Monday, November 23, 2015

CCDA Memphis Review: Christena Cleveland


Cleveland began with this beautiful prayer: 

Be still and know that I am God.  Be still and know that I am. Be still and know.  Be still. Be.


Our saviorism gets exposed in the face of setback.

Justice and reconciliation are the work of the cross.  When I put myself on the cross instead of Jesus, I start to feel like I’m being crucified.  Feeling hopeless is a marker of privilege.  We say, “Jesus, I’m the one on the cross.  It’s me.”


We must focus on God’s infinite love.  Your hopelessness is proof that your reliance on Jesus is lacking.  


Resentment indicates how we are orienting our lives.


The first guys through the wall always get bloody.  

Here’s how we should respond to setback:


1. Focus on positive attributes of God not negative attributes of oppressor.  Don’t put the oppressor in the center. Centralize Jesus.  Decentralize the enemy and yourself.  


2.  Check your self-righteousness level.  Bitterness speaks, "You have hurt me.  I would never do that to you.  I am better."  The term is called infrahumanization. We dehumanize the powerful, we dehumanize the other when we say, “I get it and you don't”.  You don’t get to decide who is human or not.  “I’m making all things new.  I can get to their heart,” says God.  

3. Take a break.  Do you find yourself thinking, "If I don’t say it, it won’t be said.  If I don’t do it, it won’t get done."  Maybe the holiest thing you can do is take a nap.  Know when to walk away.  Take yourself off the cross to even hear it.  One of the things that will tank us is when we try to supersede God.  

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