Fighting Approval Addiction

In class this week, we explored "approval addiction" and how it can impact our lives.

Cain was the first victim in the Bible who we know suffered from approval addiction....and it led to murder.

We also discussed how "secret service" (hence the picture) can help combat approval addiction.

Do you struggle with approval addiction? Take the following quiz. If you answer "yes" to any one of these, you should outline a plan on how you will address this area. We didn't get to this activity in class on Sunday and it is right out of the Ortberg video guide.

APPROVAL ADDICTION QUIZ: Yes or No

• I am often hurt when other people express less than glowing opinions about me.
• I habitually compare myself to other people.
• I am competitive in most ordinary situations.
• I have a nagging sense that I'm not important enough or special enough.
• I envy someone else's success.
• I try to impress people.
• I'm afraid someone will find out how much I worry about receiving approval.
• My sense of self-esteem depends on whether someone notices how smart, attractive, or _____ I am.
• I find it difficult to love someone who expresses disapproval of me.
• The opinions of others really affect me.
• I measure my accomplishments against those of other people.
• My concern for what others think inevitably leads me to shade the truth.
• I resent the person whose approval I seek because too much of my well-being rests in his or her hands.
• I am consumed by impression management. Much of what I say is to control how other people think of me.

One step you can immediately take to fight approval addiction is to act on the note card you took from class on Sunday.

Do an act of kindness or service for the person on the card you choose from the red box.....and don't tell anyone (that means no one!).

Humility: Prescription for Pride

In class this week we spent quite a bit of time talking about how pride can really drag down our spiritual transformation.

Victoria told me the kids in Bible Blitz also talked about humility this week. When she asked them to describe humility, one child said, and I quote: "It's what happens when the air gets really moist and sticky..." I laughed really hard at that one.

While we adults don't confuse humility with humidity, we do tend to confuse what it really means.

Remember, we can be humble, yet be strong. We can be humble, yet stand firm in our convictions. We can be humble, but we can lead.

What does genuine humility (not humidity) look like?

Philippians 2:6-11 may help us out:
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow,in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

If we want a real definition of humility, we find it here.

Humility bows to God. Remember Adam and Even's problem? They were tempted to be equal to God, and they fell. When we are humble we realize God is God and we are not. We are here to serve Him. He is not here to serve us.

Humility serves. Those who are proud seek to be served by others to meet their own selfish needs. Those who are humble simply serve others--without seeking credit, praise, or even a thank you. They serve in love, simply love.

Humility is obedient--regardless of the cost. Jesus was obedient to death! When the Spirit speaks to us and guides us into humble service, we need to relentlessly respond in obedience.

So how do we develop this discipline of humility? Remember Ortberg's simple tasks and adopt one this week:

The Ministry of the Mundane: Serve, not for credit, but out of love. Even if its boring. Even if it is not glamorous.

The Ministry of Interruptions : Be available, even when it is not convenient. Those interruptions may be opportunities for Spiritual Transformation.

The Ministry of Embracing Your Limitations: You are not Superman...or Supergirl. You don't have to have all the answers and you may not have time to do everything. It's okay.

The Ministry of Holding Your Tongue: What brilliant insights do you have to offer? Keep them to yourself. That is a humbling experience.

The Ministry of "Bearing": If you see someone bearing a burden...go to them and bear it with them. Drop your important agenda and bear their burden with them.

Which of these would you find most difficult adotping? Why?

Try it this week.

Sensitive to the Spirit

In our class this past week, we discussed how we need to practice being sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives.

Remember Jacob and how he reacted to the dream he had about the ladder to heaven? He said "Surely the Lord is in this place and I wasn't even aware of it." (Gen 28:16)

How has your week been? Busy, hectic crazy???

In spite of all that stuff going on, and believe me, it's been a whopper of a week for some of us, the Lord is in the place where you are....are you aware of it???

Don't forget the challenge we offered for this week: With each and every person with whom you interact, listen for what the Spirit is saying to you about that person and that relationship....and then be responsive to the Spirit!

What would it be like if we were to be relentlessly responsive to the Holy Spirit every time we are spoken to by that "still, small voice".

What would the world around us look like today if we were relentlessly responsive to the voice of God?

Are you willing to take that risk?

Larry Fairbanks Passes Away Unexpectedly

Please remember our District Superintendent’s family in your prayers. If you hadn’t heard, Dr. Larry Fairbanks passed away Thursday morning in his sleep at his home in St. Mary’s. Funeral service were held Monday, August 4th at the District Center in St. Mary's, Ohio. Dr. Fairbanks was 58.

The official obituary is posted in the St. Mary's Evening Leader.

