Sloth, again I thank you for the comment and questions. I love the dialogue we have going on and enjoy knowing your thoughts. I can understand how the things I teach can appear as you have said, that I "make it sound like Jesus puts on a Matt suit or a Scott suit and we become puppets."
The key element in this is that puppets don't have a choice. They can't say to the puppet master that he/she isn't allowed to move their mouths or make them appear alive.
What Jesus does in those who believe is much more than putting on a suit or becoming a puppet master. He simply becomes our life so that the life we live in the flesh we live by faith in Christ, for we died with Christ and have been resurrected in Him as well (Galatians 2:20).
While we have the choice, we are nothing apart from Him so to choose to live independently of the One who is Life would be choose nothing. It may appear to others that we're doing something and we may even think to ourselves that we are choosing something but if it's not Christ, it's not life, and it's just nothing. There will be no experienced peace, true hope, deep understanding, or honest fulfillment apart from Christ.
The Christian life isn't passive. There is a moral choice of the will that we make. The choice is in every moment - dependence on the active, living, loving, powerful Creator-God who has united Himself with all who believe and made us partakers of His nature (2 Peter 1:4) or independence from Him.
So, what are we to do when we various things come up in our lives? The next question you've posed is a great one. "Does depending on Christ mean that we have no responsibility to act?" More specifically, "Suppose I have more bills than I have money. Does depending on Christ mean I sit around doing my usual routine and wait for him to mail me a check, or do I look for avenues to up my income (part time jobs, selling stuff, whatever) and then depend on God to provide through those avenues?"
To best address this question, I want to start with a point that is absolutely critical to this discussion. Is the problem yours or is it Christ's? If it's yours, then you have to figure something out. After all, it's your problem and it needs to be solved. However, if it is Christ's problem, then it's His job to supply the need. It's our right to trust Him.
Don't misunderstand me here. I'm not saying that it means we don't do anything. We trust. This trust is active. We trust that He is good, living, and living through us in this situation. We can respond in a manner like this: "Thank you Jesus for this opportunity to trust you. I don't know what you desire for me through this situation but I trust you to always be enough for me. Whatever way you desire to bring your provision for this need I thank you and trust you to bring it. If that means I need to get another job, thank you. If that means I sit and wait for a check in the mail, thank you. It's not up to me to determine how you provide but I choose to trust you to do so as you alone are my provider."
I know from first-hand experience that He is faithful. I know from first-hand experience that His provision doesn't always come from the same place and it's hardly ever where it might be expected.
Each moment is ours to trust Him in and every difficulty is His to deal with as we trust. We get to cast all our cares on Him so that they are actually His cares and not ours any longer. As we live in this mindset, we live in a constant state of dependence on Him as our sole provider, thanking Him for how He creatively provides for our physical needs, whether it be through a job, several jobs, or other people, or some other avenue.
Regardless of the situation, we can choose to either trust Him and allow Him to handle it or we can start trying to figure out how to best manage the situation and hope that He blesses our efforts. Life is found in one option. Frustration, anxiety, stress, pain, and fear are found in the other.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on all this...and thanks again for reading and inviting me to clarify what I teach!
