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The Walking Dead Gospel

10/25/2014

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The gang is back together now, as evidenced by the trademark Reservoir Dogs slow-mo strut shot. Other than Beth, who is still MIA, everyone is accounted for. So for the first time in a long time, the group pauses to take a breath in an abandoned church. It’s during this “pause” that many of the group seek to collect their thoughts and prepare themselves mentally and psychologically for what might lie ahead.

Episode 2 tackles the theme of overcoming our past. Father Gabriel is introduced as a reverend of a small church who has somehow survived since the dead began walking the earth. Gabriel is plagued by guilt for something, and we can only guess that it has something to do with the fact that he survived alone in the church while countless others perished outside.

It’s always intriguing when Hollywood introduces religious characters. Most often, these individuals are depicted as the archetypal hypocritical, unloving Christian. I’m curious to see if they defer to this overplayed stereotype.

The jury is still out on Father Gabriel (even though 78% of Talking Dead viewers voted that he is dangerous and shouldn’t be trusted), but so far, his refusal to confess what’s bothering him is making the group a little leery of his actions. That’s probably why Rick not only asked him the “three questions” (a la Season 4, Episode 1), but basically told him, You endanger my people, I endanger you.

But Gabriel isn’t the only one struggling to find penance for sins past. Carol, Michonne and Tyreese each express the individual desire to squash bad memories in search of a new beginning. Carol and Rick even share a moment where the two of them make things right.

Let’s face it. People don’t like to carry around secrets. These secrets become burdens, weighing them down emotionally. Daryl feels this struggle from Carol, and even though he’s not pressuring her to confess, he makes it clear that he’s willing to listen.

America agrees. 86% of Talking Dead viewers voted that Carol should tell Daryl.

Confession feels good.

Perhaps that’s why Tara approached Maggie, burdened with the guilt of once standing with the Governor (a path she already navigated with Glenn in Season 4, Episode 10).

The scene begins about 50 minutes into the show (including commercials).

Tara: I was at the prison, with the Governor.

Maggie is speechless, realizing what Tara is confessing.

Tara: I didn’t know who he was or what he could do, and I didn’t know who all of you were.

Maggie processes Tara’s words.

Tara: I just didn’t want it to be hidden that I was there.

Maggie: You’re here with us now.

Tara smiles. Maggie hugs Tara.

SEASON 5, EPISODE 2 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1.  Why were so many people searching for forgiveness?

2. Why do people feel the need to disclose sins of the past?

3. How would you have responded if you were Maggie, especially after losing your father to the Governor?

4. Was Maggie right to forgive Tara?

Read the following passages from scripture:

21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone[b]who sins against me? Seven times?”

22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-22)

Then Jesus tells a story about a guy who was forgiven much by a king, but wouldn’t forgive someone else even a little. The ending of the story is a little sobering:

34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.” (Matthew 18:34,35)

5. Why does Jesus tell Peter “seventy times seven” (which basically meant, “infinity”)?

6. What does God do if we won’t forgive others?

7. Why won’t God forgive us, if we won’t forgive others? (A tough answer to a tough question: God is willing to forgive us if we are willing to put our complete trust in Him. Part of that complete trust is the willingness to give up our own selfish desires. That includes “grudges.” God welcomes us to him when we are ready to let go and give ourselves completely to him.)

Are you holding onto a grudge that you want freedom from?

Pray and ask God to give you the strength to give up that resentment to him. Ask God to take that grudge from you and free you from bitterness.

This post was written by Jonathan McKee.  For the original post, go to:  http://www.thewalkingdeadgospel.com/2014/season-5-episode-2-strangers/#.VEf7Rr69G98





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A Noble and Good Heart

10/29/2013

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It's undeniable: the new covenant, accomplished through the work of Christ, means that we have new hearts. Our hearts are good. Or God's a liar. Until we embrace that stunning truth, we will find it really hard to make decisions, because we can't trust what our hearts are saying. We'll have to be motivated by external pressure since we can't be motivated by our hearts. In fact, we won't find our calling, our place in God's kingdom, because that is written on our hearts' desires. We'll have a really hard time hearing God's voice in a deeply intimate way, because God speaks to us in our hearts. We'll live under guilt and shame for all sorts of evil thoughts and desires that the Enemy has convinced us were ours. God will seem aloof. Worship and prayer will feel like chores.


