Out in the Open

Today I resolved to read my Bible in front of my kids while they were getting ready. I’ve been convicted, a lot, lately, about the legacy I’m leaving them. What will they remember me for when the Lord calls me home? Will it be for sitting in front of my computer or the Television? Or being at their games, or working? So I want to start my legacy by being a man of God in front of them. I want to be in the word in front of them. Love God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength and their mother as Christ loved the Church in front of them. I want to be an example of a godly man to them, while training them to be godly men. I want to live out my faith over and again in front of them in every situation they see me in. And I want them to see me starting my day in the Bible.

The thing is, though, I don’t want to just do this in front of my kid. I want to live my walk with Jesus out in the open. Everywhere I go, and everything I do, I want to live unashamed for Christ. I want to be that annoying Christian guy, who never shuts up about Jesus, but also tips well, loves people well, and seeks the right thing well. And it starts with me in the Word in front of my kids. It starts with me loving my wife as Christ loved the Church, and it starts with who I am when no one else is around. Lord, help me to work out my faith in you in every part of my life. You died and rose again for me, let me die to myself and live only for you!

Galatians 2:15-21

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God