Video: How Preaching Has Failed Us

Most preaching and Christian teaching today leads us to expect to sin.  Jim contrasts this typical understanding of preaching with a New Covenant/New Heart approach that views preaching as a means of affirming and releasing [with the help of the Spirit] the new-hearted desires, appetites, and tendencies that now reside in the Christian's heart. 

New Covenant preaching expects that there is a new-hearted goodness that is awaiting nourishment and release [through community and the Spirit] - a goodness that will grow stronger than any fleshly appetites.

View E-book:  "No Longer Prone to Wander"

Update on Friday, January 18, 2013 at 4:46PM by Jim Robbins

BETTER QUESTIONS FOR RELATING TO ONE ANOTHER:

The Church needs to replace the question, "How can I hold this person 'accountable'" with

"Father, how can I celebrate the new goodness you've placed in his/her heart [at conversion], and look for its evidence?"

 Another helpful question Christians can ask of each other:

"What is it that's more noble in this person than the surface behavior I see? More noble than the fear? More noble than the brokenness? More noble than the self-protective posture?

Don't create a theology based upon your disappointments.

Too many times, we build a theology around our lack of something we hoped we should have by now; or our disappointments:

1.  Example One:  "That just doesn't happen in my life:  God just doesn't work that way."
You were hoping to be further along in your prayer life, but aren't where you expected to be after all these years.  You hoped you could experience more of the supernatural rescue of God, but wonder why it seems so fleeting and so seldom.  So you create a theology that says, "God just doesn't work that way anymore.  Or at least not in my life."

2.  Example Two:  "The Christian life is not about me becoming stronger."

You were hoping to see more growth in your life, a developing and maturing strength that others seem to have but seems meager and dwindling in your own journey.  So you create a theology that says, "God doesn't expect us to grow, or us to become more capable and stronger over time.  It's all Jesus' work anyway:  He'll act in and through us, but we aren't doing the growing.

But wait.  Why wouldn't you expect to see an increasing love for your enemy, or discernment, or  an unpressured "one another" kind of love developing over time?  The assumption that "Christian life is not about you doing all the right things"  is true; but if overstated, can turn you into a marionette puppet, where Jesus pulls all the strings and bypasses your will, your heart, and your mind; robotically moving you wherever he wants to.

This idea that "God doesn't expect you to grow" usually comes from the legitimate claim that we shouldn't be striving to live from the arrogant and self-aggrandizing energies of the "flesh."  Depending upon the flesh for the victorious Christian life is directly counter to walking in the Spirit.  However, the suggestion that "the Christian life is not about you becoming stronger" overstates it.  We should expect to grow, but how?   The answer is by cooperating with the Holy Spirit as he does the work of releasing our new appetites, desires and tendencies - those new cravings he placed within our new and noble hearts.

Otherwise, it would seem inconceivable that Jesus would live in you, yet leave you unchanged, without any sign of unpressured, yet increasing growth.   There may be pain, wounds and assumptions in the way of that growth; but you can expect to grow.  Your heart may be pinned down in places; but it's still noble and true. Yes, it's all radically dependent upon his work; but it still causes you to grow.  It's an unpressured growth...over time; but a maturing life where your new heart's appetites get released, your mind is increasingly renewed, and your body is more lead by your heart's new nature rather than by the movements of the "flesh."

Caution:  Don't turn a disappointment in your journey into a theology about how God works.  Be careful not to assume that a lack of something is a sign that what you hoped for doesn't exist.  It will lead you to resignation or short-change God's surprising work in you, rather than lead you to a more full-hearted life.

 

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The Good and Noble Heart Mug is here!

I have a few "go-to" mugs in my kitchen cupboard: 

• There's the one I bought in Acadia National Park in Maine because it reminds me of our family's roots there that go back to the 1700's. 


• Then there's the mug that I bought in the mountains of Colorado where I attended a men's retreat that taught me that the heart is central to life.


