Category: Level: Intermediate

It has been observed that for most Christians they must reach a place in their life where their self-dependence is broken so that they abandon their attachment to pride and allow themselves to abide in humility before God. It might be through an external crisis or an internal crisis but we all must go through the process of experiencing the death of the illusion that we are living our Christian life well or that we are truly dependent on God. In other words, we must get to the end of ourselves. This lack of brokenness, or lack of pliability, manifests itself in many destructive ways in our relationships, some of the most obvious are drivenness, stubbornness, defensiveness, lack of empathy, lack of honest self-awareness, unwillingness to accept help, unwillingness to have vulnerabilities and lack of teachability. Even if we have been a believer for twenty years and are honored in Continue Reading →

Humans have a habit of creating a false self. We love to pretend that we don’t have the faults, weaknesses, and pain that we really have. In order to get others to value us we construct a false self that we think they will like. A false self can also stem from pride or the desire to control. Thus, even if you are overcoming shame and self-rejection you can still give in to the temptation of hosting a false self. A very common false self for those who have been believers for some time is a false self that appears more Christlike than they really are, usually created by them in order to gain honor from other Christians. This is a religious false self, and it can grow very secretly. We are naturally inclined to present ourselves as more whole than we really are, so we need to consciously resist Continue Reading →

By substituting for our sin Christ also substituted for our shame. True shame is rooted in our sin or in sin inflicted on us. When humans rebelled in the Garden they became corrupt and they became aware of their corruption. In this way, all of us have shame. Some have a much stronger experience of shame because of life experiences. By curing us of our sin he cured us of the shame that comes with it. His crucifixion was the ultimate shameful event in history and it was the comprehensive payment for all our shame. Since there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Rom. 8:1), there is also no shame to bind us. Our New Adam self is shame-free because it is made in the image of Christ, though our old self might lead us into shame or others may inflict shame on us. When we live Continue Reading →