BACKGROUND:
The book I.D. CRISIS by Kurt Koppetsch deals with the spiritual, intellectual, and social conflict of people in modern times. Confusion about the past and uncertainties in the present prevent us from knowing our true nature. As a direct consequence of such confusion, visions of the future are clouded. Some of the diversions that prevent us from realizing our true identity as children of God are philosophies, politics, economics, and falsehoods such as religious cults. The solution is remembering that human beings are dependent creatures of God.
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE:
Each series of the book I.D. CRISIS will conclude with the poem "Rays of Hope and Freedom" to assure readers that God cares about our lives and we are his children of hope. Hope is the From/to process at work in the modern Era of Faith repairing life and circumstances. Hope is making the impossible come true.
This week's topic:
ARE WE EXISTING IN AN IDENTITY CRISIS?
We live by priorities.
The routine of daily life is subject to value judgments. Our decisions have far-reaching consequences on personal behavior and relationships. The quality of life on earth depends upon a successful balancing of priorities--with God and one another.
Choosing priorities requires people to exercise their God-given freedom. Any outcome will necessarily be influenced by personal convictions and views about life. People decide to make materialistic greed or spiritual hunger their priorities. Blessing or curse of life on earth depends upon a thorough appreciation of the purpose of our creation.
To help us live by the right decision requires that we become fully aware as to whose we truly are.
Therefore, in light of God's purpose for human creation, let us ask: "Do we have an identity problem?"
Because of its serious implications, this question certainly merits attention. So let us look at the problem with genuine concern and examine the quality of daily life. Let us expose all the consequences that result from spiritual neglect. Thus we must make our review a matter of personal involvement.
As we commit ourselves to the search for truth, we seek to find the answers to understand the secrets of life. And any truth uncovered will hopefully guide us back on the right path of faithfulness and obedience.
A potential crisis can be turned into the better way of life. Our quest for purpose and meaning on earth will also lead to a deeper appreciation of the nature of our being. A dedicated search will lead us to fundamental truth and point the way to whose we truly are.
We are God's people!
God's mark of ownership is the divine act of our creation. And on the strength of God's righteousness alone, this claim on our lives was renewed. God made it permanent through the divine act of redemption.
God acted despite the sinfulness of people. Redemption--life in union with Christ as God's anointed savior--offers all people the opportunity to live by grace in the newness of life. It further secures for the faithful and the obedient a place of restored fellowship in the presence of God. For as grace and faith combine, then all people who believe in God's plan of salvation will experience the oneness that identifies human beings as the image of God.
If our behavior in thought and deed is not in harmony with God's expectations for the purpose of our creation, then, we are in the center of an identity crisis. Our behavior--together with the fruits of our labor--is all the evidence needed to indict us.
Whenever people as individuals, families, or societies that make up a nation continuously miss the mark of realizing the life-giving relationship ordained by God, God's expectations of faithfulness and obedience have become sidetracked. When this happens, devotion as well as service to God degenerates into a purposeless ritual. People will go to church once a week solely to satisfy the ego. The absence of any genuine sign of repentance will serve as additional proof that pride and arrogance have combined forces with selfishness and greed.
Neither families nor societies benefit from the spiritual decay of their members. Satan is the only one to gain from any degeneration of the human race. Therefore, Satan will offer help to the wayward in making the final break from knowing God by severing any remaining strains of conscience. Thereafter evil can claim victory over the conflict in man.
Sheer physical existence becomes the new order of the day. Without hope, life has already been shown to be very harsh. People compete for self-esteem, increase greed to remain above average, and excel in empire building to maintain an image.
For people who live without hope, the world is nothing more than a jungle. This type of world consumes--energies and people. In it people will fight and kill in order to survive.
Within it, people will tend to live in their own ocean of self-righteousness. Only the choking from the corrosive atmosphere of hate and greed will make them aware of spiritual blindness. Missed opportunity to overcome this way of life lead to deathbed despair in which the dying see the horizons closing in for the final curtain call.
People have created their own death trap when they make the world a place in which ruthless ambition is the order of the day. In it we will constantly see people working extra hard to outsmart and outdo their fellow men.
