Doing what we know to be wrong

When we act in ways that we ourselves feel to be wrong, we do serious damage to our soul. I am not here thinking about acts that are serious or illegal, but rather the moment-by-moment small actions, the words we utter that we know are unjust, hurtful, not quite true or are one-sided or self-serving.

We are all familiar with such behaviour, so why is this anything other than a simple description of 'normal life'? Where is the danger to our soul?

When we do what we ourselves know to be wrong, even by some small measure, then we begin to distrust ourselves, to know ourselves as deceitful people, sometimes unkind or even cruel, liars; we begin to despise ourselves.

If we do something to put the matter right - for example, by apologising and making serious amends - then we may regain our footing, at least for a while. But where we do not put matters right, then we are on a very slippery slope indeed. While initially our conscience speaks to warn us of the danger, we quickly acclimatise to small deceits, then to greater ones, and then see all such behaviour as 'just normal'. Our conscience is first drowned out, then anaesthetised, then broken.

Soon all trust is gone, in ourselves and others; we expect nothing better than half-truth from politicians, deception from advertisers and the media, money-grabbing by those who are selling, and self-interest from all others, including ourselves. We look back with faint amusement at 'old-fashioned honesty' - that innocent and naive quality of yesteryear that no longer fits our sophisticated and complicated world; a world in which all kinds of deception and perversion are not just normal, but valid expressions of oneself and are to be accepted, and even admired or encouraged.

We have drowned out conscience, redefined bad as good and begun to believe in it, made ourselves impervious to truth, felt pride in our 'broadmindedness', and left ourselves dead.

Ignoring our conscience, even in small matters, is very serious indeed. And there is no way back ...

... except by submitting to the Truth*.


* see the Bible, John 14v6

But all religions are the same

Some beliefs say there is one God, some say that there are many, and some that there is no god.
But the common view is that all religions are fundamentally the same.

Some beliefs say that you can never reach heaven by trying hard, others that we can reach heaven if we follow certain codes of conduct, and some say there is no heaven.
But all religions are the same.

Some beliefs say that we are fundamentally bad, others that we are good, and others that it comes down to a selfish gene.
But all religions are the same.

Some beliefs say that they alone are right, others that there are many paths to the same end, and others that say all religions are wrong.
But all religions are the same.

Some beliefs say that you must choose for yourself, others force adherents to believe, and others that it's about following the evidence.
But all religions are the same.

Some religions are based in historical events, some in the writings of an enlightened one, and some on the assertion that the absence of proof is itself proof.
But all religions are the same.

All religions are the same? Eh?

Fiery arrows

In a previous post (The devil's top 10) I listed some of the more common deceits of the devil. These would apply to Christians as much as anyone else, of course, but this post lists some of the common strategies the devil employs particularly aimed at Christians. Again, they are filled with subtle or not-so-subtle half-truths, and at first sight may seem quite reasonable; but there is a deception at the core of each one.

You are not good enough to be a Christian
The devil says: "Christians, such as Mother Theresa, are such remarkable and saintly people! They have given their whole lives over to the service of others in disease-ridden slums. Whereas you are a very ordinary person, often confused and not at all special, not even particularly good; you are certainly not good enough to call yourself a Christian!"
Rationale: Putting Christians on a pedestal puts them out of reach, and makes them unlike normal human beings - admirable, but not real.
But the Bible says: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11 v28

Christians should be busy
The devil says: "There are so many needs in the world, there's so much work to be done - church services and mid-week meetings; reading Christian books; and that's not to mention the poverty and material needs across the world. God gives you every minute - aren't you wasting that time?"
Rationale: Keep Christians very busy doing good things, in fact doing anything except reading the Bible and praying.
But the Bible says: "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you", John 15v7, and "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength", Isaiah 30 v15.

Work in your own strength
The devil says: "God has given you that intelligence and ability; don't you think you should get on and use it? Don't you remember God told his people to be mature, so do you really think that he wants you to run to him every two seconds about every decision? No, get on and decide for yourself."
Rationale: Get Christians to step out and take the initiative from God rather than relying on and following him.
But Jesus said: "I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me." John 14 v31

Be very religious
The devil says: "Congratulations for trying so hard; with just a little more effort you could be a very good Christian indeed. Now, if you just got up 15 minutes earlier and knelt down while praying, then you'd do much better."
Rationale: This sounds wonderfully Christian, but it is just 'works', and it will put off most people, who can see this is just empty ritual. Moreover, you will be discouraged when you don't keep it up.
But the Bible says: "the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought" 1 Chronicles 28 v9

It's all about feelings
The devil says: "You know you don't feel as close to God as you used to. You should go to a good worship session, turn the volume up and wave you hands in the air; get into the spirit, and then it will all feel more real."
Rationale: Make truth subjective and personal, rather than based on what God has said.
But the Bible says: "‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14 v6

