by David Brenneman
JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS
ישוע הנצרתי, מלך היהודים
Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum
ΙΗΣΟΥΣ Ο ΝΑΖΩΡΑΙΝΟΣ, Ο ΒΑΣΙΛΙΑΣ ΤΩΝ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΩΝ
David Brenneman, Sinner
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Galatians 2:20.
The first 3 lines you probably have never seen in one place before, the fourth came to me yesterday when the passage from Galatians came to mind.
You who are in Christ can put your own name there. As a song goes...when He was on the cross, I was on His mind.
There's a television show from long ago where a thief was able to escape the police by jumping into paintings. As the episode was winding up he was yet again running from them in his latest and greatest crime. Running into the art gallery, without knowing that his planned escape painting was changed, jumped into the hastily uncovered portrait and he screamed. He found himself on the cross of Christ with no hope of leaving it.
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ that is not the life for Believers in that particular way. We have indeed been crucified with Christ. We should be putting off the old self with its passions and desires. We should be putting on Christ every day because we died with Christ and are now hidden in the Lord.
The life we now live in the flesh with live in faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Isn't that reason enough to strive to give our best to our Master, Lord, Savior, King, Teacher, every single day of our lives?
This world is filled with no end of temptations. Yet all the more we need to choose what's going to occupy our hearts and minds. We must decide what is more important to dwell on. The useless thing this world offers to us to think about or being intentional on living for Jesus.
Critical thinking is a dangerous thing to our world and it's increasingly difficult to find people so engaged. The last several generations of people are moving farther and farther away from doing such thinking. People are indoctrinated into politics from an extremely young age. People are being indoctrinated into believing things wholly contrary to the Word of God as early as preschool and kindergarten. In those same formative years they try to bolster the various groups that have turned against God’s establishment of a gender for them.
This happens because people have chosen not to turn wholeheartedly to a life in Christ and teach their children to do the same.
It happens when tiny compromises turn into big ones. Believing that it isn't so bad. It's ok. All the while these people aren't checking the Word of God to see if these things should be done or thought.
We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that we might walk in them. That's what my Bible says. We were saved with more than Heaven being our guaranteed destination as the whole purpose for it. We are to be subject to the teaching of the Spirit of God and to obey what we are taught. To remove from our lives anything or anyone that's contrary to sound teaching in Christ. As Paul also said this doesn't mean not associating with the world because we are to be lights in this world. It's meaning to not associate with so-called brothers and sisters in Christ who aren't walking according to the Scriptures.
We were crucified with Christ.
We die to our sin nature and live to Christ.
We take up our own cross and follow Him.
Look at your life. Look at what you have compromised in doing that in all honesty says that you haven't been dying to self. That you haven't been at the feet of Jesus to learn.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace.
All New American Standard Bible Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. A corporation not for profit.
No comments:
Post a Comment