Archive for the Tools category
LIVING WATERS vs. BROKEN CISTERNS
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 10:05 AM by Duncan Bouwer
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Many things about this time away on the Living Waters Training course (Feb 1997), have impacted me profoundly. Before I went I was feeling further away from the Lord than I had ever felt. I had allowed a tide of greyness and mediocrity in my walk with the Lord to overtake me. None of you have probably ever experienced this, I know, *smile* but I had, and I lived for the moments when I led worship, because then I would become part of the blessing that God bestowed , and I would be blessed as well. I was hoping that this training course would reverse the tide, and so I went away, set up for disappointment. But the Lord is faithful. He waits for the least inkling on our parts that we are prepared to meet him, and then he runs to us�but I'm getting ahead of myself.
As I was saying, many things impacted me profoundly, and until I had though what to share, I had little idea that they were all linked. For instance:
� I was struck by the fervour and zealousness of the people who taught us.
� I was struck by the fact that when I was with them, suddenly I was back where I passionately loved the Lord, and I just knew that I never wanted to be in a place again, where I was not right in his presence and BURNING UP for his sake.
� Andy Comiskey spoke of the honour of God, and I was struck by that.
� I was struck by how fat and lumpish I felt, after a few days of sitting and eating and sleeping, and man, did we eat well, but that is another story�
� I was struck by the love that flowed from these people and their readiness to admit their faults. The testimonies walked a fine line between sensationalism (because, boy, were some of the stories sensational) and giving glory to God. But that is what they were�God's glory.
� And maybe I was most struck by the fact that when they prayed for someone, the Lord showed up. By the end of the second day, I felt like I had been there a week. I simply knew that I could not receive another thing, and that the overweight numbness I felt in my posterior was rapidly engulfing my brain and heart. But still, the Lord pushed though because of a combination of his faithfulness, and theirs. I just knew that this is where I wanted to be. This is what being a Christian is all about. Of course I understand that there is a certain dynamic which comes about when a bunch of people are together at a retreat for a week. That's why some people become conference junkies. But this was different. There seemed to be no gap between what they were preaching and what was happening in the evidence of the move of the Spirit. Andy Comiskey teaches that, in order for us to be able to teach this course, which hopes to break the power of deeply ingrained hurt and the resultant sin, we have to be pure ourselves. It is no good that we teach on forgiveness if we harbour unforgiveness ourselves. This not to say that we are perfect, but rather that we be accountable, and I will say more about that later.
It is no accident that the course which we went to learn more about, and which brings new life to so many people, is called Living Waters. It is of course, a term which you have heard before. The most famous instance is where Jesus offers the woman at the well LIVING WATER. But there are some instances in the Old Testament where the Lord speaks of Living Water. One in particular is significant to us today�
In Jeremiah 2:13, the Lord says:
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"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, THE SPRING OF LIVING WATER, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
It seems to me that the two sins mentioned here are the two fundamental sins of all humanity, from Adam and Eve down. The sins of meeting our needs in our own way, WHEN WE HAVE A BETTER WAY AVAILABLE TO US.
The irony is that we insist on drinking from our own broken cisterns even when they have clearly proven themselves to be UNABLE TO MEET OUR NEEDS; unable to quench our thirst.
People who struggle with sexual brokenness, whether it is the addiction to pornography, the addiction to anonymous sex, the need to have a sexual relationship with another man or woman, or whatever, will always, without exception, at first find themselves trying to meet their own needs in their own way. The emptiness within the workaholic or the chain-smoker, trying to gratify a hunger that rises up from within, is all the same. And when we have realised that we are sinning, we will try to work our way out of our sinfulness in every other way possible, before we come to the one true source of all quenching, of all stilling of hunger: the source of the LIVING WATER, Jesus Christ himself.
We will fragment ourselves, breaking small pieces off and tucking them away where not even we can see them, so that we can avoid contact with the living, the real. We will believe that if enough time passes, our sin will pass away and no longer plague us. But all that happens, is that we become numb, and then we are surprised to find ourselves no longer alive to the move of the spirit of God. We don't even recognise the tide of greyness which has engulfed us, because we have welcomed it as a mistaken and sinful way of dealing with our sin.
The Lord God has deliberately designed us, and the universe, that way. Sin begets sin.
The Lord says in Jeremiah 2:19 "Your WICKEDNESS will punish you; your BACKSLIDING will rebuke you. "Consider then and realise how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me," declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
And here I come to the heart of what I feel the Lord wants me to tell you. This does not come directly from what I learnt at the Living Waters training course, but it underlies all the values they hold dear, because these values are fundamental to the way that God has designed reality.
In Exodus 34:12-16 the Lord says:
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Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. DO NOT WORSHIP ANY OTHER GOD, FOR THE LORD, WHOSE NAME IS JEALOUS, IS A JEALOUS GOD. "Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.
The Lord calls himself Jealous. The word is not only used an adjective, but he says his NAME is Jealous. The whole Living Waters course, being as it is based on the principles of reality as expressed on the Bible, is based on this fact. In his mercy, God has designed reality in a way that will always compel us to him. The Lord is not only jealous because he wants us for himself. He is also jealous for our well-being. He knows us. He made us to be like that. He is the highest good, and so unless we seek him out, we will perish for lack of sustenance. Our dependence on water, as biological beings that comprise of 75% of water, is a parable of this. We need water to survive. Without the Living Water obtained through coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the fountain of all life, we wither away.
