Books
The Gift of Being Yourself: David Benner(TGBY)
The Search For Significance: Robert McGee(SFS)
Strange New World: Carl Trueman(SNW)
Mere Christianity: C.S. Lewis
The Secular Creed,& Confronting Christianity: Rebecca McLaughlin
Before You Lose Your Faith: Ivan Mesa
Our Identity, The Christian Alternative to Late Modernity’s Story: Tim Keller
Podcast
YT: https://www.youtube.com/@thecrewandyou2025
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Identity is a sense of self and a sense of worth (Tim Keller)
Our persona is how we want others to see us. Our identity is how we see and understand ourself(TGBY)
Gen 1:26-28
My True Self
The real question of human nature goes beyond basic biology…[to]…questions of, say, morality and purpose. Does human nature carry with it a moral structure…? Or are we simply…free to be or to do whatever we choose? Pieces of living dough attached to a will?(SNW)
Being made in God’s image means we are made to be like God, not to be God. We find our identity in being like Him, we lose it in trying to be Him. The core of the lie Adam & Eve believed was that they could be like God without God(TGBY)
My False Self
[ Only humans challenge identity] . A tulip knows exactly what it is. It is never tempted by false ways of being. Nor does it face complicated decisions in the process of becoming… All give glory to God by being exactly what they are. For in being what God means them to be…Humans, however, encounter a more challenging existence. We think. We consider… But in only one [way] will you find your true self that has been hidden in Christ for all eternity. Only in one will you find …deepest fulfillment.(TGBY)
We all live searching for that one possible way of being that carries with it the gift of authenticity.(TGBY)
The [world]…sees authenticity as defined by the ability to give social expression to [feelings]. The modern self also assumes that society [will] affirm this behavior. [This is] expressive individualism(SNW)
Expressive individualism holds that each person has a unique core of feeling…if individuality is to be realized(Robert Bellah quote:(SNW)
1)It is incoherent. When I look inside of myself I find competing loves and desires.
2)It is unstable. I am always changing.
3)It’s illusory. You don’t express all your feelings, you express the ones you choose.
4)It’s crushing. It must be achieved and created and sustained by yourself.
5)It’s excluding. It is based on being better than others.
[We falsely believe] our happiness will come from living life our way, not God’s way(TGBY)
The false self is what happens when I try to build a life & identity without God. The core of the false self is the belief that my value depends on what I have, what I can do, and what others think about me…because it is hollow at the core, the life of a false self is a life of excessive attachments…attachments undermine our freedom, making our contentment and joy dependent on their presence.(TGBY)
Our false self is built on an inordinate attachment to an image of our self that we think makes us special(TGBY)
[It’s] amazing that we turn to others who…[are]… as limited and darkened…to discover our worth! Rather than relying on God [for] who we are, we depend on others who base our worth on…their standards. Because our performance…dominate our search for significance, we [can’t tell the difference] between our real identity and the way we behave… Our true value is based not on our behavior or the approval of others but on what God’s Word says is true.(SFS)
There is no true life apart from relationship to God…&…no true self apart from this relationship. The foundation of our identity resides in our life giving relationship with the Source of life. Any identity that exists apart from this relationship is an illusion(TGBY)
My New Self
We do not find our true self by seeking it. Rather, we find it by seeking God(TGBY)
2 Cor 5:17
My true identity is received not achieved.
Matt 16:13-18
When I confess His true identity, He confirms my true identity.
