Envy's Deadly Pull

"It has been said that Envy is the one deadly sin to which no one readily confesses.  It seems to be the nastiest, the most grim, the meanest.  Sneering, sly, vicious.  The face of Envy is never lovely.  It is never even faintly pleasant.  Its expression crosses our faces in a split second.  'Few are able to suppress in themselves a secret satisfaction at the misfortune of their friends,' said La Rochefoucauld, and few of us are able to suppress a secret envy at someone else's good fortune, or even at someone else's good joke.  If we confessed each day how often we had been envious during it, we would be on our knees longer than for any other sin.

Although all the deadly sins are morbid and self-destroying, Angus Wilson has said, most of the others provide at least some gratification in their early stages.  But there in no gratification for Envy, nothing it can ever enjoy.  Its appetite never ceases, yet its only satisfaction is endless self-torment.  'It has the ugliness of a trapped rat that has gnawed its own feet in its efforts to escape.'"

Henry Fairlie, The Seven Deadly Sins for Today, 61.

Envy is our cultural marker.  It marks the West.  It marks most of us.

The great irony is that we don't even see it in ourselves.  We have the ugliness "of a trapped rat that has gnawed it own feet in its efforts to escape" yet we don't see our true condition.  We want more.  We want what we deserve.  We want it now.  We know we would have everything we want if others just got out of our way and recognized us for our true wonderful selves.

This is even true in the Church.

Rarely are we really happy for the success of others.  Instead, we want the gifts, talents, and blessings that others enjoy.  Somehow we just know that others don't really deserve their blessings and we know that deserve more than we got.  At the very least, it would great if God helped us have a little less struggle and heartache!

I know most of us would deny that we live this way.  Yet, I think on this Easter week that a real and deep analysis of our life would illustrate the heart of our prayers to God and our complaints about our lives.  We want more!  We want the peace, love, blessings, and talents of others.

"Envy's appetite never ceases, 

yet its only satisfaction is endless self-torment."

The only way off this carousel of sin is repentance and faith.  

We were created to have our satisfaction and joy from our relationship with Jesus.  Ask the Spirit to point out where envy rules in your life and in the church.  Ask for grace to repent and find satisfaction in Jesus' love for you.  Meet with other gospel-centered believers for encouragement as you seek to lessen the rule of envy in your life.  Most importantly, when the Spirit points out your envy for other's blessings of love, peace, power, things or talents, repent and believe the gospel!

The Gospel's Double Cure

"The remedy for our sin, whether scandalous or acceptable, is the gospel in its widest scope.  The gospel is actually a message: here I am using the word gospel as a shorthand expression for the entire work of Christ in His historic life, death, and resurrection for us, and His present work in us through the Holy Spirit.  When I say the gospel in its widest scope, I am referring to the fact that Christ, in His work for us and in us, saves us not only from the penalty of sin, but also from its dominion or reigning power in our lives.  This twofold aspect of Christ's great work is beautifully captured in Augustus Toplady's great hymn "Rock of Ages," with the words,

Let the water and the blood,

From thy riven side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure,

Cleanse me from its guilt and power."

Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins, 33.

What a wonderful summary of the Gospel's content and action.  Bridges has been writing on this theme for almost thirty years.  In Respectable Sins, he is dealing with those sins that we as Christians often live with as acceptable and normal.

What sins might these be?

He argues that they are the modern expressions of those sins mentioned in scripture such as anxiety and frustration, discontent, unthankfulness, impatience and irritability, judgmentalism, and a lack of self-control. 

What particularly strikes me today is how the gospel is Christ-centered and Christ-focused.  The gospel is secure and powerful because Christ's work was finished and perfected with His resurrection.  There is absolutely nothing we can do to add to His finished work.  He has done it all.  

Yet, how many of us live our Christian life as if His finished work is not enough?

In our mind, we affirm He is the answer, but in our real life, we labor to fix ourselves and our circumstances.  Somehow we have not learned how to appropriate His finished work into our life.

I know some will argue that our labor to fix ourselves and our circumstances flows from "His present work in us through the Holy Spirit."  If we are walking in active repentance and faith, I would agree.  If we constantly remind ourselves of Christ's finished work and claim it as our own, I completely agree.  I just wonder how many of us really live in such dependence?  Why is it so hard to find someone whose life is so marked by such a lifestyle and its resulting grace?

I know all too often my life is marked more by worry and anxiety than repentance, rest, quietness and trust (Isaiah 30:15).  How can I tell?  My inner dialogue runs through my concerns, questions, fears, and doubts more than it turns to constant reflection upon the beauty and grace of Christ.  The irony is that people often tell me that I am marked less with worry and anxiety than most.  Am I just good at hiding it or is worry and anxiety an epidemic among modern folks?

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us for we all struggle so much with worry, self-concern, and sins of the flesh.  Have mercy on us for our unbelief is often our mark.

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,

"In repentance and rest you shall be saved;

in quietness and in trust shall be your strength."

Isaiah 30:15

Remix: The Deadly Sin of Envy

It has been too long since I last wrote.  I apologize for this.  It has been an wonderful/mundane, happy/sad, strange couple of weeks.  I just stopped being able to write or even think about writing.  I had it lined up to complete my most hit posts from last year, before the end of the year, but I missed my chance.  

Well, no use crying over spilled milk, so I will pick up where I left off.  Today, I will repost an important lesson from April, which was my number three most viewed post from 2014.

I don't know about you, but I need to hear it.  Envy is a killer, whether you are the one envying or the one being envied.  

"It has been said that Envy is the one deadly sin to which no one readily confesses.  It seems to be the nastiest, the most grim, the meanest.  Sneering, sly, vicious.  The face of Envy is never lovely.  It is never even faintly pleasant.  Its expression crosses our faces in a split second.  'Few are able to suppress in themselves a secret satisfaction at the misfortune of their friends,' said La Rochefoucauld, and few of us are able to suppress a secret envy at someone else's good fortune, or even at someone else's good joke.  If we confessed each day how often we had been envious during it, we would be on our knees longer than for any other sin.

