You have an huge opportunity:

We live in a fallen world where the sin of mankind continues to creates layers and layers of adverse consequence. We are each born with a sinful nature, a tendancy to love ourselves more than we love God or those around us. This inner nature makes us self-conscious, meaning we spend a lot of our time and energy worried about “ME”, what I look like, what I can do, what I have, what others might think about me, how others treat me; It is all about ME. This self-conscious perspective works itself into patterns of thoughts, emotions, intentions and actions over time. These thoughts, emotions, and intentions keep us focused on short term self-centered agendas which are often counter to our own long term success and often come at the expense of others. If you let this flawed inner nature continue to drive your thoughts, emotions and intentions, you will eventually self-distruct. If you try to manage them yourself with discipline and self-control, without addressing the root issue of your flawed inner nature, you will lead an increasingly difficult and frustrating life and never reach your full portential.  The God who created you sent His Son here to provide an upgrade path out of this fallen world and your flawwed inner nature. All you need to do is acknowledge the problem and follow Him. He promisses to fix the root issue by replacing your flawed self-centerd inner nature with one rooted in Love. He will then help you undo the self-centered thought and emotion patterns which get in your way and cause problems for others. and replace them with thoughts and emotions rooted in Love. These changes unlock the hidden potential within you; You will become the best possible you. These changes yeild benefits for you and those around you. The benefits can be experienced here and now, and they last for etenrity. Follow this brief discussion and see what salvation can really look like when you embrace it.

Call to action:

You are called to transform.  To transform from the You that was born with a self-conscious inner nature. The You that has been shaped by a life time of experiences in this fallen world. You are called to become like Jesus, to submit the old you and let Him form in you. Instead of self-consciousness driving you, you vecome driven by Love;  Love of God and Love of others. As you release your own self-centered agendas you start acting selflessly, you become Love in action.  When you do this, you become the best possible “You”; the “You” God intended when He crreated you. You will shine in this dark world, You will be a beacon for His kingdom. This transformtion is both possilbe and appropriate. 

Why are things so screwed up? 

Mankind was created in the image and likeness of God and they experienced peace and harmony with God and paradise in the garden. That all changed when Adam and Eve exercised their free will, listened to lies, and decided they would be better off to eat of the forbidden tree which violated Gods’ one big rule.  The self-conscious thoughts about becoming like a god by knowing good and evil started a chain reation. It led to a self-centered action to ignore Gods commandment and eat the forbidden fruit.  This corrupted the perfect image of God in them and made them permanently self-conscious and self-centered. They became aware they were naked, became afraid, and started hiding from God. They each deflected accountability for thier aciton by blaming someone else: Eve blamed the serpent, Adam blamed Eve, and then he blamed God. This flawed inner self-conscious and self-centered inner nature has been passed on from generation to generation and has only gotten worse over time. This has resulted in a world where people are focused entirely on themselves. The external consequences are all around us: Violence, Corruption, Immorality, Hate, Divisiveness, Suffering, etc. The inner agendas are evident when you look: Everything is all about “ME”!  This effects how people view themselves: What does my body look like? What do others think of me? How can I make myself look better in their eyes? How can I show off what I have? How can I avoid blame?  This effects how they view others: What do others have that I don’t? How can I get the things they have?  How can I use people to serve my interests? This also effects how they relate to God: “I have accomplished these things..not God through me.” These folks are actually stealing credit from God and there will be consequences.  “I will deal with this myself”…you can address some symptoms but you can’t get to the root. He will present increasingly difficult situations to the point where you suffer so much you give up and call out to Him for help.  Here is your opportunity to avoid all that suffering and address it now. 

Why should I care?

Like it or not, You were born with this flawed inner nature; a tendancy to be self-conscious and to adopt self-centered agendas. This inner nature is a force deep in you and it is shaping your life. It drives your thoughts, your emotions, and your choices. To the extent you let this force run free, you end up operating from a self-conscious perspective, focused on you and optimizing your short term experience. You become distracted from God and His plans for you. You view other people as competition to compare yourself to, or even worse, you view them as resources to be used for your benefit. This creates an endless cycle of distracting emotions and bad decisions as you struggle against lifes’ inevitble challenges. The rules of scociety are establsihed to keep people who are operating with this nature from causing excessive harm to each other.