• Then there's the mug with signatures of friends I had coffee with daily at a coffee bar in Florida, who wrote their names in black marker around the sides of that mug, just before I moved a thousand miles away.

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THE GOOD AND NOBLE HEART MUG: 
"Your heart is your ally, not your enemy."

I designed this mug [ stein, and water bottle] for the GOOD AND NOBLE HEART community so that when you fill it with your favorite tea or morning coffee, or take the water bottle to the gym, you'll remember  that Jesus did clean the inside of your cup; and that because of your new and noble goodness, your heart is no longer your enemy, but your ally.

A friend of mine once invited his friends to celebrate Communion by bringing in their favorite mug instead of those plastic juice thimbles so often used, and that changed Communion for that group forever.

Which mugs in your kitchen cupboard are your "go-to" mugs and why do they mean something to you? 

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Ordering the GOOD & NOBLE HEART mug [or stein, or stainless water bottle]:

You can order the mug or stein or water bottle at my storefront in Cafe Press [- a well-known printing company that will handle payment and shipping to you.  After they factor-in their production costs, I receive a $2 to $3 royalty per item.] 

 

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Reacting to a threat that no longer exists.

My good friend,  Joel Brueseke of Graceroots Podcast, invited me to guest-podcast on his series.  [Thanks, Joel!]

What can we learn from the mistakes of a tribe in the Sudan of Africa about letting go of threats that no longer exist? 

Too many Christians believe that a threatening sickness lies in their heart and needs to be extracted - much like the Dinka tribe of the Sudan painfully extracts their children's adult teeth with a crude fishhook in order to remove a threat that no longer exists.

You can read an earlier post I've written on this curious practice of the Dinka tribe here.

LISTEN:  Here's my guest podcast on GraceRoots/  "Treating a threat that no longer exists."

Wounded By Accusation

 

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Here are some posts I've written that speak to those who find themselves particularly wounded by accusation:  

"Generalized Accusation Disorder:"  My Story

 
"You're Getting Hit With Accusation - The Warning Signs"

 
"Conviction is Different Than Accusation"

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Especially for introverts:

"Why Accusation Is So Debilitating for Sensitive Hearts"

 
"Were You a 'High-Reactive/High-Sensitive" Introverted Kid?"

 
"Introverts and the Church:  The Pain of Performance and Perceptions"

Podcast: Part 2- "Revolution Within" - Jim interviews best-selling author Dwight Edwards

PODCAST:  "REVOLUTION WITHIN" -  Part 2, with guest author Dwight Edwards

As Dwight Edwards suggested in Part One of our podcast, the un-pressured Christian life is about releasing the good God has placed within us rather than trying to get something fixed.

Then what are the new resources of powerful goodness awaiting release within our new Christ-given nature?

In Part Two of our converstion, Dwight and I talk about four resources of our new -hearted nature:

A new purity

A new identity

A new disposition

A new power

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Podcast:  "REVOLUTION WITHIN" -Part 2-  Jim interviews best-selling author, Dwight Edwards, about his book, "Revolution Within."  [Part 2]

[For Dwight's books and resources, go to his website:  Kindling for the Fire.]

*Listen to Part One here, if you missed it.

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LISTEN ON iTunes

New Podcast: "Revolution Within" Part One -Jim interviews best-selling author Dwight Edwards

This is Part One of my interview with special guest, Dwight Edwards, author or Revolution Within.  Dwight is lead pastor at Water’s Edge Church in Houston.  He also publishes a regular update called, "Kindling for the Fire." 

Dwight has also served as a friend and advisor to Larry Crabb.

Dwight's work was foundational to my understanding of our good and noble heart.  It's a message largely missing in modern Christianity; but one that God is restoring in order to see his friends released from the tyranny of "never enough."

"That’s why the great issue in Christian living is not how to get ourselves fixed but how to get our new nature released."  
- Revolution Within

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Podcast:  Jim Robbins interviews Dwight Edwards about his book, "Revolution Within." 

