At Easter, Here Is What To Know About Jesus

Jesus’ behavior in the Gospels provides a living demonstration of the dynamics involved in balanced human behavior. Even approaching his crucifixion, the fully human and fully divine Jesus expresses himself on each compass point of the Self Compass, without getting stranded on any of them. 

Jesus' Last Supper

LOVE

As Jesus nears his passion week, his expression of the Love compass point intensifies. “Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love” (Jn 13:1). John, the beloved disciple, devotes five chapters of his Gospel to record all the words Jesus uttered at the Last Supper (Jn 13-17). This profoundly intimate conversation is shared with the disciples, but extends beyond them to all who call upon the name of Christ. 

From these words, all of us can learn that: 

1. Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet shows what love looks like in action.
2. Anyone who truly loves Jesus will carry out his teachings, opening their interior lives to receive the Father’s love for them.
3. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will make their home within those who love Jesus and follow his commandments, bringing an inner peace the world cannot take away.
4. His command is this: “Love each other as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12).
5. Jesus is the vine and his followers are the branches who bear the fruit of faithful love as they abide in Christ.
6. Jesus prays to the Father on behalf of humanity, “that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (Jn 17:26).

For good reason Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd, a name that reflects the Love compass point. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (Jn 10:11). From the cross he forgives even those who crucify him, flinging open the door to salvation for anyone who walks through it. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

Christ's Self Compass

ASSERTION

Understanding Christ requires not only perceiving the depth of his love, but also respecting the power of his assertion. Christ expresses the Assertion compass point when he disperses the Galilean crowd who are so impressed by his feeding of the five thousand they try to declare him king, rebukes the disciples who want to call down fire upon a Samaritan village for rejecting Jesus, and challenges the Sanhedrin during his trumped-up trial.

In other words, Jesus has no trouble saying what he thinks, acting in congruence with his identity, and standing up for the Son of God’s evaluation of people’s true motives. In this spirit, the book of Revelation describes Christ as the Lion of Judah, a name that provides an operational description of his Assertion compass point.

WEAKNESS

From the Weakness compass point, approaching his passion week, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, for the people neither honor his teaching nor recognize the presence of the Messiah in their midst.

If there is any doubt as to Jesus’ humanity, or his willingness to suffer, he falls to the ground in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death” (Mk 14:34). Once he passes through this turmoil and self-doubt, Jesus surrenders to the Father’s will that requires his humiliation and crucifixion. 

On the cross in the hour of his fully human death, he cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46), perhaps aligning himself with every human being who has ever felt broken and forsaken. Christ’s name from the Weakness compass point is the Lamb of God.

STRENGTH

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah employs these strength-oriented titles to describe Jesus Christ, the Messiah: Prince of Peace, Mighty Counselor, Savior, and Lord of Lords. 

Jesus himself declares in strength: 

• “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). 
• “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9). 
• “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25). 
• “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

When his last Passover arrives, though Jesus knows that heading to Jerusalem means he will die as a criminal, he sets his face like flint, determined to carry out the Father’s will. 

And what is the Father's will? That his Son, Jesus Christ, this God-person, who died for our sins, is resurrected  by the power of the Holy Spirit to sit at the right hand of God the Father. 

Resurrected Jesus

In Christ Jesus, then, lies the Trinity Easter gift to humanity; a gift waiting at the door of every individual’s heart: the gift of a whole personality, intimately connected to God. The gift of interpersonal selfhood through Jesus Christ the Lord. 

How To Grow A Christlike Personality

Jesus Christ doesn’t need to change, because he is sinless and lived his life on Earth without sin. So Jesus is the exception. The only exception! Everyone else, you and me included, does need to change if we want to grow more like Christ.

Why? Because over time, we form personality patterns as a way of coping with fear. Someone who blames and attacks, arguing to handle problems, fears trusting others, fearing they will take advantage of him. 

Regardless of why we formed these patterns, however, each of us is responsible for our own behavior. We each need to acknowledge that one or more patterns  hamper our relationships with others and our own growth as a human being. 

Self Compass Personality Patterns Chart

 

The Personality Patterns Chart above shows how manipulative strategies keep each personality pattern intact, unless you surrender to the path of growth offered by transforming your personality in Christ. 

