Thursday, March 3, 2016

We Were Not Saved and Sent To Be Pretenders

My Utmost For His Highest
 
Feed My sheep. —John 21:17
 
“This is love in the making. The love of God is not created— it is His nature. When we receive the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit, He unites us with God so that His love is demonstrated in us. The goal of the indwelling Holy Spirit is not just to unite us with God, but to do it in such a way that we will be one with the Father in exactly the same way Jesus was. And what kind of oneness did Jesus Christ have with the Father? He had such a oneness with the Father that He was obedient when His Father sent Him down here to be poured out for us. And He says to us, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21). […] Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by following your own natural human emotions, sympathies, or understandings. That will only serve to revile and abuse the true love of God.”  CHAMBERS
 
I don’t believe that most Christians think of themselves as being “sent”.  They think of “sent” as leaving one place and going to another.  Jesus “sends” all Christians into the world for the purpose of bringing glory to the Father and light to a dark, sinful world.  The only way we can do that is by the power of the Spirit in us.  Feigned spirituality does nothing for the world or for God.  Feigned spirituality is purely for the benefit of the one doing the feigning.  Putting up appearances so we will feel better about ourselves and hopefully so other people will credit our behavior to righteousness.  Can you see the futility .. even the insanity of that thinking and doing?  It is purely a result of trusting in ourselves and not in God.   It is not the life we were reborn to live.  It does not fulfill God’s purpose that we were re-created for.  This is how the Message paraphrases 2 Timothy 3:1-5.  “Don’t be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they’re animals. Stay clear of these people.”  Wow – difficult words.  What that describes are Christians who are living in the power of their flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) and not the Spirit.  People who are feigning a love relationship with God.  That is not what Jesus sent us to do.  Be on your guard, Christian.  That way of living is not that far away from any of us. Perhaps you know someone who is there today.  Encourage them .. pray for them.  Could be, you have been “sent” to their side to the glory of God.  ELGIN
 
Charley Elgin

No comments: