Bridge of the Faithful -

Identity: Unveiled

August 3, 2019 by Jenna No Comments
  • Last episode we talked about the things we are not. We can often find examples of this when we introduce ourselves.
    • When we meet someone, we’re often asked to “describe ourselves.”
    • These things are usually not bad or sinful! But how much power we give them over our identity can steer us away from the one identity that can never be taken away from us: being saved by Jesus and becoming a child of God.
  • When I started working on this, I often thought “why is this even such a big deal anyway?”
    • In American culture, finding our identity is huge.
    • Starting with kids shows and movies, many major or at least minor themes are “be true to yourself” or “finding me.”
    • We are often addicted to personality tests (Meyers-Briggs I am an ENFJ, I haven’t quite figured out enneagram but that doesn’t mean I haven’t tried)
    • But if you look at these things over time, they often change with our experiences and circumstances, our feelings are not constant.
  • One thing for sure is true and always: the one who truly knows us and created us is the one who is directing us into what He made us to be.
  • In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis sets a scene where Lucy finds a spellbook and makes herself beautiful. She quickly finds that this is not who she was meant to be, despite her desire to identify that way. Her dream quickly turns into a nightmare until Aslan comes to rescue her. He warns Lucy that she “wished herself away” and ends with: “You doubt your value. Don’t run from who you are”
  • Our identity is the outward presentation of what we put our value in.
    • This is why we need to define it and to ensure that we are putting it into something safe and everlasting.
    • We need to anchor our identity in something immovable: God.
  • It all began with creation.
    • Genesis 1:27- So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
    • It’s so important He put it in there twice: In His image.
    • The Hebrew word Tselem is used three other times in Genesis:
      • Genesis 1:26-Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
      • Genesis 5:3- When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
      • Genesis 9:6- Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.
      • God has placed so much value in us, given us authority, despises our destruction, and made us like him in a way that a child is like a parent. He loves us, He put part of Himself in us, and He made us the way we are very much on purpose.
  • Because our identity in Christ is so important and vital, no wonder it is so constantly attacked!
    • What do people do when they sense danger is near and need protection? They often hide.
  • The recurrent image that came during all of the studying for this episode was a veil.
    • Veils are often used to hide something: In C.S. Lewis’ book Till We Have Faces, the main character Orual wears a veil to cover the fact that she is incredibly ugly.
      • The veil eventually gets used to manipulate how people see her (powerful, mysterious, unfeminine).
      • The veil helps her to kill off the Orual that she was created to be.
    • Veils are also used to deceive.
      • Wedding veils were originally meant to hide the bride from evil spirits.
      • Genesis 29 gives a story of how Laban tricked Jacob into marrying his daughter Leah instead of Rachel (who Jacob truly loved).
      • How many times have we done this? Covered our true identity with a lie, hoping we would eventually become the person we wished to be if we tried hard enough or gave enough of ourselves away to become it?
      • Leah tried to live up to her lie by giving Jacob sons.
        • Her heart can be seen by the names of her first four sons:
          • Reuben- The LORD has noticed my misery and now my husband will love me (vs. 31)
          • Simeon- The LORD heard I was unloved and gave me a son (vs. 33)
          • Levi- Surely this time my husband will feel affection for me since I have given him three sons (vs. 34)
          • Judah- Now I will praise the LORD. I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that Judah became the one God chose as the son in which He would make the line of Christ. When Leah stopped looking at outward influences to decide her worth is when God decided to bless the most.
  • Where do we start? With a new name.
    • Leviticus 13:45 states that a person who had leprosy must wear a veil over the lower part of their face and shout “Unclean! Unclean!”
    • Luke 15:12-13 gives a story of how a leper comes to Jesus, asks if he is willing to heal him. Jesus says yes! And touches him, instantly changing him from a veiled leper proclaiming “unclean!” to unveiled and proclaiming “healed!”
    • Jesus is willing and wants to do the same for us. Chances are without Jesus changing us, we are identifying in something we wish to be healed from.
    • In Hinds Feet on High Places, the character Much Afraid says yes to the good shepherd, which leads her on a journey to change her name to “Grace and Glory.”
    • Our name transforming starting with changing our name from “sinner” to “rescued.”
      • Ephesians 2:8-10- God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this, it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
      • 2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new created. The old has passed away, behold the new has come!
  • The Bible is rich with promises of what we can base our identity on.
    • 1. We are fervidly, passionately loved.
      • John 3:16- For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. That whoever believed in him will not perish but have everlasting life.
      • Ephesians 5:2- Live a life with love, following the example fo Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
    • 2. We are chosen.
      • Ephesians 1:4-9- Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. he is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
    • 3. We are free.
      • Psalm 118:5- In my distress I prayed to the LORD, and the LORD answered me and set me free.
      • John 8:36- So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.
    • 4. We are secure.
      • John 6:39- And this it will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up on the last day.
      • Isaiah 54:17- But in the coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to rescue you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the LORD; their vindication will come from me. I, the LORD, have spoken.
    • 5. We are set apart.
      • Ephesians 2:19- So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s family.
      • Deuteronomy 14:2- You have been set apart as holy to the LORD your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.
    • 6. We are strong.
      • Isaiah 40:31- But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
    • 7. We are known.
      • Jeremiah 1:5- I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.
      • John 10:14-15- I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.
  • I Am Who You Say I Am
  • Why do we believe all of these points? In order to answer that, we need to get to know a little more about the person who made these promises.
    • Toward the end of Till We Have Faces, Orual writes a book confronting the gods with a petition against how they treated her. After she writes it, she states “I ended my first book with the words ‘no answer.’ I know now, LORD, why you utter no answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?
    • God showed us His face through the Bible, especially through Jesus. He unveiled Himself so that we could know Him. Jesus died to unveil that barrier between us and God. Through his death, we get to secure who we are by having full access to knowing whose we are.
    • Matthew 27:50-51- And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