It's all about head-knowledge
The devil says: "How can you expect to be a good Christian if you don't know your Bible? You need to study it in order to understand some theology."
Rationale: Get Christians studying and discussing the Bible in order to check and debate their understanding. Discussing it is fine, just so long as they don't do what it says. Treat it as a academic exercise so they are relying on their own understanding, rather than the power of the Spirit.
But the Bible says: "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." James 2 v17

Use the Bible to back up your arguments
The devil says: "It's important, if you are a Christian, to make sure that you have God's backing. So, when arguing your case, make sure to include plenty of Bible verses to show that you are right."
Rationale: Having Christians using the Bible to back up their own views means that they are not seeing themselves as subject to the Bible; it also passes their opinions off as God's views.
But the Bible says: "If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them" Galatians 1 v9 (You would be wise to check this 'reference' for yourself!)

A verse for every occasion
The devil says: "God has given people the Bible; that's where the power lies. So what you need to do is to be able to quote the appropriate verse from it for each and every situation."
Rationale: Encourage people to give trite answers from the Bible, preferably out of context or mis-applied. Then people will come to see the Bible as a source of annoyance, of simplistic advice, and will miss the costliness of loving.
But the Bible says: "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command." John 15 v13&14

You are a very successful Christian
The devil says: "You are such an excellent role-model as a Christian: active in church, insightful, holy, wise and knowledgeable. If only all the others in church were like you and followed your example!"
Rationale: pride, pride, pride...
But the Bible says: "These are the ones I look on with favour: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word." Isaiah 66 v2

It's more important for Christians to be right than to be united
The devil says: "Defending the Gospel is such an important task that it is vital that you let no heresy gain ground. So be on your guard and ready to condemn Christians who make the slightest error; keep your distance from such sinful people."
Rationale: Where there is disunity amongst Christians their witness is neutered and they end up fighting on the devil's side!
But the Bible says: "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Ephesians 4 v2-3

Ahhh! The devil's strategies are endless ...
... but the Bible says: "take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one" Ephesians 6 v16

The abiding desire for healing

I find it interesting that in Jesus' day the most common request from those who believed in his having supernatural power was for healing. We can easily put that down to the poor understanding of physical medicine at that time, for physicians were both expensive and not then very good at treating diseases; the possibility of healing from a passing prophet was too good an opportunity to miss!

But things have changed, haven't they? Now we have a modern health system: some health problems have been eradicated, many others can be treated and yet others can be controlled; not all, but a very great many.

So why is it that nowadays one of the most common requests for prayer is still for healing? Listen to any time of prayer, and it will include prayers for people who are sick.

What is it about healing that we still lack and so turn to God Almighty?

Perhaps it is when we are unwell that we recognise the truth that we are frail and mortal beings, a fact we quickly like to forget when we are well? Perhaps we know that there is a significant difference between the healing of body, mind and spirit that God deals in, and the treating of physical disease that our doctors deal in? Perhaps illness quickly brings us up against our ignorance and impotence, our lack of power and control, and so we reach out to the All-powerful, who alone holds life and death in his hands?

We instinctively know that in God's Kingdom there will be no more sickness or pain, and yearn for that time now. But, of course, we live in the 'now and not yet': we do see God at work but await to see life in all its fullness. That time will come for all who will accept Jesus' loving offer.

And in the mean time, despite all the advances of modern medicine and science - for which we praise God - we still look to God for healing.

Life is relationship

All of life is lived in relationship, there is no 'me' who is not in relationship!

Of course, we relate to our friends and families, work colleagues and the other people and neighbours we know. We even relate to a stranger as we walk down the street, just by a glance as we move aside in order to not bump into each other.

We relate to shop-keepers when we purchase goods, and we relate to the producers of the goods we buy, by contributing to their gainful employment, or to their forced labour in third-world sweatshops.

We relate to 'friends' we have never met via social media, and to internet providers by browsing their material, and to advertisers and marketers by being influenced to buy their wares.

Watching TV, we are in a two-way relationship with those we watch, by giving them market share, so employing them and promoting their work. There is no "me in the privacy of my own home" when we look at pornography on the web, for we perpetrate abuse and provide business to people traffickers.

Even when we are physically alone and just with our thoughts, we are relating to ourselves: observing ourselves, 'talking' to ourselves to criticise, belittle or harm ourselves - or to nurture, encourage and build ourselves up.

When we are asleep, we relate to others in our dreams.

Even considering death, there is no "it's my life and I can die if I want to", for by taking our own life we affect family, friends, medics and officials, and others we have never met by changing the path of the world, even if just a little.

In acknowledging God, we bring joy to his heart when we are in relationship with him, and we grieve him when we ignore him, disobey him, or disbelieve in him who is our sustainer, and who made us to be in relationship with him.

Life is relationship. There is no 'me' who is not in relationship.

