Thoughts
that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking
Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to
the audio file.
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"As society grew, man saw the need for more and more structure to somehow help us better understand what should be a growing relationship with God. It’s sad to say, but structure is where people seem to always get it wrong."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 69.
What do you think about the statement, "... structure is where people seem to always get it wrong"? I'll bet if you are a structure trained and structure believing person like me, that statement is a little bit offensive.
You see, I'm in no way condemning structure. I firmly believe the only thing standing between the goodness of this life and utter chaos is structure. What I am commenting on is man's continued and hapless reliance on structure to help us all find security in who we are. Identity based on structure, particularly when that identity requires some connection to a relationship with a god through religion however you define it, is a complete waste of time. Reliance on structure in any form to assure identity is a strategy filled with victim thinking traps.
It's not that structure is bad. No structure is necessary, even in religion. It is when we place our trust in the structure to help us learn about, apply and rely upon our identity that trouble starts to happen. Structure isn't the answer, relationship is especially when it comes to religion.
The Old Testament is a structure lover's paradise. God instituted a system of religion that is so complete in structure that it makes my head swim. What started out as ten commandments morphed into several books of the Bible as God gave the structure loving people what they so eagerly craved - a method of finding and living out their God-given identity. Those ten commandments explained in two books has morphed into near countless volumes of do's and don'ts as structure dependent leaders worked to satisfy structure loving followers.
After all the structure design and implementation in the Old Testament God chooses to place the following verse for us to consider today.
I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me. Hosea 6:6 (THE LIVING BIBLE)
Structure is exemplified in the Old Testament by the words "sacrifices" and "offering". It took a lot of structure to maintain a sacrificial system and to provide the offerings necessary for those in love with structure to be able to relate to their God. The more they did to try and become who God already saw them to be the more structure became the focus. It's when structure becomes the focus that the thing that structure was intended to support that we start to lose our way.
So why would God design a system of structure to enable His people to get to him? I believe it was because he was using the Israelites of the Old Testament as an object lesson for us all. What's the lesson? We need relationship with God! In other words, no amount of our efforts will ever make it possible for us to become fully what He has made us to be.
Notice what it says in our reading. It's not the system he wants, it is the result of what that system was suppose to bring. Sacrifice and offering will always take a back seat to love and relationship as far as God is concerned. A system will always fall short in God's eyes if that system gets in the way of us being loved by God and if that system fails to give us the opportunity to be known by him. That's what is meant when I said that when it comes to structure people always seems to get it wrong.
Maybe it would be wise to do a system check in your life today. Are any of the systems, and the resulting structure you rely upon, distracting you from the reality of who you are? It's easy to tell if this is the case. If, in spite of all the things you do today you still feel like you don't know who you are or if your identity doesn't feel like it is measuring up to what you want it to be you might have a system issue.
How does one correct a system issue? That's easy! Focus is the answer. Instead of focusing on the system to make you lovable and known, focus on the God who already knows you and loves you so dearly. No system will ever be able to replace a laser focused attention on the one who made you a victor in the first place.
Today, let the fact God sees you to be all you need to be in order to live the life of a victor. Working from this foundation enables all the systems and structure in your life your to be empowered in a way that maximizes impact in the world around you.
**********
"As society grew, man saw the need for more and more structure to somehow help us better understand what should be a growing relationship with God. It’s sad to say, but structure is where people seem to always get it wrong."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 69.
What do you think about the statement, "... structure is where people seem to always get it wrong"? I'll bet if you are a structure trained and structure believing person like me, that statement is a little bit offensive.
You see, I'm in no way condemning structure. I firmly believe the only thing standing between the goodness of this life and utter chaos is structure. What I am commenting on is man's continued and hapless reliance on structure to help us all find security in who we are. Identity based on structure, particularly when that identity requires some connection to a relationship with a god through religion however you define it, is a complete waste of time. Reliance on structure in any form to assure identity is a strategy filled with victim thinking traps.
It's not that structure is bad. No structure is necessary, even in religion. It is when we place our trust in the structure to help us learn about, apply and rely upon our identity that trouble starts to happen. Structure isn't the answer, relationship is especially when it comes to religion.
The Old Testament is a structure lover's paradise. God instituted a system of religion that is so complete in structure that it makes my head swim. What started out as ten commandments morphed into several books of the Bible as God gave the structure loving people what they so eagerly craved - a method of finding and living out their God-given identity. Those ten commandments explained in two books has morphed into near countless volumes of do's and don'ts as structure dependent leaders worked to satisfy structure loving followers.
After all the structure design and implementation in the Old Testament God chooses to place the following verse for us to consider today.
I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me. Hosea 6:6 (THE LIVING BIBLE)
Structure is exemplified in the Old Testament by the words "sacrifices" and "offering". It took a lot of structure to maintain a sacrificial system and to provide the offerings necessary for those in love with structure to be able to relate to their God. The more they did to try and become who God already saw them to be the more structure became the focus. It's when structure becomes the focus that the thing that structure was intended to support that we start to lose our way.
So why would God design a system of structure to enable His people to get to him? I believe it was because he was using the Israelites of the Old Testament as an object lesson for us all. What's the lesson? We need relationship with God! In other words, no amount of our efforts will ever make it possible for us to become fully what He has made us to be.
Notice what it says in our reading. It's not the system he wants, it is the result of what that system was suppose to bring. Sacrifice and offering will always take a back seat to love and relationship as far as God is concerned. A system will always fall short in God's eyes if that system gets in the way of us being loved by God and if that system fails to give us the opportunity to be known by him. That's what is meant when I said that when it comes to structure people always seems to get it wrong.
Maybe it would be wise to do a system check in your life today. Are any of the systems, and the resulting structure you rely upon, distracting you from the reality of who you are? It's easy to tell if this is the case. If, in spite of all the things you do today you still feel like you don't know who you are or if your identity doesn't feel like it is measuring up to what you want it to be you might have a system issue.
How does one correct a system issue? That's easy! Focus is the answer. Instead of focusing on the system to make you lovable and known, focus on the God who already knows you and loves you so dearly. No system will ever be able to replace a laser focused attention on the one who made you a victor in the first place.
Today, let the fact God sees you to be all you need to be in order to live the life of a victor. Working from this foundation enables all the systems and structure in your life your to be empowered in a way that maximizes impact in the world around you.
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