Saturday, July 21, 2012

Not I But Christ

My Utmost For His Highest

‘As long as we have some self-righteous idea that we can carry out our Lord’s teaching, God will allow us to continue until we expose our own ignorance by stumbling over some obstacle in our way. Only then are we willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him. “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . .” This is the first principle in the kingdom of God. The underlying foundation of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possessions; not making decisions for Jesus, but having such a sense of absolute futility that we finally admit, “Lord, I cannot even begin to do it.” Then Jesus says, “Blessed are you . . .” (Matthew 5:11). This is the doorway to the kingdom, and yet it takes us so long to believe that we are actually poor! The knowledge of our own poverty is what brings us to the proper place where Jesus Christ accomplishes His work.’ CHAMBERS

The fact is that we cannot be who Jesus wants us to be apart from Jesus.  When we become Christians .. which we could not do apart from Jesus, we accept the fact that we have a new life and then try to live it like we lived that old one.  It’s like some community revitalization projects I have seen.  Some organizations decides that they need to get a group of people out of the dilapidated homes they live in.  So they build some new ones and move the people there.  It is not long before that community starts to look like the one they came from.  Of course there is no small amount of frustration on the part of those who built the new community.  What happened is that you moved people from one place to another, but there was no heart change.  They continued to live in the same manner with the same priorities that they had before they moved.

So it is with Christians.  They take all of their ‘baggage’ and move into their new house (life) and then continue to live in the same way as they did before.  It's time we realize that we can’t live this new life using our old wisdom and ways .. that our live is totally dependent  upon God … ‘I can do all thing through Christ who gives me strength’ (Philippians 4:13)  ‘I am crucified with Christ … but not I but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20)

All to Jesus I surrender .. All to Him I freely give .. I will ever love and trust Him .. In His presence daily live …. Make that your prayer today and your commitment for a life time.  Walk in the power of Jesus presence.  Let your light shine.

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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