We are one: body, soul and spirit

In my last post I focused on the different world-views underlying spiritual faiths and Western psychology, and questioned whether the latter was imposing its assumptions on the many people of faith. In this blog I pursue this line of thinking further, focusing on the increasing overlap between Western therapeutic thinking and Christianity.

Some think that Christianity and psychology have nothing to do with each other: they are different realms and there is no reason for Christians to be any more interested in psychology than in any other '-ology'. There are others who see Christianity and psychology as so overlapping that they almost merge into one, and use 'pop psychology' in the church context with great relish, and seem to almost equate therapy with sanctification!

One of the very first things I learnt as a therapist was that it is difficult to tell psychological problems apart from spiritual problems. There are mental health issues that may have their roots in spiritual problems, and spiritual problems that may be presented as mental health ones. [I'm not interested here in those who suffer from serious delusions - such as thinking that they are Jesus Christ - but rather in the interplay of our ordinary everyday psychological and spiritual experience in life's ups and downs.]

Physicians and psychotherapists increasingly acknowledge that physical and mental health affect each other greatly. We are, after all, one person - our mind is part of our body! So, when people think about being in 'good health' or a state of 'well-being', they generally mean being in good physical and mental health.

But this is not sufficient. We also need to include the link between the physical and mental with our spiritual being. We are indeed one person - body, mind (or soul) and spirit; they each affect the other. So I do not see how one may truly be in good health without the spirit also being healthy. And how can the spirit be healthy when we ignore it, starve it, even deny its existence? We end up with people who look healthy on the outside but who are empty on the inside, hollow shells - or as Jesus put it more plainly, "whitewashed tombs".

Moreover, I do not think Jesus subscribed to the current ideology which sees spiritual issues alone as being the concern of the church, while we leave physical health to doctors and mental health to counsellors and the like. Jesus dealt with whole people - body, soul and spirit - and his healing was total - physical, mental and spiritual. He gave bread to hungry people, hope to hopeless people, enabled lame people to walk and the blind to see, and forgiveness and new life to those who were spiritually broken.

Counsellors must engage with the spiritual realities of their clients, not with any aim for salvation, but merely to understand their clients properly. And the church needs to follow Jesus' example and deal with whole people. Too often both have fallen for the same deceit: that the spirit can be separated from the body and mind.

Nevertheless, the church and counsellors are aiming at different things. It is not the role of counsellors to pass comment on their clients' spiritual frame of reference, merely to understand and engage with the whole person in front of them. But the church will not be relevant to people if it confines itself just to the spiritual; the 'average person in the street', as well as those in the pew, will see the irrelevance of preaching that doesn't deal with the physical and emotional realities of our lives. The gospel is not just about forgiveness for personal sins and being right with God, but about restoring relationships and the natural world - it's about making all things new.

Psychological & spiritual world-views

Counselling is increasingly accepted in our society, to the point that choosing to see a counsellor is no longer seen as strange or implying anything particularly negative about ourselves.

As a counsellor myself, I must declare an interest in this growing acceptability and demand for counselling! However, as I'm also a Christian, I want to highlight a significant side effect of this trend which is probably unintended and certainly little considered in our secular society.

In seeking counselling there is an implicit assumption that the roots of many problems - anxiety, depression, relationship problems, to name but a few - reside in the realm of psychology, emotions or identity. Hence, seeking counselling is an appropriate way to address such issues.

So what? Where's the problem?

We are very likely blind to the prevailing Western and secular world-view that sees such issues as psychological rather than spiritual. Another view is that anxiety and depression are very natural responses when we lose touch with God and live in a de-personalising materialistic society.

Counsellors intend to offer a 'safe and neutral space' where people can say what they really feel, whatever is on their heart. However, in reality there are usually strict and unspoken limits to this space: "come here if you accept the world-view that such issues are emotional or psychological in nature; spiritual issues are not invited except as an aside".

A natural retort would be that if you want to talk about spiritual issues, then go and see a chaplain, minister, priest or other religious leader. But this implies that these two realms have little overlap and so can be neatly divided up and allocated to different 'specialists'.

Yet, to the person of faith, we cannot meaningfully talk about identity without focusing on the identity God has given us, or about our purpose or direction without including our God-given purpose, or about our relationships without considering how God has made us relational beings. There is no realm of human experience that does not involve God.

You may consider such statements strange or even extreme. But, if so, that simply tells us something about how these world-views collide. And this is not just a problem for a small minority of clients - the great majority of the inhabitants of planet Earth hold to one set of spiritual beliefs or another!

A spiritual world-view goes further, to questioning whether mental health problems may have not just biological or psychological roots, but may also be symptoms of spiritual dis-ease. If a client talks to their counsellor about being depressed, do we enquire into their prayer-life? If a client talks about body image, do we ask about their understanding of being made in the image of God?

While counsellors do their best to understand the diversity of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation, we have barely even considered our own spiritual biases and the impact these have on our clients - often denying their reality and imposing a Western secular psychological world-view.