Notes from the fall term - Kris Vallotton

From Kris Vallotton: 

• Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will steal your future.

• Many of us have been living under the wrong name. We live under a name that God hasn’t given us. When you were little, you knew you were born to rock. It takes 12 years of religion to convince you that being a loser is somehow good. When you understand who you are and whose you are, the battle is over.

• We're not "sinners saved by grace." When you were saved by grace you became a saint. When you receive Jesus, you receive a new name. You take on His name. You become a saint. [Romans 8] You can’t be a sinner and a saint at the same time. You're a brand new creation.

• You naturally want to reproduce who you think you are. If your house is a dump, I might put my feet on your coffee table when I come over. But I like my house and I take my shoes off when I'm home. And so will you because when you come over you don't see me putting my feet up on my coffee table. 

• I tell you how to treat me by the way I treat me. Whenever someone puts you somewhere that is better than you think of yourself, you’ll reduce the environment to what you believe about yourself. Example: Putting homeless in public housing which then becomes the worst ghettos. Or putting a prince (Joseph) in prison.

• It’s not in your nature to sin. You don’t have to sin. [1 John 1] We all came to Christ as sinners. But He didn’t just forgive you, He changed you. We start out as sinners. You can’t forget that. You didn’t make yourself a saint, He did. And if you sin (not when you sin, because sin isn't normal for a Christian, although there are lots of things that are common but not normal) you're already forgiven. [1 John 3]

• You are not your temptation. You are not identified by your worst day. Condemnation says, “you lied, you’re a liar.” Condemnation tries to convince you that your action is your identity. 

• You will always reproduce who you think you are. Be imitators of God. Spend your whole life trying to become more like God.