Beyond Words: Take 4 – A Personality Specific Faith

Larson personalityIn this edition of Beyond Words let’s look at how your personality filters your faith.

My wife is sitting across from me just opening a medium-size bag of M&Ms. Different colors on the outside and consistently the same within. Very much like our world’s Christ-followers. Sometimes, even with a few nuts thrown in for variety.

Not all Christians are alike. Not all expressions of our faith are alike. Not all people are alike. Kind of like stating the obvious, isn’t it.

Yet within the decreasing influence of Western Christendom we try to maintain a boring sameness in our faith as is impossible. The reality of divergent races, cultures, and personalities should be obvious. We are all not one. We are a complex multiplicity of beings with a common commitment to Jesus Christ.

Thankfully, we live in an era where some really smart people have done some deep research on the different kinds of people we are. Isabel Briggs Myers and Katherine Cook Myers began their research in 1917, which culminated in the Myers-Briggs (Personality) Type Indicator Test in 1956 (MBTI). You can take a simplified FREE version of the Test here—

https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

The observable reality that we each have a distinct personality is a great gift from God. For Christians, it means that the gospel can take on different shapes and nuances across a broad spectrum of races, cultures, and divergent personalities. We don’t all have to be the same. Even better, none of you have to be likeme. [Phew!]

You see, when God created us He intentionally built into us divergent dispositions to reflect the majesty of His glory. Thus, we are NOT all the same; nor should we be. If we were, it would be an admission that people are unilaterally boring and that the Lord God Creator of the universe is, in fact, not all that creative.

The myriad of different cultures and human personality traits is proof of exactly the opposite. Therefore we should also expect a plethora of different kinds of Christians— quiet, contemplative, sensitive, exuberant, and nuts. This must be so because the majesty and diversity of the Trinity imprints upon us, not in a manner to rob us of who God has made us, but to empower us within our specific personality design. What a gift!

So, get used to being you, trying to offend as few as possible. You have been designed the way you are for a reason; find out what it is.

For what it’s worth,

Gary

Beyond Words – Take 3 – Cultivating a Biblical Mindset

BEYOND WORDS: Cultivating a Biblical Mindset— Take 3

One of the great delusions within the Western Church is that we know our Scriptures. We do not. We know a few feel good verses or sections that we can summon up as proof texts or evangelistic references, but, by-in-large, most of us draw a blank when it comes to the warp ‘n woof of the great expanse of Biblical history and how it overlays the rest of world history.

Cultivating a Biblical mindset takes effort. It takes thinking. It involves an understanding of history and how Biblical Truths weave their way throughout.

Imagine all of History, recorded & unrecorded, from the Beginning of Time through Final Culmination. BIG PICTURE. We know just a minuscule slice of it. Scripture describes an actual Creation in Hebrew poetic verse—brilliant! It then tells us about the important events and people that God knew we couldn’t figure out by just looking around. How much of this unique revelation do you really understand? It’s important.

Again, a picture may be worth a thousand words—

gary, davis, needinc, chrisitan, bible, mindset

Think of History, all of History, as cradling the birth of our story of Creation—Fall—Redemption—and Culmination, when all things will come together under the majesty of Jesus Christ. Scripture holds the principles by which we are to live in this world, and the practical implications of those principles to our daily lives in our interactions with others.

To grasp the depth and expanse of God’s gift to us we must immerse ourselves into the Bible. Not pulling out certain verses for comfort or combat—but to learn to live within its culture, walk its roads, and hear the heartbeats of the great men & women who walked with God before us. But we must also learn human history: not that of our own country, but of all countries. Become a student-of-history and you will see your own situation more clearly.

Slow down. The more you can integrate your life within the paths of Holy Writ the simpler it will be to express and communicate your faith.

For what it’s worth,

Gary

Why?

Gary, Davis, College, church, northampton, lament, prayer, why, depression, anxietyA few weeks ago I heard a sermon in our local church that really resonated with me. The series is taking prayer and our relationship with God and bringing it down to an almost childlike level. This sermon was especially poignant, as it spoke to the questions: Is it ok to be mad at God? Why do I feel so miserable? When will it get better? What do I say to my friend who is really struggling right now? I encourage you to click on the link below and listen, then ask yourself if you know how to truly lament.

Why?

