I have been thinking recently that we serve the most unselfish of all Beings. It might be easy, without becoming educated in the Scripture, for us to think there is something odd about a perfect God who longs for our glory. This might be caused by the fact that we wouldn’t have the wisdom to remain humble with that kind of power. However, God in His infinite power and ability and purpose, allowed Himself to be humbled by His own Creation. He allowed Himself to be beat with the hands that He created. He designed the strength and the sharpness of the thorns driven into His brow, and the tree on which He hung. Christ did this because He loved the world, not for love of self. For what really did this accomplish? This one act of kindness and righteousness did what a thousand acts of sin could not reverse, for it redirected the flood of God’s wrath onto His own Son and in Him was absorbed our rightful penalty. What more, the inheritance that was originally Christ’s is now ours in Him. We are now fellow heirs along side of Christ. We are promised recipients of life in fellowship with the Creator of the Universe. We are brought into fellowship with God though His Holy Spirit who dwells in us. We are able to come boldly before the throne of God, with our requests and frustrations, and He hears them and answers us. And now, the hands that would once pin their Savior to a tree are now raised in Worship. The tree, on which we would have hung our Lord, is used to make a dwelling for His people. And though we ignore Him as we live and die, we fail to speak with Him as He wishes, and listen to His Words as we need, and follow His perfect will as He has commanded, He is all the while preparing a place for us. He is pleading our cause before God, and preparing a mansion that we might live and fellowship for all eternity, in spite of our desire to build our own earthly mansions. Unfortunately, however, we treat His Words like they are science to be tested, we treat His sacrifice as if its something that can be bartered for 3 hours per week in Church. We treat His Holy Spirit like an Ipod which we can turn on for a few minutes when we need some good advice. We care more for our opinions on God’s Word than for our obedience to it. We care more to discuss it than to read it. We treat our refuge in Christ like the first aid kit in the back of our car. We pull it out only in extreme cases and use sparingly, preferring to make do in our own help. No, Christ is not the selfish one in this relationship. Praise God we are in a personal relationship with an infinitely gracious God who sends to Heaven people deserving hell.
Here is a response my 14 yr. old sister posted. Some very practical thoughts;
funny you should post that...lately i've been reflecting on how selfish we are, and especially myself. i think we(as human beings) can and do react in different ways to the truth that we are selfish, ugly humans who, in our finite minds, are consumed completely with self and self alone. our highest aspirations-be it for world peace or personal wealth, fame or power-are all to exalt this monster that is self. our greatest achievements and sacrifices are also the result of a consuming fire, spurred on by thoughts of admiration and love from others. in short, all we do is to satisfy whatever it is we crave in our depraved minds. i think that all, upon realizing this, are first driven to the brink of despair and hopelessness, which is also another manifestation of our selfishness. that is, until we turn to God. this knowledge, this...realization of what we truly are must come before any substantial spiritual growth may truly occur. we must see ourselves stripped of the pretenses, the smiles, the fake compassion and snivelling flattery(yes, harsh words, i know, but aren't they true?). we must see ourselves as God sees us. only when we see that, when we see our nothingness, shame and debasedness(yeah, i think i made that word up) spread out before God's holiness, and beg Him to do His perfect Work in us; that He would remove ourselves, and accomplish that through us which He has been patiently waiting to accomplish. when this happens, we can realize the full potential that God has for us. the full measure of His blessing and love. thought i'd just add this rather lengthy side-note.
1 comment:
funny you should post that...lately i've been reflecting on how selfish we, and i especially, are. i think we(as human beings) can and do react in different ways to this truth-that we are selfish, ugly humans, who, in our finite minds, are consumed copletely with self, and self alone. our highest aspirations-be it for world peace or personal wealth, fame or power-are all to exalt this monster that is self. our greatest achievments, and sacrifices, are also the result of a consuming fire, spurred on by thoughts of admiration and love from others. in short, all we do is to satisfy whatever it is that we crave in our depraved minds. i think that we all, upon realizing this, are first driven to the brink of dipair and hopelessness, which is also another manifestation of our selfishness. that is, until we turn to God. this knowledge, this...realization of what we truly are must come before any substantial spiritual growth may truly occur. we must see ourselves stripped of the pretences, the smiles, the fake compassion and snivelling flattery(yes, harsh words, i know, but aren't they true?). we must see ourselves as God sees us. only when we see that, when we see our nothingness, shame and debased-ness(yeah, i think i made that word up) spread out before God's holiness, and beg Him to do His perfect Work in us; that He would remove our self, and accomplish that through us which He has been patiently waiting to accomplish. when this happens, we can realize the full potential that God has for us. the full measure of His blessing and love. thought i'd just add this rather lengthy side-note. love ya.
Post a Comment