*This is Part One of our interview.   "It's not about fixing, but releasing the good."  

[Note:  There are a few pops and clicks here and there.  We didn't hear them 'live,' yet they somehow found their way into the recording.  I think the message will come through loud and clear anyway.] 

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LISTEN ON iTunes

Disarming shame: Will 'naming it' alone really help?

Shame derives its power from being unspeakable.  That's why it loves perfectionists - it's so easy to keep us quiet. If we cultivate enough awareness about shame to name it and speak to it, we've basically cut it off at the knees.  Shame hates having words wrapped around it.  If we speak shame, it begins to whither.  - from "Daring Greatly," by Brene' Brown

Do you agree with this? What is true about Brene's claim?  What might be missing?

I have a great deal of respect for Brene' Brown, the quote's author.  I think her analysis of shame - what it is and how is disables us - is dead-on.  And I agree that we need to be talking about shame more, bringing its debilitating deception into the light.

Yet, I wonder if merely exposing shame by talking about it, "wrapping words around it," really heals it.  Yes, putting words to shame and how it hurts might makes us feel less alone because we've realized that shame is a universal kind of brokeness.  "Speaking to shame" might even help us gain more clarity around:

• the underlying causes of our husband's distance and anger, 


• or the sense that I'm never enough for anyone; despite my best efforts,


• or why we end up believing that God's heart is set against us, rather than believing his intent is always deliverance, as mysterious as that deliverance often is. 

"Wrapping words around shame" may help us realize, "Oh, so that's why I feel so afraid of showing up with my full heart; or taking risks; of entering in." 

But does this mean the shame is healed?  - As in, that it no longer has power over us; and something more redemptive and glorious has taken its place?  I don't think so.  Only healing heals.

Think how often over the last ten years you've talked about that betrayal that haunts you; or the time that you were fired for no reason; or the years that the church leadership abused your trust.  How many different conversations have you had about it....yet the wound seems so unhealed, despite you naming it and understanding its effect more clearly?

My prayer for us is this: 
Father, heal the wounds of shame that have lied to us for too long.  Heal them with your affection.  And as you do this, we invite your Spirit to release the noble goodness of our new-hearted, Christ-given identity - knowing that we are now more worthy and valuable than we could possible imagine.

 

"I'm not enough to make you happy."

Our fundamental problem as humans is shame.  That's what cripples us. And shame's message to us is: 

"I'm not enough to make you happy, or prevent you from being disappointed with me." 

Here are two common misunderstandings:

1. Feeling forgiven, in and of itself, won't heal shame.  It's a wonderful thing to no longer have your sin held against you.  But forgiveness alone won't help you conquer that addiction that's lasted for years; or heal the anger that rushes in every time your children interrupt your work with silly questions.  Or the fear that no one will ever come for you because you're not worth the time.


2. Telling yourself that you are "worthy", while believing that your heart is still a shameful mess, won't heal you.  It's like trying to believe it will be a sunny day as you notice the rain clouds gather in the distance.  It does you no good to try and convince yourself of something you don't believe is really true.  You can't believe you are worthy and acceptable while holding that your heart is "prone to wander."  There's too much dissonance between what you're trying to believe and what you really believe about your true self.

Then what will heal our shame; and dispel the lie that "I'm not enough to please God or anyone else?"

Answer:  Discovering that you have been given a good and noble heart by Christ when you said 'yes' to him;   then doing the hard work of trusting that new heart when shame hits you out of nowhere:

• When you get rejected three times for three different job positions.


• When your husband fails to see your heart and seems too disengaged to care.


• When you feel sidelined by God, shelved - while others seem "successful"  in their calling.

Bottom line:  God has removed the nagging fear that we are worthy or acceptable by making us so.  He did that by changing our core tendencies and desires.    The fact that you possess a new heart means you are always pleasing to him.  Yes, you may and can still sin.  But the sin is no longer you.  Sin is no longer at the core of your identity: it's is no longer in your heart.

