Live No Lies: Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies That Sabotage Your Peace

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Jesus didn’t let that one slide. As feisty as he was tender, he responded with a fascinating claim about who their “father” actually was: Again, like the desire problem, this issue is nothing new. There are plenty of warnings in the Bible about the dangers of the world. For Jesus, the world was a hostile place, full of temptation and ruled by the devil. The author defines the world as a culture corrupted by rebelling against God.

Jesus graciously explained that he’s not referring to socioeconomic slavery so much as spiritual slavery, for “everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” Jon Tyson on the World as a Formation Machine, the Temptation of Project Self & the Importance of Family I’ve read several books with similar themes, and as far as I can tell, this is a very simplified version. Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher, Conformed to His Image by Kenneth Boa, Revolt Against Reality by Gary Michauda, The Fulfillment of All Desire by Ralph Martin, Awake Not Woke by Noelle Merring, and much of C.S. Lewis come to mind. Comer is a pastor and not a theologian, which is fine, this makes his writing very readable.The world is also defined in an anti-God manner, as a system of practices and standards where man reigns supreme and can attain his own salvation and destiny. This can be summed up as worldliness as opposed to godliness. Father of lies

Comer structures the book around what he calls the three enemies of the soul: the world, the flesh, and the devil. There’s an underlying war or battle motif, but just to be clear this isn’t a angry rant about the apocalypse. Nor is it a political book focused on “us” versus “them.” Comer makes that clear from outset.Jesus highlights the extent of the devil’s power, to all the kingdoms of this world, not just a particular locality. The prologue begins with the story of The War of The Worlds radio broadcast. I won’t spoil it for you if you don’t know the story. I’m not going to lie. I was hooked at the prologue and could not put down this book. It is so relevant to the age we’re living in, but the thing is it’s relevant to the human condition no matter the time period. Structure It’s rare to have well-read, conservative voices in our culture who also have their pulse on our personal spiritual formation. That’s what Comer is doing in this book. We all know we’re in the midst of a spiritual war; we can feel it in our bones. We sense it in our distraction and daze, our longings and abandoned dreams. Some enemy is trying to pull us out of our allegiance to God, away from our first love. Comer presents this enemy with the traditional concepts of the early church: Satan, the flesh, and the world.

He admits that what he is writing about is not that new, but it is a vital message then needs reinforcing again and again. The battle is not just out there in the surrounding culture, with its secularism and alternative faith systems. It is an internal fight. There is a war going on for our souls, and within our souls, and the main weapons against us are lies. Eventually, if we believe such lies we will live them, hence the title. As we’ve seen, Christians living in a post-Christian society have to navigate a world where immoral ideas, desires, and behavior are normalized. The West has become a post-Christian culture. Society still retains the scaffolding of Christian morality. But it’s attempting to move beyond Christianity and reject commitments and restraints. The West is like a rebellious teenager who fights his parents’ authority while still living at home and eating their food. We are at war. Not with a foreign government or domestic terrorists or a creepy new artificial intelligence hell-bent on taking over the world. No, it’s a war we feel deep inside our own chests: we are at war with lies.

of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars Live No Lies: Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies That Sabotage Your Peace by John Mark Comer As a pastor, the author is convinced that the key to survival is a combination of spiritual practices as an individual, combined with participation in the church community. Although Christians are living in difficult times of war, there is reason to be optimistic. They have everything they need to surmount their enormous challenges and live a life of happiness and freedom through God. Final Summary In this provocative and practical book, bestselling author John Mark Comer combines cultural analysis with spiritual formation. He identifies the role lies play in our spiritual de formation and lays out a strategic plan to overcome them.

We need better training in how to identify and resist lies in everyday life. Sadly, many followers of Jesus in America are the primary targets for people spreading disinformation. We fall for lies more easily when we aren’t spending enough time encountering the truth of God’s Word.Interestingly, Christianity is far from the only belief system that encourages self-control. Many people from different times or cultures would disapprove of the beliefs and behaviors of the secular West.