Waking the Dead Ch. 5 Questions

[Michael Johnson]

Chapter 5
The Ransomed Heart: The Glory Hidden in Your Heart

Key Verses

 

The Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people.  They will sparkle in the land like jewels in a crown.  How attractive and beautiful they will be! (Zechariah 9:16-17)

 

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. -- King David (Psalm 34:5)

 

(Pages 71-73) Eldredge starts this chapter by recounting the original story of Cinderella, when the Prince calls for —demands—that Cinderella be brought forth, and she is shown to be the one who is to be his bride!  Then he makes this direct correlation to our situation as followers of Jesus:

 

…”We, the ransomed church, are the bride of the King’s Son, are we not?  “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb” (Rev. 21:9).  We’ve been chosen by him.  We are the object of his love…. Still, if I’m honest, I appreciate the story…from a distance,  The thought of me being called out of hiding is unnerving.  I don’t think I want to be seen.  Many years ago, during my life in the theater, I received a standing ovation for a performance. The audience was literally on its feet, cheering. What actor doesn’t’ crave a standing ovation?  So you know what I did?  I ran. Literally.  As soon as the curtain went down I bolted for the door, so I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. I didn’t want to be seen.  I know, it’s weird, but I’ll bet you feel the same about being unveiled.

 

You probably can’t imagine there being a glory to your life, let alone one that the Enemy fears.  But remember—things are not what they seem. We are not what we seem.  You probably believed that your heart was bad too.  I pray that fog of poison gas from the pit of hell is fading away in the wind of God’s truth.  And there is more.  Not only does Christ say to you that your heart is good, he invites you now out of the shadows to unveil your glory.  You have a role you never dreamed of having. 

 

Next Eldredge recounts the “unveiling” of Joseph to his brothers in Genesis 45:3, 13)

Then Eldredge reminds us that Peter was “unveiled” on the day of Pentecost, as his sermon led 3,000 people to the Lord, and even Jesus, Himself was “unveiled” on the Mount of Transfiguration.

 

Question:  Do you see yourself as having a glory that the Enemy fears?  How do you feel about having your glory unveiled?

 

 

 

(Pages 74-75) The day has come, and the Morning Star has risen, never to set again.  This unveiling, this coming into your glory, this is inevitable for the ransomed heart.  If you’ll recall, Moses put a veil over his face.  That, too, was a picture of a deeper reality.  We all do that.  We have all veiled our glory, or someone has veiled it for us.  Usually, some combination of both,  But the time has come to set all veils aside: 

 

KEY SCRIPTURE:  Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? . . . Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away . . . And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:7-8, 12-13, 18)

 

We are in the process of being unveiled.  We were created to reflect God’s glory, born to bear his image, and he ransomed us to reflect that glory again…. Remember the mission of Christ:  “I have come to give you back your heart and set you free.”  For as Saint Iranaeus said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.”  Certainly you don’t think the opposite is true.  How do we bring God glory when we are sulking around in the cellar, weighed down by shame and guilt, hiding our light under a bushel?  Our destiny is to come fully alive.  To live with ever-increasing glory. This is the Third Eternal Truth every good myth has been trying to get across to us:  your heart bears a glory, and your glory is needed… now.  This is our desperate hour. 

 

Question:  What does it look like in our lives when our glory is “unveiled”?  What keeps us from experiencing the ever-increasing glory that God intends for us to have and to reflect in our lives?

  

NO GOOD THING?

(Pages 75-76) In an attempt to explain the biblical doctrine of sin, we’ve let something else creep in. You’ll hear it come up almost automatically whenever Christians talk about themselves:  “I’m just a sinner, saved by grace.  “I’m just clothes for God to put on.”  “There sure isn’t any good thing in me.”  It’s so common this mind-set, this idea that we are no-good wretches, ready to sin at a moment’s notice, incapable of goodness, and certainly far from glory.

It’s also unbiblical.

 

The passage people think they are referring to is Romans 7:18 where Paul says, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing” (KJV) Notice the distinction he makes. He does not say, “There is nothing good in me. Period.”  What he says is that “in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.”  The flesh is the old nature, the old life, crucified with Christ.  The flesh is the very thing God removed from our hearts when he circumcised them by his Spirit.  In Galatians Paul goes on to explain, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature [the flesh] with its passions and desires. (5:24)  He does not say, “I am incapable of good.”  He says  “In my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” In fact, just a few moments later, he discovers that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

 

Yes,we still battle with sin. Yes, we still have to crucify our own flesh on a daily basis.  “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the [sinful nature], you will live (Rom. 8:13 NKJV)  We have to choose to live from the new heart, and our old nature doesn’t go down without a fight.  I’ll say more about that later.  For now the question on the table is:  Does the Bible teach that Christians are nothing but sinners—that there is nothing good in us?  The answer is no!  You have a new heart.  Your heart is good.  That sinful nature you battle is not who you are.  Twice in the famous chapter of Romans 7, where Paul presents a first person angst about our battle with sin, he says, “But this is not my true nature.  This is not my heart.”   [Roman 7:17-18, 20, 22 –quoted in the book)

 

Paul is making a crucial distinction:  This is not me; this is not my true heart. 

 

Question: Have you ever made the distinction before in your life that the sin comes from your flesh, not you… the REAL you, your heart? Does that change anything for you in the future?

