Coconut
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- Joined
- Feb 17, 2005
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Many Christians are unaware that mottoes like, "Do your best and God will do the rest," and "God helps those who help themselves," are not in the Bible, and are in fact contrary to biblical instruction. God is not willing to serve as a "helper" who provides divine assistance for our self-improvement. He is not a "power booster" to enhance our self-empowerment. The Creator God designed the human creature in such a way that it requires His presence and His action in man for man to function as He intended. God doesn't need any "help" in doing what only He can do in our lives, but that is not to deny that He respects our freedom of choice to be receptive in faith to His action.
Contemporary evangelical humanism seeks to make Christianity into a Christianized "self-help program." Constant encouragements to self-improvement are proposed. A popular theme of late was the question posed, "What Would Jesus Do?" (WWJD). The premise behind the question was that a Christian should attempt to ascertain what Jesus would do in any given situation, and then "just do it" in the self-action of imitating Jesus. The Christian life is not a self-generated "parroting" or "aping" of Jesus' example; it is not the imitation of Jesus, but the inhabitation of Jesus that allows for the manifestation of Jesus - "the life of Jesus manifested in our mortal bodies" (II Cor. 4:11).
Christians are often admonished to "try to rid themselves of sin," to "try to overcome the flesh," but that is a losing battle if there ever was one. The self-patterns will not be overcome by self-effort. On the other hand, we are told to "try to be better, try to be holy, try to be perfect." This is an "Avis Rent-a-Car" theology, with the motto, "We try harder." God must find all of our trying very trying! The objective is not to strive to be "like Jesus" in order to arrive at "Christlikeness." The objective is to allow Jesus to live out His character and life in our behavior.
The activism of religious disciplines has long been a means by which Christians have sought to thwart their sinfulness and perfect themselves. These include religious orders, vows, penances, indulgences, asceticism, monasticism, etc. Various methods of prayer, fasting, meditation, Bible reading and memorization, church attendance, and sacramental "means of grace" have also been advised. These disciplined activities can be advantageous in focusing our attention on the Lord, but only the living Lord Jesus can overcome our sin and energize divine character in our lives
- Taken from Christ At Work In You by James A Fowler
Christ IN you. This is everything.
The presumably very active Jewish religious leader Nicodemus came to Christ and said 'your activities show God is WITH you', and Jesus answered, 'God must be IN you'
- You think you can 'see' whether or not a man is in Gods Kingdom judging by his/her human activity, and you cannot.
-Christ raised the bar from the visible to the invisible, and said a man has to have the nature of God at work in him, his religious 'activity' means nothing.
GNB John 3:2 One night he went to Jesus and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him."
John 3:3 Jesus answered, "I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again."
1John 3:9 Those who are children of God ...God's very nature is in them;
Contemporary evangelical humanism seeks to make Christianity into a Christianized "self-help program." Constant encouragements to self-improvement are proposed. A popular theme of late was the question posed, "What Would Jesus Do?" (WWJD). The premise behind the question was that a Christian should attempt to ascertain what Jesus would do in any given situation, and then "just do it" in the self-action of imitating Jesus. The Christian life is not a self-generated "parroting" or "aping" of Jesus' example; it is not the imitation of Jesus, but the inhabitation of Jesus that allows for the manifestation of Jesus - "the life of Jesus manifested in our mortal bodies" (II Cor. 4:11).
Christians are often admonished to "try to rid themselves of sin," to "try to overcome the flesh," but that is a losing battle if there ever was one. The self-patterns will not be overcome by self-effort. On the other hand, we are told to "try to be better, try to be holy, try to be perfect." This is an "Avis Rent-a-Car" theology, with the motto, "We try harder." God must find all of our trying very trying! The objective is not to strive to be "like Jesus" in order to arrive at "Christlikeness." The objective is to allow Jesus to live out His character and life in our behavior.
The activism of religious disciplines has long been a means by which Christians have sought to thwart their sinfulness and perfect themselves. These include religious orders, vows, penances, indulgences, asceticism, monasticism, etc. Various methods of prayer, fasting, meditation, Bible reading and memorization, church attendance, and sacramental "means of grace" have also been advised. These disciplined activities can be advantageous in focusing our attention on the Lord, but only the living Lord Jesus can overcome our sin and energize divine character in our lives
- Taken from Christ At Work In You by James A Fowler
Christ IN you. This is everything.
The presumably very active Jewish religious leader Nicodemus came to Christ and said 'your activities show God is WITH you', and Jesus answered, 'God must be IN you'
- You think you can 'see' whether or not a man is in Gods Kingdom judging by his/her human activity, and you cannot.
-Christ raised the bar from the visible to the invisible, and said a man has to have the nature of God at work in him, his religious 'activity' means nothing.
GNB John 3:2 One night he went to Jesus and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him."
John 3:3 Jesus answered, "I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again."
1John 3:9 Those who are children of God ...God's very nature is in them;