The Word of God teaches that sin is like leaven. If there is any leaven in a piece of dough, it will contaminate the whole loaf. And the Lord often destroyed the sinful among his people, because they would contaminate the good. That is also the way of sin inside of us. The tide of greyness starts by dimming God's Technicolor reality first to pastel, which is slowly watered down until the colour is merely a memory, and then even that fades until we see the world through a grey haze of mediocrity which discolours our view of reality, and we find ourselves asking questions of God which can only lead to the answer that God is selfish and mean . No wonder that Joseph's brothers hated him so much. His whole life was a testimony to being alive to the reality of God, and pushing back the tide of greyness which threatened to engulf him at every moment. His coat was only and external manifestation of an internal state! No wonder the Lord calls us to be ruthless, "Break[ing] down the altars, smash[ing] the sacred stones and cut[ing] down the Asherah poles."
If we do not, we end up like the woman at the well, so blinded by our sinfulness that we cannot see that he is the water of life, the LIVING WATER
Confession is one of the secrets to maintaining our zeal for the Lord. Unconfessed sin slowly but inexorable dulls our spiritual sense to the point where we cannot even remember what it feels like to be so alive to the Lord that sin hurts us almost as much as it hurts him. The glorious abundance of the colour of first love slowly dulls and is replaced by the murky greyness of depression and hopelessness. Confessing sin enlivens us to the to the breath of the Lord. What was previously striving becomes power and light. [And the Lord created a perfect place for this to happen. Accountability to each other and so to him, creates the perfect arena to test our zeal for him, since we are humbled every time we seek out someone to whom we can commit our deepest shame.
James 5:15-17 reads:
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15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 THEREFORE CONFESS YOUR SINS TO EACH OTHER and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Confession to another Christian is important. It also allows God to demonstrate his love to us through the loving embrace and forgiveness that the brother or sister extends to us on his behalf, since they also know what it is to sin and be separated from the Father. Unconfessed sin denies the work of Christ on the cross, and so denies the power of redemption that is released through that work. It also denies the grace and forgiveness of God as expressed through Jesus, since our lack of confession robs him of the opportunity to confer upon us the glory of the robes of righteousness which rightfully only belong to his son Jesus. The Lord Expects us to be honest. He hates the pretence of righteousness more than honest unrighteousness. [Jer 3: 10 In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretence," declares the LORD. 11 The LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.]
Only polluted water can flow from a broken cistern. Only the untrammeled resources of Christ can produce rivers of living water.
In John 7:37 Jesus says in a loud voice,
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"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
In Galations 6:2 it says
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6:1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently� And in verse 2 "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ."
As I said, one of the things which struck me most about the people that I met at the Living waters training course, was their zeal for the Lord, and his honour. God's honour is seldom challenged outright in the lives of Christians. Their zeal is leeched from them slowly and thoroughly by little choices, which are made every day, every moment. Do not be mislead, it is not only those of us who come out of the depths of sexual sin, that need to keep our slates clean to prevent us from falling again. If you and I, all of us weak in some area, do not remain accountable, we are slowly engulfed by a tide of greyness, which starts, at first only wetting our feet, and then creeping up to encircle our ankles, until we get used to the stench and are unaware that it begins to climb higher and higher, finally overtaking our heads. And we drown, no longer even remembering what the glorious Technicolor of God's variety and love were like.
It is up to us to push back the tide of mediocrity and sin which engulfs us.
If you feel like a slime ball in the face of all this, you do of course know that there is a place where the Lord has ordained for us to meet him, allowing him to pay for our sins; allowing him to remove the obstacles to our fellowship with him, the causes of his wrath. No longer is it necessary for us to perpetuate the sins of our fathers, to pay for their idolatry and disobedience. And no longer is it necessary for our children to suffer to the tenth generation for our sins. Here is the place of reconciliation. Here Jesus meets us to take over the load. Here we hand over the responsibility to him. Here we halt the engulfing power of the tide of greyness and unleash the power of love and unity with God. Sin begets sin. If we sow to sin we will reap sin. If we cherish it, it will destroy us.
The Lord says in Jeremiah 2:19:
Your WICKEDNESS will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realise how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me," declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
So today I challenge you to bring to the Lord the sins which he is now raising in your minds; the dirt that is floating to the surface even as I speak If you have even the faintest inkling that there is something that you need to confess to the Lord in the presence of a trusted other, find some trusted Christian brother or sister, and ask them to pray with you now! The Lord has given us the authority to forgive sins. Use oil, and seal the work of forgiveness that has taken place in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
I urge you to embrace the opportunity of offering your sin to the Lord. I entreat you to see the deception behind trying to meet your needs in your own way. [Jer 3: 23 Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills and mountains is a deception; surely in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.]
He is calling us to offer up to him our pet indulgences. He is calling us to smash the idols we have cherished in our hearts. What has promised to enrich us and fill our needs has stolen from us [Jer 3: 24 From our youth shameful gods have consumed the fruits of our fathers' labour-- their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.] This is the time to begin the process of pushing the tide of greyness back whence it came.
Grey is not a shade of white. It is a shade of black. There is no shade of white except white. There is however one colour, and only one, that can lead to white. It is the colour red. It is the red of the blood of Christ shed for us on the cross. I urge you to set aside the qualms you have at such emotive language. This is the fabric of truth. This is the substance of the universe. If you believe that God is the ultimate good, you can see it only because he has shown it to you in spite of that which separates you from him. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that is bringing you to a place of new accountability to the Lord. If your life has been overcome by greyness and sameness for a long time now, this is for you. Now is the time!
