Individualism

Today is Friday, November 3, 2017. Day 21,785.

Two more days until Daylight Saving Time ends.

Bob Feller, who was born on this date in 1918 (died 2010), said, “I would rather beat the Yankees regularly than pitch a no hit game.”
BrainyQuote

The word of the day, from Dictionary.com, is ebullient, an adjective, meaning, “overflowing with fervor, enthusiasm, or excitement; high-spirited.” Also, “bubbling up like a boiling liquid.”

Today is Cliche Day. I challenge you to use as many cliches as you can today. Go out there and give it 110%! But don’t put all your eggs in one basket, and don’t count your chickens before the cows come home.

Day two of C’s recovery was good, but mixed. There was a lot of pain, but part of that was because she tried to go too long between pain medication doses. I think she may have learned her lesson about that. A nurse came over and talked with her, and it was determined that she did not need that service on a regular basis. Later, a physical therapist came over, worked with her a little bit, said she was doing great, and that the regular PT visits would begin next Monday. It sounds like C wasn’t even supposed to get released until yesterday, but she was doing so good, they let her out early. We wonder if they say that to everyone.

Not much else to talk about, since baseball is over. I’m heading back to work, this morning, in what has been one of my strangest weeks. It’s always weird, having days off in the middle of the week, but I’m pretty sure that this is the first time in my life that I have ever worked every other day in a full week.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL AND PRAYERS
All Scriptures are from the ESV unless otherwise noted

(From The Divine Hours)

But I call to God, and the LORD will save me.
God will give ear and humble them, he who is enthroned from of old, Selah.
Psalm 55:16, 19
Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.
Psalm 50:3
For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great. 
Psalm 25:11
Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love!
Psalm 109:26
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:17-18
Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love!
Psalm 109:26
He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. 
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! 
And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!
Psalm 107:20-22
Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love!
Psalm 109:26
O God, come to my assistance!
O Lord, make haste to help me!
The Cry of the Church

(From Practice Resurrection)

(Pages 112-113)

Before Paul can get into the meat of “church,” he has to “guide us through the thorny branches of individualism.”

What is individualism? It is “the growth-stunting, maturity-inhibiting habit of understanding growth as an isolated self-project.” It is “self-ism with a swagger.” This person is one who believes that he can serve God without dealing with God. Or that he can love his neighbors without knowing their names. “This is the person who, having gained competence in knowing God or people or world, uses that knowledge to take charge of God or people or world.”

We take note that God does not take away our individuality when we enter the church. “Church, rather, is where we cultivate a submission to the care and authority of God.”

Here, in America, though, we live in a society that, “compounded with a degraded form of evangelicalism, is the individualism capital of the world.” As long as this individualism has “free rein in our lives, we will not be capable of embracing church.” It can even be fatal, if left unchecked.

Paul has shown us (in the previous chapter of the book, earlier in Ephesians 2) how grace and works are integrated. They cannot be separated, lest they be a “breeding ground for individualism.” In short, we cannot specialize in grace “without being bothered with people,” and we cannot specialize in people “without bothering with God.” And there are plenty of people trying to do both.

But in Jesus, we are shown that there is “no perceptible dissonance between grace and good works.” Jesus’s being and his doing were fused together, as one. And it is in Him that we are “growing up. If we focus on Jesus instead of ourselves, I don’t think it is so difficult to understand.” And that is what we must get used to. We need to be less full of ourselves and more full of Christ.

Father, you are rescuing me from individualism. I praise you for this. It has not been an easy thing for me to let go of. It’s not hard for you, of course, but you have been patient with me, drawing me further and further in to your heart, which has allowed me to gradually release this individualistic way of thinking. I still have far to go, but you are faithful, and will finish what you started.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Grace and peace, friends.