Of course, I just described the life most Christians feel doomed to live.

Now listen to Jesus:

Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. (Luke 6:44-45, emphasis added)

Later, explaining the parable of the sower and the seed, Jesus says,

The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. (Luke 8:15, emphasis added)

Jesus himself teaches that the heart can be good and even noble. That somebody is you, if you are his. God kept his promise. Our hearts have been circumcised to God. We have new hearts. Do you know what this means? Your heart is good. Let that sink in for a moment. Your heart is good.

What would happen if you believed it, if you came to the place where you knew it was true? Your life would never be the same. My friend Lynn got it, and that's when she exclaimed, "If we believed that . . . we could do anything. We would follow him anywhere!"



This post was taken from the book, Waking the Dead by John Eldredge


BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.


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YOU'RE GUILTY!!  (or are you?)

10/3/2013

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I was thumbing through my Facebook feed over lunch last week when a compelling photo caused me to put on the brakes. It was a young African boy, no more than 4 or 5 years old, in tattered clothes on his knees, taking a drink from a filthy mud puddle.

Heart-wrenching.

I’ve had the honor of traveling to a few poverty-stricken places of our globe, and you never get used to seeing things like this. So I clicked the image to reveal the full picture. That’s when the caption hidden below the photo hand-delivered a whole new emotion:

“And you’re upset because you can’t get the new iPhone 5s.”

Touché guilt monger. Touché.

In 3 seconds, my internal compass spun from compassion to anger. A valid point? Maybe. But somewhere, like a mother threatening to send her 6 year old’s brussel sprouts to starving children in China, the creator of this condemnation jihad wrongly assumed that guilt and shame are good agents of change.

Look, we “first-worlders” need to be reminded of our blessings. Challenged. Even kicked in the butt every once in awhile. Perspective is a really healthy thing. But packing a moral point into a guilt grenade doesn’t motivate anything but our self-righteousness.

Shaming people doesn’t change them (at least not in a sustainable way). Our instinctual response to guilt is to cover up, to try and make ourselves look better, to save face, to attempt to earn our way back into the shamer’s good graces.

“I’m a good person! Really, I am! See! Look at me. Look at me!”

(Guilt is obsessed with me).

Real transformation is rooted in what Jesus has done.

“There’s no good in me! But Jesus loves me anyway! Look at Him! Look at what He did for me!”

Our response to an authentic encounter with grace is to, well, change. And then we instinctively begin to pour out of this newfound abundance. We give, because we now we have everything we could ever need. What if we got good at reminding each other of that?

(Grace defuses the shame-bomb).

Perhaps the better caption for that heart-wrenching picture might’ve been:

Because Jesus has already given me everything, I’m free to give my everything.

I don’t know. Just a thought. Or we could just continue hurling guilt-grenades.

This post was written by Erik Cooper.  For the original post, go to:  http://beyondtherisk.com/2013/10/02/defusing-the-shame-bomb/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.


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You should be ashamed of yourself

7/19/2013

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I’ll tell you what shame has done for you, follower of Christ: it has hindered you from living the kind of life God wants for you. That’s what shame has done for you. Likely, shame has been instrumental for some of the stinkin’ thinkin’ you’ve been holding to for years — thinking that affected your feelings and emotions — thinking that led to wrong behavior. If you’re riddled with shameful thoughts, you may try to make yourself feel better in unhealthy ways (compulsory behavior, such as excessive drinking, over-eating, anonymous or promiscuous sex, gambling, shopping, use of drugs or medications). Shame ain’t never done nobody any good — ever. That’s just good theology, right there.