• The Dependent Pleaser and Histrionic Storyteller are stuck with too much Love on the Self Compass. 
• The Paranoid Arguer and Antisocial Rule-breaker are stuck with too much Assertion. 
• The Avoidant Worrier and Schizoid Loner are stuck with too much Weakness.
• The Narcissistic Boaster and Compulsive Controller are stuck with too much Strength.

If you’re interested in finding out which patterns you overly rely on, try out the informal personality inventory in The Self Compass:Charting Your Personality in Christ.

Your score levels may indicate you have some personal and interpersonal difficulties that can be traced to this pattern. Taking the growth stretches sprinkled throughout the book or considering counseling will assist your growth.

As you monitor your progress over several months, eventually these action steps will lead to the healthy integration of this compass point into your life and personality. You will appreciate the freedom for creative living that arises from personality wholeness.

It’s common to have a mixture of personality patterns, even ones that seem to contradict each other, like the Pleaser pattern in certain situations and the Arguer pattern in others. As you read about each pattern, you proceed by targeting the highest score for concentrated prayer and growth stretches. When you begin to make discernible progress, shift your attention to the next pattern and work on it. 

Eventually, your Self Compass will break free from the patterns that imprison you. The outcome of this change, sometimes dramatic and other times subtle, is increasing serenity, improved relationships, and deepening trust in yourself and God.

Deepening Trust In God

You will also gain a kind of x-ray vision into the true motives of other people’s behavior. With this comes the ability to resist manipulation that would otherwise cause you harm, for as Jesus counsels, we all need to grow “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Mt 10:16).

The principles you learn will enrich and heal your relationships in single or married life. If you are raising children, the Self Compass is a trustworthy guide to helping them form healthy and balanced personalities. This is called the actualizing process—the shift from living through manipulative patterns toward Christ-like personality wholeness. 

Feel Lonely? How To Prime the Pump with God

You may feel alone and lonely sometimes; that’s normal. But remember this: the Holy Trinity is in your corner, dwelling in your home, living in your body, riding in the car with you—watching over you.

Start thinking interpersonally about the Trinity. Include the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in your emotional life and daily affairs. Call on the Lord in practical ways—I mean talk to God with gut-wrenching honesty about what’s going on in your life. Good times. Bad times. In-between times. Of your own free will, build a back-and-forth communication of speaking and listening to the Trinity. 

Talk with Jesus

Here are some ways to prime the pump. 

• Pray for all of your relationships. 
• Pray for your enemies. 
• Pray for guidance at work and in family life. 
• Pray for your development as an individual in Christ. 
• Pray for God’s augmenting wisdom to bless every little facet of your life. 
• Pray for God to remove rigid personality trends and replace them with life-enhancing balance. 
• Pray for your needs and praise God in advance for his blessings. 
• Draw near to God in love and adoration. 
• Glorify God for the coming redemption of the world and your part in it. 
• Love God up for the many ways he interacts with you.

Prime the Pump

There. You’ve faced your worries, called upon the Lord, and delighted God’s heart by leaning on him. Make this your life posture tonight, tomorrow, this week.

God’s plans for you are brimming with energy. 

• He will anoint and direct you in future situations. 
• He will oversee the events in your life and help straighten out ruffled relationships. 
• God knows you inside and out—genes and chromosomes, talents and deficiencies, needs and hopes—and loves you tenderly. 

The Lord never uses this knowledge against you, the way some people might, but inspires your intuition, infuses your dreams and daydreams, brings words of wisdom into consciousness, sculpts the flow of life situations, and converses with you like I am doing right now. 

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11). 

Plans for Good

Keep developing your individuality in Christ. In the long haul, Jesus will fulfill those heart’s desires that conform to his will for you. When life seems to go awry, ask Christ whether he has permitted an adverse situation for your transformative growth, or whether you have strayed from his plans and purposes.

To discern God’s will for you, pay attention to inner and outer developments. God may change your own perspective, or he may alter unfolding circumstances. You remain focused on praying for Christ’s will and the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. 

Do the next thing that seems right. God is faithful and creative in shaping events as they move forward in time. 

