Faith and Learning this morning brought guest speaker Gary Moon to Friends to talk about how his psychology background has played a part in his ministries.
Gary said he believes Jesus’ main point in the Gospel is living in the Kingdom of God is possible here and now. He quoted Dallas Willard, saying “The Kingdom of God is the realm where the will of the Father and the will of the subject become one.” He continued to teach that in order for the Kingdom life to be evident, we cannot view ourselves through a microscope because we need to be able to see all the aspects of the human nature. Human nature is made up of the ability to think, the ability to feel, behavior, relationship and the ability to choose. From a physical perspective, these are important traits to understand, but mean nothing to living in the Kingdom without the forming the spirit. It is when the spirit begins to form that our will can meet in the same realm as God’s will and become one.
Moving to the books of Paul, Gary Moon believed, that Paul’s main teaching point, being in Christ, is synonymous to Jesus’ main teaching point. Being in Christ is found 164 times in the bible through various derivatives. Taking this teaching point and applying the previously made points on the human nature and the necessity of the spirit, one can now come to the conclusion that life on my own is not working and to have a life in the Kingdom of God and to be in Christ requires the soul or spirit to be formed by Jesus
As the points of his message began to fall in place he concluded with the story of the Prodigal Son. As spoke about the story of the runaway son, he did not address the son at fault. He did not address the older son nor the loving Father. He, being a psychologist, mentioned the ego. The ego is the system of control in one’s life: ” the ego must abide in Christ,” said Gary Moon. Immersing your ego in the flow of Christ leads to salvation. Salvation is the beginning of a with God life that will lead you to becoming like Christ. So as the ego becomes less and Christ becomes more, we can claim citizenship to the Kingdom of God and live in it now. The fruit produced from this is joy for joy is the emotion of union.