Carl Tuttle

This last Sunday I taught at our church about the 'mind games' we play with ourselves and with others. Within the context of that talk I made the statement, 'The way in is the way on.' I was stating it in the context of staying in touch with our need for dependance and rest in the sufficiency of Christ and His provision. What I am saying is that we began, engaged in a relationship with Christ through faith and the truth is the way on is accomplished through faith as well. Not 'principles', 'keys', 'steps' 'choices', or other methods of growing in or maintaining our relationship with Christ. There is nothing wrong with 'keys', 'principles' et cetera, in and of themselves, but when we begin to rely on them as a means of justification, we are making a subtle shift from relatioinship to religion in my opinion. It seems to me to be deeply entrenched in humon nature to become prideful when we are able to achieve spiritual goals that we or others set up. For instance, we make a commitment to pray every day for 15 minutes and read the Bible for 30 minutes daily. Is that a bad thing? Of course not, who is going to come against prayer or Bible reading? The problem comes when we conclude that we are 'more spiritual' than someone else or feel like this somehow gains up a closer standing with God. It's not wrong to do good things, what's wrong is to draw the wrong conclusion and becoming judgmental towards others who don't meet the standards thay you have set for yourself.