Self-Effort vs. Faith

Belief #1: To the degree you live in self-righteousness, to that same degree you will fall into un-righteousness
-when you try to do things for God, not only does it not improve your standing with Him, but it creates in you the very desires you don't want--an appetite for sin.
-if adam had never eaten from the tree of good & evil, mankind would never know what evil was, we would only know life (represented by the tree of life)
-good and evil come from the same source--you can't know good without knowing evil (and vice versa)
--living at a +5 (above the line-self righteous acts) vs. a -5 (below the line-un righteous acts).
--God's standard for us is not to have us try to live at a +5 or to avoid a -5, but to be a "0". Then Jesus stands in front of us being our one (1) giving us worth.
--Jesus is the standard
-Both un-righteousness and self-righteousness misses the mark of Christ-righteousness
-The price we pay for having knowledge of good and evil is living our life in self-effort
-Ying-Yang symbol example--what you do, not why you do it is what matters
--WWJD derived from this example
-Better question: what is Christ doing in my life right now?
-God cares more about why you do what you do rather than the act itself
-to whatever degree you live in self-righteousness, you will fall to that same degree in un-righteousness (quote: "the bigger they are, the harder they fall")
-to get the self-righteous persons attention off of himself, God allows him to fall to that same degree, into un-righteousness
--un-righteous living strips away the pride and allows the person to see himself just as he really is. He is living outside of an abiding relationship with Jesus.
--then the person can clearly see their need for God

Belief #2: The problem is not your sin but rather the self-effort tree you've chosen to eat from
-In order to stop living in defeat, need to stop eating from the tree of good and evil and start eating from the tree of life.
-Opening the abiding door of our heart to Christ
-Activity: piece of paper with all the sins and things wrong with us, problems they have caused. look at the paper, see all the unrighteousness. Thank God for allowing me to see my true condition stripping away my self-righteousness. Hold up paper high as I can, show God all that I wrote. Hold it for 2-3 min. feel pain in your arms, as arms wobble, go 2-3min. more. ask God "do you see all of this?!" Spend all your strength and agony crying out to God asking if He sees it. When u are about ready to pass out, all the stuff on the paper will weigh exactly what they do for you in your life. Finally, let go. You will experience rest--exactly what God wants for you.
-Point: if you can't carry a piece of paper full of your sins, what makes you think you can carry them on your own in your own life.

Belief #3: Faith never generates the work of God but rather recieves it
-we often think of faith as a powerplant--it is generating the work in our lives
-it's not a powerplant but more like a transfer station. it takes the power of God and directs it into our lives. first to us and then to those around us.
-ex: the moon. the moon does not generate any light of its own. the moon reflects the sun's light on it. moon can never generate its own light b/c it doesn't have the materials necessary within it to do so. has to have its face turned toward the sun to reflect light to us on earth. (song: You Are the Sun, Sara Groves) We are the same way--we are made to reflect God's light. We recieve the work of God and reflect it onto others.

Belief #4: You will only take a risk in something you believe in
-Belief: conviction with evidence or proof
-Faith: conviction without evidence or proof
-Faith=Risk---you will only take a risk in something you believe in
--anytime you have a faith problem it's because you really have a belief problem
-Book of John--main book for leading people to Christ. Contains a lot of evidence that supports Jesus' claim of being God. Jesus provided evidence for belief.
-Have to look to evidence God has given you in your past experience before you will have faith in Christ in the here and now
-We lack faith because we don't believe. We don't believe b/c we refuse to look at the past evidence that God has provided in our life
-Faith is so precious to God that He says without it we can't please Him
-Hebrews 12:2
-You fall into sin before you fall out with God (tree of good & evil)
vs.
-You fall out with God before you fall into sin (tree of life)
-sin doesn't separate us from God, it's our own unwillingness to keep the abiding door of our heart open to Him

Belief #5: Your appetite for faith in God cannot exceed your belief in God
-It's never been about fixing your sin or getting rid of your sin, but rather getting rid of your appeitie for sin

Belief #6: Anytime you have a faith problem, it's because you have a belief problem

Belief #7: It takes no faith to recieve Christ as your Savior, it only takes belief

Belief #8: Religion is nothing more than following a bunch of dead men's teachings
-Religion has good intention--it's man's response to seeing the gap between God and man and trying to fill that or reach for the divine. trying to make that right.
-Problem is that all man's efforts are inadequate

Belief #9: Christianity isn't a teaching, it's a person
-instead of man trying to reach up, Christ reached down, came down from Heaven

Belief #10: What has your attention, has you
-hand demonstration: one hand is God/Jesus, other hand is our lives/problems/worries/sin, etc. when we are focused on the sin hand, that's all we see. Christ is a glimmer in the background. when we switch hands, and switch our focus to Christ, He is what we see and our sin/problems are there but are seen in the light of Christ first.
-whichever hand you are focused on, that's what has you in that moment
-"wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also" -Matthew 6:21
-it is a moment-by-moment deal or process
-Jesus wants a moment-by-moment relationship with us!!