Obit information is available via the Nazarene Communications Network at http://www.ncnnews.com/nphweb/html/ncn/article.jsp?id=10006247

If you didn’t know Dr. Fairbanks, he was a kind, gentle man with a passion for spreading the Gospel. Remember his wife Kathy, his son Russ (who pastor’s the London, Ohio CoN and our former youth pastor here at Marysville) and his daughter Julie right now.

It’s especially shocking since this happened during our District Camp Meeting this week up at the district camp ground in St. Mary’s, so keep those services also in you prayers.

Russ and Dr. LeBron Fairbanks (Larry's brother) officated a beautiful service on August 4th at the NWO District Center in St. Mary's. .

A very sad, sudden, and tragic loss.

Please feel free to express your thoughts and sympathies, memories and tributes to Dr. Fairbanks by posting a comment below.....

You can also send condolences through the Miller Funeral Home websiste.

Curing Double-Mindedness

One of the main things that blocks the path to spiritual transformation is double-mindedness.

This is something that we focused heavily upon in our class this week.

Remember the video we watched? Remember watching the two men in the canoe facing in opposite directions, rowing in opposite directions. Their "double-mindedness" sent the boat in circles. The canoe could not sail a straight course in any particular direction because the forces of double-mindedness had it in a tail-spin.

What can we do to cure ourselves of this condition? Ephesians 5:25-26 shed light for us: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word..."

We need to wash ourselves in the Word of God.

The Word of God is like soap. I don't know about you, but when I go more than a day or so without soap, my world gets a tad odoriferous.

We wash ourselves in the Word by deliberately, intentionally studying God's word on a regular basis. We need to do this to be reminded of the thoughts of God. You see, all the clutter and stuff in this world can distract us and "dirty us up" with regard to our spiritual state. In order to clean up, we need to bathe in the Word on a regular basis.

Here are some key tips from the Ortberg book we can cling to as we consider the importance of meditating on Scripture as a spiritual discipline:

• Biblical meditation cannot be done quickly.


• Biblical meditation is so important it is mentioned more than 50 times in the OT!


• Meditation implies sustained attention and is built around a simple principle: "What the mind repeats, it retains."


• The purpose of meditation is not to gain information, but to open ourselves to become the transformed into people from whom goodness flows on a consistent basis.

For some more thoughts on why we need to set our mind on the Word on a regular basis...click here

....and here.

Transformation without Confession?

Can we be transformed spiritually without making the discipline of confession part of who we are?

Based on our discussion Sunday, the discipline of confession (and sincere repentance) open us up to our true potential in Christ. Without confession at conversion and without the ongoing attitude of confession in our daily walk, sin has a nasty tendency to creep in and distort our perception of reality.

In Matthew 7:3-5, Jesus teaches about the "plank" in the Pharisee's eye:

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

We've all gotten a speck of dirt in our eye. It hurts. It makes us wince. It blurs our vision. In some cases, it totally interrupts our ability to see. Imagine how much more a "plank" would distort our ability to see clearly.

In the story of David and Bathsheba, the sin in David's life was driven by pride and prevented him from being able to detect and deal with the sin that had ensnared the great King of Israel.

Sin, in the form of a speck or a plank, distorts our ability to see properly.

Sometimes we may be too proud to acknowledge the sin to confess it. Sometimes we're too ashamed. Sometimes we fear the consequences of owning up to our sinful acts.

Take some time this week to note how God responds to those who confess. Check out these passages:

Isaiah 43;25
Joel 2:12-13
1 John 1:7-9

Also, take a look at the freedom we experience when we have the courage to confess (even Christians need to confess sometimes):

Psalms 32:1-2
Acts 3:19
2 Corinthians 7:10

Practicing Prayer

I hope you had a nice 4th of July holiday. Our family enjoyed the vacation time away. We needed to reconnect with each other.

We will reconvene as a class on Sunday morning at 9:45 in the old sanctuary upstairs (our usual place).

As you move through the "In's" and "Out's" of the week, lift each other up in prayer.

Our last class focused on prayer as a discipline.

Practicing prayer is like practicing piano. None of us will likely master the art of praying in this lifetime, but we can learn to get better at it.

How can we practice prayer? I remember when I practiced piano as a kid, my teacher made me learn and play the scales. This helped me learn the location of the keys on the key board so the notes on the page would make sense.

Do you know which "keys" on your prayer keyboard help you enter into effective, meaningful prayer with God?

Pluck a few of these keys to get started:

• Thank God for who he is (Father, Creator, Master)
• Thank God for his goodness and mercy
• Ponder God's righteousness
• Thank God for his saving grace
• Thank God for his promises

Plucking the keys of thanksgiving are a great way to enter into a time of authentic prayer with our Father in Heaven.

For more musings on "practicing prayer" click here.

What helps you pray more effectively? Feel free to share....

See you Sunday in class!!!