Beyond Words-Take 2- Faith Factors

 

One critical question needs to be asked when desiring to connect the Christian Message with people living outside the confines of the Christian bubble. Namely— What are the key elements that determine the expression and communication of our faith in a postChristian society? As a reminder, we can no longer “just give them the gospel.”The gospel” simply has no cultural pinning in a world so long removed from its Christian roots. Maybe a picture is worth a thousand words—

communication circles

In the next few EMPulses we will explore these 6 elements in more depth. For now, let us open a cursory unpacking of these ingredients.

First, to express and/or communicate our faith in this postChristian society we must establish a Biblical Mindset within our own practice of faith. Just going to church, saying the right words, and memorizing a few Bible verses conveys only s surface-faith to others.

Next, we need to understand that our faith is Personality Specific. Our personality filters our faith to fit who we are and who we must become. We must not squeeze ourselves into a faith-box. You cannot be like me or any other Christian. You must be you.

Thirdly, our Christian faith is Culturally Sensitive. We dare not continue to import a western faith into a postChristian Europe, emerging Africa, or a diverse Asia. One of the distinctives of our faith is that it fits into the heartbeats and lifestyles of the host-culture. Yet, in our Western, North American patchwork of cultural blends we must here, too, learn to be culturally sensitive.One size, or shape, does not fit all.

Fourth, as we offer people a relationship with Jesus Christ, we must remember that they must hear His offer of life in their context. “The Gospel” must be heard in their life context. Therefore, in many ways, the Gospel is Receiver Determined. How do they see the Christian faith? It is our task to express our faith in ways that they can respond to and receive Christ’s life into their own.

Fifth, the expression and communication of our Christian faith should be Community Networked. First, we should be networked within a healthy group of fellow believers who have a similar passion for the normal people around us. Second, our faith communication should be networked among those God has placed in our path. No need for commando raids or “debriefings” afterwards. We need to immerse ourselves into the lives of those around us who have no concept of the Christian message. [Warning: you may just come to love them.]

Finally, we, as genuine Christians, need to become more aware of the Holy Spirit of God within. We need to become Spirit Attuned. For we do not offer a person merely the Truths about Jesus, we are offering them Jesus Christ himself. We need to attune our spirits to be in line with God’s Spirit and also in tune with the lives of the people we have come to love. We cannot sense the work of Christ in the lives of others until we clean up our own inner-selves. No wonder God works in spite of us so much of the time.

For what it’s worth,

Gary

 

 

Beyond Words Reconsidered – Take 1

Gary, Davis, needinc, amherst, christian, books, At the same time the BEYOND WORDS BOOKSHOP opened in Amherst, Massachusetts, I was developing a training course for Christians on the nature of the gospel, titled, coincidentally, BEYOND WORDS. Since they were about as humanistic as they come I took my course into them and asked if they would display my brochures. When they found out what it was about we all had a good laugh and the brochures were set up on the checkout counter by the register. Let’s just say that the first time we held the course it was, er, fascinating.

That was 25 years ago. Today the course has morphed into something far more expansive, fun, and exciting. But the thrust still concerns the nature and offering of our Christian message to the normal people of this culture. I use the phrase normal people because “Christian” no longer describes nor defines the majority of individuals in Western culture.

The next few installments of EMPulse will re-address our understanding, expression, and communication of the Christian message, the Gospel. This Take 1 concerns itself with the problems we face as our society loses its Christian memory and assumptions.

For the last ½ century we have boiled down “the gospel” to what we believe a person needs to know in order to become a Christian. Knowledge can no longer be the extent of our message to them. We are now engaged in a battle to verify what we say we believe through our involvement with peoples’ hurts, needs, and failures.

We dwell in a society that no longer holds to an agreed concept about the existence and nature of God, an understanding of a definition of sin (other thangetting caught), a knowledge of the life of Jesus Christ, and the ramifications of belief on/in Him. Nor do we dare assume they sense a need for any kind of God in their lives. The thought of needing an external reference point to guide their life-principles sounds weird to them. We need an expression of the gospel that goes beyond words, that challenges minds and touches hearts.

Asking people to “believe on Jesus and you will be saved” is loaded with so many subcultural assumptions that it has become a non-content phrase.