People who overcome this inner flaw become awakened to the bigger perspective and make longer term decisions, loose the enless distractions and wasted energy, and realize a tremendous joy when they find themselves playing a useful role in a much more important aspect in peoples lives.   

You can detect this nature operating in you if you pay attention.

Have you ever heard yourself say any of these things, outloud or even just to yourself?

I deserve more… What is in it for me…  How will I ever get credit for doing this?

I’m sick and tired of…   I’ll show them…  Well they got what they deserved… 

I know it is wrong but I can’t stop myself… 

Do you feel a tendancy toward any of these emotions:

Pride? Impatience? Anger? Hate?

Envy? Jealousy? Lust?

Fear? Dispair? Desperation?

Guilt? Condemnsation? Shame?

Those are just some of the symptoms produced by the flawwed inner nature you were born with.   

The antidote to all of this is to “Become Love”.

God is love.  He loves us so much He sent His only begotten son as a human to suffer and die for us.

Jesus is the expressed image of God, He is love in the flesh. Jesus is love in Action.  Become like Jesus. Become Love.

We are each called to to follow Jesus, to become like Him.  To submit our old self to him and nail it to His cross. To be raised in new life with Him through His ressurection. To invite Him to come live inside us; Let Him teach us and guide us, Let Him form in us. To let Him flow through us.

What does becoming Love look like?

The following is a summary of what love looks like in thoughts, emotions, intentions, and actions

Love is patient; It is calm, It does not act or react in haste.

Love is kind; It is gentle, it appreciates others and seaks to nurture and be useful towards them.

Love is satisfied; It does not envy what others have.

Love is humble; It does not get puffed up and proud.

Love does seek attention; It does not boast or parade itself.

Love behaves properly; It is never rude or offensive.

Love is happy to flow one way; It does not need reciprocation; It does not seek its own.

Love is not provoked; It doen’t react to actions against it; It sees others as children needing Love.

Love thinks no evil; It does not generate evil thoughts, It does not wish evil on others.

Love does not rejoice in iniquity; It avoids causing harm or injustice.

Love rejoices in truth; It enjoys understanding and doing what is right.

Love bears all things; It maintains composure in the face of struggle.

Love believes all things; It embraces God’s love and trusts His promises.

Love hopes all things; It is optimistic and expects the bright future in this life and the next.

Love endures all things; It persists with conviction and overcomes challenges.

You are called to become rooted in Love and exhibit ALL of these desirable characteristics. These are each counter to the thoughts, emotions, intentions and actions driven by the self-centered nature you were born with. 

This list of characteristics can serve as a mirror to your current thoughts, emotions, intentions and actions. Are you acting in pure love? Which ones are a particular challenge for you? Does one stand out as the biggest issue? If one does not stand out, Ask the Lord to illuminate one for you so that it comes into clear focus. 

Jesus came here to restore your inner nature to the image and likeness of God – which is pure love. When you acknowledge your flaws, and accept Him as the Lord of your life, You open the door for Him to flow into you and start fixing things.  When you ask for His help, He sends the Holy Spirit to come in and take up residence inside you. If you truly give Him permission to work, it is transformational. You start seeing things differently. You start to notice some of the things you think, say, or do are not right. You start to care. You start to hear His voice trying to teach you and lead you. You can try to fix these things yourself through discipline and focus. This can impact things on the surface, but it is much more effective to give Him permission to do the necessary work deep inside you and adress the root of the issue.

How do I become Love?

Only Jesus can fix our flawed inner nature:

We ware created in Gods’ image. Adam corrupted the image through sin. Jesus came to restore what was lost through Adam, the image of God in us.

When we accept Jesus, we are born again and get a fresh start. As we deny ourselves and invite jesus to come and form in us, and the image of God is restored. You can try all the self-help do it yourself strategies you want, but only Jesus can actually restore the image of God in you.

Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? 

There is no down side.  The only things He will ask you to give up are the things you were never meant to have in the first place.

We need to transform our mind:

Once our spriit it born again, we then need to rewire the thoughts, emotions, and intentions that were previously established in us. We need to purge the ones rooted in our original sinful nature, and establish desireable ones that flow from Love out of our new natue.