As people fight for supremacy, the tenderness of conscience becomes dulled in proportion to the fierceness of worldly struggles. Eventually the wayward will also become insensitive to the pain of slow spiritual death. As they compensate for this painless loss with overindulgence in the pleasures of materialistic gains, Satan waits prepared to reap the harvest in a field full of people who have lost all spiritual identity with God.
Because human beings were created to be dependent creatures of God, an identity crisis is really upon us. We simply have failed to appreciate divine truth as the message that alone can satisfy the hunger of starving souls.
What must we do?
This is not just a cry of desperation of the humanly frail and physically weak. There are moments of truth in all people--good and bad alike. These times of root awakening are opportunities to change. It can be the beginning of the better way of life.
Unfortunately, not all people will take advantage of the chance for a new beginning. We all know that the shedding of bad habits is good for us and there is even some honesty to our hidden desire for change. Yet this is seldom pursued with sufficient impetus to make a fresh beginning the new routine of daily life.
We are not alone in this tragic situation. We share this dilemma with multitudes of people around us.
Because pride makes us cry for even greater independence, we are slaves of our own pride. It makes us want to dictate the ground rules for communion and fellowship with God.
Thus, the sin of rebellion, defiance, and independence is compounded by the greater sin of pride. Even though this conflict is harsh, let us not become overwhelmed by the fierceness of our own problems. Nor must we let ourselves become intimidated by the evil around us. There is nothing in the world that can destroy what God has ordained.
At the same time let us also recognize that there are no alternate or substitute ways for God's plans for our spiritual well-being. For on the basis of God's righteousness alone, grace is the divine gift that secures salvation through Jesus Christ. Thus, the only proper reaction to God's offer of grace is to take refuge in God our Redeemer.
Life in today's world is a mixed blessing. Aimless drift and apathy is a predominant problem among the well-to-do. Hunger, disease, and death darken all signs of hope for the less fortunate. Though present in different ways, despair can touch rich and poor alike. Nonetheless, life continues to run its course because God sustains it.
This world is the proving ground for Christian faith. The faithful and obedient are given the opportunity to live the faith that we as Christians have so readily professed. Life must be shared with zealots, opportunists, the confused, and even those who reject everything, including themselves.
Yet the presence of God is evident. For from within this unlikely bundle of people, God continues to use individuals in many ways to accomplish divine purpose.
Through his grace, God is providing ample help. Christians can draw on the power of God to let the Holy Spirit work his will through them. Thus, we do not live for ourselves but to the glory of God.
Christ's prophetic words in the Sermon on the Mount serve to identify followers and their mission: "You are the light of the world ... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:14,16)
For a better understanding of "good works," let us keep in mind the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). God is glorified when we recognize the other person also as a child of God and give of ourselves.
If Christians--as the body of Christ--are really concerned about their mission and work, they need not defend or be apologetic about their witness to the good news of the Gospel: Jesus Christ came, died, and was raised back to life for the forgiveness of sins--for even the worst of sinners.
To end the identity crisis, we must yield to the Holy Spirit, who alone will reveal the truth about God.
The flourishing of falsehoods--such as religious cults--during an identity crisis is alarming, but should not come as a surprise. Whenever people feel spiritually destitute, they will accept even their own manipulation for the sake of temporary relief.
But false teaching will go on. Saint Paul mentioned that this will continue as long as there are people who like to promote human ideas: "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
As people of God--our true identity through creation and redemption--we live in the world by the grace of God.
This rules out all clever manipulation by the human mind to become giants in intellect and develop our own methods of pleasing God. Restored fellowship was provided by God two thousand years ago--despite sin--as a gift of grace.
God has acted. We now must respond, faithfully and obediently, and live out God's plan of salvation.
RAYS OF HOPE AND FREEDOM
My life was in chaos.
Darkness clouded my senses.
My heart trembled in fear.
I prayed to God:
"Father, help me!"
And God transformed my life.
The world is still the same.
But I am now secure:
Christ is my Savior!
His love fills my heart,
His faith is my faith.
Rays of hope now light up my soul.
Rays of hope and freedom
Show me the way to God,
And where Christ lives I too will live!
NEXT, December 7:
Christianity, nice people, and the real world
(Excerpt from the book I.D. CRISIS by Kurt Koppetsch, published by Shepherd News Trust, Inc.--www.shepherdnewstrust.com)
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