Common themes between the New Testament and Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now." Part 1

1Co 15:31  I die every day! That is as certain, brothers and sisters, as my boasting of you—a boast that I make in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What did Paul mean when he wrote "I die daily?" I think he was saying that the cross has put to death once and for all his ego. The book by Eckhart Tolle, "The Power of Now" speaks to the fact that the mind is the ego. It has a life of its own. It thinks in the past, what happened before, and in the future, what will happen, and it stays away from the present. I am a person with a very active, you could say over active mind. It races on and on and often causes me anxiety. It always is from things that have passed or things that could happen in the future. Most do not happen by the way, and the things in the past really cannot be changed. They are what they are so to speak, and the only power we have at all is in the present moment.

Here in lies the power of justification by faith. The fact is simple, we ARE the righteousness of God in Christ RIGHT NOW! Every moment, we are in the presence of God in the present. It is in the present moment that no weapon formed against us will prosper. It is in the present moment that we are dwelling in the secret place of the shadow of the Almighty. It is in the present that all the promises of God are yes and amen. It is in the present that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of Christ Yes it is true that we were there yesterday, and we will be there tomorrow, but our real power comes from the fact, that we are there now!

Have you never wondered why people seem to be healed instantaneously only to return later to the same condition? I believe that in the present moment they are healed but they soon revert back to the past or begin to worry about the future. They are healed because God is in the present moment. That is where he resides. All moments to God are now, that is how he can see past and future.  He does not occupy the past or the future. Why, because the only real time to God is now. Everything is now. The alpha and omega (beginning and end) is now. While this is impossible for our MIND to fathom, as the past and future is its playground, it is never the less reality that all that really exists is now. This moment. Faith to overcome the ego is "now faith."

As this blog post series continues,  we will see that the mind, the false self is inextricably linked with the flesh, in such a way as "the now" (present) is often wasted on egoic pleasure and pain. We will see that when Jesus spoke of denying oneself, he was speaking of the false self the egoic mind. We will also see that the only way to overcome the false self is in the present, through the power of the gospel, declaring that we are the righteousness of God in the present moment. Didn't John the apostle tell us that it is not yet known what we will be, but we will be like him/Jesus in every way. Guess what, we are exactly that in the present moment.