You can try to work on this yourself and you will make some progress through focus and discipline, but at some point you willl realize this runs deep and is beyond your control. What you may not realize is that your potential will be limited by what you can imagine is possible based on your past expeirience, not what God had in mind when He formed you. 

The most effective approach is to leverage Jesus and the Holy Spirit. 

What can I do move forward and “Become Love”    

There are a couple of structured steps to help this process happen quickly and effectively.

• Get intimate with Jesus in a quiet place. Sit with Him. Talk with Him. Listen to Him.
• Follow this flow and speak your statements outloud directly to Jesus, speaking with intention directly from your heart.
• Acknowledge the shortcoming you notice
  • “Jesus, I clearly have missed the mark. I was doing xxx (undesired behaviour). By doing xxxx, I was not being love.”
• Acknowledge the consequences
  • “I can now see that doing xxx causes yyyy, this is a problem, It prevents your love from flowing through me to others”.
• State your intention to change
  • “I no longer want to do xxxx, I want to love others the way you do, I want to become love, I want your love ot flow through me, I want to be love in action!”
• Ask Him to execute the change in your heart.
  • “You gave your life for me, I hereby give my life to you,:
  • “I nail my old sinful self to your cross. I put my old self to death in your grave”:
  • “I am rasied into new life with you and your resurrection”
  • “I put off my old self, and put on Jesus”
  • “It is no longer me that lives, but You live through me”
  • “I invite you to come in and change my heart – help me become love”
  • “Transform my thoughts, emotions and actions – help me become love in action for others”
• Declare the desired result in faith – trusting that it is happening as you speak
  • “The Holy Spirit is in me, leading me, teaching me, helping me”
  • “You are working in me; You are the potter, I am the clay”
  • “You are helping me see things from your perspective”
  • “You are leading me into all truth”
  • “You are purifying my heart to love others as you love them”
  • “You are crushing my selfish agendas”
  • “You are helping me put xxxx (specific focus issue) far behind me”
  • “You are helping me become yyyy (desired characteristic): a humble man, a patient man, etc”
  • “I look forward to becoming more and more like You”
  • “Your love will flow through me to others.”
  • “People will get a good look at You when they see me in action.”
• Be thankful and give glory to the Father through the Son
  • “I thank you for all you have done and what you are doing in me”
  • “This is Your amazing work, not anything I have done”
  • “You are the vine and I am the branch, I can do nothing without you.”
  • “May your work shine through my life”
  • “May I be a bright beacon for you and the kingdom.”
  • “I speak all of this in Jesus’ name to bring glory to the Father through the Son.”

Go for it. Be committed to becoming love, You will become your best you. Submit your flawed old self and committ your new self to follow Jesus. Invite the Holy Spirit to come in and help you. Be receptive as the Holy Spirit helps you identify issues and opportunities, Yield to Him completely and let Him do His best work in you. Declare the bright future in faith even before it comes to pass. Be thankful for His work in you and make sure God gets all the credit.

Keep after this agenda as you work through the progression of issues that will inevitably peel off, it is well worth the effort!

Supporting Scriptures

God is love

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8

Jesus is the expressed image of God, Jesus is love in the flesh

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Colossians 1:15

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” Hebrews 1:3

You are called to imitate Jesus, to be like Jesus, To walk in love

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2

“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1

“…‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31

Love is…

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;  does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;  does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Becoming Love involves transforming how you think, speak and act, and aligning with Jesus

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 2:5

“Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.” 1 John 2:6

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15

This involves getting your old self out of the way, and letting Jesus flow through you

“To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

The Holy Spirit is available to all who ask

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Luke 11:13

The Holy Spirit will take up residence in you if you make an appropriate home for Him

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

The Holy Spirit will highlight your opportunnities ot improve

“And when He has come (The Holy Spirit), He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” John 16:8

The Holy Spirit will work in your heart and your mind, and even your physical body

“for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” John 14:26

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11

As you renew your mind and reorient your thoughts and emotion, you will align your behaviors with God’s intention.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2

Shine like a beacon for the kingdom

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

Glorify the Father through the Son

“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14:13