-Important to keep the abiding door of our heart open, moment-by-moment
***It's not just the sin that takes over in our life, it's the defeat of that sin that can take over and take our focus off of Christ to where we stay stuck in the sin-cycle
-by focusing on the sin (or defeat of it) we are giving it power over our life
-ex: drivers ed class--instructor's advice- "you drive where you look"

**If your focus is on CHRIST and HIS righteousness, then He has you.

The Religious Tree

Belief: If you run away from God, you'll simply run into Him somewhere else

Example: child game of chase--we all want to know that we are wanted, that we are important enough for someone else to chase down. The kids ran b/c it meant something to them.

-when we run from God simply to run into Him somewhere else it is NOT a coincidence that He is there and He is chasing after you

Belief: Religion is mankinds attempt to become right with God

--Most religions started somewhere on the earth that would be considered beautiful
Romans 1:20--founders of these religions responding to what they had seen in nature, became aware of their need to become right with God
--they attempted to reach UP to God. Created systems to explain what they saw in nature

--Message of Christ is unique in that its not about us striving to reach up, but rather God reaching down to man through Christ. Eating from the tree of life, not the tree of religion.

The Place for Abiding

1. Self-righteousness is a main contributor to defeat
--find oneself repeating the same sins over and over with no power over the flesh to control them
--self-righteous person is one who is attempting to make themselves whole by their own effort. Don't have to be vocal about it, some of the most self-righteous people are the most quiet! Working feverously to get closer to God.
-no one knows what they are really dealing with on the inside--part of the problem!
-creates a beautiful fassad of a building from the outside, but get to the door and its padlocked shut. just a window and wall and nothing behind it (like the old western movie set houses)-just putting on a front.

2. "I can't" opens the Abiding Door, while "I can" closes it
--PRIDE!
-our first response to sin, temptation, defeat, is, "I can do this, I'm strong enough, I should be strong enough"
-focus is on the "I", it's all about "me"
--Humility is the one key that opens the door
-not about putting oneself down, but accepting who I am apart from God
-saying "I can't" opens up the abiding door, adds value to our life. Not a magic word, what our heart says I can't.

3. Long term victory over sin and the flesh comes as you moment by moment open the abiding door of your heart
--Never going to have it completely figured out
--duffel bag analogy, replacing things we learn with Christ=pride

4. God allows failure and defeat in your life to bring you into an awareness of your need for abiding in Christ
--viewing defeat as more than just a slap on the hand, but as a path to living in an abiding relationship with Christ
--failure and defeat are simply pointing toward our need for Christ in our life
--when we fall in the christian life it's not a measure of our weakness, it's a mark of how much faith you have ex: looking good in the lodge vs. taking risks on the slopes and falling down
--if you didn't want something greater, then there's no failure. if you never fail, not living by faith

Belief System for Abiding

"He must become greater; I must become less" John 3:30

1. The closer I get to God, the further I should see the distance separating us
song: "Space Inbetween us" by Building 429


2. Nothing you can do can make you any better
Jesus expresses His life through me

1 = Jesus

0 = my efforts

1, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

2/11/11

Bumper sticker: If God feels far way, guess who moved?

-My self-effort (or lack thereof) is what keeps me from getting closer to God--add plusses (+) to my life

What could or would I do to make that statement not true?

-Read the Bible, -Pray, -listen to Christian music related to that (ex. Space Inbetween Us by Building 429), -Worship God/Jesus, -Go for a walk outside in nature, -Take action on whatever sin was revealed to me, -Talk to a close Christian friend or mentor, -Read, or re-read online devotional e-mails

Again: "The closer I get to God, the further I should see the distance separating us"

Thoughts about this:

Honestly, it's kind of a hard concept for me to grasp b/c even though it makes sense, it seems almost offensive. It's like saying, "you know all those things that you were doing to show effort on your part and keep your word to God, yeah, that actually counts for nothing." It is almost demeaning. At the same time, I know that is my own pride talking b/c no matter what I do it can't ever match up with or even out with the sacrifice Jesus made for me to make that connection with God possible. So really, it's my own self-righteousness talking when I think that. I know it's true--yet it still is hard to come to terms with fully. Another thought that comes to mind is, is that supposed to invalidate any feelings/revelations/comforts or spiritual sensations that I might get after doing those things on that list, if all they are are a bunch of "0's" adding up to nothing in the end?

Relief vs. Satisfaction

Relief=short-term solution to a long-term problem

Satisfaction=solving the long-term problem

Spiritual relief vs. Spritual satisfaction