Getting To The Core

     Questions & Answers from You! 

Q: How would you address the idea that being who I am is often considered selfish? Carla 

A: Without understanding who we are, we resort to doing what is expected or demanded or even refuse to do anything at all. These behaviors are selfish, as we seek to find validation or value through external sources. We are being self-serving by expecting our relationships, jobs, homes, appearances, etc... to supply us with a sense of worth. 

When we come to understand how we are created by God, valued and loved -- we look within to find the value God has placed there. So, it is actually selfish to live any way other than obeying God by being the individual He created you to be! Showing who we really are is often difficult because it requires us to stand against certain family, societal, religious, or cultural molds as our lives become unique expressions of worship to the One who made us, but it is also where true beauty, real fulfillment, and honest relationships thrive and prosper!

Q:I’m tracking with you in re: to a healthy emphasis on the self.  But I do have a question. How would you respond to someone who countered the concept with “it wasn’t that Eve believed she wasn’t enough, but rather that God wasn’t enough.”  In other words, her doubting/questioning of God’s goodness/care/love was the issue and that was enough of a gap for temptation to slither in. John

A: I would respond by first acknowledging that doubting God is certainly a common reason for people being lead astray.
 
But… I like to answer questions with questions so I would ask: How is that a Gospel you can take into a tribal community in a remote area of -- say -- Peru, where their god is a waterfall? Do the tribe members doubt that the waterfall is good and caring? Are they sinless because they have never doubted the love of the true God? No, they need to hear the Gospel like every other person because all they have to rely on is their limited ability to manufacture worth for themselves (sin/pride).  
 
Once you get beyond sharing who Jesus is – how do you make it clear what He came to save us from? The self you were “tracking with us in” is the part of us Jesus came to save.

The self we bolster and rely on for value is precisely what Jesus came to save us from.

Failing to make this distinction is at the heart of why people who adamantly believe in God and share that He is, indeed, loving and good habitually fall prey to the sins of self-righteousness and duplicity. They are still ensnared in the faulty mindset that they must manufacture worth for themselves.

The Apple You Were Fed is unique in that its purpose is to make this distinction. It approaches the Gospel in a universal way; everyone can relate to feeling insecure and inadequate (shame) and looking for an external source of worth (pride). The only true and lasting remedy for the lie that we are not enough is placing ourselves back into the care of the One who judged us otherwise. God saw us as worth more than we could ever imagine even while we were hurting ourselves and others in an attempt to create worth on our own.

Q:  Why have I not heard this concept before? Heidi

A: The words used to share God's message via the Apple Concept are fresh so you've certainly heard the message, it just didn't come through to you the same way it is now. There is no way to improve upon the Gospel, just ways of presenting it that allow us to gain better understanding. Words like pride, shame, repentance... they all mean something -- but often we spin out an automatic reaction to those terms based upon our current understanding; this prevents us from growing. 

Q:  How can I share the difference between our need for Jesus and our worth to Him? Shelly

A: When making the distinction between our NEED for God to save us and our WORTH to Him, we must be clear that no one escapes the inevitable sin-cycle since we are born into a broken world where the lie of not enough is predominantly believed and practiced. We NEED Jesus because we sin and fall short of God's intention for our lives. He is the remedy because he atones for our sin. However, this message often comes across in the wrong way; we have to be clear that our sin does not make us unloveable or of no value to God. He values us and loves us -- so much so, that He sent His own dear Son to die in our place to pay for the results of believing the lie of not enough.

The Apple You Were Fed makes this distinction and shows how Jesus' death and resurrection represents both sides of the message, paying the penalty for our sin and proving that we are of worth to our Father in heaven!

Q: What advice can you give to women who want to teach the "Apple Concept" to a class? Rachel & Julie

A: The feedback we are getting from current classes and book groups is to leave room for lively discussion. The book brings out the need to talk and share because everyone's spiritual journey is so personal! Most use the free devotional from our website to gather ideas, but the leaders especially appreciate the workbook. Some groups use both. In the workbook, there are questions and tasks and prayers and it is divided into manageable pieces that work well with groups. Contact us to request a facilitator's packet!

Reflection and Devotion for March

 Seeds of Change  

The Seeds of Change are little encouragments we have found, interesting, thought provoking, and often profound insights from God's people. Because we are all in different places on our spiritual journey, learning from others is like studying geography: you may think it's not necessary, you will not always be able to picture what is being communicated, but knowing others who have studied well may help you find your way.

The Seeds this month come from a book

by Frederick Douglass 

My Bondage and My Freedom      

Our hope is to pass on this blessing; enjoy! 

In this book, Frederick Douglass shares his very personal experiences of slavery and freedom, acceptance and rejection, pain, fear, faith and life. 

We can easily apply this powerfully written book to the spiritual life. It challenges us to work harder, hope and trust more and look for the oportunities in the midst of hardships. While many of us will never know the sorrow of physical enslavement, thank God, we have all been slaves to something in our lives, not the least of which is a broken mindset about the human race and its diversity of people. Frederick questions the limited faith of those who can still possibly hold one race in higher reguard than another. He questions cruelty and unmasks the subtle progression one can take from innocence to evil when deceived. But the gem of this book is the brilliant light of a questioning soul who would not settle for anything less than an empowered existence.

Find the seeds of change at barnesandnoble.com

Or look for it at a bookstore near you or also online at the University of Virginia Library