God looks at your noble heart and knows you are genuinely good and pleasing to him.  You are enough to make him happy.  Exceedingly happy. 

 

Why giving children [or anyone else] "consequences" doesn't work.

Mother to young son: 

"If you don't pick up your toys, you'll lose a privelege.  I warned you that there would be consequences."

Translate: 

"If you don't meet my expectations, pain will follow:  I will either remove something from you, or do something to you." 

Most of us were brought up under a compliance model:  "Just get kids to behave.  Give them 'consequences' if they don't meet your expectations."

Natural consequences:
Yes, there are natural outcomes to our choices:  Relationships don't do well where there isn't mutual respect, including from child to parent.  However, the carrot and stick [reward and punishment] model doesn't work.  [Note:  rewarding a child, in order to get good behavior, has also shown to short-change genuine transformation in the long-run.]  In fact, research indicates that if you insist on punishing [or rewarding] kids for their behavior, you'll end up with a worse kid in the long run.  Remember, true transformation is measured in years, not minutes.

Giving "warnings" and "consequences" didn't even work for God:

"If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins..."  [Leviticus 26:18]

"...as your sins deserve."  [Leviticus 26: 21]

"They will pay for their sins because they rejected my laws..."  [Leviticus 26:43]

Did God's warnings that consequences would follow produce heart-change in his people?  No.  They still went ahead and did what he warned them not to. Why?  Pressure to comply - and the threat of consequences that accompany that - will never produce the actual change we really want for our kids.  Being intrinsically [self-motivated] to love well is far superior to being threatened into acting like you care about others.

So what's the alternative?
Connection.  Put the heart first.  Here's another post I wrote that gives you some concrete suggestions:  "Parenting Where the Heart Comes First."

"Don't apply that to your life."

If you don't know you have a new-hearted identity in Christ, the following passage from the Old Testament will be understandably troubling for you:

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.  [Deut. 8:2]

If I had read that passage ten years ago, I would have drawn some horrible conclusions about my heart - wrongly assuming that:

"There is possibly something in my heart that I shouldn't trust - something that could prevent me from following his commands."

God's audience at that time was not new-hearted, Spirit-indwelled:
Why did God need to "test" something he already knew?  His omniscience would have told him what was already in their hearts.  They were not yet new hearted, Spirit-changed people.  Jesus had not come to bring them that yet.  That would be later in history.

Perhaps it was the people themselves that needed to know what was in their hearts, and experience the futility of living under a broken [ill-functioning] heart?  People often need to feel the crushing burden of living as a self-indulgent corpse before they are ready to live as a free-hearted and alive son or daughter.

What we need to know today:
Secondly, the primary point of Jesus' rescue of us is to give us a heart that loves God and leaves no room for doubt as to its allegiance.  And, being an in-Christ person, that faithful heart is already in you.  When you enter friendship with Jesus, he surgically removes the wandering heart and replaces it with a heart that is aligned and allied with God.

You can trust the faithfulness of your new heart.

Why avoiding sin's consequences isn't the point.

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A family member said to me that he never wanted to find himself in the situation David got into with Bathsheba.  My relative would do all he could to avoid the consequences of sin, rather than risk falling into temptation and it's aftermath.  As we talked, I sensed this was how he lived his life:  "Avoid sin and the judgement that follows." Stay clear of sin's allure because you don't want to pay the piper. 

While there is the command to flee from sin, and to be self-controlled [Which is to say, be "Spirit-led"], I think there's a better alternative to the "stay out of trouble, avoiding the consequences" model: 

God's unhindered affection is a much better reason not to sin than the fear of consequences or judgement is.

• It's better to avoid sin because you're well-loved and have the real thing, not needing sin's false promise. 


• It's better to be obsessed with how well regarded you are by our Father, than to become preoccupied with consequences and outcomes. 

Love covers a multitude of sins.

• It's better to indulge the striking goodness of your new and noble heart; than to allow fear to overshadow your God-hearted nature.

