Re: Who we are in Christ...
Submitted by Brian on October 02 1999 at 16:13:21
In reply to Who we are in Christ... Submitted by Chris on October 02 1999 at 10:22:04
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Amen Brother Chris, We do have victory because Christ has gained that victory for us. As I have been reading through the discussions that have been taking place here, I can't help but to keep coming back to a sentence that Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corintnians, vs.10: "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective." The fact that we are here, talking about what is inside of us, struggling with who we are, speaks so elegantly about how God's grace is moving in our lives. He does not want to lose us to the devil and his tempterous minions. We must continue to recognize that in Jesus' coming to earth, he made himself like us in all things but sin. He did not do this in order to simply exult himself, but to gain a deeper understanding of what we go through as human beings. We were created by the Logos, the Word, Jesus - God. We were created perfect, but with a free will. We keep choosing to sin, but God loves us even more than that. God sent His Son to show us just how much He loves us. "He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death" (Phil. 2:8) for us. I don't know if we really spend enough time reflecting on what it means for Jesus to become "obedient to death" for us. Lately, I have been thinking about this and I can't help to reflect on a talk I once gave some time ago. I was reflecting on basically 3 passages: Isaiah 55:1-3, Ps. 145: 8-9, 15-16, 17-18, and Matthew 14:13-21. Please read these before going on, it will help to understand how this is playing out. God seems to be saying in these 3 scripture readings: "You can depend on me, you can trust me, I know what I'm doing!" These three small phrases are directed to every human being who ever walked the earth, even Jesus. In verse 13 of Matthew 14, if we can imagine the conversation that Jesus was having with with his Father as he was in the boat going to a deserted place: "Father, why did John have to be killed now? His ministry was in full swing and your work was being done. Why did you allow him to be killed now?" And God answers back, "My Son, you can depend on me, trust me, I know what I'm doing!" And Jesus turned and saw the multitude of people and had pity on them and cured them. John ministry is wound down so that Jesus' can increase. The Apostles next had to deal with this in Matthew's story. After Jesus had been healing and preaching all day to the great crowd, the apostles came up to him to tell him to send to people home, "it is getting late, and we have no food to give them all." but Jesus tells the apostles to have the crowd sit down. "What!!!!, sit down???, no, we want them to go away. We can't feed them. All we have are these five loaves of bread and two fish. We can't feed 5,000 men with that. No, tell them to go home!" but Jesus says, (basically), "No, you can depend on me, trust in me, I know what I'm doing! Tell them to sit down and get ready to eat." ... After it was done, they collected 12 baskets of food left over. If you turn to the reading in Isaiah, you will see that God is calling all to come to Him so that they will all have everlasting life. He is saying, "Come to me, I will take care of your needs. Trust in me and I will give you all that you will ever need. Depend on me and I will provide you with more then you could possible imagine. Believe me, I know what I'm doing." And is backed up by the Psalmist, who is saying, "the Lord is near to all who call upon him." Each one of us is called to mindful of what God is calling us to in these 3 readings. Jesus was asked by the Father, in the boat, to trust and depend on Him because He knew what he was doing. The Apostles were asked to trust in Jesus because he knew what he was doing. And, like them, we are called to trust and depend on God and Jesus because they know what they are doing. If you want an ultimate example of what it means to trust, try this. Imagine if you will, Jesus hanging on the cross. In all the gore, pain, misery, gasping for breath , humiliation - unimaginable suffering in other words - hanging on the cross. He has almost no strength left. Yet he turns to his mother and takes care of her needs by giving her to John. With even less strength he continues in his suffering. He becomes distraught. Imagine his prayer as He prays to his Father, asking: "Why Father do I have to suffer this much?" That's the end of the talk, but as Christians, one's who claim as their own, this Jesus who walked,and still walks, literally, with us in human flesh, who endured the same hardships as we do, who mourned, who laughed, who suffered, who died - are we really reflecting on what it means to be a Christian? We do have an example in Jesus. He did it all perfectly. He emptied himself out to become a slave, a servent, like us. Are we really emptying ourselves completely of our desires to trust only in ourselves, or are we depending on ourselves to get through our hardships? To say: Into your hands, Lord, I place my dependance. Into your hands, Lord, I place my trust. If we want to claim victory as adopted sons and daughters of God - through Jesus Christ - we have to trust in the grace of God because we are who we are, and it is by His grace that we are not ineffective, to apply Paul. Indeed, we, like Paul, have to toil harder then most. We struggle with emotions and desires that many others don't. How we claim our victory; how we make that victory our own depends on how much we trust that God knows what He is doing. We have to trust in the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 145: The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works. The Lord is just in all his ways and holy in all his works. (remember, we are works of God) The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. And there, I feel is the crux of the matter. To call upon Him in truth. We are who we are because that is how God made us. We feel how we feel because that is a part of how God made us. We have to be honest with ourselves. I know that this is the hardest part for me. We have to bring ourselves to God, as He made us, and trust that He knew what He was doing when He made us. Yes, we make mistakes, some really bad, but the trust, and love, of Jesus on the cross is so much bigger then our sins. God knew what He was doing when He made us, and Jesus, in his divinity, knew what he was doing when He died for us. In these events we must empty ourselves out before the Lord and continually rededicate ourselves to being everything that God wants us to be. To cooperate with His will. To live as Christians. To allow His grace to radiate out from our very being. I am going to finish this up with a little poem that I once read a few years ago that I have memorized and try to keep in my heart. One by one God took them from me, All the things I value most, Till I was empty-handed, Every glittering toy was lost. and I walked earth's highways grieving In my rags and poverty Till I heard His voice inviting "Lift those empty hands to Me." So I turned my hands toward heaven, and He filled them with a store Of His own transcendent riches till they could contain no more. And at last I comprehended, That God could not pour His riches Into hands already full. anonymous I apoligize for the length, but once I was going, I just let God talk. In Christ's Love, Peace and Joy, Brian |