you (Galatians 2:20).

Even our spiritual lives bear examination. Often, they are actually focused on self. In various...