Delight is stronger than judgement:  Affection reassures where fear accuses.

Why compliance and control work against transformation...

There's a world of difference between compliance [getting adults/kids to act like you want them to] vs. transformation:  One happens through control and pressure; the other happens through connection. 

Anyone who has care or charge over someone:  church leaders, authors, teachers, parents will end up using one or the other, or a combination of both.   Spouses end up using one or the other model as well.  However, God uses transformation.

Note that the 'Compliance" approach to relationships leads to regressive, worse behavior over the long-run.  Don't be fooled:  compliance often looks like change; but it's really a yielding out of fear.

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Helpful resources:

• "Drive - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us," by Daniel Pink
• "Unconditional Parenting," by Alfie Kohn
• "Connecting," by Larry Crabb

Video: Jim Robbins' speaking events.

One attendee of a group I spoke to came up to be afterwards and said, "I'm not sure if I believe you yet, but if what you're saying is true, it changes everything." 

The message of RECOVER YOUR GOOD HEART isn't new.  It isn't a fad.  Rather, it's the message of "regeneration" that many of us have passed over or never heard.  Martin Luther affirmed it, and so did J.I. Packer, one of the most influential Christian leader of our time:

J.I. Packer, whom Time magazine listed as one of the top 25 most influential evangelicals in America, describes our regeneration as, “the spiritual change wrought in the heart of man by the Holy Spirit in which his/her inherently sinful nature is changed so that he/she can respond to God in Faith, and live in accordance with His will (Matt. 19:28; John 3:3,5,7; Titus 3:5). It extends to the whole nature of man, altering his governing disposition, illuminating his mind, freeing his will, and renewing his nature.”

In other words, your heart is now your ally, not your enemy.

GET MORE DETAILS HERE.

Form a new-hearted group study - Including Skype call with Jim.

As many of you have already figured out, allies on the good and noble heart journey are important.  Do you have a small group of friends who want to learn more about their good hearts? Why not form a short-term group study with a few friends.  In your home or online, using either my book, RECOVER YOUR GOOD HEART, or the book's STUDY GUIDE.  I know of folks who have already done this.

Skype call with Jim, free:
If you do either Option One [Study Guide Group] or Option Two  [Book Group] below, I'll include one 45 minute Skype call [voice or video] with your group, at no cost.  It doesn't matter if one member is in Anckorage and another in Allagash.  [Up to ten people.]

What you'll need: 

• For Skype conference [voice-only] group calls, each member will need a Skype account.


• For Skype video group calls, each member of your group needs to have a webcam and be signed up with Skype. [At least two people, plus me.  Up to ten people max.]

The Skype call would allow the group to ask me follow-up questions or get further clarity on living from your new heart.  It will also be a great time to connect with each other.

• You'll need to get either my book, RECOVER YOUR GOOD HEART, or the STUDY GUIDE - depending on if you choose Option One or Option Two below.

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Option One:  If you have already read my book, "RECOVER YOUR GOOD HEART" then why not form an online study with a few friends, using the STUDY GUIDE. 

Option Two:  If you have not read the book first, use that.  It makes sense to read the book, RECOVER YOUR GOOD HEART first, unless you're already pretty familiar with my blogs and the Good and Noble Heart message.

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*You can email me if your interested. 

• Buy book on Amazon.


• Buy Study Guide on Lulu.com.

Piety is not what God is after.

The following excerpts come from a newsletter I received from Dwight Edwards, author of "Revolution Within."  His book was essential for shaping my understanding of the good and noble heart several years ago.  Here's what Dwight says:

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D.L. Moody was exactly right when he noted, “Some men have just enough religion to be miserable”.  

True, vital Christianity was never intended to be a grim resolve to imitate the example of Christ.

Oswald Chambers puts it so well,

“There is no room in the New Testament for sickly piety, but room only for the robust, vigorous, open-air life that Jesus lived – in the world but not of it, the whole life guided and transfigured by God. Beware of the piety that is not stamped by the life of God…Be absolutely and fiercely godly, but never pious.”