By the grace of the Lord, unconfessed sin is even now surfacing. Do not heed the voice of the Father of all Greyness who cautions you against such extravagance. Here is the Cross. Here you can offer up that which has become your familiar partner for such a long time.
Nothing is too small. There is an incident from your childhood coming to your mind. It is insignificant, it seems, but it could be a portal through which greyness has seeped into your life, and the Lord is urging you now to close it.
There is a sin from your past, something which you have often confessed to the Lord in the privacy of your quiet time, but it still comes up for no apparent reason. Now is the time to come to Him to put an end to your indecision.
Now is the time.
Posted in Archive (RSS), Beliefs (RSS), Tools (RSS)
WHY WE SUFFER
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 5:13 PM by Duncan Bouwer
Looking at the world, what you see is rape, alcoholism, divorce, etc. and it is difficult to see the purpose behind all this suffering. Indeed, for the non-religious person, there seems to be little point in it all, and this is reflected in the philosophies that gave rise to our modern culture. In the absence of any kind of central unifying principle, the world has had to assume that the human being is in the centre of the universe, and self-actualization, whatever form it might take, is the main goal. When this fails, and all the mind-power in the world does not produce permanent "happiness" and fulfilment, humankind has to ask the question:
"What is the purpose of life?"
The world has no answer to this question. Assuming that meeting their perceived needs is the highest good, they are dumbfounded when they cannot do it, or at least, when that which they do to achieve this goal, fails. The fact is that, while they may not be able to pinpoint the purpose of life, they easily identify the nature of life:
"Life is a struggle"
But why? This is not such a stupid question as it may seem. If the nonbeliever cannot find an answer to this question, their struggle has no purpose, and there is no reason for them to endure the suffering, and they might as well commit suicide, as a great many of them indeed do.
The Christian life
So what about the Christian life? Why does the Christian have to suffer? After all, we have done what it takes to inherit "life, and life more abundantly". We have done what it says in Romans 10:9 "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.". So we should, according to the faith movement at least, have a life of plain sailing. We should be rich, healthy, and carefree. WHY AREN'T WE? Are we in sin, do we not have enough faith? Does the Lord not care? Are his promises false, or are we misinterpreting something?
This seems important enough to pursue. Not only do we need to know what we rightfully may expect, but we need to know why!
Apparently the process of salvation goes like this:
Rom 5:1 "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."
That seems fair enough! There is "hope of the glory of God"! So let's carry on�
"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, "
WAIT minute! Who said anything about suffering? This story is getting out of hand! Read on. Maybe it is a mistake!
"�because we know that suffering produces perseverance;�"
Nope, no mistake here!
"�perseverance, [produces] character; and character, hope."
What kind of hope can all that produce? The only kind of hope I want is that I won't have to suffer too much. This is not what it said in the contract:
Rom 10:9 "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,
10 For it is with your heart that you believe, and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."
It doesn't even say, "confess your sin", it says "confess Jesus is Lord". BAD NEWS!!!! I didn't read the small print.
A small fact:
The word "Suffer/suffering/suffered" appears in the NIV version of the Bible 90 times in 83 verses!
But it does say:
Rom 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes."
So there must be something in all of this that is for our good, and
Suffering understood is suffering more easily borne!
Suffering Part 2
In order for us to begin to understand what the reasons for suffering are, there are 2 things we must clear up.
HIS SACRIFICE WAS NECESSARY: Romans 3:23 Says: "For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God." We have to believe that Jesus needed to die in order for us to be saved, and there is no other way for us TO be saved.
There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. So, we believed in him. Big step. Our salvation, in respect of the Spiritual, is complete. We will never become more saved spiritually than we are now. But there is more to us than the spiritual.
We still live physically in this world. We have emotions, a will, and an intellect, all of which are rampantly opposed to God's will for us. So the step of Salvation where we believed on Jesus, was big, but not the biggest. But it is only one part of God's ultimate plan. He wants that we should go one (BIG) step further:
We must continue to choose him. Faith is only faith when it cleaves to the eternal, not the temporal. It is sceptical of the physical. It chooses to demonstrate a choice to hold onto good (as demonstrated to us in the will of God) even when there is no immediate reward. It calls us to pursue FURTHER salvation.
HIS SACRIFICE WAS ENOUGH The next big step, and this is almost more difficult than the first, is to believe this. The reason we have to finally put to rest our notions of salvation, is that we have to finally rely on him to be the author and finisher of our faith. When we are faced with the habits which ensued from our brokenness, we have to believe the above, enough to be able to choose Jesus above our old, and very outdated ways of relating. In other words we HAVE TO START APPLYING HIS SALVATION TO OUR LIVES IN EVERY PRACTICAL WAY POSSIBLE.
Some Questions to ponder:
1. Do you believe Romans 3:23 is true? Do you believe that it was necessary for Jesus to die on the cross?
2. Are you saved? This is not such a stupid question as it seems. Do you believe that Jesus died for you, and the God raise him from the dead? Read Romans 10:9-10 and decide for yourself how you will answer this question. If you are not saved by the definition of Romans 10:9, then go here first
3. Do you believe that Jesus' sacrifice was enough?
In other words, are you still intent on supplying your own answers when the going gets tough?