It’s time we reassessed the nature and content of the Christian message for this antiChristian world. To ignore the misgivings in our culture toward Christian cluelessness would be a grave disservice to our Lord Jesus.

For what it’s worth,

Gary

The Task Before Us

Gary, davis, christian, Winston, Churchill, opportunity, accomplish“There comes a special moment in everyone’s life,

a moment for which that person was born.

That special opportunity, when he seizes it,

will fulfill his mission –

a mission for which he is uniquely qualified.

In that moment, he finds greatness.

It is his finest hour.

~Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

(1874 – 1965)

 

How’s your job going? If it’s just about making money ‘till the next paycheck then you’re missing something. You’re missing out. If you find yourself arriving home after a good (or hard) day’s work looking forward to a night of television, something is wrong. You are wasting away the hours and minutes God has allotted to you.

Here are some questions you would do well to tackle but will find it difficult to address. —

What gets you up in the morning?

What gives you a sense of accomplishment?

Actually, what ARE you accomplishing?

How has your complaining changed the future?

What ARE you doing to change/challenge the future…, your future? AND the future of others?

What is the particular task God has given you to accomplish on earth?

What skills or abilities will you need to undertake that task?

How do you overcome your uncertainty in life? How do you face your fear?

How will you know when you have completed what is required of you?

Really, you have to think about these questions.

 

Now go to bed.

For what it’s worth,

Gary

The Day After

easter, christ, risen, needinc, gary, davis, sundayYesterday marked the annual celebration of the Resurrection of Christ, called Easter and/or Resurrection. It is celebrated often alongside the Passover Commemoration, coinciding with the lunisolar calendar, used by the Jews of the first century, to celebrate the pass-over of the Death Angel in ancient Egypt.

 

But what about the day after Easter?

 

At that point in 30 AD, only 2-3 women had actually seen Jesus. Announcing this to His disciples, the men found their report incredulous. Skeptical and confused, they remained hidden.

 

In Western Culture today, Christians merely go back to their everyday lives with little to no change. Back to business-as-usual. Unless you live in a monastery, the dominant culture of our time has supplanted the formerly prevailing “Christian” underpinnings with the bottom line of progress and profit. Very little Christian influence remains in our nation’s preferred secular-religion-free society.

 

The Resurrection of Jesus should remind us of some characteristics that should pervade our lives as genuine Christians. Like the reminder that we are truly forgiven; forgiven for our rejection of His Godhood, our ignorance of what He wants from us and of what He wants to give us. We should be reminded that our imperfections are being made perfect, that we don’t need to feel so guilty when we are already forgiven. We need to remember that the penalty of eternal separation from the God who made us is no longer an option. We are now saved from that fate…, and from ourselves.

 

So the next time your world seems to be coming apart at the seams, remember Jesus on the Cross. Remember that He is in charge of your life, bringing together the various streams and roadways to merge in the perfect pattern for your fulfillment, AND for His glory. Never separate them: they are woven together within you.

 

But the day after, take some of those remembrances and reasons to celebrate along with you. Know your place in our world and move with grace.

HE IS RISEN!

The Christian Way?

dr, gary, davis, highway, christian, way, politics, religionIf you’ve ever driven across this nation’s highways you know that at times roadmaps, GPS, and Road Signs, and actual roads seem to be at odds with one another. My proof for this? LA. ‘Nough said.

The same convoluted mess can often be found among the many theological/political roads the Church has followed over the last two millennia. Os Guinness puts it well in his book RENAISSANCE (2014).

“Whenever God has not given us clear and authoritative instructions as to how we are to conduct our lives, we are free to pursue our own solutions within the guidelines of the principles God has given us. But that means that our best solutions will always be a Christian way of doing things. They are not the Christian way.

 “In light of God’s principles, we can say that certain ways of doing things that contradict those principles are not Christian, but we can never say that one way alone is. In that sense, there is no one ‘Christian economics,’ any more that there is one ‘Christian retirement plan,’ one ‘Christian political party,’ or one Christian anything… .

 “This caution applies equally to our attitudes to cultures. Doubtless all Christians have their favorite periods of Christian history; which to them represent the golden age of faith. The Orthodox prize the age of the early Fathers. Catholics talk reverently of the medieval world and ‘the great age of faith.’ Protestants elevate the Reformation and its ‘recovery of the gospel and the Scriptures.’ Evangelicals take great pride and courage from the First Great Awakening and its potent combination of the preaching of the gospel and the spawning of myriad social reforms. And Pentecostals and charismatics hard back to the Azusa Street revival and its triggering one of the greatest and still continuing missionary advances in the history of the Christian church.

