Master Mentor #11

Now... you might be saying to yourself... "It's been a while since I've seen this post thread." And you are exactly right. The last couple of weeks have been insane. And I am about 14 or 15 days behind in my Master Mentor Journal... don't tell Dr. Rea... But I am working to catch up. So don't be surprised to see posts to this thread on the weekends... which wasn't the plan... or a couple of posts a day as I work to catch up.

But regardless... I'm back today:
--------------------------------------
Chapter 10 (Book 2, Chapter 5)
CS makes a great little gospel presentation at the end of this chapter. He is in part discussing those three things in us that create a “new life” in us… baptism, belief and the Lord’s Supper. But for some reason, the conversation turns to discussion of God’s return. In part, CS seems to do this in answering the question of why doesn’t God just show up and then everyone would naturally become part of his movement. CS states that God is delaying and giving us an opportunity to choose to join him before his return.
But he said something earlier in the chapter that I want to react to… and it’s something that I really like. He says on page 64, “In this same way (he has been discussing how the body can repair itself to a certain point if it is injured) a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who in enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble – because the Christ-life is in him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out. That is why the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good.”
I think one of the misconceptions that non-Christians have about Christians is that we are a group of people who are claiming to have it all figured out. And there are some Christians out there that reinforce that stereotype. They act like they never make a mistake. They walk through life like they never mess up… like they never have a problem… that everyday is filled with wins and triumph. And to some degree, that is a Christian’s life. There are wins… there is triumph. But there are also mistakes. There is always sin. And if there isn’t sin, then there is pride… which is sin. The Christian life isn’t perfect life… but it’s forgiven life. It’s life that has the power to bring about renewal. Not because the Christian is so “good”… but because God IS good.
That’s one of the things that needs to show up in my teaching. That’s one thing that I think I do fairly regularly… sharing those mistakes and messu-ups. But I think in part, there are some that never share that. Some that never say they stumble. And so the perception continues that Christians aren’t real people with problems. I have problems. I’ve just found the one that fixes problems. I’m not perfect (my wife will tell anyone that)… but I’ve found Perfection. And I’ve invited it into my life and I’m trying to do what It says I should do. (And Perfection and It is the Spirit of Jesus Christ.)
It’s the opportunity to “choose” which side to be “on” that makes life interesting.

Jim