A long time ago in a small group I commented on how I didn’t really feel like I knew Jesus’ personality very well. My group looked at me strangely and disagreed, and I think they meant that we can know Jesus through the gospels and what he says about himself, but I was meaning this - that we don’t learn about Jesus’ interior life. And now you’ve explained why, and I love this understanding. Thanks!
WOW. Having read The Slavery of Death, Mcgill's Death and Life, and now working on Magic Eels, one would think I've grasped the basic idea! But once again I am enchanted with my Savior's lovely example of God-given identity and long to emulate him. For certainly it requires a daily recommitment to empty myself of my neurotic self!
Wow 🤩 have discovered this series very late - but this is what I have been working on from an existentialist point of view.
When humans (like myself)) despite fully believing in Jesus, find they have un expectantly come to a point in the road where they literally want to die, we cannot help but be terrifyingly faced with existence in a deep, scary and painful way. I still believed in Jesus through this, but I was still terrified of life, both on earth and in eternity. And, terrified of Satan.
I cannot even begin to explain the panic, an emotion I was not familiar with.
Psychologically my mind was in anguish trying to work it all out. Processing the past, the present and the future from a purely individualist, existentialist point of view, along with carrying the weight, the concern for world history and how the people of God fit into this wider narrative.
And, from a neurologist science point of view I am sure my neural pathways would have looked like a mess. My brain must have been in a mess.
Probably still in, but hope it is calming down now.
It was all too much. And, the thought of eternity was alarmingly scary too, like a utopian, meaningless world that could never end, even if I was with Jesus, the thought of this feels too much sometimes.
And, everyone around me is burdened with anxieties too.
Due to a series of events that has led to me being rocked to my core, faced with the horror of deception, overwhelm, I have been looking to Jesus to help.
I want to live an anxious free life. This is my dream. To feel like I can live where Satan has no power of me.
This quote:
Jesus “stands before us a non-neurotic human being. A non-anxious human being”
This is it. Wow. And, marry this up with who he is relationally and ontologically. This is so interesting.
And, I love the concept of “quiet ego”.
This series academically explores, gives terminology for what I have been trying to live and wrestle and experiment with myself & God in prayer. I am so glad h find this series.
I am not a theologian, I have studied it in the past, but I had forgotten how exploring theology is good food for the soul. I want to be able to say to the devil with conviction “I’ve got no strings to hold me down,” not just in eternity, in the eschaton but here on earth NOW.
I want to be a “ non-anxious human being” like Jesus was.
Really interesting series. Love the interface here between psychology and theology.
This is giving me a more in-depth understanding of something I heard Pastor James Ford Jr say regarding our esteem. He said that we spend so much time on defining who we are (self-esteem) when the paramount idea is Who’s we are. That blew my socks off when I heard that & the concept parallels what Beck is writing here.
Matthew 16:15-19 comes to mind here. Jesus asked Peter who he thought He was. The Holy Spirit, through Peter, answered. Jesus, being the Son of the Living God, gave Simon his name, Peter. Jesus then describes what blessings & anointings come with that just like Messiah, Savior, was the anointing & blessing that came with Jesus’s “outward” identity.
All of this is so instructive to my life. Who does God say I am? Am I His & what does that really mean at the deepest, most transformative level? The name He gave me was Beloved. I don’t know about you but that name, that title, that blessing, that anointing has & continues to change everything for me. What name has He given you?
A long time ago in a small group I commented on how I didn’t really feel like I knew Jesus’ personality very well. My group looked at me strangely and disagreed, and I think they meant that we can know Jesus through the gospels and what he says about himself, but I was meaning this - that we don’t learn about Jesus’ interior life. And now you’ve explained why, and I love this understanding. Thanks!
WOW. Having read The Slavery of Death, Mcgill's Death and Life, and now working on Magic Eels, one would think I've grasped the basic idea! But once again I am enchanted with my Savior's lovely example of God-given identity and long to emulate him. For certainly it requires a daily recommitment to empty myself of my neurotic self!
I love this.
I meant neuro-science (it kinda reads that I might be a neuro scientist 😂)
Wow 🤩 have discovered this series very late - but this is what I have been working on from an existentialist point of view.
When humans (like myself)) despite fully believing in Jesus, find they have un expectantly come to a point in the road where they literally want to die, we cannot help but be terrifyingly faced with existence in a deep, scary and painful way. I still believed in Jesus through this, but I was still terrified of life, both on earth and in eternity. And, terrified of Satan.
I cannot even begin to explain the panic, an emotion I was not familiar with.
Psychologically my mind was in anguish trying to work it all out. Processing the past, the present and the future from a purely individualist, existentialist point of view, along with carrying the weight, the concern for world history and how the people of God fit into this wider narrative.
And, from a neurologist science point of view I am sure my neural pathways would have looked like a mess. My brain must have been in a mess.
Probably still in, but hope it is calming down now.
It was all too much. And, the thought of eternity was alarmingly scary too, like a utopian, meaningless world that could never end, even if I was with Jesus, the thought of this feels too much sometimes.
And, everyone around me is burdened with anxieties too.
Due to a series of events that has led to me being rocked to my core, faced with the horror of deception, overwhelm, I have been looking to Jesus to help.
I want to live an anxious free life. This is my dream. To feel like I can live where Satan has no power of me.
This quote:
Jesus “stands before us a non-neurotic human being. A non-anxious human being”
This is it. Wow. And, marry this up with who he is relationally and ontologically. This is so interesting.
And, I love the concept of “quiet ego”.
This series academically explores, gives terminology for what I have been trying to live and wrestle and experiment with myself & God in prayer. I am so glad h find this series.
I am not a theologian, I have studied it in the past, but I had forgotten how exploring theology is good food for the soul. I want to be able to say to the devil with conviction “I’ve got no strings to hold me down,” not just in eternity, in the eschaton but here on earth NOW.
I want to be a “ non-anxious human being” like Jesus was.
Really interesting series. Love the interface here between psychology and theology.
This is giving me a more in-depth understanding of something I heard Pastor James Ford Jr say regarding our esteem. He said that we spend so much time on defining who we are (self-esteem) when the paramount idea is Who’s we are. That blew my socks off when I heard that & the concept parallels what Beck is writing here.
Matthew 16:15-19 comes to mind here. Jesus asked Peter who he thought He was. The Holy Spirit, through Peter, answered. Jesus, being the Son of the Living God, gave Simon his name, Peter. Jesus then describes what blessings & anointings come with that just like Messiah, Savior, was the anointing & blessing that came with Jesus’s “outward” identity.
All of this is so instructive to my life. Who does God say I am? Am I His & what does that really mean at the deepest, most transformative level? The name He gave me was Beloved. I don’t know about you but that name, that title, that blessing, that anointing has & continues to change everything for me. What name has He given you?