• He may use a word of knowledge or wisdom spoken to your heart by the Holy Spirit. 
• He may quicken a passage of Scripture that you recall or read with new insight. He may bring you new information by having someone call you or causing a letter to arrive in the mail. 
• Or he may simply give you an inner peace that says, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isa 30:21).

Your job is to pray and trust 

without telling God how to act. 

Pray and Trust in God

God relishes helping you through absolutely anything you face, blessing you in the process. Once you’ve made it through, don’t forget to praise the Lord for his resourcefulness and timing. He likes that.

For more, read:

Faith Beyond Church Walls: 

Finding Freedom in Christ

What? A Personality Pattern is a Sin?

On a murky planet in a galaxy far away, Jedi Master Yoda is training Luke Skywalker to become a Jedi knight. In the Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, Luke is learning how to become a force for good in a world dominated by an evil emperor and his hatchet man, Darth Vader. When Luke whines and complains that the training is too hard, Yoda replies that it is Luke’s impatient attitude and quickness to give up that are holding him back. Yoda tells Luke that the dark side is “easier and more seductive.” The Bible confirms this truth that “the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it” (Matthew 7:13).

Luke is stuck in the Avoidant Worrier personality pattern, blaming Yoda for what he is dodging. It is his pattern of complaining and sulking that prevents him from sticking with the training. He attempts to manipulate Yoda by pouting to let himself off the hook. “It’s too hard,” is one of the standard ploys of someone stuck in the Worrier pattern. Luke is trying to avoid growth. He expects Yoda to reject him. Yoda confirms his expectations by getting fed up and critical of him. 

"It's too hard."

Every one of us sins like this, stuck in some form of manipulative personality pattern, whether we’re willing to admit it or not. The apostle John challenges every living person with the words, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). The sin of manipulation causes you to relate to God and others in a way that seems right to you, but backfires in the long run. Sin’s effects are described in Scripture as the crooked path: “Those whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways” (Proverbs 2:15).

Self-will, the root of sin, says, “I’ve always been this way and don’t intend to change. I don’t need forgiveness because I haven’t done that much wrong. I certainly don’t need a Savior to change me.” There are two problems with this position: 

1. You are blind to your self-centeredness.
2. You think God’s solution for sin and evil is not necessary, because your good intentions and will power are enough.

REDEMPTION AS THE CURE FOR SIN

To what degree are you free to become what God intends, and to what degree are you held responsible for your attitudes and behavior? Luke Skywalker is responsible for the attitudes inherent in his Worrier pattern: passive aggressively blaming Yoda for what he is unwilling to face in himself. Were someone like Luke to acknowledge his blame-shifting and ask for God’s help, he could find himself on the road to more responsible behavior. While sin pervades human nature, the situation is far from hopeless, for “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20).

In an act of infinite love, God solved the sin problem by the offering of Christ’s death in the place of all people. “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Christ’s atonement for sin is an objective, transcendent act of God that exists beyond the realm of human manipulation. And Christ’s resurrection is God’s promise made real that you are offered Christ-like wholeness when you surrender to God’s sovereign power.  

Jesus Christ's Resurrection

People can appropriate new life in Christ anytime, anywhere. “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Surrender to Christ allows you to say and mean: “I bear true guilt for wrong attitudes and behaviors—some of which I’m aware and some I’m not. I confess my need for God’s forgiveness and help. I ask to receive the righteousness of Christ.”

Accepting Christ into your heart does not mean you don’t sin any more—rather, it means you can freely discuss your sins with God, inviting his help and wisdom for gradual growth that occurs over your lifetime. Alister McGrath points out, “Forgiveness does not necessarily mean that sin is eliminated—it means that the threat sin poses to man’s relationship to God is eliminated. There is all the difference in the world between being sinless and being forgiven.”

For more, see:

THE SELF COMPASS:

CHARTING YOUR PERSONALITY IN CHRIST 

 

Let Jesus Become The Master Potter In Your Life

A friend of mine named Miguel is a famous potter. This bearded Latino has one of his pots displayed in the Smithsonian. 