Although all the deadly sins are morbid and self-destroying, Angus Wilson has said, most of the others provide at least some gratification in their early stages.  But there in no gratification for Envy, nothing it can ever enjoy.  Its appetite never ceases, yet its only satisfaction is endless self-torment.  'It has the ugliness of a trapped rat that has gnawed its own feet in its efforts to escape.'"

Henry Fairlie, The Seven Deadly Sins for Today, 61.

What is envy?  I don't think we can recognize envy like past generations and other cultures.  Why?  Envy is so ingrained in our culture that it is like the air we breathe.  It is the way we do business.  It is often the foundation of our thoughts and lives.  

So what does envy look like today?

In our culture it takes the form of rampant consumerism.  We are so marketed to that we do not know anything different.  While this marketing promotes other deadly sins such as gluttony and lust, it appeals to our base nature desire more.  Remember these slogans:

"You deserve a break today."  "Be all you can be."  "Because you are worth it."  "When you only deserve the best."

These just come off the top of my head.  How many more are out there?  At its heart, each slogan appeals to our most base nature.  We do deserve better.  It is particularly clear we deserve better when we see others enjoying, flaunting, having that which we want.  Not so secretly, the thought crosses our minds that those who have what we want, do not deserve it.

Envy now rules.

Has not our entire political discussion engaged and promoted envy?  President Obama won reelection in large part by pounding this theme.  The rich do not deserve what they have.  They only got what they have by taking it from the poor.  The subtle and unstated claim here is that they should be punished and you should be rewarded because you deserve more.  Is this not how to make a strong middle class?

Envy is our cultural marker.

Why can we not be happy with someone else's success?  Is it not possible for everyone to succeed, even though some do so to greater measure than others?  Do not those who succeed in greater measure employ those of us who need jobs?

When envy rules, these questions do not matter.  All that matters is a growing dislike of those with what we want and "deserve" and a gnawing desire for something that will satisfy our soul.  This path will not breed a happy and strong lower class, middle class, or upper class.  It breeds anger, resentment, and ever deepening sin.

These observations have obvious implications for the Christian life.  We must recognize our envy so we can repent and find our rest in relationship with God.  Yet, the fingers of sin go deeper than mere individual sin.

Our churches are often marked by an incredible spirit of envy.  We want the gifts and talents of others.  We want to be recognized like they are.  We are just as smart, just as spiritual, just as talented as others. Why do people not recognize us?

How do we deal with this?  It depends if we are an aggressive person or a passive person.

If we are aggressive, we try to move and manipulate within the church so people recognize us.  We tear down those we envy.  It might not be a direct attack, but we withhold encouragement and affirmation.  We master being a fault-finder instead of being an encourager.

If we are passive, we give up trying.  We know we do not have the talent of others, though we wish we did, so we refuse to use the gifts we do have to the full measure possible.  As a result, we do not grow.  Like a stunted plant, we lack health and vitality because the Spirit does not flow through the gifts we do have and we should use to benefit others.  (See the passage in 1 Corinthians 12 for how Paul describes this condition)

Just like our culture at large, envy rules.  "Its appetite never ceases, yet its only satisfaction is endless self-torment."

The only way off this carousel of sin is repentance and faith.  We were created to have our satisfaction and joy from our relationship with Jesus.  Ask the Spirit to point out where envy rules in your life and in the church.  Ask for grace to repent and find satisfaction in Jesus' love for you.  Meet with other gospel-centered believers for encouragement as you seek to lessen the rule of envy in your life.  Most importantly, when the Spirit points out your envy for things, power, or gifts, repent and believe the gospel.

Gossip's Seductive Grasp

"Gossip is pornography of the mouth.  As cheap thrill that offers zero commitment to the person being objectified."

Scott Sauls

What a wonderful truth stated about an ugly sin.  While more could be said, this is great start!

Gossip has killed more relationships and destroyed more ministries than any other sin.  At its heart, gossip tears at someone's person.  It seeks to promote the one spreading it without reference to the other's real thoughts, motives, or even actions.

Gossip works in and through all the deadly sins.  It illustrates pride, lust, envy, anger, covetousness, sloth, and gluttony.  

Yet, it is often tolerated and even encouraged in the world system and in the church.

This should not be!  We need to repent of this sin and confess that we have used it way too much for our self-gratification.  We have 

Given false report;

believed our opinions are right without consulting others;

spoken about people and situations without knowing the facts (or even caring that we don't know the facts.  After all, it is just our opinion with are expressing);

passed on stories and opinions of others without regard for the person being talked about;

felt good about informing others of our opinions and what we perceive as the sins of others;

willingly listened to others as they expressed their anger/concern/frustrations without asking and demanding that the person talk directly to the one or the issue they have a problem with.

I think I could go on and on.  I was just giving some basic examples.  What can you think of that you have done to promote and encourage gossip?  You see gossip isn't just something done in the tabloids, it is something that springs from our convoluted heart.

Could you picture Jesus talking about others as you talk about them?  

He had perfect discernment and understood the human heart.  Yet, did he gossip?  Did he share the perceived sins of others with others like you do?

Why do we even do what we do?  How do we stop?  Repent of your actual sins of gossip.  Ask the Holy Spirit to change you from the inside out.  Confess your helplessness to change yourself and ask for the Spirit to transform your heart.  He will begin the process of answering that prayer!

Our Empowering Pride

We will encounter all of these evils in various forms in the other sins.  But is only when we know the working of pride in us that we see how deeply the sins are interwoven.  Here is the keystone of the arch, and once we recognize that it runs through almost everything that we do, everywhere in our natures, we are in a better position to fight the other sins.  This is the importance of the warning of Dorothy Sayers, that "the devilish strategy of Pride is that it attacks us, not in our weakest points, but in our strongest.  It is preeminently the sin of the noble mind."  Not only of the noble, but also of the righteous.  Self-rightesouness is a common and peculiarly loathsome form of Pride.  When we encounter it in the noble mind, Pride is like a taint or flaw.  It suffuse the whole character of the person, even where that character is apparently noblest or strongest.  If it lies so pervasively in the best, it must lie at least equally so in us.

