Who did Christ die for?

• He died for ALL (1 Tim 2:6).
• He died for ALL MEN (Rom 5:18; 1 Tim 4:10).
• He died for US ALL, for ALL OF US (Isa 53:6).
• He died for the UNGODLY (Rom 5:6).
• He died for CHRIST-DENIERS (2 Pet 2:1).
• He died for SINNERS (Rom 5:8).
• He died for EVERY MAN (Heb 2:9).
• He died for MANY (Mt 20:28).
• He died for the WORLD (Jn 6:33,51; 1:29; 3:16).
• He died for the WHOLE WORLD (1 Jn 2:2).
• He died for the WHOLE NATION of Israel (Jn 11:50-51).
• He died for the CHURCH (Eph 5:25).
• He died for His SHEEP (Jn 10:11).
• He died for ME (Gal 2:20).

Unhealthy Leadership: Alone on an Island of Recognition with Flatterers and no Frank Friends

From Katelyn  Beaty's book: Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits are Hurting the Church. Celebrity--defined as social power without proximity--has led to abuses of power, the cultivation of persona, and a fixation on profits and numbers.

A top leader creates a spirit of fear around them. They demand and require – sign an NDA up front [explicitly or implicitly] – not to talk in public about what happens inside. The dynamics of the demand reveal a contrast between what's seen on the outside--during Sunday worship services and major conference retreats--and the reality behind closed doors. This elevates the persona of the leader in the church's culture. Worse yet, it stunts the leader's growth.

Such leaders attract others who gain identity by proximity to the persona/person, and who gain glory by that association. So they love taking pictures with the leader, for that elevates the person. Which means the persona intoxicates others into the inner circle – it becomes a culture of propping up the persona.

Such leadership turns a person into a persona without close relationships. Plutarch wrote an important essay on this that contrasted flatterers with frankness, the latter being what those top leaders need the most – BUT those leaders have personalities that push away frankness. Personas like this "feel love" in the adoration of the crowds, but adoration is not love. What they need are frank friends. Most of these persona types push frank friends off the stage, they discredit them, they gossip about them to others, they manipulate others to discredit them and before long the person they needed — a frank friend — is gone.

Such leaders are alone on an "island of recognition." experience the paradox of loneliness. That is, surrounded by people but no one to love or who loves them because they have become isolated from others. They "The more that people know of you, the less that people can know you."

"Character splitting" means one person in church and another in real life. In some ways this is inevitable; in another sense it becomes dangerous to personal formation. The deeper the persona becomes the more exhausting it becomes to live up to those expectations. And right here is where burnout happens. It is emotionally and psychologically exhausting to maintain one's persona when it is at a distance from one's true self.

Becoming dangerously narcissistic. "Dangerous" because narcissism and gospel Christoformity are polar opposites. Good brief sketches of narcissism are grandiosity, lack of empathy, yearning for adoration, and broken relationships. "The narcissist doesn't know who they are apart from what others reflect back to them" [which is why they are unable to take any frank criticism] and they are "terrified to step away."

Ecclesiastical loners. Local church autonomy is the magnet that attracts them because they can be "their own man" and "do their own thing" and "do what they want." They cannot be challenged or questioned. It becomes "their way or the highway." So, "if you don't like it, you can leave."

James, Annabelle’s baptism, Sep 5, 2022: Intergenerational blessing/Blessing the next generation

Before becoming a Christian, I had no idea what to do with my empty, boring and meaningless life, even though I became a doctor and came to the U.S. A quote by Henry David Thoreau intrigued me: "The masses of men lead lives of quiet desperation." I thought I was the only miserable person in the world, but this quote assured me that everyone else in the world was just as  inwardly desperate and miserable as I! But by God's mercy and grace I became a Christian at 25 in 1980 when I studied Genesis with Dr. John Lee, a pediatric resident at CCH. I discovered who I was and still am–a sinner condemned unclean, yet so loved by God that He gave His Only Son to die for me! I found my purpose of life: To live for Christ and His kingdom by studying the Bible and raising disciples–the bedrock of UBF ministry; this became what God has enabled me to do for the last 4 decades of my life to this day. During a recent 2 week road trip to 7 east coast UBF churches, an older missionary asked me, "What are you doing now?" I answered, "I'm doing exactly what I've been doing for the last 40 years." Despite the many good and bad, and the many ups and downs, my trajectory of life in Christ has not changed one iota in 4 decades.

 

God has blessed my wife Christy and I with 4 kids in 6 years (1983-1989), and with 7 grandkids with James 13 and Annabelle 11 as the 2 oldest. A few months ago James told his dad that he wanted grandpa to baptize him before going to Whitney Young. I was so happily surprised. Then Annabelle also asked to be baptized, which made me doubly happy. In processing my joy, I thank God that Christy and I are blessed to pass on God's blessing to our oldest son Sam and to our oldest grandson James and to our oldest grand-daughter Annabelle.

 

This is nothing but the mercy and grace of God. I thought of God's desire to bless not only Abraham but also all of his descendants for countless generations. Gen 17:9 says, "Then God said to Abraham, 'As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.'" God called Abraham to bless not only him but also to bless "all peoples on earth" through his seed (Gen 12:2-3). The greatest blessing is not what we get, but what we give to others. What a great joy and privilege it is that despite our sins God has given us the blessing to be a blessing to others–including our grandchildren.

 

It was a joy to study the Bible with James the last few months. He loves sports, just like his dad and grandpa. He studies well and plays basketball. He is sincere, thoughtful and intelligent. And he wants to commit his life to Christ by being baptized as he goes to Whitney Young with the verse "The Lord is my shepherd" (Ps 23:1). I told James that if Christy and I live another 20 years, we pray to see him and Annabelle pass their faith in Christ to their son or daughter. May God bless James and Annabelle's baptism as their decision to follow Jesus as Lord all the days of their life and pass it on to subsequent generations. Amen.

"Hate" Those Closest to You (Luke 14:25-35)

Bishop Barron calls the large crowds following Jesus as "The Fair-Weather Fans of Jesus (Lk 14:25-26)."

1. Why might large crowds be travelling with Jesus (Lk 14:25)?
2. What might the crowd have thought about what Jesus said to them (Lk 14:26)? How is this a "slap in the face" challenge? Why did he use such strong language (Lk 13:24-27; 14:16-20; Mt 10:37-39; 22:36-40)? 
3. What does it mean to those following Jesus to "carry their cross" (Lk 15:27)?
4. What do the 2 parabolic stories (Lk 14:28-32) tell us about what we should do if we are serious about following Jesus (Lk 14:33)?
5. What does it mean for salt to lose its saltiness (Lk 14:34-35a)? What should we hear from Jesus (Lk 14:35b)?

PRIDE

C.S. Lewis on PRIDE (How would you know if you are proud or humble?):

• "As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you."
• " . . . pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense."
• To test how proud you are, "ask yourself, 'How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronize me, or show off.'"
• "If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed."
• "Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call 'humble'... Probably all you will think about him is that he seems a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all."

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3 Excellent Quotes about Love

Murdoch's view of love is knowledge of the other person, or seeing them as they really are –- it involves understanding them as a person, both their positive and negative qualities. Iris Murdoch was known for her writing on morality, good and evil and human relationships. "Love is the imaginative recognition of … otherness"; and "Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real. Love … is the discovery of reality."