I love that thought. Vibrant spirituality goes far beyond mere piety; it specializes in becoming “absolutely and fiercely godly”.

It is not enough to concentrate on “in nothing I shall be ashamed” [avoiding sin] That is only a very preliminary start. The true goal is not labored suppression of the wrong but robust expression of the right. Lewis Sperry Chafer writes,

“True spirituality is a seven-fold manifestation of the Spirit in and through the one whom He fills. It is a divine output of the life, rather than a mere cessation of things which are called "worldly." True spirituality does not consist in what one does not do, it is rather what one does. It is not suppression: it is expression. It is not holding in self: it is living out Christ.”

[End.]

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After reading this, the obvious question is, "How does this happen?" 

Answer:   The indwelling Spirit ignites and enflames our new, God-given good and noble heart so that our new righteousness radiates outwards into the lives of others.

New podcast: "If I really do have a good and noble heart, then why does the evidence seem to suggest otherwise?" -Guest Joel Brueske joins Jim.

Joel Brueseke [see his insightful GraceRoots podcast] joins me as we try to offer encouragement for Christians who do want to believe that their heart is now good and noble because of Christ's redeeming work for them, but who continue to struggle to live from that new-hearted goodness.

Podcast:  "If I really do have a good and noble heart, then why does the evidence seem to suggest otherwise?"  [Special guest, Joel Brueseke of GraceRoots.com]

In the podcast, Joel and I address:

• Why does my experience seem to suggest my heart really isn't good, noble and true?


• Why truth must drive experience and not the other way around.


• What about us is "finished" and what is still "unfinished?"


• What happened to the "Accuser" in our worldview?  "Warfare" has been grossly abused in the Church, but for the sake of our hearts, the idea is worth revisiting.


• Why multiple exposures to the truth is necessary so that our minds, emotions and bodies can catch up to the truth about our new and noble hearts.


• Should you leave a church that preaches a performance-based, "bad-heart" message?


• Resources for finding new-hearted community and messages. 

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You can find new-hearted community - people who want to live from their good and noble heart - on the "COMMUNITY" page on my website.  The focus is simple:

1.  Where are you finding it difficult to live from your good and noble heart?

2.  Where are you finding encouragement to live from your good and noble heart?

From borrowed righteousness to actual righteousness: That's the point.

Many Christians end up thinking that the goodness they possess doesn't really belong to them -- that it's only Jesus being good within and through them that counts; as if Jesus dwells within them, but alongside a still faithless or tainted heart.  

They assume that they themselves couldn't possibly be good:  It's just Jesus indwelling that makes them so.   The hope is that they're simply banking on Jesus' righteousness within them: because all the faithfulness and purity appears only on Jesus' side of the ledger and none on their side.

While our goodness is exclusively the gift of Jesus to us, and must always be the result of grace, his goodness has become our actual goodness.  That's the point of the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant system of sacrifices could not do two things:

1.  It couldn’t take away a person’s sin or wash the guilt away.

2.  The Old Covenant sacrifices could only lend the person a temporary and outward righteousness:

“The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.”

“The law … can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they [the sacrifices] not have stopped being offered? For the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.” “…because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Heb. 10: 1,2,3,4)

Under the old way of relating to God, the worshippers borrowed righteousness through the sacrificial system, but it never really made them righteous.  Because of your union with Jesus, his goodness has become your goodness. 

We have shifted from borrowed to actual. 

A reader's response: "After all this time, why am I still struggling to live from my new heart?"

A reader's reaction to my recent post, "Why Do Your Best Is Exactly What the Enemy Wants."  Many of you will find her honesty refreshing:

Jim, thank you for what you said in this newsletter. This speaks to part of my struggle. I've been struggling with circumstances lately that have made me feel really bad about my seeming lack of faith. I tried it for 7 years in the system and left. When I found people online showing me better answers, I left the system full of hope at the time.

