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Frank Viola | Beyond Evangelical
Official Blog of Author & Speaker Frank Viola. Digging below the surface and moving beyond the shallows in today's Christianity.
On Winning
The Sacra Pagina
“Jesus came to raise the dead. The only qualification for the gift of the Gospel is to be dead. You don’t have to be smart. You don’t have to be good. You don’t have to be wise. You don’t have to be wonderful. You just have to be dead. That’s it.”
And;
“For Jesus came to raise the dead. He did not come to reward the rewardable, improve the improvable, or correct the correctible; he came simply to be the resurrection and the life of those who will take their stand on a death he can use instead of on a life he cannot.”
Robert Farrar Capon
Good brother.
Christ can only live The Resurrection Life through a person who has learned the art of dying daily…..dead to the world and it’s ways but alive in Christ.
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom takes this winning to a whole new level!
Thanks for sounding an alarm that is rarely heard nowadays. There is no greater common denominator characterizing the Adamic being than the constant urge to win, to be ahead of the pack, to end up on top of the heap, to have the ego authenticated. Winning is our way of becoming No 1, which is what the original sins (Satan’s & Adam’s) were all about. Problem is: We have now sanctified the ego-trip by presenting Jesus as the one who can help us win, and so we have brought an appeal to our message that is fundamentally demonic (I know that sounds extreme, but that is how I read the Bible). Turning to religion without turning from the ego is what the Pharisees did. Think of them: The way they dressed, their behaviour in the religious assemblies, their status in the world and the way they prefer to be addressed, all conspired to elevate them above the masses, giving them the bizarre privilege of fusing the religious pilgrimage with the ego-trip, impressing God and people simultaneously, obtaining heaven with earth still in their pockets, eating their cake and still having it. Realized eschatology, in its many guises, is nothing but arrivalism – theologically constructed ideas that propose some final insight, experience or realization of promise, and which, in the process, offers a circumvention of the painfully humbling business of believing, hoping and waiting.
Things aren’t what they seem to our human perception . . .
Losers are finders (when you lose your life you will find it).
Finders are losers (when you find your life you will lose it).
The proud are resisted by God.
The humble are given God’s grace.
The first (numero uno) will be last.
The one bringing up the rear will be the real winner.
Our weakness allows for God’s strength.
Our strength gets in God’s way.
Go God!!!
It’s unfortunate that a lot of young guys will think Charlie Sheen is the coolest guy around right now.
Introducing the new essence “WINNING” By Charlie Sheen.
This new fragrance evokes the Adonis in you drawing scores of Aphrodities.
Because one goddess is never enough for a Gk god such as you.
It has a hint of wild boar, with impassioned notes of sulphur and pitch wafting on the winds of Sodom and Gomorah. One can detect the sutle smell of flame licked hardwood timbers of ancient Persia, Babylon, Greece, and Rome on a hot Arabian eve.
Blended artfully with just the slightest bouquet of cocoa leaf cut with xylene and diesel just because you love it so.
To satisfy the most discriminating Gk god, and his Gk goddesses.
“WINNING” because you want it all and you want it now.
Particularly enjoyed the world over by those who crave ruling over others with zest and zeal.
As a contrast.
On one hand we have a hollywood rock~star from mars riding a mercury surfboard with tiger blood raging in his veins and adonis DNA propelling him to epic winning personal heights as he bangs 7 gram rocks of coke and uses up porn stars with lustful zeal and now everyone should sit back and enjoy the show while he sues for three million per episode to make believe in a character that is actually this wonderful drug called Charlie Sheen (Carlos Estevaz). Even his name is made up.
Carlos/Charlie has gained the whole world, as he sits atop it and gloats.
Judgement is reserved for Jesus Christ in that day. This is merely from an observation view point.
“Then He called His disciples and the crowds to come over and listen. ‘If any of you wants to be My follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow Me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? If a person is ashamed of me and My message in these adulterous and sinful days, I, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of that person when I return in the glory of My Father with the holy angels.’ ” (Mark 8: 34-38)
It seems that Jesus Christ’s winning is very different than Carlos/Charlie’s winning.
“
It’s amazing that the picture of victory in Christ is Him as the Lamb led to the slaughter. Our Lord’s greatest victory was in laying His life down.
As a former college athlete, this reality (losing to win) of Him was hard to grasp. Once I accepted, I see there is no other way. The kingdom is truly not of this world. Great post Frank. Amen!
Amen!
To realize we are nothing in ourselves, but Christ in us is All is a very humbling realization. To give our lives for another is submitting to one another in reverence of Christ. This is the Life of Love in action. We do not have to win even when we are right. Letting go of that self-right which honors ourselves is dying to self and is so very hard to do, but Christ in us can do it. We must decrease, Christ must increase; it is all about Him. When we lose, He wins; when we decrease Christ increases—Love increases within one another.
Great reminder Frank. Thanks so much.
“losing” is definitely not a ‘message’ that we hear a lot these days… But His strength is made perfect in our weakness, for when we (feel) are strong, we won’t rely on Him 🙂 Thanks, Frank.
so true Frank, how many brothers and sisters have I/we lost in relationships because we tried to win an argument instead of seeing the Christ in them and learning to hear Him.
amen!