 “Yet all these periods were at best more or less Christian, and today their flaws, their blind spots, their unintended consequences could be enumerated along with their undisputed blessings.” (122-123)

Navigating one’s faith journey along today’s spiritual and ecclesiastical highways is just as fraught with individualistic potholes and theological blind spots as in previous generations. Do not be so presumptuous as to assume my way is best.

Constantly return to the Scriptures in the context of fellow believers to learn afresh the principles God has given us live healthy lives before him.  Let me leave you with this—a line from a song written by Hillsong United, sung by Taya Smith. “I touch the sky…, when my knees hit the ground.”

 

You have my prayers,

Gary

Treadmill

The Treadmill. Once you get moving on one it’s hard to stop. You know what I mean. That daily routine you repeat day after day. Not that it’s a bad routine; but it may not be a necessarily good way to live, day after day after day.

Some of us come to hate our jobs, our family life, even our own lives. We just get bored with the same ol’ same ol’. Frustrated! Isn’t life supposed to be more than this?!?

well, yes.

But how to make it more is the trick. Here are some ideas that have worked for me—

  1. Sleep! Start your day the night before. Then get up at the same time every day. (Except on vacation.)
  2. Breathe in…, breathe out. Start your day with stretching, breathing exercises, even walking a mile.
  3. Drink lots of coffee. It has produced great energy in laboratory rats before it killed them.
  4. Quiet your soul in prayer; 5+ minutes at least.
  5. Listen to heart-thumping, heavy base music on your way to work. Classical music (which I love) just doesn’t get me pumped for what lies ahead.
  6. Drink apricot-mango juice. It will clear the crap out quite well.
  7. Process work frustrations with a friend, not your partner. Show up at home ready to serve.
  8. Sell the kids if you have them…, or at least get a baby sitter so you can have one night OUT a week. AND, one Saturday a month, escape your present environment. Go…, anywhere. Just leave, with or without the kids.
  9. Drink tea…, and carry on. Or, for some of us, a good dram of single malt scotch. Jus’ sayin’.
  10. Before you go to bed that night, say you are sorry for whatever you did today to wound another person. And mean it. Call them from bed if you have to. You want to start tomorrow with a clean slate.

I realize these ideas will not work for everyone. Sometimes they don’t even work for me. But if you want your life to have a little more oomph, a little more pizzazz to it, YOU have to make it happen. No one else will.

Back to the Treadmill…, with more gusto, less crap!

For what it’s worth,

Gary

Ugly Feet

Gary_ Davis_ Hobbit_ Christian_ NEED_ Feet_ uglyThanks to J.R.R. Tolkien, Hobbit feet are IN! Well, maybe not so much in real life, but at least in alternate specie realities. Progressive Cubist artist Marcel Duchamp thought that feet were the ugliest part of a woman’s body. Today’s cosmetic advertising would have us believe otherwise; that we must have the cute widdle feet of Tinkerbell. As for men’s feet…, that’s why God invented shoes.

Feet take us where we want to go. Feet kick futbols & footballs. Feet balance the rest of the body vertically. Feet ride snowboards & surfboards.

Best of all, feet tickle.  ‘Nough said. STOP IT!

To the point—where do you want your feet to take you? Your feet can place you out in front of the tribe, and you will become a paradigm pioneer. [Do guard against the arrows aimed at your back.] Your feet can place you on the right track of a disciplined, purpose-driven life, where you can accomplish great things. Or your feet can lead you to become a faithful follower of a great cause or person. Still one more path is available for our feet— dragging feet can leave us behind as stragglers in life’s great adventures. We adopt a wait-and-see-what-happens attitude.

In any case, our feet, well, my feet (not pictured above), will remain ugly. But we can train them to get the job done, or pamper them while others get on with the work of life and make a difference.

Just don’t ever settle for de-feat. (I’ll keep my day job.) Also note Isaiah 52:7, Christian Bible. Maybe there’s a chance for our ugly feet afterall!

For what it’s worth,

  Gary