4. Do you demonstrate the salvation of Jesus in the choices you make when you are confronted with situations which bring up old feelings and reactions?
Reasons for suffering:
Rom 8: 16-17 says� "we are God's children��co-heirs with Christ...indeed we share in his suffering in order that we may also share in his Glory"
We are part of the same family. Members of the same family go through the same stuff. Jesus suffered, so we suffer with him. If he suffered to be proved worthy, we share in the same character and the way it is produced.
We are, even more so, part of his body�if the person suffers, so does the body. It cannot be escaped. A person goes hungry, even the ring finger loses weight. One for all and all for one!
His suffering led to his glory. If we are to share in his glory, we must share in his suffering.
We, being part of his body, already share in his glory, but for our own sakes, and for the sake of his increasing glory, it needs to be "revealed in us: (vs. 18)
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."
We are being "mined" for glory. The suffering is revealing his glory in us (more about that later)
And being "Mine"-ed (made his) through the constant choice we make for him. In the face of suffering we make choices which confirm his ownership of us.
Questions to consider:
1. Did you know that Jesus is your big brother? Nice thought, hey?
2. What KIND of glory could possibly be revealed in you?
3. Think HOW his glory is revealed in you when you struggle.
3. Do you genuinely think his glory is WORTH IT?
4. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you some of the things he has done in
you through struggle/suffering!
SUFFERING TURN US TO GOD
That God might be glorified� (Rom 5:2) "through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
It shifts the focus away from us and where it belongs to God.
The proper focus for the one who is suffering, is not the one who is suffering, but the one who can do something about it.
In a strange, almost paradoxical way, the Lord hopes to direct us outwards through suffering. It is easy to be philanthropic and giving when we are in easy street, but it is character building, and self-sacrificing to be outward directed when we are in the midst of suffering.
Remember in the last teaching I said that character traits run in families. We are to build character that resembles Jesus' character. Suffering builds that. Jesus was perfected through suffering, and so are we. What it does require from us is that we do not wallow in our suffering, but that we turn towards the source of the hope that we have: God the Father, and accept that life is hard, but still glorify him.
Character is realistic�it is born of truth. And that includes the truth that God is great and that he must be acknowledged to be good and great no matter what the evidence. It is the biggest slap in the devil's face that we do not turn on God when we suffer. That is the whole story of Job all over again. So in the truth that we discover in the midst of suffering, namely that God is great no matter what we are going through, we begin to assume even more of the character of God. Of Jesus.
This kind of hope "does not disappoint us" (vs.5), because it is not based on evidence, but on the truth. (Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.) we learn, by building into our spiritual heritage, how to operate out of the "new Creation". The words of God become more real to us than the evidence of our flesh. I am not talking here about a "name it, claim it" kind of theology. ALL OF YOU will know no matter how much you rebuke suffering, it does not go away. I am talking here about beginning to breathe a spiritual air, beginning to breathe the "atmosphere of our home planet," where Christ already resides. From that place springs the "peace that surpasses all understanding", and the "joy of the Lord which is our strength"!
4. QUESTIONS TO PONDER.
a) Do I use suffering as a means to turn me to God?
b) How can I practically turn outwards when I suffer. How can I demonstrate the character of Christ, and his SERVANT nature, when I am suffering?
c) Do I REALLY BELIEVE that God is great and good, not matter what?
WE SUFFER SO THAT GOD'S GOODNESS AND COMPASSION MAY BE REVEALED.
In him, as he comforts us. He is called "the father of compassion & and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles�" (2 Cor 1:3)
The world tries to make out that God is cruel, and hold up our suffering as an example. In actual fact it is exactly the opposite. It is inflicted upon us by the Enemy, and instead of achieving his purpose, namely to make us curse God, it gives God the opportunity to reveal his true nature to us. He shows us how loving and compassionate he is.
In Heb 7: 22 ? it says: " Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. 23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. 26 Such a high priest meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens."
We suffer, so that his nature may be revealed IN US 2 Cor 1:4-6 "�who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. It is a beautiful outworking of what we read in Rom 8:28� "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
So the circle of suffering and compassion increases and increases, until, Satan has destroyed himself. He has well and truly shot himself in the foot. The compassion of God, started for us in Jesus Christ, demonstrated through his death on the cross, is transferred and magnified every time it is demonstrated by one of his children who has suffered and received compassion and comfort, to another who is suffering and so on. Suffering creates the possibility of a most holy transaction.
Questions to Ponder
1) Is there a way that I can begin to see suffering in this more positive light? Does God, or has God, ever revealed his compassion to me through my suffering?
2) If not, ask him to.
3) If yes, make a note of these instances, and add them to your armoury.
4) Have I ever shown the compassion I was shown, to others?
It reinforces God's intention in us that we should put to death the "flesh". The choice to endure suffering denies the self which clamours for the easy way out. It denies the self that cleaves to old ways of doing things. It starves it out. Choice to endure suffering for God's sake strengthens the real self, the one we start building on�the "new creation", which is built up of eternal stuff and not temporary, perishable matter.
Resurrection can only happen after death. Christ had to die in order to be resurrected,
Christ had to die in order for the Holy Spirit to be released in him to produce resurrection. It is the same with us. "Unless a seed fall to the ground and die�"
And so suffering is a tool for our deliverance from the world. This is what we should seek, not deliverance from suffering.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER.
1) Am I ready to give up the "old self"?
2) Do I begin to see suffering in a positive light rather than as a punishment?