But let’s distinguish shame from guilt. If you do or say or think something wrong, then your conscience may inform you that it is wrong, and you may feel bad for the wrong done. That is guilt, not shame. Guilt is admitting to doing something wrong (you did wrong). Shame makes you think that you are something wrong (as though there is something wrong with you as a human being). The latter is dangerous because feelings of self-loathing and self-worthlessness contribute to further distorted thinking, which leads to further emotional damage, which may, in turn, lead to further bad behavior. Shame forms a vicious cycle that can be difficult to break the longer one is engaged within its grip.

Also, there is nothing necessarily wrong with feeling ashamed for doing or saying or thinking something heinous. This is mere acknowledgment of the wrongdoing. When you’re guilty of wrongdoing, and you acknowledge your guilt, you may feel a measure of shame — embarrassment, disgrace, humiliation — for it. But do not confuse doing something wrong with being something wrong. In Christ you have overcome. It may not seem like it yet, it may not feel like it yet, but it’s true (Rom. 8:37). The Bible admits that you have, by faith in Christ, overcome the world (1 John 5:4)!

You need to keep a close eye on your emotions: befriend them, says Henri Nouwen, and don’t become their victim. If you let them master you, you will miss out on the kind of life God desires for you in Christ. There shall be no other master over you but Christ (cf. Luke 16:13; 1 Cor. 6:12). Also, notes Nouwen, don’t “whip yourself for your lack of spiritual progress. If you do, you will easily be pulled even further away from your center … It is obviously good not to act on your sudden emotions. But you don’t have to repress them, either. You can acknowledge them and let them pass by. In a certain sense, you have to befriend them so that you do not become their victim."1


Perhaps your negative emotions are triggered by negative thoughts that will try to master you by bringing undue shame. “You’re not good enough." “No one really likes you anyway." “The Lord doesn’t have time for you." “You never do anything right." Don’t befriend these kinds of thoughts! Here’s how you confront these kinds of negative thoughts and not allow them to control you emotionally. When you have a negative thought, such as “You’re not good enough," ask, “Good enough for who?" In Christ, the playing field for being “good enough" has been destroyed by Jesus’ perfection. When you have a negative thought, such as “No one really likes you anyway," ask, “Really? Not even one person in the whole universe?"

This particular negative thought is known as two types of cognitive distortions: 1) over-generalizing; and 2) omniscience (all-knowing). God loves you, so there’s at least one person in the known universe who loves you. So you cannot over-generalize and suggest that absolutely no one loves you. Plus, you cannot actually know that no one really loves you, since you cannot know the true thoughts and feelings of others. There are people who may really, really like or love you that you’re not too familiar with (people in the community, church, clubs or organizations, on-line, etc.). All our negative thoughts need to be confronted because all too often they do not necessarily represent the truth. Take the last negative thought offered: “You never do anything right." Really? Never, ever, do anything whatsoever right? If that were true, you couldn’t really exist in this world. The truth is that you probably do most things right, and maybe only a few things wrong; which is the complete opposite of what the negative thought was promoting.

Christ took your shame, believer (cf. Heb. 12:2), and He has no plans of giving it back to you. So, stop trying to take it back. Stop equating doing something wrong with being something wrong. Stop listening to those voices — preachers in particular — who attempt to manipulate you into subjection by keeping you under the heavy thumb of shame. Christ has set you free from all that tries to bind you (Gal. 5:1). “In everything, keep trusting that God is with you, that God has given you companions on the journey. Keep returning to the road to freedom."2 And stick close to those whom God has given you on this road to freedom who continually build you up (Rom. 14:19; 1 Thess. 5:11).
_________

1 Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom (New York: Image Books, 1998), 42. 

2 Ibid., 39.  



This post was written by William Birch.  For the original post with comments, go to:  http://willandgraced.tumblr.com/post/55592721019/

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