Pride is in our Envy, persuading us that we deserve better than we have, even to be other than we are, and so inciting us to pull down whatever we perceive to be superior to us.  Pride is in our Anger, in which we adopt a position of superiority from which our scorn and obstinacy, and even our elation, will not let us be budged.  Pride is in our Avarice, prompting us to display ourselves in 'an extravagant array of clothing,' as the Parson puts it in Chaucer's tale, and in 'keeping up great households,' which we do not need.  Pride is in our Gluttony, in the display again of an 'excess of divers meats and drinks; and especially in 'certain baked meats and made-dishes,' as the Parson says with his usual spirit, 'burning with spirituous liquors and decorated and castellated with paper, and in similar waste.'  Pride is in our Sloth, in our assurance that we may get by with a minimum of effort and find achievement and reward by sluggishness.  Pride is in our Lust, in our scant regard for the flesh and feelings of others, and our belief that we may dehumanize them and ourselves and still be regarded as human.  Pride is the sustainer of our sinning, the reinforcer of all its motives.

Henry Fairlie, The Seven Deadly Sins Today, 44.

I have to say again that I have truly enjoyed re-reading this book!  As I get older, I find that I am less concerned with reading all the new and exciting books.  I find that I know what most of them say from their dust jacket (how's that for pride!).  Truly Solomon was right that there is nothing new under the sun.  By application there is really nothing new written about the Christian life and the Church that has not been thought of before.

Increasingly I am enjoying deep and thoughtful books and writers who make me slowly think through what is written.  I guess somewhere along the way I got old and boring!

Our culture promotes and encourages misplaced pride in all of us.  From our consumerism to our view of government and its role in "promoting the common good" (whatever that means to you) our Western Culture promotes, encourages, and lives by feeding our pride.

Is there any wonder why most of us do not see it?  Is there any wonder why Americans are known as the most pompous, foolish people on the planet?

Take some time to think and pray through the above passage.  How is your life marred by pride?  How does pride feed those sins that you just cannot seem to shake?  How does pride keep you from walking with God in humble reliance on the Holy Spirit?

We need grace!  Lord, I need grace.  Help us to see our sin so we can repent of our sin against You and find our rest in Jesus Christ's love and righteousness.  Truly He is enough!

The Fire and Death of Anger

William F. May gives the name of Hatred to the sin of Anger, to emphasize that it takes hold of us "in the highest reaches of the mind," that it becomes an obsession, that once it has taken hold it endures.  The point is important, but Hatred is the wrong word.  Hatred is not the same as Anger, although it is a large component of it.  It is often one (but only one) of its motives, and is unavoidably one of its consequences.  If we are to give Anger another name, to emphasize its character, we should stick to the family of its close relatives.  We may call it Wrath, which carries the same suggestion of an obsession, of something that consumes us, not the flash of lightening, the sudden clap of thunder, but a burning in us like a banked fire.  Wrath is a fixation.  Its eyes are set on the object of its anger.  It devours itself and others.  It lays waste.  A modern symbol of it is the policy of the scorched earth in war.

We think of Anger in terms of fire: blazing, flaming, scorching, smoking, fuming, spitting, smoldering, heated, white hot, simmering, boiling, and even when it is ice-cold it will still burn.  It has been called the Devil's furnace, and other sins will fuel it.

Henry Fairlie, The Seven Dead Sins Today, 89.

I first read Fairlie's book in the early 1990s.  Since that time I have used it as a text in teaching systematic theology, and I have recommended it many times.  This book is an excellent and deep portrayal of sin in the modern world.  I am amazed how a book written in 1978 for an obviously academic audience can remain insightful.  I guess I should not be amazed since the character and effects of sin have not changed!

At different times in my life, I have been a very angry person.  For example, when my dad died I was obsessed with my loss and why it happened.  I remember clearly waking up at night from a dream with my teeth clenched and my blood pressure up.  I wish this only happened once, but it occurred several times.  Even my sub-conscience mind was angry.  

Perhaps a little background might help explain this anger.  My dad died because he had really given up the desire to live.  Because of the pain and hurt he had experience, he ate himself to death.  Now knowing some of my health issues, I believe he suffered from the same malady, which helped sap his desire to live.  At the time, I did not know this.  Instead, I ran over in my head all the ways that by dad had been hurt.  I knew I missed him greatly.  I was mad at all who had caused him pain.

Meanwhile in my own life, I was going through a very difficult period.  I was in my Ph.D. program and preparing for exams.  I had an emotionally and mentally abusive new faculty member who delighted in tearing me down.  Like most graduate students, we had extreme financial pressures.  Pressures from outside and loss weighed me down.

Through it all, I found within myself a consuming anger: fuming, smoldering, simmering, with the occasional white hot and boiling moments.

The problem with anger is that it poisons the well to all relationships and all of life.  Anger casts out love, diminishes faith, and colors every area of life with the very flames of hell.

No wonder anger has been called the Devil's furnace!

Honestly, I do not know if I have ever gotten over it even though people do not tell me anymore "You are really an angry person."  Anger mars the soul.

How did I deal with it?  

First, I had to recognize it.  I could not see it.  I believed my anger was "justified," not only over my dad, but in all areas of my life.  As such, I was displaying "righteous" anger.  Can you see how my pride got involved!  

The Holy Spirit had to use life, others, and His still small voice to confirm my problem with anger.  I was so angry when He did this!  Then as the consequences became more apparent, I was appalled, ashamed, and at the end of my rope.  I had no power to change.

So, I cried out for mercy.  I repented of my sin and confessed my inability to change my angry heart.  I found I truly needed a savior.  I am so thankful that Jesus answered my prayers by lavishing His love upon me.  

Slowly He quieted the fire.  I wish I could testify that I was transformed instantly, but it took time to find healing.  In fact, now that I know what anger looks and feels like, I find it is something I have to constantly repent of and seek Jesus' help to deal with.

In some Christian circles this would illustrate weakness.  I think it illustrates maturity and growth.  Like a "recovering" alcoholic I have many days of anger sobriety, but I now know this tendency is always within me.  All of my other sin tendencies can feed it and bring it back into flame.  As a result, I need to keep close to Jesus and have Him tend my soul!

So what about you?  I have met many believers who are marked by anger.  Mentioning it to them brings denial and "righteous" anger toward your presumption.

Is that you?  Is this your mark?