Suffering purges our perceptions, so we may see the truth of Christ, namely that our entire hope is in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
We no longer allow ourselves the luxury of self-pity. When we begin to identify with the crucified Christ, we are enabled to se ourselves for what we are: "little Christs" (That is what the Greek word "cristianos" means) whose sole purpose in life is to become more like him. So we identify with him on the cross, and assume the mantle of one who is has a greater purpose, above the demands of our own agendas, where we can begin to see our eternal goal�
We can offer hope to the world that there is purpose in their suffering, since we have the authentic view of our own suffering as the true purpose on earth, namely to emulate our master in his mission�.to reveal the Father to the world.
To reflect to the world that the Father is ALWAYS extending a hand of compassion and mercy to those who are struggling under the yoke of the devourer, who are caught up for a season on a planet where they are aliens, breathing a foul, tormenting alien air.
To prove to the heavenlies by our reaction to suffering, that the Father is ULTIMATE GOOD, and that we choose to serve him, even though it becomes progressively more difficult. Our behaviour is an affirmation that HE is God.
Phill 3: 8 "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."
Questions to ponder.
1) Have you learnt anything of value from this extended teaching?
2) What did you learn (Email me at dunx@exgayman.org
Posted in Archive (RSS), Tools (RSS)
GUARD YOUR HEART 1
Posted on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 1:29 PM by Duncan Bouwer
Part one
Proverbs 4:23-27
The question is often asked: how do I live, in a practical way, that will accelerate my victory in the struggle against my unwanted same-sex attraction?
The answer is not simple, and to make the question more relevant, it should perhaps be rephrased: how do I live, in a practical way, that will accelerate my victory in the struggle against the immaturity and idolatry which are an inherent part of my fallen nature as a man/woman, who is as yet unglorified?
You see, the answer to both is the same, but if you try and answer the first question, you will inevitably be skewed in your response; misled into placing the emphasis where it does not belong: on the unwanted same-sex attraction, which is a symptom of the idolatrous and immature ways of relating to which the world at large, and we in our own particular way, are prone!
I am going to try and answer the question, at least partially, from Proverbs 4:23-27. The portion of scripture, in the Amplified Bible, reads as follows:
"23 Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life. 24 Put away from you all false and dishonest speech, and wilful and contrary talk put far from you. 25 Let your eyes look right on [with fixed purpose] and let your gaze be straight before you. 26 Consider well the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established and ordered aright. 27 Turn not aside to the right hand or the left; remove your foot from evil."
In the interest of brevity, this week I will only deal with verse 23, and thereafter with a verse a week for 4 weeks after that.
So, on to verse 23: "Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life."
Biblically speaking, the heart is the seat of emotion and belief. This is what the bible is referring to here. It is our convictions about ourselves and the world which drive us to act in certain ways, some of which are good, and most of which are bad. Our (homosexually oriented) hearts are filled with all sorts of rubbish to start off with. That is why we are attracted to the same sex in the first place.
We believe: 1) that we are unlovable. Our fathers and mothers, in almost all cases, were so broken, that they were simply not able to love us in a way which could produce a person who knows their own worth, as expressed by God the Father. This is not their fault, but something which is passed on from the previous generations in an endless tide of brokenness, each generation compounding the errors of the previous.
We believe: 2) That it is unsafe to trust anybody... a) ...to meet our needs, least of all God, who in many cases we subconsciously/consciously hold responsible for our pain, and our turning out the way we have. b) ...not to hurt us, and so we secretly/openly believe that God will do the same, since he is supposed to be in control of the world and so must take responsibility for who we are. c) ...with our love, since we have been rejected so many times before, starting with our parents (in some cases) and carrying on in a continuous line of rejection, until we hoard our feelings carefully, becoming closed off until we have lost the ability to love, except for meeting our most immediate needs (sex), without giving anything of ourselves in return.
We believe: 3) That we deserve what we have been dealt, because we are completely unworthy to start off with, so when we get dumped again, or hurt again, or our trust is abused again, we are not surprised, because it merely confirms what we know anyway. So God cannot love us because we have been proven time and time again to be unworthy of love, and deserving of punishment and abuse.
That is why the Bible says that we should keep and guard our hearts. It influences the way we see reality. What we believe, makes us relate to the world in a certain way, and the way we relate to the world determines to a large degree how it relates to us.
You will notice that all of the above examples contain in some way or another, an attitude to God. In some way or another what we have experienced has misshapen our perception of God in such a way that we are prepared to:
1) ...call him a liar, when he says he loves and values us, 2) ...choose our own way of doing things rather than to be vulnerable and do things his way.
These are idolatrous attitudes, because: a) we set ourselves up as authorities above God and what he says. We might not have actively chosen to believe these things but we have to take responsibility for continuing in our faulty beliefs. Out of them "flow the springs of life"! b) We set ourselves above God when we do things our way. We have the RIGHT to be this way: we have been hurt enough!
Everything that is not faith is sin (Rom 14:23 slightly out of context). Every belief that contradicts God is sin. Every belief that chooses our own opinion above his, is idolatry. It's very true, and very simple. You can dig up all the memories in the world, of being hurt and abused and victimised, and you may go through emotional healing till the cows come home, but if it does not produce repentance in your heart for the things you have chosen to believe about God, you will not move more than a baby step ahead.
