Friday, June 01, 2007

Veils Christians Wear, Part 4



Yes, just one more masked hero.

The final mask Ray Steadman discusses in his book Authentic Christianity:


But perhaps the most common veil employed by Christians is remoteness--the practice of keeping feelings and attitudes completely to oneself. Remoteness arises primarily from fear--the fear of being known for what one is. Often, though, it is described defensively as "reserve," "privacy," or "reticence." It is clearly a veil to keep others from seeing a fading glory [like the glory of Moses which faded over time after he came down from Mt. Sinai] and is a direct violation of such biblical commands as "confess your sins one to another and pray for each other so that you may be healed" (James 5:16) and "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).

The flesh, or natural life, likes nothing better than to hide or disguise itself. We all tend to fear rejection if we are seen for what we are. The satanic lie is that in order to be liked or accepted we must appear capable or successful. Therefore we either project capability (the extrovert) or we seek to hide our failure (the introvert). The new covenant offers the opposite. If we will admit our inadequacy, we can have God's adequacy, and all we have sought vainly to produce (confidence, success, impact, integrity, and reality) is given to us at the point of our inability. The key is to take away the veil.


Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

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