We live in a fallen world.  It is not fair.  It is often cruel.  It is filled with pain and abuse.  The key is to allow Jesus to transform you so you do not promote unfairness, cruelty, and more pain and abuse.  If you do not deal with the Devil's furnace, it is more than likely that you are passing on more fallenness than grace, no matter what you claim to believe.

Repent of your very real sin and believe in Jesus Christ as your only hope.  Ask Him to love the anger right out of you.  Ask Him to watch over those places within you where anger can come back to life.  He will do so.  He loves you so much.

The Deadly Sin of Envy

"It has been said that Envy is the one deadly sin to which no one readily confesses.  It seems to be the nastiest, the most grim, the meanest.  Sneering, sly, vicious.  The face of Envy is never lovely.  It is never even faintly pleasant.  Its expression crosses our faces in a split second.  'Few are able to suppress in themselves a secret satisfaction at the misfortune of their friends,' said La Rochefoucauld, and few of us are able to suppress a secret envy at someone else's good fortune, or even at someone else's good joke.  If we confessed each day how often we had been envious during it, we would be on our knees longer than for any other sin.

Although all the deadly sins are morbid and self-destroying, Angus Wilson has said, most of the others provide at least some gratification in their early stages.  But there in no gratification for Envy, nothing it can ever enjoy.  Its appetite never ceases, yet its only satisfaction is endless self-torment.  'It has the ugliness of a trapped rat that has gnawed its own feet in its efforts to escape.'"

Henry Fairlie, The Seven Deadly Sins for Today, 61.

What is envy?  I don't think we can recognize envy like past generations and other cultures.  Why?  Envy is so ingrained in our culture that it is like the air we breathe.  It is the way we do business.  It is often the foundation of our thoughts and lives.  

So what does envy look like today?

In our culture it takes the form of rampant consumerism.  We are so marketed to that we do not know anything different.  While this marketing promotes other deadly sins such as gluttony and lust, it appeals to our base nature desire more.  Remember these slogans:

"You deserve a break today."  "Be all you can be."  "Because you are worth it."  "When you only deserve the best."

These just come off the top of my head.  How many more are out there?!  At its heart, each slogan appeals to our most base nature.  We do deserve better.  It is particularly clear we deserve better when we see others enjoying, flaunting, having that which we want.  Not so secretly, the thought crosses our minds that those who have what we want do not deserve it.

Envy now rules.

Has not our entire political discussion engaged and promoted envy?  President Obama won reelection in large part by pounding this theme.  The rich do not deserve what they have.  They only got what they have by taking it from the poor.  The subtle and unstated claim here is that they should be punished and you should be rewarded because you deserve more.  Is this not how to make a strong middle class?

Envy is our cultural marker.

Why can we not be happy with someone else's success?  Is it not possible for everyone to succeed, even though some do so to greater measure than others?  Do not those who succeed in greater measure employ those of us who need jobs?

When envy rules, these questions do not matter.  All that matters is a growing dislike of those with what we want and "deserve" and a gnawing desire for something that will satisfy our soul.  This path will not breed a happy and strong lower class, middle class, or upper class.  It breeds anger, resentment, and ever deepening sin.

These observations have obvious implications for the Christian life.  We must recognize our envy so we can repent and find our rest in relationship with God!  Yet, the fingers of sin go deeper than mere individual sin.

Our churches are often marked by an incredible spirit of envy.  We want the gifts and talents of others.  We want to be recognized like they are.  We are just as smart, just as spiritual, just as talented as others. Why do people not recognize us?

How do we deal with this?  It depends if we are an aggressive person or a passive person.

If we are aggressive, we try to move and manipulate within the church so people recognize us.  We tear down those we envy.  It might not be a direct attack, but we withhold encouragement and affirmation.  We master being a fault-finder instead of being an encourager.

If we are passive, we give up trying.  We know we do not have the talent of others, though we wish we did, so we refuse to use the gifts we do have to the full measure possible.  As a result, we do not grow.  Like a stunted plant, we lack health and vitality because the Spirit does not flow through the gifts we do have and we should use to benefit others.  (See the passage in 1 Corinthians 12 for how Paul describes this condition)

Just like our culture at large, envy rules.  "Its appetite never ceases, yet its only satisfaction is endless self-torment."

The only way off this carousel of sin is repentance and faith.  We were created to have our satisfaction and joy from our relationship with Jesus.  Ask the Spirit to point out where envy rules in your life and in the church.  Ask for grace to repent and find satisfaction in Jesus' love for you.  Meet with other gospel-centered believers for encouragement as you seek to lessen the rule of envy in your life.  Most importantly, when the Spirit points out your envy for things, power, or gifts, repent and believe the gospel!

Why are people such hypocrites?

"Take the case of a sour old maid, who is a Christian, but cantankerous.  On the other hand, take some pleasant and popular fellow, but who has never been to Church.  Who knows how much more cantankerous the old maid might be if she were not a Christian, and how much more likable the nice fellow might be if he were a Christian?  You can't judge Christianity simply by comparing the product in these two people; you would need to know what kind of raw material Christ was working on in both cases."

C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock.

Not long ago, I had the privilege of talking to a man who is either a new Christian or is someone who for the first time in his life has understood the implications of the gospel.  He was sharing how God is changing him from an angry man into someone much more patient and kind.  Yet, he was concerned because he "still had his moments."  He also was worried because he so often did a good deed merely because of his concern for how it made him look.

After our time together, I was thinking of this quote from C.S. Lewis.  I am glad I was able to find it!  I think this man's concerns are natural questions.  They should be questions all believers have and wrestle with often.

Why?

Each of us is such a messed up mix of redeemed "saint" and fallen, sinful child of Adam.  How do we understand and balance these two competing tendencies?  

Let me begin by looking at the life and actions of a typical believer like you or me.  How do we understand our actions in light of the gospel?  Is it not true that there are so many moving parts and factors that shape how each of us respond to any given circumstance. 

I know I respond to difficulties in life and even the small inconveniences so differently when I am sick or really tired than when I am healthy and have had a good night's sleep.  If someone sees me respond on a bad day they might see something different than my actions on a good day.  Should I despair of this known fact?  Should I deny it is true?