MATURITY Maturity means taking responsibility for your choices. Perhaps you were to young/small to make informed choices about the way you saw God before, but now you are hoping to outgrow those ways of relating, and that means that you must face up to that fact that you can either continue to make your choices in the same way, or you can grow up and see things his way.
EXERCISE Check what you believe about reality. The only beliefs about reality that really matter, are what you believe about God. What do you believe about God? Do you beliefs concur with his Word? How do they differ? What can you do about it? Spend some time talking to God about your attitudes to him. He is not surprised, and according to Rom 8:1 "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Ask him to forgive you for your attitudes, and declare your willingness, at least in principle, to co-operate with him as he adjusts your attitudes.
And may the "Peace that passes all understanding and guards you hearts and minds in Christ Jesus," (Phillippians 4:7) be yours.
Posted in Archive (RSS), Tools (RSS)
Changing
Posted on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 1:26 PM by Duncan Bouwer
This is not as simple as you may think! Yes, God is powerful and yes, he wants us to be whole, but in his funny way he can seem quite contrary to us. I mean, what is simpler to him, than to wave his magic wand and declare us "straight", right? Wrong!
We were broken through relationships and so we will be healed through relationships. That is not to deny that God does heal us when we cry out to him, but his methods are not necessarily up to our specifications of comfort and ease!
To make matters worse, you same-sex attractions are hardwired into your brain, and so we have to weaken those habits of relating through "renewing of our minds": Literally! As they say, "old habits die hard", and they die best when replaced with new ones.
So get used to it...there is hard work ahead!!!
Posted in Archive (RSS), Struggle (RSS), Tools (RSS)
Co-creators, with Christ, of the New Creation
Posted on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 6:36 AM by Duncan Bouwer
Let's read 2 Cor 5. Later we will read a much longer passage from this chapter, but for now I just want to read verse 17:
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So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
When I gave my life to the Lord in 1991, I was sharing a flat with a friend of mine, who taught me some valuable things about the word of God. According to one of those truths, "if the word of the Lord said something, it was so", and it was to be acted on as such. So according to 2 Corinthians 5:17, I, who used to be homosexual, was no longer so, and could now consider myself to be a "new creation", which would mean that the "old identity would have passed away, and that everything had become new", which, as you can see, is exactly what the verse says.
And it was so. I became new. Even people who spoke to me on the phone could sense that something had happened to me. My face changed, I stopped swearing, and in the theatre, that more than anything, caused a stir. Everybody swears.
So there I was, practising the reality of this short verse, which for a person who formerly was unequivocally gay, and now no longer was, was a life-transforming experience. It seemed that my former friends were in two minds whether they believed in this change or not. One group broke off acquaintance with me, because they sensed the presence in me of the One that made me this new creation. The others were convinced that I would be back in all the old haunts soon enough. Estimates varied from six weeks to six months. And neither was completely right. Because what neither I nor they knew, was that while it is absolutely true that once you receive Christ, you are a new creation, and you are something completely different from what we were before, you are not yet what you will be, and no matter how much you wish it were so, you will not be that new creation completely this side of the grave. It has taken nine years and (more significantly) marriage to convince me of this, and I think it is what separates the spiritual men and women from boys and girls.
The moment we start to mature arrives when we, flushed with youth and the thrill of knowing it all, find ourselves increasingly confronted with situations that defy our superior intellect and insight, and we are slowly reduced to the unenviable position of those (older) men and women we see around us. Increasingly we have to admit that life is not an amusement park ride, and what we took for brilliant insight was merely a shallow unawareness of the painstaking and hard-won progress that characterises true growth and self-awareness.
Let's turn back to the 2 Cor 5. Lets start reading from verse one.
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5:1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
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2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,
As you can see, we are off to a good start! We start reading this chapter hoping to hear that we are new creations to which there is no further work to be done as we while away the time until Jesus returns, and already we hear that there are two dwellings. One is here, and in it we groan while it is demolished around our ears, and the other one is in heaven. And we all know what has to happen before we will see that one: we have to die to posses it.
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3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, (again we groan!) because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,
Just in case you have forgotten, these are the verses which are going to lead up to the triumphant conclusion that we are "a new creation in Christ." It's just as well that at this point Paul thinks it appropriate to give us a little bit of encouragement�
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.....because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, �so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 6 Therefore we are always confident�! (speak for yourself Paulie!) and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. (oy!) 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
On to verse 13: 13
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If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
What does this all mean? Paul seems to contradict himself here. He talks about the destruction of the old tent, and not being found naked, since we have a new home in heaven...then he says a whole bunch of other things and ends up saying "Therefore", that is, as a result of all that, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
I must be missing something. He describes a process, and then says because of that process which will only be fulfilled when we are in heaven, something has already happened in heaven!
We have to try and make sense of this somehow. Let's try and put it into terms that refer to our daily lives. We know that the tent he refers to refers to the body we live in here on earth until we live in heaven, in our new bodies. We don't have to interpret the words "meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling" too much. It's obvious what that means. Why do we groan? It says here, in verse 4: "we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,".
It's my opinion that this is quite and important phrase. In my mind it implies that we have to be unclothed, before we can put on the heavenly body. I don't think unclothed means a one-time death, which after all would be a relief. I think it means a perpetual death, during which we are slowly and painfully relieved of garments, or parts of the earthly home, and although we are not yet in heaven, we are clothed in our heavenly dwelling by hands that are not human. By God's hands. That's why we have to live by faith and not by sight. Because we can see what we have to take off, but we will only see in heaven what it is with which we have replaced it.