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Identity: What You’re Not

July 20, 2019 by Jenna No Comments
  • As a whole, we don’t own our own identity. We often tend to put it into the hands of someone else: a significant other, the way you want people to view you, your children, ideals, etc.
    • Beth Moore’s book So Long Insecurity she says “why would we put our self-worth into the hands of someone who’s oblivious to the power they have over us?”
    • Giving other people or ideals the power of owning your identity puts it in a delicate state, where someone who doesn’t know they hold it (or worse still, they do know and don’t care for it well) can easily shatter it and walk away leaving you to pick up the pieces.
  • Other times our identity is focused on things that we are not.
    • “I’m not as bad as them” or “I refuse to be like this”
    • This leaves us to constantly justify, compare, and empty ourselves instead of focusing on the good and improving what needs to be worked on.
    • When we base our identity on comparing, we’re never seeing the full picture.
  • So many times we focus our identity on where we feel inadequate.
    • One area that I personally struggle with is beauty.
      • God does not set a standard of beauty on us, He sets us to be His.
    • When we do this, we open ourselves up to two traps:
      • Envy: we become jealous of those people that have what we want.
      • Idols: we admire, focus, or worship things in our lives in areas that should be dedicated to God.
        • Ask yourself: is there something that if lost, we would lose our identity? A relationship, job, talent, or hobby.
  • A person who lost everything in one second and had to redefine her identity is Joni Eareckson Tada.
    • In her biography Joni: An Unforgettable Story she writes: “But that’s the same for everyone if we let society determine our value,” Steve explained as he sat down on the piano bench. “We always lose when we evaluate ourselves according to someone else’s ideas or standards. And there are as many standards as there are people. A jock measure you by your athletic ability, a student by your brains, a steady by your looks. It’s a losing battle,” he said, striking a sour piano chord for added emphasis. “We have to forget about what people say or think and recognize that God’s values are the only important ones.”
  • It is so important for us to remember the ist of what we are not defined by.
    • 1. Labels.
      • Some labels we proudly claim (mom, girl boss, wife, crunchy, etc.)
      • Some are given to us (loser, nerd, jock, popular)
      • These often affect decisions we make as we try to live up to or dispute them.
    • 2. What you consume.
      • The things we use to occupy your mind affect the way you think and act either positively or negatively. This can be music, books, movies, culture, and art. These affect our emotions, reactions, hopes, ambitions, and we can get trapped into ideals that aren’t even ours to begin with.
    • 3. Comparison.
      • This can either be when you feel “less than” or “superior to.” Whether you are crashing in despair of “not enough,” caught in the lie to superiority, or dealing with the fallout of our pride taking the best from us- it is not who we are or how we are truly defined.
    • 4. Defined by others.
      • You are not defined by people’s expectations of you.
      • You are not what the media thinks you should be.
  • You do not need to be afraid of not being enough.
    • 1 John 3:1- See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
      • Why do I struggle so much with caring that the world knows me? If I am claimed as a child of God, why do I care if the world doesn’t recognize or value me for the person I am?
        • Satan is constantly watching for whatever he can to drag us away from the path toward God. (Beware the Prowling Lion)
        • John 10:10- The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy.
  • The book Identity Theft describes three main categories that Satan attacks our identity.
    • 1. Using the world: when we want to conform.
    • 2. Using the flesh: when we want to glorify ourselves instead of God.
    • 3. Using shame: he traps us with the chains of past so we forget that we are free in Jesus.
  • We often look at ourselves and think “I’m not enough.” But we’re looking in the wrong spot. JESUS is enough, and that’s what matters. One of the biggest and best parts about finding our identity in Christ is that he is the one thing we just can never lose. If our identity is protected and defined by him, it can never fall into identity theft!
  • So now we’ve started to figure out what we’re not. So what are we?
  • 1 Peter 2:9-10- But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”
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