DYING TO SELF

(Author Unknown)


When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinion ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient, loving silence,

That is dying to self

When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any annoyance, when you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it as Jesus did,

This is dying to self

When you are content with any food, and offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God,

That is dying to self

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or record your own good works or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown,

This is dying to self

When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met, and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and you are in the midst of desperate circumstances,

That is dying to self

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit, inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within you,

This is dying to self

When you are forgotten, neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don’t sting or hurt with the oversight, but your heart is happy to be counted worthy to suffer for Christ,

That is dying to self

SANCTIFICATION VS. HYPOCRISY

*Following is a response I provided to one of my pastoral counseling interns in regard to a question she asked about Sanctification & Hypocrisy

As a mentor and role model, I speak of Character and Reputation.

Reputation is what the public knows and thinks of us. Character is what we know and think about ourselves, (and what God knows to be true); based on the thoughts and actions of which only we, as individuals, are aware.

Based on what we know to be true, and others believe to be true: 1. One can have a good reputation, but a poor character. 2. One can have a good character, but a poor reputation. 3. One can have a good reputation and a good character. 4. One can have a poor character and a poor reputation. (Of course, we strive for the third option, but if we are left with the second, God knows the truth and justifies us).

We who are growing in sanctification or Christian Character have an innate desire to please God, and allow the Holy Spirit to refine our thoughts and behavior. We are sensitive to sin, and "take the first avenue of escape" when we are tempted. We follow after the plans God dreamed for us before He made the worlds. We emulate Christ, take up His cross, die to self, and follow after Him. We desire to replicate ourselves among the next generation. We have made a pre-meditated decision to cooperate with God. 

As I understand it, the Greek connotation for Hypocrite is one who wears a mask.

While they "walk among us," they are easily tempted, and are double-minded in all their ways. They are not "taken up" with the plans of God, and their love for Him has cooled; if there was ever any warmth about it. They are selfish and introspective, and dying to self is the last thing on their minds. They have not made an "etched in stone" decision to do the right thing and please the Lord. They live for today, and are content to let tomorrow take care of itself. They like to be seen and known for their piety, but their character is dark and imperfect. 

Relevant scriptures:

"Thou hypocrite. First cast the beam out of your own eye, and then will you see clearly to cast the speck out of your brother's eye." Matthew 7:5

"For there is nothing covered which will not be revealed; neither hid which shall not be known." Luke 12:2

"The good that I wish to do, I do not. The evil which I ought to avoid is what I find myself doing." Romans 7:19

"They profess they know God, but they deny Him with their works; being abominable, and disobedient, and reprobate unto all good works." Titus 1:16

"A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." James 1:8

"If any man is in Christ, He is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new." 2nd Cor. 5:17

"I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord urge you to walk worthy of the vocation to which you are called." Eph. 4:1

"Take off the old man (mindset). Put on the new man (mindset)". Eph. 4:22,24

"Filling up in my own body the unfinished sufferings of Christ." Col. 1:24

"As long as we are confessing our sins, He goes right on forgiving our sins, and continually cleanses us from all unrighteousness." 1st John 1:9

I hope this is helpful.

Blessings

dr. bill

by William McDonald, PhD. 2018. Response to an intern.

FALLING INTO MY OWN TRAP

The year was 1962. I had turned just turned thirteen. Though I was in the eighth grade, and working part-time in a plant nursery after school, I maintained more childish notions, as well.

    A friend of mine suggested that we build a fort. It was a magnificent little structure, but only we might have characterized it as such. It was actually little more than a wooden shack. But we were innovative. We decided we needed a trap door in the floor of the hut, and we made it so. The trap door led to an underground tunnel, constructed of 55 gallon drums, with the ends knocked out. We were getting downright fancy! David and I actually spent the night in the tunnel, at times.

     But we were far from being finished with our work of art. Some adolescents are subject to a mild form of Paranoia, and we were no exception. I came up with the idea of setting Vietnam-style traps around the little building. We set twelve or fifteen of the traps, digging foot deep holes, and laying blocks of wood, peppered with nails in the bottom of each. Finally, the holes were covered over with small branches and grass.

     I asked my mother to visit our hut, and she finally found time to walk the two hundred yards from the house, to investigate our work of art. As she walked slowly along the trail, with my three year old sister in her arms, one of her feet disappeared from sight! I had forgotten the large trap we had dug on the main trail! She screamed, immediately dropped to a seated position, and began to wrench the nasty thing from her foot. Just as quickly she began to confront my stupidity.

“Royce, what’s wrong with you? What were you thinking? If your sister had been walking ahead of me, these nails would have gone totally through her foot!”

      I can’t imagine why, but my Mother decided not to tour my fort that day. Somehow she regained her footing and composure, and stormed off towards our house. On her way out of our “contonement area” she was heard to say,

“Son, you had better cover every one of your traps. This isn’t right. You could hurt someone seriously!”

      Well, you can imagine the shock that registered on my face. What had happened to her wasn’t my purpose or agenda. Our little traps were meant for “our enemies.”

