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A Message to God’s People on the USA’s 250th

  On this 250th anniversary of the founding of the USA, I felt prompted to share the message I�� want to share with God’s people if I only had one opportunity.

  To help me remember things I deem as important, I often come up with an acronym. “I-O-A” is the three-letter acronym I’m using to remember and practice the truth essence of this message (think Iowa without the “w”). I encourage any who want to take this message to heart to join me in recalling what “I-O-A” represents whenever we hear the chant “USA” at sporting events—like the World Cup.

  “I” stands for Identity—the new Identity Jesus says His people become (that we weren’t before), when we believe in Jesus for eternal life. In His conversation with religious leader, Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus equates believing in Him for eternal life with being ��orn again.” That metaphor strongly suggests Jesus wants His people to associate becoming a Christian with receiving a new Identity.

  Much of Paul’s letters to churches and believers in the New Testament guide and encourage followers of Jesus to embrace and live out of our new in-Christ Identity. Paul in Colossians 3 encourages us to put on the behavioral clothes that align with who we now are in Christ. God’s message in the Bible about the new Identity of Christians is essentially: be the new person you now are, not the old person used to be [2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”].

  “O” stands for Outflow—what actually flows out of us in life’s various situations—our default pre-conscious motivations and reactions and our recurring patterns. Outflow is powerfully influenced by how our brain’s Identity-tied right system (RS) is currently and preconsciously answering a recurring RS question: What do people like us do in situations like this?

  The RS of Christians who are embracing our in-Christ Identity will increasingly be preconsciously asking and answering the question this way: What do God’s ‘in-Christ’ people like me do in situations like this? Clarifying answers to those questions comes through paying attention to God’s Word and being guided and helped by God’s Spirit and God’s people.

  Paul assumes that maturing as a Christian is the norm, that new kinds of attitudes and reactions can actually start flowing out of those who have believed in Jesus for eternal life. Old default reactions can actually change such that people can become less triggered and reactive than they used to be.

  In Psalm 1 and Galatians 5 God’s people are encouraged to picture ourselves as trees from which spiritual ��ruit” can actually be Outflowing��ruit like: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

  The kind of transformation/Christian maturing I’m suggesting, and what the authors of Scripture encourage, can feel daunting and not really possible. That’s where the third letter comes in. ��” stands for Attention. Becoming, in our motivations, reactions and patterns, who Jesus has freed us to be is not automatic. It takes Attentional focus, practice and the help of God’s Spirit.

  In recent years, people who study the brain have discovered Attention functions as an “on–off” switch for the brain. God has made our brains such that they can be rewired—no matter what has happened to us, how old we are, what we’ve done, or what habits we’ve developed. What we pay Attention to is what our brains’ preconsciously assume to be what must be the most important things to us.

  Paying Attention to who God says we now are in Christ and to what His Word says God’s people like us do in life’s various situations is how we partner with God in literally renewing our minds (rewiring our brains), becoming transformed and Outflowing what Paul calls Spirit fruit.

  Imagine the impact God’s people could have—in any country we find ourselves in, regardless of who hold political power—if all of us were paying Attention to our in Christ Identity and to Outflowing what God says His people like us do and say in life’s various situations and relationships.