Christian Concepts

Bringing your Potential to Light

Identity

Why Your Feelings Are Important

by 2 Comments

Reading time: 2 minutes

Your feelings are part of the complete package God provided. You have a body with five senses. You have feelings and you have thoughts.

There isn’t anything wrong with your feelings. But you might be interpreting or emphasizing them the wrong way.

Your feelings provide information just like your senses. If something smells bad, you use this information to help you make a decision. Problems can arise if you bias the information to favor the decision you want to make. You’re no longer treating the information as objective.

Some foods smell bad, but are actually good for you. If you overly value smell, you might miss out. Some food have a strange texture, but smell and taste good. If texture is important to you, then you might not eat them.

When I was a child, I had some bad food experiences with brownies and roasted pumpkin seeds (on separate occasions). Sometimes I feel queasy before I eat these foods. But unless all brownies make you sick, I need to work on my bias against them.

God made your feelings. So they must be important. They are meant to work in partnership with your other senses. Then, through your ability to discern fact from fiction, you can correctly interpret and use all the input you’ve gathered to make a godly decision.

Life becomes interesting when strong feelings come into conflict with the truth. Which one is right to prioritize? Is what you think of as the truth, really not true? Or, are your feelings off because of some bad experiences? What is the truth? Where is the deception? Isn’t this what Adam and Eve faced (see Genesis 3).

I’ll continue this discussion over the next several weeks. In the meantime, you could reflect on how much importance you place on your feelings. Have you ever been sure of something, only to find out you were wrong about it? Why was that?

Why There Are So Many Perspectives

by 2 Comments

Reading time: 1 minutes

If ten people see a car accident, all ten of them will have a different eye-witness report.

If five people interpret a Bible verse, all five of them will have a different opinion of its meaning.

A husband and a wife will have very different ways to recall the same event.

Why are there so many different perspectives?

Most of the time people interpret life based on their investment. By investment, I mean their convictions—their worldview. A person who has been bitten by a dog will make an investment to avoid dogs. Or maybe they will focus on finding a cure for angry dogs. A parent whose child experiences a serious injury because of a malfunctioning car seat will all of a sudden become interested in how car seats need improving. Or perhaps in an extreme case, they will refuse to let their child ride in a car.

One way to find out what someone really believes is to witness them in a heated argument. The more agitated a person becomes, the more likely they will bypass their filter and speak their raw truth. Their words may or may not be accurate, but how the person feels will come across much clearer.

If (or maybe I should say when) you’re struggling to communicate with another person, the first step should be to gain understanding. Why do they not want a dog? Why do they insist on paying extra for premium safety features? When you understand a person’s investment, you’re well on your way to negotiating a solution to your heated argument.

Identity and The Gospel

by 1 Comment

Reading time: 2 minutes

The Gospel is the foundation of Christian identity.  Without the Gospel, you couldn’t become born spiritually, so you’d never have access to your Christian identity.

When Paul wrote to the Galatians, he stressed repeatedly that the Gospel can’t be altered in any way. As soon as you add or remove something, you no longer have a Gospel. He goes on to say that the primary reason anyone would want to alter the Gospel would be to please another human.

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

—Galatians 1:10

You might water down the Gospel so that more people qualify. The Gospel is already free. Or, almost free. You do have to want to spend eternity with God on His terms. The Gospel needs to be responded to for it to be effective. If we try to make it more inclusive, we steal away its power.

You might try to tighten up the Gospel so that fewer people qualify. But again, the Gospel isn’t some hard-to-get-into exclusive club. You can’t make a profit from the Gospel but charging someone. It’s already free, making someone jump through more hoops to qualify also robs the Gospel of its power.

The more we try to please anyone but God, the more we stray from fulfilling God’s plan for our lives. God has a purpose for us. Every day has a purpose. God knows the day you will wake up so you can intentionally seek your purpose. He strategically hides everyone’s purpose in their identity. If you know your identity, you know your purpose.

If you want some assistance in discovering who God made you to be, get my workbook, Confident Identity.

Satan is the Best Salesman

by Leave a Comment

Reading time: 2 minutes

Have you ever gone window shopping and ended up buying something? Maybe a lot of something?

