Month: March 2025 (Page 1 of 4)

M. Robert Mulholland Jr.’s book, “The Deeper Journey,” has a wonderful prayer in Chapter 4, entitled,  “Hidden with Christ in God.”  “Gracious and merciful God, whose cruciform love has plumbed the depths of my false self, awaken me from the pervasive bondage of my false self and enable me through the power of your indwelling Holy Spirit to be restored to wholeness in the image of Christ.  As I look into the nature of this Christ self, stir my heart to hunger and thirst for your transforming work in my life through the Holy Spirit, who with Christ lives and reigns with you. Amen.”

Men, as we deal with “the tiger in our tank” let us be thankful for the cruciform love of Christ present in the midst of our struggle. Our old, unregenerate self (the tiger),  does not conform to our new self in Christ.  When we enter into relationship with Christ we enter into his death (Rom. 6:3-6), but our old self dies a slow death.   “Living out this reality means a deep inner acknowledgment of our false self and a radical commitment to abandon our old way of living.”  Jesus’ death on our behalf is a demonstrates of God’s nature as cruciform love.  By His Spirit, He enters our false self, with cruciform love, to restore us in loving union with himself.  Our part is to  receive his love and allow the false self to be crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:19-20).

How the false and true self relate within us is a divine mystery.  “Christ dwells in the depths of our false self as the crucified one, yet at the same time as the risen Lord  and our new life, the Christ life (II Cor 4:6-7 & II Cor 4:10-11).”  In the cruciform experience we enter with the false self into Christ.  At the core of our false self, the cross exists for us.  As we embrace the cross in our false self, we release our false self to the cross,  allowing our old self to be nailed to the cross, so we might raised with Christ (Rom 8:10-11, Phil 3:10-11).  

Col 3:1-3 express this reality.   First, the resurrection life – “you have been raised with Christ.”  This  gives us a new mind set – “setting our hearts and minds on things above.” Verse 3 describes this reality as beyond  our natural understanding. “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”  Our life is now hidden with Christ and grounded with Christ in God.  “In the cross God has entered the entirety of our false self and confirmed it dead and in the core of our deadness God planted Christ as the seed of new life in  living union with God.”  

Living in this new reality, we let go of the old and become attached to the new. Col. 3:9-ff describes this practice.  “Paul reminds us that our true self is being renewed by God – it is his work not ours.  Just as putting off our old nature is a matter of acknowledging its deadness and abandoning it……….. so putting on the new nature is a matter of acknowledging our life hidden with Christ in God, as we send the roots of our being deeply into God’s love for us.”

Men, our belovedness is revealed in God’s cruciform love for us in Christ. Even when we turn from God’s love and into our false self, God’s love continues to enfold us and indwell us, since his cruciform love is at the heart of our false self.  “Even when we are most alienated from God…..we are still beloved.”  The work is a mystery to us, but it is accomplished by our dying and be raised in Christ.

On a recent Sunday in our Sunday school class, our leader mentioning going to the local school board meeting. He told us about a conversation he had with one student.  The student revealed how many students were contemplating suicide.  That  comment struck me at a deep place in my heart.  I raised my hand and said it make me sad to think the condition of a large number of students in our school system has deteriorated to such a desperate state.  The blame rests with my generation. Instead of complaining about the condition of our youth, we need to share the “Good News” of Jesus with them.    

As I look back during the late 1940’s and 50’s, when I was growing up,  suicide was never on the minds of my buddies.  But today we have an environment in which fragile, insecure and deeply lonely students think about ending their lives.  This is black mark on our culture!    Research paints a picture of young students alone, despairing  and feeling hopeless.  As a nation we struggle with how to address this condition.

I was reminded of a passage in Amos, which I have been wanted to include in my blog.  This discuss regarding teen suicide in America gives me the opportunity to share the words of  prophet Amos.  “‘The time is surely coming,’ says the Sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine on the land – not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord.  People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the Lord. but they will not find it.  Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day.'” (Amos 8:11-13).  

What can we learn from these words of the prophet.  First, the warning  of what could happen in our day.  We need to pay heed to our moral and spiritual condition.  If we neglect nurturing young people by not sharing Jesus, who is the “bread of life” we will have to face the consequences of starving young people,  who hunger for real  food.  Secondly, God will bring about a famine.  There is  plenty of physical bread and water, but little guidance in helping young people to find the “bread of life” and “living water.” They will experience spiritual famine, as they wander in a modern spiritual waste land.  

Thirdly, we will see young people “staggering” and “wandering” all across our nation searching for a clear word from God, in whose image they were created.  I picture a whole generation being influenced by those we call “influencers” in the social media.  The conflicting messages  only distort reality and cause the young to live in an illusionary world – hunger and dissatisfied.  

Fourthly, there is a desperate search for some grasp of transcendence and heavenly voice. saying “you are loved.”  But as the prophet warned, “they will not find it.”  Like students in my local school system, kids live in a self contained bubble that is suffocating their sense of being.  They really are crying out, but not finding what they really are looking for in our culture.

Finally these are some of the brightest and best.  Amos warns us, “Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day.”  In other words, normal, healthy, young people will end up having thoughts of taking their own life.  

Ecclesiastes gives this advice, “Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator.  Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, ‘Life is not pleasant anymore.'” (Eccl. 12:1).