Furthermore, I became a believer at age 18.  There were some really rough spots within my formed character when I became a believer.  God was and is so merciful to me, but I am still surprised by the thoughts that flow out of my heart and often pass through my mouth.  Why does the Lord not just zap me and change my heart so I think and say "darn" instead of "damn" when I do something wrong?  I honestly do not think about such words and thoughts, they just come out.  

How about you?  In what areas do you struggle?  How are you often surprised and humiliated by the evil that still dwells within?

Now let me give you the other side of God's story in my life.  The man I spoke with shared that I "said exactly the right thing the first time we talked.  If you said more or less, it might have ruined it."  How did I do that?  I also find that increasingly I just do the right thing without thinking about it.  I show love and grace to people without having to think about what would be loving or gracious.  Most importantly, I am a much better listener than I used to be even as I realize I still need so much improvement.  I find that I am always looking for what God is doing in the hearts and lives of others.

I must confess that none of these occurrences are natural to me.  I praise God that it is His work!  Still, I am haunted by my shortcomings.  I am humiliated by what often flows out of my heart.

Like the cantankerous, sour old maid, I am in need of grace!  I must wonder, what would I be like if Christ did not bring me to Himself all those years ago?  I know that the raw material God had to work with was greatly defaced and misshaped by sin and death before I even came to Jesus.  Those tendencies remain even today!  Yes I am still a sinner.  If you catch me on a bad day, I am sure I do not look like a saint.  In fact, if you are looking for hypocrisy and defining it as not always doing right, I am a hypocrite.

According to the definition of hypocrite as one who always does right, there is only one truly righteous person ever born, Jesus Christ.  I am a mere fallen follower of this great man!  I do not have it all together and I look to Him for grace and forgiveness daily.  

So, if you catch me in some sin, I hope I will be willing to confess my sin and need for this grace.  When I am disappointed and humiliated by my sinful heart, I look to Jesus as my only hope.  

Let me assure you, such thoughts are not natural to me!  My natural inclination is to deny my sin or to try to pass it off as less than what it is.  My natural inclination is to maintain my reputation instead of confessing my need.

For those of us who are not Jesus, I would define hypocrisy differently than always doing right.

I think true hypocrisy is not confessing and living the truth that I am a sinner in desperate need of grace.

Hypocrisy is not merely doing wrong when I should know better.  At times, all of us fail to do the good we know we should do!  No, hypocrisy is knowing I have such wrong tendencies (what the bible calls sin) that flow out of my heart and yet I do not address or confess them.

Are you living in active repentance and dependent faith?  Does confession and repentance come easy to you?  Can you see where you need grace and do you ask God for grace to transform these areas?

If the answers to these three questions are all yes, I think God is doing a great work in your life.  Cling to Christ and grow in grace!  Always point yourself and others to Jesus.

If your answers are no to any of these three questions, you are most likely a self-deluded hypocrite (wow that sounds harsh!  Please know I have lived much of my life in this state.).  Repent and believe.  Ask for grace to see your need.  Cling to Jesus as your only hope.

Growth comes as we reorient our life around Jesus Christ.  Such reorientation is a life-long process.  It is hard work because it goes against our fallen natural tendencies.  May each of us repent and believe in deeper ways this day and this week!

Brokenness Lived: Transference

Today I wish to repost about an important topic- the deadly problem of transference in ministry.  What is transference?  It is when people latch on to an authority figure and transfer their feeling about another relationship onto the one in authority.  It is a result of the fall.  It is often not a conscience choice.  Yet, it is all too real.  

Let me explain it by quoting at length a section of David Hansen's The Art of Pastoring.

I'm gun-shy of people who like me too much.  I like compliments, but when someone starts treating me like I'm the best thing since indoor plumbing, I step back.

They get this look in their eyes when they say thank you.  It isn't adult gratitude or childlike delight.  It isn't a fair exchange of human love.  They're thanking me, but their eyes are focused past me.  They're thanking someone or something else.  Maybe an ideal I've resurrected.  It's unreal.

The relationship can appear normal.  Then, without warning, it shifts.  Their talk gets contradictory.  They thank Jesus but give me the credit.  Their speech is thick with spiritual lingo, but they treat me like I'm their savior.  I don't think they're talking about me or Jesus.  They're talking to someone or something I symbolize to them.  Psychologists call this transference.

Psychotherapists recognize that their relationship with patients run on a "double track."  "All feelings in relationships as we know understand them run on a double track.  We react and relate to another person not only on the basis of our conscious experience of the person in reality, but also on the basis of our unconscious experience of him in reference to experience with significant people in infancy and childhood- especially parents and other family members.  We tend to displace feelings and attitudes from these past figures onto people in the present, especially if the person in the present has features similar to the person in the past."

Pastors like therapists, evoke feelings in people that go way back into people's pasts.  "Feelings toward the therapist therefore stem not only from the real, factual aspects of the therapist-patient interaction, but also from feelings displaced onto the therapist from unconscious representations of people important to the patient early in his childhood experiences.  These displaced or transferred feelings tend to distort the therapist, making him appear to be an important figure in the patient's past; they create in one sense an illusion." ...

It is of no little consequence that in some traditions pastors are called "Father."  We are authority figures with love, so like it or not, we symbolize parents to people.  For adults who have had positive relationships with their parents, this creates little problem.  They have respect and love for their parents.  Likewise, they have a natural respect and love for pastors.

But in cases where the relationship with the parent was deeply faulted, people develop something like an ideal parental construct and transfer this to anyone like a parent- and especially someone who gives them love as their parent should have in the first place.  Parishioners can superimpose this ideal parental figure over the pastor; they "fall in love"- not with the pastor, but with the pastor as the incarnation of their ideal parental figure.  Then they shift the monumentally important childhood desire to please their parent, which was never satisfied by their natural parents, onto the pastor.

The compliments come fast and thick, and they express a strong and unreasonable desire to "help out any way they can."  They try to work harder than anyone else- and make sure the pastor knows it- to earn the pastor's love.  They want the pastor to appreciate them more than all others.

Parishioners caught in this unconscious process may undergo "conversion" experiences.  They may experience romantic changes and testify that they have been touched by God (never forgetting to add that it was through the pastor's ministry).  In psychotherapy this is called a "transference cure."  They do experience dramatic change, but it is motivated by the desire to please the pastor.  The results of these "conversions" diminish with time, especially once the period of intense positive feelings toward the pastor wanes.

