{"id":416,"date":"2015-09-17T15:15:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T15:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplymeandjeans.wordpress.com\/?p=416"},"modified":"2015-09-17T15:15:37","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T15:15:37","slug":"finding-myself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/?p=416","title":{"rendered":"Finding Myself"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Wright\"<\/a><\/p>\n

N.T. Wright “After You Believe-Why Christian Character Matters<\/a>”<\/p>\n

Lately, I’ve noticed that many who claim to be Christians have a lack of desire to grow, learn or\u00a0\u00a0mature in their faith. \u00a0It’s obvious in those that spew out hate, bigotry and ignorance in the name of Christianity; but, I’ve become increasingly convicted that it has been true in my own life as well. \u00a0I believe, if we were to be honest, that it’s\u00a0true in most of us.<\/p>\n

We seem to find time\u00a0for surfing\u00a0Facebook, adding to our boards on Pinterest or watching endless Netflix shows that do anything but strengthen our faith. And yet, \u00a0we so easily explain away why we don’t have time for studying God’s word, for prayer, for personal worship, for discipleship \u00a0or for listening to inspiring sermons during the week. \u00a0I’m sure\u00a0someone is already thinking, “Well that’s awfully legalistic. \u00a0Hasn’t she heard of grace?” I’ll\u00a0be honest and say that, in the past, \u00a0I’ve\u00a0been guilty of side-stepping or downplaying this issue because I didn’t\u00a0relish the idea of someone seeing me in that way. \u00a0(Or maybe, \u00a0I didn’t want to be accountable.) \u00a0However, God has begun to show me how important this \u00a0idea of being transformed really is. It’s become a point of \u00a0passionate prayer\u00a0\u00a0that myself, my\u00a0family and my church,\u00a0both locally and globally, would\u00a0\u00a0set aside everything in the pursuit of becoming the\u00a0\u00a0people God\u00a0intends\u00a0us to be. In a very real sense, the pursuit of finding ourselves. Our true selves.<\/p>\n

I mean, let’s get real.<\/p>\n

Have you seen the world we’re living in? \u00a0Have you witnessed the division and the hatred? Have you heard of the suffering and injustice all around us? Have you noticed that\u00a0the Church, which God intends to be salt and light in the world, seems \u00a0to be ineffective?<\/p>\n

The world is in desperate need of God’s presence through His people. Unfortunately, we’ve been tricked by the enemy into thinking\u00a0that God changes us through the Holy Spirit by no real work of our own. \u00a0As if being “led by the Spirit” is a passive action that takes no effort. \u00a0How did we forget about the metaphors of a soldier preparing for war or an athlete training for a competition. \u00a0To be effective, \u00a0we must be purposeful and passionate about becoming more and more true to who God has created us to be…a person that bears the image of God in this world.<\/p>\n

In my younger years,I was often motivated by\u00a0duty. \u00a0“I’m a Christian so I should do this or that.” Duty has it’s place and I don’t believe it’s a bad thing, but it often lacks the ability to motivate us. \u00a0I’ve become much more aware lately of the motivation found in both love and calling. \u00a0Realizing the incredible love God has for me and the incredible calling He has placed on me has \u00a0awakened a hunger to learn. \u00a0When our hearts get a glimpse of the truths and mysteries\u00a0\u00a0of God’s wisdom,they’re stirred for more.I’ve also observed that Christians get angry and won’t listen to people with differing opinions. \u00a0Why are we so frightened? \u00a0God can defend Himself and His truth can withstand \u00a0disagreements. \u00a0Also,we should be able to\u00a0lovingly defend our beliefs in the face of someone that disagrees. \u00a0\u00a0My new conviction is that I want to be challenged. \u00a0I want to see another view of things. \u00a0I want to have a reason to dig in and to really know why I believe what I believe. \u00a0The more I dig, the deeper I want to go. \u00a0The more I learn, the more I realize how much I have to learn. \u00a0The more I hear God, \u00a0the more I want to hear Him.<\/p>\n

With that said, \u00a0here’s my\u00a0challenge.\u00a0Find time today to watch this video by N.T. Wright.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ukyNU51OcnA<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve watched it \u00a0a couple of times today and it’s stirred something in me. \u00a0My faith and feeling of purpose\u00a0seems to have grown exponentially.It’ll take some time and it may challenge your thinking,\u00a0but I believe it’s invaluable. \u00a0I believe that you will come away with a better understanding of our need\u00a0\u00a0to be changed and to actively cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He\u00a0convicts, empowers and teaches us. Listen to it while you drive to work, while you’re on the bus, while you exercise, while you make dinner or instead of watching some silly cat video on Facebook. Then let me know what you think. It gave me a new view of\u00a0my purpose as God’s daughter and, somehow, made me want to grow instead of making me feel like a needed\u00a0to grow. There’s freedom and joy in that, and \u00a0there’s an excitement in realizing that the\u00a0struggle of changing \u00a0is the only way to really\u00a0find out who I am. As N.T. Wright\u00a0\u00a0says, \u00a0if we all set out on the path of discovering who we really are in Christ, imagine what an impact we\u00a0would have on this world that so desperately needs to see and feel God’s love. That’s something worth giving our lives to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  N.T. Wright “After You Believe-Why Christian Character Matters” Lately, I’ve noticed that many who claim to be Christians have a lack of desire to grow, learn or\u00a0\u00a0mature in their faith. \u00a0It’s obvious in those that spew out hate, bigotry and ignorance in the name of Christianity; but, I’ve become increasingly convicted that it has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[73,81,104,182,269,288,399,484],"class_list":["post-416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-just-some-thoughts","tag-change","tag-christian","tag-conviction","tag-faith","tag-holiness","tag-identity","tag-nt-wright","tag-sanctification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}