That is why I have called this talk "Co-creators with Christ, of the New Creation". The sermon is actually over. But it is important to see how this takes shape in daily life, and why. It is really important, because otherwise we will lose heart and give up.
You will forgive me if I illustrate this talk with numerous examples of my own walk out of homosexuality, since it is probably one of the most relevant examples of the process described above, that I can think of. If you ask someone who struggles with something which has become part of their "earthly dwelling", or identity, they will say the same thing. And really every one of us has things that fall into this category, otherwise we would have no need to go through this painful process, and we can just be raptured away like Enoch!
When you find that you are attracted to members of the same sex it's usually too late to just simply change. By that time the damage is usually done, and while it is easier at that stage to decide not to take up the option of living like that, than to try and change later when you have put on several more of those garments, you have in reality already put on quite a few which need to be taken off.
1) You have put on the garment of rejection. To put it simplistically, a man or woman who is attracted to the same sex, has gone through a long process, which in most cases starts with an initial problem with the parent of the same sex. I said this is a simplistic description, and so I am not going to qualify this statement. There is something which is perceived as rejection, and the young boy or girl loses the ability to receive love from the parent of the same sex. The rest of childhood is spent growing up without the ability to receive nurturing care of the parent of the same sex, even if it is given. This usually also involves an inability to be accepted by the peer-group, for one reason and another. So by the time the child reaches adolescence, there is a deficit of several years, which somehow needs to be filled. The soul is empty and has stayed behind where it was last loved, and yet the body of this emotional child is growing and suddenly finds itself washed in the hormones which announce the onset of puberty. The need to be loved by a person of the same sex, which remains, is eroticised, and there the desire is felt.
My point here is that, by the time the first twinges of same-sex attraction are felt, many consecutive garments have been put on which now have to be painstakingly removed and replaced with other more appropriate ones.
Now, if you then at this point choose to act out the feelings of attraction, you
2) Put on the garments of reinforcement. Every time you now act out the behaviour which for a short time relieves the need for same-sex love, you put on another garment, which further builds the house of identity in which you live. Every time you put on another item of this clothing through any deed which reinforces this dwelling, even if it is not sexual as such but only even associating with a set of people who adopt a certain way of talking and acting, you further establish your residence in this place where you live. You are in fact building up a false creation which provides you with a great deal of safety and security, since it is a place to live, even if it is not a good place to live. This might carry on for many years of constant reinforcing of a flawed way of relating, to satisfy needs which can never be satisfied that way.
3) Now comes the day when you look out of the window of your dwelling, because you heard a knock at the door, and there stands someone who by the very expression on his face, makes you believe that he will be able to love you as you deserve to be loved. You invite him in, one thing leads to another, and he moves in. But it is still the dwelling you originally built, and so you go on adorning yourself in the garments of rejection, because that is what you know best, even while someone who does not reject you, is living in your house with you.
But because he is God, and he is eternal, and he has claimed you for his own through the work he did on the cross, you are guaranteed that one day you will move on to a "dwelling that was not created with human hands". So the phrase
"if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! "
is as good as true, in the eternal scheme of things. But as quickly as we take off our old dwelling piece by piece, we tend to put those garments back on again. Verse 4 says: "For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling�" We want to change, but we do not want to go through the extremely painful process of undressing out of those wrong and hurtful garments!!!!
When I was a child we had an old 16 mm projector and some cartoons which we always watched with glee. One of my favourites was one where a bunch of crows live in an old double story house, and one day the house catches on fire. They call the fire brigade, and everybody starts carrying pieces of furniture out of the house through the front door. But as fast as they do that, the fire reaches out through the upstairs windows, and carries the furniture back into the house.
In spite of this, the whole point of this talk is the following. Every time we decide for Christ in some way or another, after that initial moment when we first invited him in, we are building something eternal. As it also says in Vs 4, "What is mortal [is] � swallowed up by life."
Please turn to 2 Corinthians 4:10-11:
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10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.
When I invited Jesus into my house that day, he had already died the death that overcame the death that was at work in me. So it is not that everlasting death that I now carry around in me any longer. It is HIS death, which leads to life. So every time when I am faced with a choice whether to put on the garment of rejection, which was leading to my death, or the garment of his acceptance, which leads to life, and I choose to do the latter, I become a CO-creator, with Christ, of my own, "new creation"!
Posted in Archive (RSS), Struggle (RSS), Tools (RSS)
TOOLS: "COME DOWN FROM THE CROSS AND SAVE YOURSELF!"
Posted on Saturday, February 09, 2008 at 6:20 PM by Duncan Bouwer
"have you no pride?"
"And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!" In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him." Mark 15:24-32 (NIV)
INTRODUCTION
The World today is no different from the world in Jesus' time. There is no place for weakness. In our World only strength, beauty, and success are valued! We are taught that in order to survive, we have to pursue control and power. "Mind over Matter", the "Power of positive thinking" and such slogans are drummed into us by every advert and TV show.
Furthermore, we are subtly taught that the appearance of health is more important than actual health. Our pride is taught to say that we dare not admit the truth of what is going on in our minds and hearts. We may be vulnerable, as long as the situation can be remedied with some best-selling self-help book.
"Gmf! Who needs salvation?"