And those feelings do disappear.  Alongside the deep reservoir of childhood desire to please the parents there exists a deep reservoir of anger at parents for all the hurt they caused.  This anger has no fixed object.  It is anger at parents, but children are not psychologically able to be angry at their parents for long.  Children cannot divorce themselves from the parental love they desperately need by showing or even admitting that they are angry.  But they can cut loose on someone who represents their parent.

Things can do along for quite a while, even years.  These people are accustomed to forgiving parental figures, so pastors can fail them now and then and they will forgive.  In fact, they will vehemently defend their pastor to others, even when the pastor is dead wrong.

Until something snaps.  There is no way to predict what will set it off, but suddenly, without warning, the pastor violates some code.  The pastor must pay.  These people's anger at their parents is unleashed on the pastor.

The pastor still symbolizes the parent, but now the parent being symbolized has shifted.  The pastor is no longer the ideal parental figure the parishioner loves.  The pastor is now the failed parent the parishioner hates.  Without warning, the pastor who yesterday represented all that was right in the world today represents all that is wrong in the world.  From Jesus to the devil in one hour.

Hansen, The Art of Pastoring, 124-127.

I told you it was a long quotation!  I think it is also an important point: in a fallen world, all is not as it appears or should be.  Even the most basic of relationship can become twisted and contorted.  We must be aware of this potential or we run the risk of ramming our life and ministry upon the shoals of brokenness and being ruined in the process!

Because of transference, most pastors, particularly ones who survive in ministry, are rather guarded about people who like them too much.  How do we judge "too much?"  There is no easy answer.  It is a weird feeling that something is wrong.  Often after being burned by the switch turning to "counter-transference" the pastor or leader is a bit gun-shy of people bringing too much praise.  Through time and experience, one begins to recognize that "look in the eye" of a broken person.

If you have been in ministry and you have been hurt by this process, please realize it was caused by brokenness and it is not all your fault!  I know the first time I experienced transference, I thought it was great.  I had made a friend and someone who truly appreciated by effort!  Then, when I experienced that "something snapped" moment, I wondered what I did wrong.  I really beat myself up over it!  You might react the same way.

If you do experience transference, I strongly recommend that you find an experienced pastor or leader to talk it over with.  It is likely they will share similar experiences.  Most importantly, learn from it!  A wise leader does everything possible to avoid the same mistakes.  Love but do not be anyone's savior.  Only Jesus can fulfill that job!

So, what do you think?  Do you struggle in your relationship with "authority figures" because you engage in transference?  Ask the Lord to give you some wisdom with this.  Find someone to talk to if this is your tendency because relationship wreckage will mark your life if you do not!

Transference is real.  It is a consequence of living and ministering in a broken world.  May the Lord give wisdom and grace to live through it, grow past it, and see true healing for those suffering with its consequences.

Why Economic Systems Fail...

I found this post extremely interesting.  The writer is not writing from a Christian worldview, but he is arguing clearly for why economic theories do not work perfectly because of the fall of humanity.  I will add () and comments where he does this.  

I know some of you do not like economic talk on this blog site concerning authentic spirituality and grace.  I am not sorry, as economic life issues from the condition of our hearts.  In fact, Jesus talked more about money and its relationship to the individual than he did any other subject!  

Why?

Show me your checkbook and I will show you your priorities.  We spend our resources on what we see as important.  Governments/people in power do the same but on a larger scale.  That being said, enjoy these astute observations!

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog, Found on Zero Hedge 8/17/13.

Although economics doesn't recognize it, the operative phrase here is systemic injustice.

 

Correspondent C.G.D. recently asked what I consider a very profound question: why isn't there demonstrably correct economic theory?

 

"My wife has asked me a 'simple' question that I can not answer. After 2000 years, why do we not know which economic theory is correct: Keynesian or Hayek-Friedman? Surely, there is a demonstrably, statistically correct answer."

Let's add Marxism to the short list of contenders, and then consider why we have cargo-cult faiths (Keynesianism) instead of demonstrably correct models of economic behavior.

 

Many others have noted the obvious, that economics is a pseudo-science rather than a real science: beneath the fancy quantification and math, economics is fundamentally the study of human behavior, and that complex mix of dynamics cannot be reduced to a tidy model that spits out accurate predictions.  (Why?  Because we are created good and we have an innate desire for perfection.  Yet, we are fallen and we work contrary to our created desires)

 

One key element of science is that the results must be reproducible, that is, the same experiment/conditions should yield the same results time and again. I suspect that economic models are not applicable across all times and situations; a model might "work" in one era and in a very specific set of circumstances, but fail in another era or in a similar set of circumstances.

 

Since human behavior is based in culture as well as in naturally selected (genetically driven) behavior, then cultural milieus and values obviously play critical roles in shaping economic behaviors.  (True, but not the whole story.  Fallen human will pollutes and inhabits all cultures.  Each culture might have different forms of sin that dominate, but they all end up in the same place: selfishness rules and power corrupts)

 

So presenting an economic model as "scientific" and quantifiable is in effect claiming that the bubbling stew of human culture can be reduced to quantifiable models that will yield predictions that are accurate in the real world. This is clearly false, as culture is not a static set of objects, it is a constantly shifting interplay of feedback loops.

 

This helps explain why human behavior is so unpredictable. Virtually no one successfully predicted World War I in 1909, and no one predicted the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1985.

 

Another reason all economic theories fail as scientifically verifiable models is that economics boils down to a very simple dynamic: those in power issue financial claims on resources as a "shortcut" way of gaining control of the resources without actually having to produce the resources or earn the wealth via labor and innovation.

 

I think this is the one fundamental dynamic of economics, and it does not lend itself to reductionist models.  (Again, notice how people in power use their power to take from others.  Why?  Because they are sinful beings who are fallen and thus selfish)

 

We can understand this dynamic by stripping down the process of expropriation to its basics.

 

In the bad old days of rampaging hordes and empires, those in power simply took what resources and wealth they wanted after defeating the defending army: gold, women, wine, etc. were simply grabbed by the conquerors and hauled off.

