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The Throne in our Flesh

By un.entitled on November 25, 2015

It is our fleshly inclination to stay seated on the throne of our own lives. When we see God simply as the means to our own happiness or success, we fail to recognize Him as our Lord. This is the malady of an entitled spirit. We want God’s help, but not His interference. We will “flatter Him, but never obey Him” (AW Tozer). David discovered the secret of an unentitled heart by recognizing God for who he was – the lover of his soul, yet sovereign over all. He trusted God’s faithfulness and love, but revered His authority and power. In order to do likewise, we must remove the only entitlement we are born with: the right to rule our life – to serve our own kingdom on our own terms.

Part of That World

3 Careers that don’t belong in the Church

By un.entitled on July 16, 2015

Maintaining peaceful relations between the church and the world might have been feasible in our grandparent’s generation, when American culture was still somewhat seasoned by the moral flavors in the palate of Christian tradition. But today it is becoming increasingly clear that there is a MAJOR distinction between Christ’s agenda for the earth and the priorities of fallen humanity at large. If the more “forward-thinking” churches do somehow manage to salvage Christianity’s public image so that a few non-believers will be won over by their impressive lack of embarrassment in the eyes of the world, we might be tempted to congratulate them for accomplishing such a difficult feat.

Part of That World

The Illusion of Christendom

By un.entitled on May 14, 2015

We were never called to invent a way to follow Christ while keeping worldly allegiances intact. If we happen to be found pleasing by the world and all its man-centered mechanisms in the midst of following Christ wholly and without a single compromise in word or deed, it should be cause for great marvel, and would no doubt be an act of the Spirit intended to accomplish a deliberate work of the Father. Jesus was a friend of sinners, but he did not become so by downplaying or denying His uncompromising identity as the Way the Truth and the Life.

Unentitled

The Upside-Down Cross

By un.entitled on January 25, 2015

Peter’s choice of the upside-down cross was the truest symbol of unentitled devotion because he refused to exalt himself even in imitation of Christ, thus representing His completely self-denying identity. The only response of a true disciple when confronted with the cross of Christ is to lose all sense of pride in your own glory, to release your earthly expectations and take up your cross and follow Him in the pattern of unconditional lay-down-your-life love.

Unentitled

The Prodigal Paradox

By un.entitled on November 3, 2014

I would purport that it was not the prodigal son’s request to obtain his inheritance early OR even that he squandered it all. Rather it was that upon receiving his inheritance, the younger son went far away from his father’s house to live for himself; and by doing so, he effectively severed all relationship with his father. Therefore we see that the true sin of the prodigal son was that he quantified his sonship in terms of the sum of money to which he was entitled by birthright and failed to recognize the true value of his sonship – the relationship with his father.

Unentitled

Not a thing to be grasped ~ Part Two

By un.entitled on September 2, 2014

Following Christ’s pattern involves removing all sense of self-entitlement and surrendering the right to your own life. We must rid ourselves of the fleshly instinct to self-serve, self-preserve, self-exalt, self-protect, self-defend, self-sustain, self-obtain, self-fulfill, self-determine, and self-reign. Only then can we begin the incredible journey of learning to hear the voice of God and respond in humble obedience. Furthermore, unentitled love is the only weapon powerful enough to defeat the principalities of darkness and transform a human heart into the true likeness of God.

Unentitled

Not a thing to be grasped ~ Part One

By un.entitled on August 1, 2014

What did Jesus do in response to his equality with God? He laid down his right to be God. Jesus was the only person truly entitled to equality with God, and yet He chose to separate Himself from that reality by literally dying to Himself and thus denying His own right to exert His Godlike power and authority. Our Lord traded His divine entitlement for the will to die. Jesus’ death was a fulfillment of the true character of God, a tangible way to tell the world that the true divine instinct does not rise towards power and preservation but denies the tempting urge to grasp at it. God sent the person of Jesus to be the complete and perfect imprint of His own self-denying identity.

Unentitled

I no longer live

By un.entitled on July 24, 2014

It is this kind of self-awareness, self-consciousness, self-focused “proprietary ownership” of our own bodies that provides the underlying framework for the entitlement mindset. The only antidote to this mindset is for us to take our eyes off of ourselves, to stop thinking of our fleshly bodies as some thing which belongs to us and instead continually recognize that we do not belong to ourselves and that the One to whom we DO belong has a glory and a purpose that is far greater and more profound than our paltry grasp of our own self-conscious existence.

Unentitled

The Problem of iLove

By un.entitled on April 8, 2014

At its root, almost every problem that humanity has wrestled with since the dawn of time boils down to the glorification – or deification – of the self in some way shape or form. Jesus came to save us from our self-centered world by demonstrating selfless love by laying down his life in thought, motive, action, word and – ultimately – his very death. Therefore, the only antidote to our current state of self-preoccupation is complete and utter SELF-DENIAL, which is to “deny yourself, take up your cross,” and follow the example of the only person who ever truly died to Himself.

Unentitled

Too Much Chosenness

By un.entitled on April 1, 2014

God first had to destroy the “chosenness” of the entitled Jews so that He might establish the chosenness of grace for the entire world in its place. That’s why John writes that God “came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him,” referring to the Jews. “BUT as many as received Him” – Jew and Gentile – “to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12) This “right” is the new covenant, which is the chosenness of GRACE which is sealed by the blood of Christ and obtained through faith.