Transcendent Doing

Just because you have believed in Jesus Christ does not mean you are His disciple.  You may have heard many good things about Him and acknowledge what He has done but not be His disciple.   You can even have powerful times of prayer and work with great and marvelous ministries tied to His name and not be His disciple.  The disciple of Jesus Christ lives out of a paradigm that is the fulfilment of Salvation.  It is a most explosive moment for the Christian when the realization strikes; "by myself I can do nothing".  It is not a partial accomplishing; it is not an imperfect doing.  It is nothing that can be done by myself.  We bark at the personal inadequacy expressed by this determination.  What is wrong with you?  Why are you so pessimistic?  Why do you give up so easily?  Don't quit yourself!  You can do it!  But the disciple realizes, "I cannot do it."  No matter how hard I work at my projects and goals, I am incapable of doing anything on my own.  Where we stumble on this is our view of "nothing".  I can build a computer program but to what point?  I can read an article but for what reason?  I can make lunch but why?  Everything hinges on the determination of the soul.  Am I at this moment in Christ, living through Him and by His might or am I on my own?  Does Scripture have its hold on me or am I just loosely associated with it?  Is the Holy Spirit worked through both my will and my reach?  It seems to the one without the Holy Spirit that Jesus' contention that even He by Himself could do nothing is gross irresponsibility.  Yet, nothing in eternity can be worked out on our own.  It is only in Jesus Christ and through Him that we take hold of heavenly purposes.  Everything else will be consumed by fire but what is done in God endures forever.  The disciple lets himself be held in the grip of Jesus Christ and decides by rugged determination to stay there regardless of the contending needs all around.  There were plenty of places our Lord could go during His life but He only went where the Father led Him.  Are you ready to take that next step?

By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.     John 5:30 NIV

The Expanding of Christ

One of the absurdities of our modern Christian era is the belief that God is after our success...or our health...or some form of self-realization...reaching our potential.    When Peter had to man up and face the Christ He had abandoned, the Lord had nothing to say about Peter's bright future.  He asked Peter if the disciple loved Him.  When Peter made his affirmation, Jesus told him to "feed my sheep".  The inner core Jesus was wanting was love for Him.  The outer stretch was for Peter to be Jesus for the world He faced.  There was nothing in this of "being all you can be" or getting God's blessing.    Being born again is the most devastating of blows to self-realization.  The moment the grace of God works its way in us, Jesus Christ joins us and we are transformed into someone totally new; Christ/us.  We forget to our harm that Jesus never went about figuring out how to make His life better; He sought only the will of the Father.  If that meant sleeping out in the open with His disciples or biting His tongue as the priests questioned Him, He did it.  When the Father told Him to throw His life down just as the adoring crowds began to look to Him as Messiah, He did not hesitate.  This character, this absolute loyalty to the Father is what we acquire when we are born again.  If the Father wants us rich and successful, then so be it but we must beware of thinking this is of course God's will for us. If it is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter heaven, then we can be certain very few of the wealthy and  accomplished will find themselves on the narrow way.  Not only that, one of the great temptations for anyone wanting to be holy is riches and the achievement of personal goals.  People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.  1 Timothy 6:9-10 NIV  The great will of God is that Christ be the central part of us.  He must increase is our constant push….and that may not mean we get healthier or more successful in the process.  It is when we are weak that He is made strong…or to put it another way, that He expands His influence in us.   Nine of the healed lepers ran off and completely forgot about Jesus.   It was only the one out of the ten who when He got what He wanted returned to Christ.  Those are not great odds and it certainly flies in the face of modern convention that those who are "blessed" or the ones mostly likely to be loyal to God.  The opposite seems to be the case both in Scripture as well as in the casual observations we make.  God's glory is most often exhibited brightest in the poor and downtrodden parts of the world.   The priority of the Lord for you is that you first seek the Kingdom of God both in your praying and in your wishing and longing...then all these other things we care about will be addressed and attended.

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?  Luke 9:25-26 NIV