 

The advent of finance enabled new and less overt forms of expropriation. Let's say that three traders enter a great trading fair seeking to buy goods to sell elsewhere for a fat profit. That is, after all, the purpose of the fair: to enable buyers and sellers to mutually profit.

 

One trader uses the time-honored method of letters of credit: he buys and sells during the fair by exchanging letters of credit which are settled at the end of the fair via payment of balances due with gold or silver.

 

Ultimately, the trader's purchases are limited by the amount of silver/gold (i.e. real money) he possesses.

 

Trader #2 has access to leveraged credit, meaning that he has borrowed 100 units of gold with a mere 10 units of gold and the promise of paying interest on the borrowed 90 units.

 

This trader can buy 10 times more goods than Trader #1, and thus reap 10 times more profit. After paying 10% in interest, Trader #2 reaps 9 times more profit based on the credit-based expansion of his claim on resources.

 

The issuance of paper money is an even more astonishing shortcut claim on real-world resources. Trader #3 brings a printing press to the fair and prints off "money" which is a claim on resources. The paper is intrinsically worthless, but if sellers at the fair accept its claimed value, then they exchange real resources for this claim of value.

 

Needless to say, those with access to leveraged credit and the issuance of fiat money have the power to make claims on resources without actually having produced anything of value or earned tangible forms of wealth.

 

Those with political power and wealth naturally have monopolies on the issuance of credit and paper money, as these enable the acquisition of real wealth without actually having to produce or earn the wealth.

 

This system is intrinsically unstable, as the financial claims of credit and fiat money on limited real-world resources and wealth eventually far exceed real-world resources, and the system of claims collapses in a heap. Though this end-state can easily be predicted, the actual moment of collapse is not predictable, as those holding power have a vast menu of ways to mask their expropriation and keep the game going.

 

To fill out the menu, just list every program and press release over the past five years of financial legerdemain from the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Chinese state banks. They all boil down to enforcing the claims of unearned wealth, i.e. freshly issued credit and currency, on real-world resources.

 

Although economics doesn't recognize it, the operative phrase here is systemic injustice.  (This is the condition of our fallen world!  The Church is to prophetically announce and seek to help transform the systemic injustice.  Unfortunately, when the church becomes part of the system it lacks the ability to be that prophetic source of truth.  This can happen whether someone is conservative or progressive/liberal)

Hiding Behind "Doctrine"

"I am always worried by groups that want to talk about God but do not make much effort to talk to him.  I felt that they were using dogma to defend their inner uncertainty, using a system of belief to protect them from the world around them.  The real world will always challenge our human, dogmatic claims, it will disturb our fantasies and seek to put us in touch with God.  But for rigid dogma, this is unacceptable, God must approach them through the channels they have chosen or he will be unrecognized.  We all live with the danger of a selective egotism that would censor the world, the preacher, the Church, the Bible, and even God.  We make our belief, our prayers and our God act like a sedative, preventing us from full engagement with the world.  It would be better to lose a God that we could grasp and a faith that hid us from our fears, and stand before him with whom we have to do.  At some stage we need to discover our God is a consuming fire and is not tameable by us." 

Adams, The Road of Life, 110.

Yesterday I wrote about those who hide behind shallowness and superficiality to protect themselves from God.  While I do believe these traits dominate the majority of American churches, they are not the only sin tendency.  In fact, they probably are not the most deadly.  In the above quote, Adams points his finger squarely at those who move in the opposite direction of shallow expressions of the Christian faith.

In reaction to the shallow life of many believers, a different breed of Christian has arisen.  This breed is one that is academically and theologically rich.  It seeks to know God.  It investigates the avenues of faith throughout church history.  It plumbs the depths of scripture.  Eventually, it finds that systems of thought have walked these paths before them.  This brings joy because it means they are not alone!  This propels them into deeper study.  For those with this personality type, in a few years they know more about God than their friends and the pastors of many churches.  This is very satisfying.

Again, the problem is life.  This time it is not the life they experience outside of themselves.  These folks have the intellectual tools to understand creation, sin, and redemption.  Many of these folks excel in their professions.  They are insightful people!  The problem is that many cannot understand why they know so much, yet they personally struggle to live out what they believe.  They struggle to love.  They struggle to feel and know the presence of God.  In the words of Adam, they have been using "dogma to defend their inner uncertainty, using a system of belief to protect them from the world around them.  The real world will always challenge our human, dogmatic claims, it will disturb our fantasies and seek to put us in touch with God."

How do we escape the trap of being either being shallow and not growing in knowledge of God or being academic and not growing in our relationship with God?  We believe the gospel!

If life is about repentance and faith (which it is in a fallen world!), we learn to live this life.  We do not fake our need.  We nurture and grow in our knowledge of this need.  We repent of our sin and learn to cling to Jesus.  We do not tolerate shallow knowledge because we want to know the lover of our soul.  We struggle to understand scripture and theology.  This should lead us to deeper repentance and faith, which is deeper relationship.  We keep an active eye out for our growing pride, and we develop a faith that recognizes that maturity means deeper dependence worked out in repentance and faith.

Authentic faith lives a life of growing knowledge and growing relationship.  To diminish either leads to error in life and practice.

In other words, reject both cultural trends.  Take the path less traveled and learn to grow in humble, truth seeking, repentance and faith.

Misplaced Trust

Reacting against rationalistic arrogance, our age is drifting into irrational skepticism disguising as humility.  Chesterton spoke of the "dislocation of humility" in modern thought and it works as well as a description of what many people are calling postmodern:

"By asking for pleasure, he lost the chief pleasure; for the chief pleasure is surprise.  Hence it became evident that if a man would make his world large, he must be always making himself small. ... But what we suffer from to-day is humility in the wrong place.  Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition.  Modesty has settled on the organ of conviction, where it was never meant to be.  A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed.  Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert- himself."

(Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 157-158)

Today what we doubt is not ourselves but God's Word.  

Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Chesterton was writing over 100 years ago about the fruit of modernism as captured by Nietzsche and his followers.  I have often argued that today's postmodern culture is nothing new.  It is just a maturing fruit of modernism.  

