Personality

Psychologists often consider personality the resulting linkage of biological matter determined by genetics and the multitude of environmental factors that bring about our education and experiences. Personality traits or tendencies are then grouped by types or descriptive uniformities. Often further assumptions and “predictions of behavior” are based upon the general characteristics associated with certain personality “types.”

Christians often “baptize” popular psychology regarding personality in an effort to stimulate conversations about common patterns of response notable in the general population. Others adopt a pattern of identifying “personality types” that hold similarities with certain biblical figures. As interesting as that might be…the reality is this-- every human life is granted uniqueness before God. Every human life is precious and valued by God. Every human life is made possible by the grace and provision of God. Every element of creation is made possible by the action of God and therefore every person has the amazing opportunity to live life in relationship to their creator. That ability will always and forever supercede the attempts of anyone to identify our “lowest common denominators” or to begin to consider the expanse of capacities given by God to those whom He loves.

The point is simply this. Your personality …your life…your attitudes and actions may bring glory to God by way of your embarking on a journey of faith and a life of joy trusting and seeking the way of God through faith in Jesus Christ, your Savior and Lord.
The person you have the capacity to become is never restricted or restrained or prevented from being all that God would have you to be, when you understand that every measure of your life is meant for the glory of God. Each of us will uniquely be able to accomplish with God the things for which we have been created to accomplish. With God…never without Him…we can be all that we can be.

One of the tragedies of our time is the limited number of genuine conversations that we are able to engage in during the course of any given day. Our abilities to communicate seem to have fallen to a new low in recent days with most forms of literature and educational programming adapting to an ever declining number of words and images to “make their claims” and “promote their causes.”

Language has the unique capacity to bridge many divides, whether cultural, social, or ethical as we consider the capacity of our language to communicate meaning and understanding to others. Our problem lies in our growing inability to communicate at all. The nature of our conversations has become an ever smaller number of words, frequently misused or misunderstood in light of unknown meanings. The passage of prose taken from a book fifty years ago may need radical restatement today in order to even have a hope of being understood today by the average reader.

Educators note a “dumbing-down” of the common language we use. Our conversations are less “littered” with description and adjectives that provide meaning and nuances of tone and intention. Our ability to understand is often muddled with such inadequacies of speech. Ideas and beliefs deserve words that speak well and wisely. Movements and causes and principles and calls for response deserve to be undergirded with the insights and comprehension of those who fall into step behind them.
Our time for conversations is being sapped by multi-tasking distraction-laden interruption and the sacred occasion of worship or even a family shared meal is fast becoming a rarity rather than the norm.

To converse is to exchange thoughts and ideas. It is to engage one another in the complementary task of sharing ourselves and in turn better understanding one another.
Ours is a world of narrowing demands and wide intolerance. It is a world of weak diplomacy and outrageous war-mongering. It is a time of loneliness brought about by a failure of a generation to retain the capacity for social communication with family, friends, and neighbors. It is a season of suffering brought about by misunderstanding, poor use of language, and mistaken ideals gleaned from sound bites of interpreters of those who lived and spoke before us.

Words are very much with us in our daily lives, but we have lost the ability to value them for their capacity to enrich our relationships to the persons with whom we share this world. If we are media oriented, visual learners, we must not abandon the vocabulary and the settings that will allow us to become something more than parroters of pre-programmed persuasion. We need the words and the voices of those who will enlarge our understanding rather than diminish it. We need the power and wisdom of those who will engage in the battle for peace through words before bombs and guns become the only sounds heard. We need the minds of those who have great gifts to share to be opened with the capacity of language to embrace new thoughts and dreams and visions for the future. Let us pray for ears that hear, that have heard, and that are still listening.

Defining Christian Identity - part 2

(This is a series of articles relating to the defining characteristics of Jesus-followers.)

Repentance and Faith

In our last discussion we talked about what it means to “Choose Christ.”
In acknowledging him as the one we desire to follow, we likewise comprehend
the necessity of repentance and faith when we hear Jesus’ call to follow him.
To repent of our sins is to be conscious of our need of forgiveness and to ask for it.
Christians receive forgiveness and they intentionally turn from their sin to the life God enables them to experience through Christ as their Lord. That commitment to follow Christ is a decision of faith. Faith is trusting the promises of God as they relate to us personally and in community. We follow Christ and in doing so forsake our sin and in turn, act in faith and obedience to the will of God. This awareness of God’s will is best revealed in Christ and his modeling of life. Jesus’ teaching instructs us in the way of living that brings glory to God. That is the aim of those who follow Jesus and who live in His grace and love.

