Renovation of the Heart
Radical Evil in the Ruined Soul (4|4)
Pages 53-58
• “Lost” Means Self-Obsession
• Hell
• Insulting Our Pride
• Can’t Face Up to Evil
• The Necessity of Remorse
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Philippians 3:18-21 (NIV) For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Matthew 8:5-13 The Faith of the Centurion (NIV)
When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
“Lost” Means Self-Obsession
”Self-idolatry rearranges the entire spiritual and moral landscape. It sees the whole universe with different eyes. - The fundamental pride of putting oneself at the center of the universe is the hinge upon which the entire world of the ruined self turns.”
What is your response to this statement? Where/How have you seen self-idolatry grow in the world?
Hell
“Whether or not God’s will is infinitely flexible, the human will is not. There are limits beyond which it cannot bend back, cannot turn, or repent. - One should seriously inquire if to live in a world permeated with God and the knowledge of God is something they themselves truly desire. If not, they can be assured that God will excuse them from His presence. (Matthew 8:12 NIV) The subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. But the fundamental fact about them will not be that they are there, but that they have become people so locked into their own self-worship and denial of God that they cannot want God.”
Do you agree or disagree? What does “locked into their own self-worship look like?
What does Jesus mean by being thrown into the darkness?
Insulting Our Pride
“Lostness is a factual condition of the self, of the ruined soul. You either have it or not, just as you either have or do not have certain physical diseases that can kill you. If you have that condition of lostness, you may not know it. Indeed, it is most likely you will not know it because it is inherently a condition of self-blindness. You need treatment nevertheless, if you are not to be lost forever; and being informed of your condition and what to do about it can help you find relief. Should I say nothing to you merely because you might find it insulting?”
How is pride (being god) at the basis of human ruin? What might it look like to have the condition of lostness / how would you describe it?
Can’t Face Up to Evil
“Hell is not an “Oops!” or a slip. One does not miss heaven by a hair but by constant effort to avoid and escape God. - The ruined soul must be willing to hear and recognize its own ruin before it can find how to enter a different path, the path of eternal life that naturally leads into spiritual formation in Christlikeness. ”
What does this mean? Do you agree?
The Necessity of Remorse
“Genuine remorse tells us something very deep about the individual. The person who can harm others and feel remorse is, indeed, a different kind of person from the one who is sorry. There is little hope for genuine change in one who is without remorse, without the anguish of regret. - Without the realization of our own utter ruin and without the genuine revisioning and redirecting of our lives, which that bitter realization naturally gives rise to, no clear path to inner transformation can be found. ”
Have you had someone apologize to you but you knew they didn’t mean it? (I’m sorry, BUT…) What is worse - not receiving an apology or receiving one you know is insincere?
If someone habitually apologizes for the same wrongdoing over and over but makes no attempt to change the pattern or behavior - how do you respond?
How would you define the difference between remorse, an apology, and repentance?
EXTRA READING:
“Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance! And transform your whole being into the image of the Godhead itself through contemplation!”
- Clare of Assisi (1194 - 1253)