I say maturing because my guess is that the end of modernism still has not appeared.  In the end, with a trust in self and a denial of all truth, (post) modernism will end in anarchy against all transcendent truth.  In the end, we humans cannot live without some notion of transcendency.  Thus, someone or some group will come to power who provide us with a version of transcendent truth focusing on the individual.  Ironically, in their system the individual will be absorbed by the collective, but they will promote their agenda in the name of "fairness" "justice" and "equality."  In the end, we will have war on all who disagree.

In other words, such a misplacement of modesty will lead to a new tower of Babel, where humanity rejects God and sets itself up as God.  The first one did not end up well, so I doubt God will be mocked in such a manner!

My question is why the Church that knows the truth rejects and dismisses this truth so as to match a culture marching to its own destruction?  This is utter foolishness.

Yet, time and time again, particularly for the past three hundred years, the Church first drifts and then runs away from God's Word to trust changing cultural values.  This tendency must be resisted. 

Why?

When we follow this path, we lose our message, we lose our power by the Holy Spirit, and we lose our soul.  All that is left are empty church buildings, a nostalgia of past glory, and lost individuals.

Sin, Struggle, and Hebrews 6 and 10

Over the course of a week, I often get very interesting questions.  Here is a great question that deserves a thoughtful response.

And if we stumble, sin intentionally, how is our relationship restored with Christ?

When I sin intentionally, my conscience tells me I don’t have a relationship with Christ, and I quickly spiral from there. This results from the knowledge of me breaking a rule or better said, command.

Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

I often sin willfully, so that verse concerns me. Yet, there is this:

 1John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

Does my restoration come when I confess my sins? What about my guilty conscience?

How would you respond?

Here are my thoughts.  First and foremost, it is important to identify the different questions posed here.  First, how do I restore my relationship with Christ when I sin?  Second, how do I square my sinning with the "clear" command in Hebrews 10?  Third, how do I square passages that warn against sin with passages that affirm security in Christ?  Fourth, what about my guilty conscience?  How do I deal with it?

All of these are great questions, and I think many folks struggle with them.  There is nothing to fear from questions and struggling with apparent contradictions is a good thing.  I will begin by affirming that I believe there are clear answers to each of these questions, though my answers will not satisfy every branch of Christianity.  That being said, here are my thoughts:

1.) Because of the fall, we will struggle with sin our entire life.  Even mature believers struggle with sin.  Why?  The root cause of sin is our lack of faith/trust in God.  This lack of complete dependence causes us to walk independently of Jesus, and it leads to a variety of outward sins.  As 1 John tells us, "It we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

So, how do we deal with sin?  Confess it.  Declare the truth.  Repent of it and ask God to forgive and purify us from our unrighteousness.  Second, believe that Christ really does love you.  This grace is real for you.  His mercy is for you.  Even when you do not feel it, even when you feel filthy in your sin, ask for grace to believe!  In fact, confess that your unbelief is so deep that you doubt He could love you.  Ask for mercy and grace.

2.) I do not think the passage in Hebrews is as clear against the sin of believers as the NIV lets on.  This passage and the book of Hebrews is rather difficult to interpret and translate.  The word/phrase is "after we have received the knowledge of the truth."  When do we receive knowledge of the truth?  What does this mean?  I think this passage is directly related to another very difficult passage found in Hebrews 6: 4-6.

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because of their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Like I said, a tough passage!  What does this mean?  How are we enlightened?  Is this for those who are believers who fall away?  Does this mean that we can lose our salvation?

I think both of these passages are warnings to make sure that you really believe in Jesus.  As the old saying goes, "Going to church does not make you a Christian any more than going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger."

This is a warning for those who attend church, who taste of the goodness of the Spirit in worship and fellowship with others, who witness the wonderful power of God; and yet, who do not really trust in Jesus for life and salvation.  Such a state can lead to incredible hardness of heart that is antithetical to repentance.  They have seen and experienced the truth, but they have not trusted it.  To these folks, beware!  Make you salvation secure by repenting of your hard-heartedness and trust in Jesus for salvation.

3.) How do we square the passages that affirm our need to pursue faith with those that stress security in Christ's love?  Both are true.  Both are necessary.  In fact, I think many who profess faith in Christ should ask themselves if Christ is the only hope and the basis for their life.  Are you trusting in Him or in yourself and your morality?  People go to church for many reasons.  Is your reason because you know that Jesus is the only true Lord and that you need Him and want to see His Kingdom grow?

That being said, if you know that Christ is your only hope and you trust in Him for salvation and life, if your life is marked by knowledge of sin which leads you to repentance and despair of self-effort and self-righteousness, then know that God loves you.  Preach this gospel truth to yourself.  Ask for grace to believe it.  

When the Spirit points out your sin, repent/confess the reality of your unbelief and ask Jesus to change your heart.  Cling to the promises like 1 John 2:1.  Remember there is "no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)  Ask for grace to believe what God declare to be truth.  Join with others in worship and fellowship to remind you of this truth.

4.) As I see the biblical teaching, a true believer's relationship with God is secure in Christ.  Yet, our fellowship with God is broken when we walk in willful sin.  Fellowship is found as we walk in repentance and faith.  The Holy Spirit constantly works to bring us to this place, and He will pursue you through a guilty conscience when we sin.  Sin is harmful to us, and God loves us so much He desires for our health, not our death.  Thus, He points out sin to bring us to repentance and faith in Christ alone so as to cleanse us from our sin and its effects.  Sometimes He quickly transforms our hearts and desires.  Sometimes He walks with us as we struggle with deep-seated sin patterns.  Just know that He still loves us!

In other words, when we sin, we need to repent and then believe the promises are true for us.  Jesus does love us and He offers help.  Ask Him to help you believe.  As Thomas said, "I believe Lord, help my unbelief!"

One item I must address before I quit for the day from the original questions.  The writer stated, "When I sin intentionally, my conscience tells me I do not have a relationship with Christ, and I quickly spiral from there."  Do you hate your sin and know that Christ is your only hope for salvation?  Do you believe He could and does love you?  If you do, then it is not your conscience, but a lie from the evil one what says the opposite of what scripture declares.  Reject the lie outright.  You have a secure relationship with Christ and as you repent of your sin, the Holy Spirit restores your fellowship with Jesus.  Ask for grace and mercy to believe the truth. 

This post is getting very long, so I will stop for now.  I do hope this helps clarify what can be seen as a difficult balance!