Identity Theft - Softcover

Kevin Avram; Wes Boldt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1886296405 ISBN 13: 9781886296404

Publisher: Arrow Publications Inc, 2006

One online reviewer commented on this book by writing: "Recently, a friend gave me a copy of the book, Identity Theft, by Kevin Avram and Wes Boldt. It is a small book, and I thought it would be another quick read. I soon discovered it was anything but that. The 166 pages of this little book are filled with some of the most profound and biblically solid truths about the identity of the human heart, and the road maps or paradigms determining human behavior.

"The underlying thesis of the book is the human heart responds to truth either with pride or with humility. If our heart's response to truth is pride, the paradigm or lens through which we see the world will be rooted in an attitude of self-sufficiency, and will give birth to one of three distinct "heart identities": the laborer, the orphan or the beggar.

"In simple terms, when a person's self-identity (heart identity) is derived from a source other than God, their identity is, essentially "stolen." And, if we live with that paradigm long enough, our attitudes and actions grow more and more like the attitudes and actions of people who do not profess to know God or serve Christ.

"On the other hand, when the human heart responds to truth with humility, it opens the door to becoming a child of the King --a divine royal heir in an honest and real relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We abandon self-sufficiency, and embrace dependence upon the Father. It's not about working for God, but about being His child, and as His son or daughter He may choose to do His work through us! What difference it makes to live and serve through this paradigm! Do you know who you are?

"I encourage you to get this little book, and to dig deeper into the truth of our self-identity. God created us to be sons and daughters, not laborers, beggars or orphans. He wants you to be a royal heir!"
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There is a great difference between having an understanding in our heads and possessing a truth in our hearts. Using examples from Scripture, the authors explain the heart identity of an orphan, beggar, and laborer, and then contrast these with what it means not just to be a son or daughter, but to actually possess the heart identity of a son or daughter. The text then moves into a detailed description of the motivational gifts of Romans 12, carefully explaining how heart identity and motivational gifts shape our outlook.

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From the Author:

Wes Boldt says a point in his life arrived when he realized that he derived his self-worth and identity from his status as a business owner and position in the church. In the opening chapter he writes:

"Mary and I had sacrificed endless hours and large sums of money for our church, yet it was in our desert wilderness that the institutional aspect of church was revealed. We discovered that the basis for most of our relationships had been work- and church related rather than personal. The men I had worked with on the elders' board disappeared out of my life. I remember how happy I was the night one of them called on the phone, and my deep disappointment when I realized the only reason for the call was an appeal for funds. Was my worth as a man and church member derived solely from what I could contribute to the institution? Was the glue that had previously held all our relationships together only the institutions, its goals, and our giving?

Eventually, I realized that after 30 years of adult living and more than 20 years as a church board member at a mainline evangelical church, I didn't even know what church was, and worse, I didn't even know who I was."

Kevin Avram spent several decades as a professional management consultant working with non-profit corporations, helping them adopt structures and develop corporate cultures that would facilitate success. His professional career gave him unique insights into the impact that corporate culture has on any corporation, including church corporations. He writes:

Identity Theft is about the issues of the heart. At no time in human history have Christians been better informed, better educated, or more learned than 21st century North America. Everywhere we see believers with pens and pencils and laptops, taking notes, listening to podcasts or prerecorded messages, in many instances well able to speak knowingly about that which they have learned. Yet an abundance of information is not the same thing as possessing a mature or abiding heart.

This is not to suggest that learning should be shunned or discouraged. (Jesus never rebuked the lawyers for their learning, but for their absence of humility.) It is to point out that there is a kind of counterfeiting going on within major elements of the church, whereby knowledge, human passion, and self-effort have been married to the concepts of corporation and executive management, while humility, dependence, and abiding have been ignored, set aside, or misunderstood. The result for some has been spiritual identity theft.

The issues of life flow from the heart, which is why many believers instinctively understand that our true identity is a heart expression. But what does that mean? In Identity Theft, we look at the way heart identity is shaped, stolen or misappropriated, recovered, protected, and nurtured. The starting point is to understand our own sonship/daughterhood.

From the Inside Flap:

FROM THE PREAMBLE OF IDENTITY THEFT

"The worst thing a book can do for a Christian is leave him with the impression that he has received from it anything really good; the best it can do is point the way to the good he is seeking. The function of a good book is to stand like a signpost directing the reader toward the Truth and the Life. That book serves best which early makes itself unnecessary, just as a signpost serves best [when] it is forgotten, after the traveler has arrived safely."

--A. W. Tozer, The Divine Conquest

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