     So, I set to work covering over the traps. Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t diagrammed the locations of these little weapons. I fell into a “woe is me” attitude, and begin to think that I deserved the same fate as my Mother. I remember saying,

“I hope I fall in one.”

Well, I had covered several traps when, you guessed it… one of my feet disappeared from sight. I had fallen in to my own trap.

     We rationalize and justify our vindictiveness and bitterness towards those we once, or never loved. We store up those emotions ‘til they exude from our very pores. We unleash our retribution both verbally, and non-verbally. Unforgiveness rules the day. So like those traps I set for unsuspecting foes.

      Scientists, medical doctors and researchers have learned much about the effects of negative emotions. We know now, that unforgiveness and bitterness turns inward to inhibit our ability to properly relate to other human beings, and make cognitive judgments. We can develop anxiety and depression. Some experience organic disorders, such as Arthritis, and possibly, various forms of Dementia. So like my experience of falling into my own trap. I was my own worst enemy that day.

     In terms of unforgiveness, we suffer “stuckness” that inhibits our ability to mature and move forward. The “unforgiven” may go on with their lives, never realizing the depth of our emotions towards them. While an unforgiven memory or event prevents the “victim” from fulfilling God-given expectations for their life.

     Like falling asleep with our feet in a wet gray mixture, we awake to find it’s concrete.

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "Unconventional Devotions" Copyright 2005

 

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LEAVING SOMETHING BEHIND. Pts. 1-2

Preface

As a person who seeks after excellence, who has been involved in counseling clients, teaching students, and mentoring interns over the past quarter of a century, and who wishes to “leave something behind” to the generation which will secede me, I am taken up with compiling a myriad of written materials which “will stand me in good stead,” long after I have gone on to my reward.

Following is an introduction I include as a prelude to each of my series of journals and other works, which I am currently maintaining on hard drive, and which I intend to invest in each of my children; whom I hope will do the same, ad infinitum.

Pt. 1

I stare into the eyes of that yellowing, fading portrait of my great Grandparents now, and their dull, unblinking eyes reveal

… absolutely nothing.

And I have often mused, “Why didn’t you leave something behind?”

Oh, how I would have enjoyed knowing you. How wonderful it would have been if you had left some word, some reflection, something of yourselves.

Well, my dear descendants, I have decided NOT to repeat their mistake; (and yes, I consider it an irrevocable mistake; which once the party has passed from this earth can never be corrected.) I think the following daily journal entries, (as well as my previously written autobiography, counseling memoirs, and other volumes) will not only elicit a few laughs, but provide you some insight into the life of your ancestor; someone not unlike yourself, who lived, and loved, and moved, and breathed, and made his way about this earth, and even impacted a few for good, “before you were even a twinkle.”

You deserve it.

And this writer, who by the time you read these words may have long since ceased to live, and love, and breathe, and move, and enjoy the beauty which God has visited upon our planet, can only wish you well, and exhort you to do as I am currently doing…

We are all too close to having eyes which do not see, ears which do not hear, and mouths which do not speak. While there is still time,

… Leave something of yourself behind.

And so much more crucial than my previous admonition, I earnestly pray, (and I have prayed for you when you were not, and when only God knew you by name) that you will give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, and faithfully serve Him, as I believe that I have done. For as a wise and equally well-known man of my time, Dr. James Dobson, (whom I once met, and conversed with) has encouraged his own children, and grandchildren…

… “Be There!”

… “Be There!”

I hope to meet you in heaven. I’ll be waiting for you; just inside the gate.

Granddaddy McDonald

Pt. 2

As someone who wishes to “leave something behind,” I reflect on the way product marketeers continue to makes changes to, and “upgrade” the stuff we purchase, especially the storage devices which contain that which we leave to the next generation, i.e. reel to reel audio & video, 8 track tapes, cassette tapes, DVD’s, CD's, hard drives, etc.

I am currently 'saving' all sorts of family genealogy, photos, and personal writing on cd's and hard drives, but I am concerned that these will, over time, be replaced by a new generation of e-devices, and that my family members won't care enough to transfer the material to whatever version of storage devices are technologically next in line.

But I guess I won't be here to see it, and I can't give them the "want to," "care enough," or “round tuit” to be sure it happens. Of course, there is every reason to believe that there are generations in my family who are, at this moment, still unborn. And who can say what value they will assign to this information?

And while perhaps a third of my writing has been relegated to binders, and fills up a six x three bookcase in my home office, (and I think the likelihood of its continuance is a bit greater than that of the electronic kind,) it pains me to think my 3x (great great great) grandchild might leave the stuff on the curb for the trashman.

Of course, by then I will be looking down from the grandstands of heaven. Yet, if tears existed on the other side, (though scripture makes it very clear that they will not) I can imagine I would cry a river; for all the love, time and efforts I have expended on endless genealogies, posting of photos, writing of volumes, and the collection of ministry materials.

I have half-jokingly told my clients, students, interns and children that if they fail to cherish, and keep whatever I am currently investing in them ‘alive,’ be it tangible, spiritual or practical in nature, I will come back and haunt them. 

Hmmm… That idea may have some merit.

By William McDonald, PhD. From (Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 77. Copyright pending

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