Inoculation Line Starts to the Left

Inoculate:  verb, to implant a dead pathogen to stimulate resistance against the pathogen.  Let's change "pathogen" with "Gospel"... To impant a dead "Gospel" to stimulate resistance against the (real) Gospel.

I attended a church that went through the "program" of a Purpose Driven Life... 40 Days of Purpose or something.  During that period and int he two years following that I was a member of this body, I was continually amazed by the lack of purpose in these people.

If it were a court and the evidence was used to convict, here's what we'd find.  People more interested in the gridiron battle than the battle in their soul.  Socials where the deepest discussion might be what flavor ice cream you like.  When there was something of substance (one lady pouring herself into politics) it was more to deflect attention from the real issues in her own life.

But these people knew all about Purpose.  They had the program to prove it.  They are now inoculated.

My mentor defines "super-spiritualizing" as religious answers without doing the work.  One guy told me once that he had no problems with jealousy anymore-- he had prayed three years ago and left it at the cross.  He was in the midst of personal life destruction because of his jealousy, but how can he deal with a problem he refuses to admit he has?

In my own life, I proudly told my mentor one day at lunch that I had "dealt" with a certain problem.  Like a quarterback releasing a ball and instantly wishing he could have it back as he sees the defender making his move to intercept, I wish I could have retracted that word.  But I rejoice in using that word because it revealed a dysfunctional mindset in me-- that I could actually have "dealt" with a flesh, or Ego issue.

Paul writes that he dies daily to the flesh.  I can say I'm "dealing" with narcissism... but ti's a hideous trap to say I've "dealt" with it.

All of us in the church have been receiving shots all our lives.  We're inoculated to many things.  As int he movie "The Imposter," I hope you can see past the dead pathogens and see that much work remains... that once you got your fire insurance from hell, that you actually have a Purpose.

And we'll talk more about this soon...  Any body left out these after some of these harder blogs?