Now 5 years later, I'm realizing I don't 'get' living IN Christ much better than I ever did. Oh, sure I can talk a good talk about it, but I'm not doing so well at actually walking it. I think what you speak of, learning to live from the new heart, is still a hindrance to many people because we don't believe, deep down, that God really, truly loves us, accepts us, and thinks well of us.

I'm not sure how much time this is supposed to take. You'd think after 5 years I'd 'get it' better, and I've even had other 'outside the box' Christians imply such to me. I'm not sure what the trick is to 'getting it' that God loves and accepts me, but I haven't found the key yet.

Please understand I'm not looking for advice or tips on how to 'get it.' I think I've already heard it all. I guess I just wanted to tell you this because you're a fellow introvert and you do get that. And as an introvert, you're not likely to take a "just do it" fix to a heart problem. Maybe there's some conversation out there to be had on this... maybe I'm not the only one...

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Note:  I'll have more to say later on why I think it's so hard to live from our new hearts and what the nature of that battle is.

Why "Do your best" is exactly what you're enemy wants.

 

I think the greatest trick the enemy has pulled on Christians - especially committed followers of Christ - is to convince us to do our best.  Really.  It can take a hundred different forms - serve the world, be a good mother/father, live a holy life, witness for Christ, fight for justice. 

[The enemy] appeals to the very passions within us to live as we long to live, and urges on onward.  But it is absolutely deadly if any of these noble endeavors are what we are living for.  The cunning, cunning shift, so brilliant, so subtle, is away from union with Christ to doing our best for Christ.  - John Eldredge

Religious Pressure - Version 1.0
You experienced this when you diligently tried to make a go of the Christian life - serving on all the committees you were expected to, faithfully pursuing a 'quiet time' to demonstrate your committment to God, and by "raising the bar" on your prayer life.  You got off the fence, got serious and ran hard for God so that you could one day hear him say, "Well-done, good and faithful servant." 

Religious Pressure 1.0 is what the culture of Christian duty expected of us.

Religious Pressure - Version  2.0
But old habits die hard because it's possible, once you do understand that Christ replaced your diseased and wandering heart with a good and noble heart, to put pressure on yourself to live from your new heart. And, as the scientific community has known for the last forty years, a pressured demand to comply doesn't produce intrinsic [inside-out] motivation. 

We're frankly surprised when we don't consistently choose the new resources and appetites of our new nature:

• We scold ourselves for habits we just can't seem to break, even with our new goodness.

• We interpret our failures through the lens of shame:  "I'm still that kind of person."

• We redouble our efforts to "walk in the Spirit" while doubting our ability to do that.

Pressure enflames the flesh.
Yes, it is certainly counter-productive to live from old habits and fleshly thinking, but pressure to engage your new holiness will actually continue to engage your flesh and not your new goodness.  It's like scolding a toddler for not walking when he falls back into a habit of crawling.  You know he can walk, so damn it! Why isn't he walking?! 

Patient encouragement is helpful:  Pressure is not.  Honey, not vinegar.

Beating a young colt
It's like beating a young colt for not having the stamina of the Preakness winner in the next stall.  There's nothing wrong with the colt, he just needs a good trainer...and time.

So, whereas under Religious Pressure Version 1.0, we assumed all the wrong things about our heart - that it couldn't be trusted, that it would lead us into sin - we now vigorously demand that our new heart comply with the demand to run hard like we did under Version 1.0-- and we demand this from a heart that is still learning and trying finding its way. 

... A heart that needs to feel safe in order to come out and play. 

... A heart that wants to do right, and will lead you well as it learns to walk.

Union with Christ trumps doing your best for Christ.  In fact, you don't need to worry about the second when you have the first.  Enjoy the union and the rest will follow.

Update on Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at 12:20PM by Jim Robbins

For those sharp-eyed readers out there, yes - I did mistakenly spell "your" as "you're" in the title bar.  Can't change it after it's been sent out, as it changed the link address.  Even after multiple edits, these things slip past.  ;)