 

(Pages 77-79) ….. All this groveling and self-deprecation done by Christians is often just shame masquerading as humility.  Shame says, “I’m nothing to look at. I’m not capable of goodness.”  Humility says, “I bear a glory for sure, but it is a reflected glory.  A grace given to me.”  Your story does not begin with sin.  It begins with a glory bestowed upon you by God.  It does not start in Genesis 3; it starts in Genesis 1.  First things first, as they say.

 

Certainly you will admit that God is glorious….You are his offspring. His child. His reflection. His likeness. You bear his image.  Do you remember that though he made the heavens and the earth in all their glory, the desert and the open sea, the meadow and the Milky Way, and said, “It is good,” it was only after he made you that he said, “It is very good”

 

You remember faintly that you were once more than what you have become.  Your story didn’t start with sin, and thank God, it does not end with sin.  It ends with glory restored:  “Those he justified, he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30)  And “in the meantime,” you have been transformed and you are being transformed.  You’ve been given a new heart.  Now God is restoring your glory.  He is bringing you fully alive.  Because the glory of God is: you fully alive. 

 

UNDER A SPELL

(Pages 80-81) “Well, then, if this is all true, why don’t I see it?” Precisely. Exactly.  Now we are reaching my point.  The fact that you do not see your good heart and your glory is only proof of how effective the assault has been  We don’t see ourselves clearly….. We are under a spell.  We are alert and oriented times zero.  We have no idea who we really are.  Whatever glory was bestowed, whatever glory is being restored, we thought this whole Christian thing was about…something else.  Trying not to sin.  Going to church.  Being nice.  Jesus says it is about healing your heart, setting it free, restoring your glory.  A religious fog has tried to veil all that, put us under some sort of spell or amnesia, to keep us from coming alive.

 

…. A veil removed, bringing freedom, transformation, glory.  Do you see it?  I am not making this up—though I have been accused of making the gospel better than it is.  The charge is laughable.  Could anyone be more generous than God?  Could any of us come up with a story that beats the one God has come up with?  All the stories that we tell borrow their power form the Great Story he is telling.

 

Question  Do you believe that we live our lives “under a spell” so that we don’t see what God is really seeking to do in our lives?   What is the difference between Eldredge’s understanding of the Christian life and the typical explanation of it in many evangelical churches?

 

YOUR TRUEST SELF

….. We at least know that we are not what we were meant to be.  Most of us spend our energy trying to hide that fact, through all the veils we put on and the false selves we create.  Our first parents thought they could hide behind fig leaves and in the bushes, and we do the same—only with more sophistication.  Far better to spend our energy trying to recover the image of God and unveil it for his glory. 

 

One means that will help us is any story that helps us see with the eyes of the heart. ….

 

There are stories that you’ve loved; there are characters that you’ve resonated with down deep inside, maybe even dreamed that you could be.  Do you know why?  Deep is calling unto deep.  They spoke to you—they speak even now—because they contain some hint or glimpse into your true self. 

 

Question: With what biblical or mythical characters do you identify?  How might this reveal your truest self?

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT OUR MYTHS REVEAL

Eldredge uses this section to tell about how God has shown him that he is “Wallace.” In this case he has the heart of William Wallace, the Scottish rebel known as Braveheart to many.  This revelation came during a hiking expedition in the wilderness.  It is now a part of Eldredge’s life.

 

Question: Who are you, really?  Who does God say that you are?

 

EMBRACING THE GLORY

(Pages 87-88)

KEY QUOTE:   Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?”  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.  There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.  We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us…And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. (Nelson Mandela)

 

When I first read this quote, I thought, No, that’s not true. We don’t fear our glory.  We fear we are not glorious at all.  We fear that at bottom, we are going to be revealed as…disappointments…But as I thought about it more, I realized we do fear our glory.  We fear even heading this direction because, for one thing, it seems prideful.  Now pride is a bad thing, to be sure, but it’s not prideful to embrace that truth that you bear the image of God.  Paul says it brings glory to God.  We walk in humility because we know it is a glory bestowed.  It reflects something of the Lord’s glory.

 

The deeper reason we fear our own glory is that once we let others see it, they will have seen the truest us, and that is nakedness indeed.  We can repent of our sin.  We can work on our “issues.”  But there is nothing to be “done” about our glory.  It’s so naked.  It’s just there—the truest us.  It is an awkward thing to shimmer when everyone else around you is not, to walk in your glory with an unveiled face when everyone else is veiling his.  For a woman to be truly feminine and beautiful is to invite suspicion, jealousy, misunderstanding.  A friend confided in me, “When you walk into a room, everyone woman looks at you to see—are you prettier than they are?  Are you a threat?

And that is why living from your glory is the only loving thing to do.  You cannot love another person from a false self.  You cannot love another while you are still hiding. How can you help them to freedom while you remain captive?  You cannot love another unless you offer her your heart.  It takes courage to life from our heart.  My friend Jenny said just the other day, “I desperately want to be who I am.  I don’t want the glory that I marvel at in others anymore.  I want to be that

glory which God set in me.”

 

???  How do you respond to Neslon Mendala’s quote?  What does it look like to walk in humility AND in the glory God gives us?