This is the question, which underlies this ethos. The world is geared for a saviourless salvation! In order to achieve this, we will do everything we can to manipulate our way into greater self-actualization. We will be vulnerable in order to achieve our goals: we need to PROVE success. Success at any cost: even to the point of ultimate failure�
The "Human Doing" Vs the "Human Being"
Ironically, we are called "human beings", although our every activity points to the fact that we are trying to achieve a state of "being" by "doing"! So we "Achieve" peace rather than "being peaceful". The phrase self-ACTUALIZATION is held up as an activity to be pursued at all costs. Building a "self" modelled on "what I do" is the result. Self-worth is not a state which is intrinsic, in other words we find our worth in what people say about us, which in turn is based on what we can do to externalise our apparent "self-worth". A vicious circle!
This is not a new world view�
Adam & Eve started it all. Satan appealed to their pride. He offered them equality with God. He tempted them to question God, and they fell for it. "Does God really know all the answers? Why is he so selfish not to want to share what he knows? He must be an awfully petty little god, otherwise he would not hoard all the treasures of knowledge so diligently!" So they took control.
"Jesus! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ACHIEVE VICTORY?" Have you no pride?"
"Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, 'So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!'"
Jesus had a hard time being who he was supposed to be. It went against the grain of the world. In the world's eyes he was a failure! He said he was the Messiah, and yet he had no armies to shrug off the Roman rule. The Jews had their preconceived ideas about what a Messiah should be: he should save the Jews, but he couldn't even save himself!
They presumed that the Kingdom of God would assert control over the environment. They couldn't believe that the Messiah wouldn't zap them all with lightning for being so disrespectful. He had made a promise that the temple would be broken down and rebuilt. Little did they know that he intended to break down what had been built by human hands when Adam and Eve had set out to build their own little self-image which led to the Fall.
They didn't understand that Jesus was showing them a new way; their minds were controlled by the world system where the motto was survival of the fittest, and dog eat dog. They didn't know Darwin, but they might as well!
So Jesus still being on the cross didn't make sense! "Come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." For them the evidence of the Messiah was determined by their worldview. If he would conform to their (our) standards, and they (we) would believe in him. For them (us) the evidence of Godhood is that he is not vulnerable. We would rather create God in our image. As long as he is like us, we will believe in him.
BUT
I Cor 1:17 says: "For Christ did not send me to baptise, but to preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."
We would dearly love to skip over the tragic events of the cross, and cut right to the resurrection, because we instinctively know what the implications of the cross are for our lives!
Human wisdom is bound to fail in its understanding of the meaning of the cross. In our human wisdom the Pharisees see the refusal of Jesus to come off the cross as a failure, when in truth it was no such thing.
The weakness of the cross is its greatest power. It symbolises the death of human systems which Adam and Eve were responsible for. It represents the death of power and control. It represents the death of human "wisdom"; It represents the death of "SELF-actualization".
The truth about God is:
The expression of the nature and love of the Father is demonstrated by One who emptied himself of his rights to be like God! Phil. 2:6, 7 says of Jesus "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."
Jesus did not take the opportunity to establish "Jesus Christ Ministries Intergalactic"! What drove him was to fulfil the will of the Father.
YET!
Christians today still have the same problem. We espouse a one-sided triumphalist version of the Gospel which agrees with the Pharisees when they say "come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe", because we see with the world's eyes. Even though we are Christians, we would rather step over the message of the cross.
We want resurrection, without crucifixion!
We want to get to victory, because we conform to the pattern of the world. We want glamour, without going through the pain of death. The worldly "Gospel" of the victorious Christian is a half-truth! It buys into the "human doing" theory, because it says: "I have done everything I know how, and still God doesn't dance to my tune! He must be a liar."
Our faith, our prayer, our goodness, our brownie points!
Like the Pharisees, we measure success by what we do! We measure success by representing the very opposite of what we are actually called to do and to be!
Success is measured by how quickly we can get the weakness of being on the cross behind us.
Biblical Christianity looks different.
Gal 6: 14 says: "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." AND:
Gal 2: 20 says: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
We are expected to empty ourselves of control;
We are expected to choose death over rebellion;
We are expected to choose weakness over human strength and manipulation ;
We are expected to choose death of the Unregenerate Self ;
We are in this world but not of this world. The world would like to see the cross of Christ being emptied of its power, because as it stands, it turns Satan's theories on their head.
We have to realise that if we negate his act of weakness, we will live powerless lives.
Jesus feels quite strongly about it. Matt 10: 38,39 says "�and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
We are called to live with the implications of the cross! We are called to carry our weakness with us, make peace with it, and embrace it as that which makes us like Christ and enables us to find him. (Unlike Christ, who was forsaken by the Father, we will never be [left] nor [forsaken] Heb. 13:5)
We need to empty ourselves of our rights to the appearance of having it all together. We are, as Jesus was and is, an expression of the Love of the Father, restoring the world to HIS reality. He says, "the meek shall inherit the earth!" (Matt. 5:5)
Christ's real victory was on the cross. He demonstrated the true Gospel, and his Victory is ours: victory not over the world, but over ourselves. Over the grasping, trumpeting, arrogant son and daughter of Adam, who is our real enemy; over the world system and so over the deceiver who lies when he says we should grasp after power which we have no right to. So, the gentle, defenceless "loser" wins!
Don't come off the cross too soon!
It is an expression of God's REAL nature.
Embrace the cross, and:
Celebrating the power of weakness, so that God may be strong, resurrecting you with the same power that resurrected Christ!
Denying the lie of Eden and putting to death "man as god"