Authenticity Being Honest With God And Others

Authenticity Copyright © 1996 by Willow Creek Association Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 ISBN-10: 0-310-26588-6 ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26588-7 All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other- except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Interior Design by Rick Devon and Michelle Espinoza Printed in the United States of America 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 /?DCI/ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 We want to hear from you. Please send your comments about this book to us in care of zreview@zondervan.com. Thank you. S E S S I O N 1 A U T H E N T I C I T Y A NEW DIMENSION IN SPIRITUALITY T H E B I G P I C T U R E I backed the car out of the driveway as I do every morning at 5:45. I switched the radio from a program on ethics to the Tokyo stock closing, and drove through the neighboring subdivision, mentally critiquing architectural designs. I bought coffee at the twenty-four-hour coffee shop and successfully avoided the talkative cashier. As I turned onto the church campus, I formulated a convincing defense for a ministry plan that I hoped the staff would adopt. I climbed to my third-floor office, wondering about the productivity of the nighttime maintenance crew. I shuffled through the mountain of mail on my desk and wished someone else could answer it. I spun my chair around and looked out the window at the church lake steaming in the crispness of the morning. In that quiet moment I saw the previous quarter hour for what it had been-time tainted by purely human perspective. Not once during that time had I seen the world through godly eyes. I had been more interested in international finances than in the moral demise of our nation. I had thought more about houses than the people inside them. I had considered the tasks awaiting me more important than the woman who served my coffee. I had been more intent on logically supporting my plans than sincerely seeking God's. I'd thought more about staff members' productivity than their walk with the Lord or their family life. I'd viewed correspondence as drudgery rather than a way to offer encouragement, counsel, or help. It was 6:00 A.M., and I needed a renewed heart and mind. Like a compass out of adjustment, my thoughts and feelings were pointing in the wrong direction. They needed to be recalibrated-to be realigned with God's accurate, perfect perspective. You see, in the space of a day, your relationship with Jesus Christ can fall from the heights to the depths, from vitality to superficiality, from life-changing interaction to meaningless ritual. That's a humbling admission, but it's true. In a mere twenty-four hours, you can slide from spiritual authenticity into spiritual inauthenticity. A W I D E A N G L E V I E W 1. How have you seen yourself slide into patterns of inauthenticity? What factors contribute to this slide? A B I B L I C A L P O R T R A I T 2. This psalm clearly addresses the stress and strain of living in this world. In eleven short verses we read about troubles, cosmic chaos, earthquakes, conflict among the nations, kingdoms falling, and the reality of war. After this list of life's turmoil, the psalmist writes: "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" (v. 10). How[read more]