Times and Seasons

Everyone is a Fundamentalist somewhere on their Christian journey. It’s sad that so many get stuck there and fail to recognize a significant level of Christian maturity and spiritual growth because they in effect fossilize their spiritual development without ever recognizing the benefit of knowledge, understanding, maturity, and a Christian faith that embraces the teachings of Jesus in their fullness. That is not to say that many on the highly educated and obviously “sophisticated” end of the spectrum have any higher degree of relationship to Christ, but it does come to bear upon the nature of a “wide” road version of Christian faith as embraced by the masses in comparison to a “narrow road” challenge described by Jesus for those who would take up their cross daily and follow Him.

Today’s headlines are filled with the news that makes “Armageddon” timetable prognosticators salivate. But the fact that there are always wars and rumors of wars does not change for past generations or our own. The nature of a cultivated “enthusiasm for ending the world,” too often strangles the spiritual development of individuals who in their concern for the preparing for the last day, fail to live all their days in response to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Much of our modern cultural religion has little to do with the essential elements of the gospel of Jesus. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Multitudes are there today…lost. In the mad dash to the next “new thing,” herds of well- intentioned seekers grasp to redefine their identities, to reorganize their confusion, to reinvent themselves according to new trends and styles…all for the sake of self-acceptance and a mistaken notion that to be happy with themselves is the ultimate endgame for life.

Few theologians who are writing today find a market for biblical studies that teach what Jesus taught. Instead the media hype drives campaigns and marketing schemes for everything from evangelistic outreach to baptism counting. The latest books pattern themselves after the culture rather than calling for the culture to discover in Christ the radical renewal that it so desperately seeks.

Fundamentalism as a force in the world today comes in all theological brands. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity share the “curse” that in some forms dictates to the masses instructions by a few who knowingly manipulate their theology and interpretation of religious principle to fit their very often selfishly motivated and frequently corrupt aims.

Building religious “systems” of thought upon false foundations is a sad reality of the times. Many personality worshippers fail to worship the person of Christ. Many new-age thinkers mitigate Christianity to the veritable “soup” of multi-religious presence and influence in their “frame” of reference. Many “Gospel” preachers proclaim prosperity and pop psychology as the keys to understanding God’s will. Unfortunately, there are many sheep without a shepherd and many with a shepherd are dissatisfied with those that aren’t “itching their ears” with the things that they like or already believe.

So do we despair or do we persevere? The saints will move in faith toward the future of God’s providing. The opportunity to express a call for discipline by disciples of Jesus is not an empty effort. Some will hear and some will learn and some will pursue the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It may be a remnant, or a multitude, but it will be by the leading of God in the hearts and minds of those who love Him and seek to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Fundamentally, the facts are clear, Christian witness must be renewed among the believers or our voice will be lost in the cacophony of voices bearing influence in our world today. At the same time, “what” we talk about must begin to reflect a Christ-centered focus for life over-against a checklist of cultural oppositions that “define what we are about” in the eyes of the world.

Jesus called us to “let our light shine.” It is time for repentance and faith. It is a time for learning from the Teacher, the “author and finisher of our faith.” It is time for attentive believers to teach and make disciples, not to ignore the opportunities to stand as a witness to the world of God’s truth. That truth is good news because it is the truth of God’s provision of salvation, not his desire to bring condemnation. When we condemn all manner of persons and opinions and behaviors, we do so at the expense of failing to demonstrate the love of Christ for sinners everywhere. Are we called to promote sin?-- Of course not. Are we called to proclaim repentance and faith in Christ? -- Absolutely. People know they are sinners…by the power of the Holy Spirit of God revealing to them their condition. Our call is to lift up Christ for our world to know and to trust and to believe in. Will the greater sin of our generation be unbelievers rejecting Jesus or will it be Christians turning sinners away from Jesus by their failure to reflect His love?

When Paul commended Timothy to “study” it meant to exert efforts to learn, to explore, to commit oneself to the task of discovery in the context of proclaiming this good news of our Savior. The scriptures are filled with insight for life and living which is not to be foreign or neglected by those who seek to be “approved unto God.”

Fundamentalism with its adamant demands for conformity, with its quick and easy answers to many of life’s hardest questions, and with its persistent note of contention with all that differs from its harshly defined “perspective of the day” may win the hour for those who want their faith to come in small doses, easily pocketed and seldom practiced; but in the end, the truth of Christ will change true believers into more than religious monsters at war with one another over theological minutiae. Instead, the heart of Jesus will become the source of transforming the minds of the believers who love Christ and serve Him. Love will never end. The love of Christ will outlast all the bitter strivings and circumstances of any generation that seeks to manipulate the structures of faith to serve lesser gods. The Lord reigns … forever. Thanks be to God.