One day I watched him throw a brand new pot out of muddy red clay. He took a huge piece of the clay, massaged it with skillful hands, added water to it and plopped it down on the potter’s wheel. At first the clay was tough and unyielding. But as he continued to knead it with his strong yet gentle hands, the clay became more supple. 

Clay Pot

I could see that Miguel loved the pot he was forming. He whistled while he worked, and he smiled as the clay responded to him.

When he was about an hour into his work on this particular pot, I began to notice that while it had taken shape nicely, there were still many imperfections on its sides—lumps and jagged edges. These bothered me, but didn’t disturb Miguel.  He kept whistling and smiling. 

Suddenly, with a movement so deft I hardly saw it, he cut off the lumps and smoothed the ridges. He looked up at me, sweat pouring from his forehead, and announced with joy: “Done!” He set it aside for baking in the kiln that night.

A few days later he gave me that pot. He had decorated it with golden highlights to accentuate its maroon color. Tears welled up in my eyes. I marveled at how Miguel had crafted something so beautiful out of mud. 

Miguel’s pot reminds me of how God does the work of patiently sculpting our personalities. Our part is to remain supple and yielding so that God can transform our whole being—conscious and unconscious—into a unique and eternal expression of Christ.

Transformed by Grace

Personality transformation occurs through grace, a kind of effortless effort, not by striving to please God or obey all the rules. Jesus, the Master Potter, said it this way:

“Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” (Mt 11:28-30 The Message).

Jesus Christ's Love and Grace

How is it possible that God's love can heal our fear, defensiveness and pride? It happens because the growing Christian learns to live in an atmosphere of inspiration rather than condemnation. Jesus' love and the power of the Holy Spirit work to transform personality.

As we actively trust the Lord for support and growth in every aspect of being, he will heal our fears and personality rigidities. We never arrive at complete perfection this side of heaven. 

Our testimony isn’t that we are perfect, 

but that we have met the Redeemer.

Christ died for our mistakes and shortcomings, so with Christ dwelling within, we need not live in bondage to fear. As John says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear (1 Jn 4:18).” We remain imperfect, but God’s perfect love now lives within us and slowly transforms us.

For more, read:

GOD AND YOUR PERSONALITY 

God and Your Personality

Five Tips to Live Valentine's Day Everyday

You settle down for an evening of enjoyment with your partner. Lighting the gas logs in the fireplace, you turn down the lights and put on a CD of sultry tunes.

You’re teaching your partner to play Scrabble. What makes the evening magical isn’t the amount of money you plunk down, for everything here is free. It isn’t in the exotic scenery, for you are at home. It isn’t the feeling of a vacation, for you may only have an hour together—depending on whether you have children, or how early you have to wake up in the morning. Yet this ordinary moment seems timeless because you are having fun.

Tip #1: The magic is wrought by your attitude, in which you are neither competitive nor pedantic, but warm and spontaneous. You and your partner may face endless demands at work and in family life, but together in moments like this, there is a pleasurable mystique. You are reminded why you got together in the first place: you like each other!

Tip #2: A lover’s secret, employed when sharing something new with the beloved, is to adopt an attitude akin to a grandparent teaching a little one the joy of finger-painting. In the Scrabble game you compliment your partner’s efforts and slightest successes. Far from bossing or chiding, you know that winning is not the issue: trusting and enjoying are.

Tip #3: Why are you so patient—so nurturing and non-judgmental? Because ordinary moments are transfigured into comfortable communion by your partner’s friendly gaze, or by the creativity released in each other’s presence. 

In the world at large there are aggravating deadlines and the daily pressure of meeting people’s expectations. Why not fill your private time together with little extravagances? Since this intimacy bond can either be diminished or deepened, depending on the quality of your attentiveness, it makes sense to give it all you’ve got!

 

Tip #4: It’s not just at home that you show patience and kindly humor; it’s when you’re out playing tennis, taking in a new restaurant, going to the movies, or strolling together with the kids around the neighborhood. This attitude of caring involvement even livens up mundane chores. You can turn a drive to the hardware store into a date by going out afterwards for coffee.

Tip #5: You’ve probably noticed couples who don’t live this way; who long ago stopped showering each other with sexy smiles and comforting hugs. Now they exchange grim glances and speak tersely, if at all. In their own way they are witnesses that love—when deprived long enough of energy and priority—can be lost.