I missed an appointment with someone recently. We got our times mixed up. While I waited for him to arrive, I went for a walk. I walked passed a bookstore. I decided to go in and look around. I walked out with three books I had no plan to buy. Maybe I should reword that. I didn’t steal them. I purchased three books that I didn’t know existed an hour earlier. I got them on sale, so it’s okay, right? All this happened without any salesman pressuring me to buy anything.

If Satan, the deceiver, was a salesman he would say, “Books are good for learning. Certainly, God doesn’t want you to be ignorant, does he?”

Of course, I’m not saying that buying books is a sin. Nor am I saying that Satan told me to buy those books. I’m happy with my purchase (two of the three books were Christian books, so it’s okay, right?).

The deceiver can make you think you’re on a good path when you’re really not. He can make you think your not good enough when you really are. He can make you think you need something when you really don’t.

Satan is the best salesman. He sold Adam and Eve on choosing hell over God. He sold that God was against them, withholding something great. He implied God lied. He could sell an iceberg to an Eskimo or a mirror to a blind man. But he doesn’t really have to. He only has to create the smallest bit of doubt to close his sale. Ssssssss. God is holding back on you. God isn’t all good. Ssssssss.

Life is God — there really isn’t anything else. God is either all good, or he’s got some bad in Him. If He’s got some bad, He ceases to be trustworthy. God, ruler of the universe, can only be trusted as 100 percent good, or not at all. Just remember: as soon as you believe God has any evil in Him, you’ve lost everything. If God can’t be perfect, then what hope do you have? Such doubts can reak havoc in your daily living.

Who are you trusting? Do you see God as all good, or do you see some bad in Him? Perhaps you believe God hasn’t treated you fairly? If so, to correct this, you must intentionally address your positive experience deficit. Seek the healing you need to experience God’s goodness.

Once you taste that God is good, even in the smallest amount, it can create enough faith to see that God must be all good. With God living inside you, you can overlook painful circumstances, and continue to see God as perfectly good.

Stop an imagine: How would seeing God as all good change how you see yourself, your self-image?

Identity Manifesto

by 1 Comment

Reading time: 1 minutes

Do you know what a manifesto is? According to thesaurus.com, it’s a public statement of belief — a “public declaration explaining past actions and announcing the motive for forthcoming ones.”

I wrote an Identity Manifesto to raise awareness of the need for us to better understand who God intends us to be. Why? Because the lack of identity is at epidemic proportions. I’m calling for you to join me in serious pursuit of who God made you to be.

You can't be blind to who you are, believe lies about yourself, and see God clearly at the same time. Share on X

If everyone knew who they were and why God made them, imagine what effect this would have on the quality of life. Wouldn’t addiction, crime, depression, anxiety, bad attitudes, feeling lost and empty… all decrease and maybe even cease?

As all Christians grow in their identity, the time will pass quickly as God’s plans come to fruition. Then, we’ll be together in heaven, fully knowing each other and fully knowing God.

You’ll receive a copy of the Identity Manifesto when you signup to receive my weekly emails.

When you make a decision to join me in pursuit of identity, let me know in an email or post a comment. I ‘d like to know what you find to be the most difficult thing about learning who God made you to be.

Stop Drifting and Start Living on Purpose

by 1 Comment

Reading time: 2 minutes

A sailor woke up on his ship drifting in the ocean. He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t remember how he got there. He couldn’t recall where he came from. He had no idea where he was going.

He did have a working knowledge of sailing. All directions looked the same to him, so he continued to sail in the direction he was already going.

Could this sailor be you? Stop and examine your life. Are you moving in a direction on purpose? Or do you only let the waters take you where they want to go?

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.

—Lewis Carroll

If your only goal is to not be where you are, then don’t waste time trying to pick the best direction. If you want to get away fast, don’t bother analyzing your options.

Drifting along in life is necessary when you have no clue who you are. But drifting without a systematic mapping of your journey is foolish. As you journey through life, God wants you to map your experiences and make increasingly educated decisions about your life direction and goals.

Immaturity is drifting along without paying attention to where you’ve been. Maturity is growing in the knowledge (experience) of who God is and who you are.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

—Seneca

If you don’t care where you’re going, why would you care which way the wind is blowing? If you don’t have a goal or destination in mind, no help exists for you.

Here are two questions to help you find a direction and stay on course every day:

  1. How are you not being your authentic self?
  2. In what way can you grow toward your authentic self?

Your authentic self is your God-given identity.