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Self-centered Religion Alma Newitt After God has reached down to us in our desperate state and pulled us up from the quicksand of our ego-worlds, the temptation is to fall back and get pulled down again. Only this time it is white quicksand, and the ego dimension we now move into is concerned not primarily with achieving in the world, but with achieving spiritually. A friend and I fell into this trap. We used to ask each other regularly, "Do you think I've grown?" We had both experienced the free grace of Christ, but our eyes turned back to ourselves. We became religious - and forgot God. The ego or self-nature which Jesus said we are to deny is very sly. It will do anything to maintain its life - even strive to be holy. It can wear crosses, pray, read the Bible, attend church, do all manner of good works. Yet its roots are in the earth. Its holiness is a brittle thing and in crisis it falls apart and often acts like hell. The word "holy" in both the Hebrew and Greek means "separate" or "set apart". When we live in the self which should be denied and it becomes religious, we separate in a wrong way. We become self-righteous and judgmental, preoccupied with our own spiritual life and unaware of others’ needs. We try hard to be holy and our egos continue to grow, their girth hidden in flowing white cloaks of self-centered religion. When we live in our new nature in Christ, we are separated unto God. And the holiness which comes from being in His presence and "beholding His image" is full of tender mercy and loving-kindness. We behold Him as He is, and see ourselves as we are. After this, how can we help but be merciful to others? Our growth then comes not from self-striving, but from His grace which has seeped into our beings made empty with repentance. We are deflated from the puffed-up state of our self-important religiosity. And it is then that we know for certain that we are no-thing. And He is all in all. 0 God, |