Say you’re watching a guy playing tennis. He is about to serve to the woman with him. Bam! He hits a winner. Pow! He serves another winner. Ka-fluey! His last serves bounces up and knocks off her sunglasses.

“You’ve got to be faster, Honey,” he shouts. “Keep your eye on the ball so you don’t get hit like that! Anyway, it’s forty-love in my favor.”

But, in a nearby park you see a man holding a football and a woman in shorts and T-shirt.

The man tosses a soft spirally pass. The woman grabs the football like a slippery fish. “Way to go, Honey.” 

She laughs, plants her legs, and throws a wobbling pass that bounces in front of him. He chases it down.  “Let’s get a little closer,” he yells. They adjust the distance and one throw later she completes her first pass. Jumping up and down, she cheers, “I did it, I did it!”

As you can see, the football aficionado is a lover who is simpatico to his wife’s needs for frolicking fun. You can bet that after today they will have added another game to their repertoire of outings.

Live Valentine's Day Every Day!

Yes, it takes special intentions to transform ordinary moments into extraordinary communion, but that’s what living Valentine's Day everyday is all about.

For more, read:

STAYING IN LOVE:

Dr. Dan & Siggy's Guide to Couple's Love

STAYING IN LOVE

Socrates, Jesus and Human Search for Truth

My high school conversion to Jesus Christ at the age of seventeen changed my course of life and search for for truth. So viscerally did the Holy Spirit enter me at the regeneration of my soul that my body reverberated with peace. I felt peace and love for people, where suspicion and macho-minded aggressiveness had reigned before.

Love and Peace of Christ

By the end of my senior year, I had led about twenty of my peers to know Christ. The principal of the high school, who had threatened to throw me out for drinking and fighting the year before, now asked me to say the public prayer at the baccalaureate service for my graduating class.

Then came the time of testing. I witnessed, all too glibly I'm sure, to a neighborhood girl four years my senior who had returned for the summer after graduating from the University of Wyoming.

Sarah listened carefully to my personal testimony about what my life had been like before meeting Jesus. How the invitation for him to forgive my sins and enter my heart had brought a turnaround. How the Holy Spirit and the Word of God brought me guidance and inspiration. 

Then it was her time to speak, and speak she did.

"Dan, I'm not at all impressed by your overly dramatic story about some drastic change of character brought about by an invisible being, who we all know died centuries ago. So you're impressed with the ideas of Jesus. Well, what about Socrates, Plato, George Hegel, John Dewey, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Sir Bertrand Russell?"

Socrates

I didn't recognize half the names on her impromptu list.

"But Jesus said..." I started to say, before she lifted her hand and flashed a scornful smile.

"Don't tell me about Jesus until you've read the history of Western philosophy and wrestled with the existential questions of humanity. Then I might have some respect for your opinion."

That ended our first date -- at least my feeble attempt at having a first date with a highly educated woman who the next day dropped off on my doorstep a copy of Aldous Huxley's Heaven and Hell, with a note that said, "Happy reading!"

Looking back on that event from my vantage point forty-five years later, I can see the hand of God in our encounter. Christ had nurtured me tenderly the first year of my Christian formation, but with this baptism of criticism Jesus was actually challenging me, as I later discerned, to take a Master's degree in Philosophy.

I specialized in the history of Western philosophy, with a sub-theme of integrating philosophy, humanistic psychology, and Christian theology—all preparation for my life calling as a theologian-psychologist.

My thesis featured a comparison and contrast between the relative truths that Socrates and the philosophers teach and the absolute Truth that Jesus Christ is. 

Jesus Christ: Son of Man and Son of God

I suggested that either a personal-transcendent Creator God reveals and anchors human truth within his Being, or we humans are adrift in a sea of relativity, with no way out but a pitiful death.

I still believe this is the case. And I know I have the advantage of watching the Holy Spirit work in my own life and thousands of others, making real the presence of Jesus in human existence, and directing the life path of those who call upon the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

For more on the integration of theology and psychology that places Jesus at its center, read:

COMPASS PSYCHOTHEOLOGY:

Where Theology & Psychology Really Meet

Compass Psychotheology