I think there are things I know in my head, but translating head knowledge to what I know in my heart can be a difficult feat. I am stubborn. I am prone to be self important, at times. I am insecure, and so my head knowledge and my heart application can go awry. The last few days I have been traveling, both to and from Memphis, Tennessee, with my wife and children. We went to the Children’s museum, and the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid. If this is all we did, we could say that this was the purpose of the trip, but it wasn’t. We were not taking a turn-around trip or a short family outing. While we were on the road, via the phone, we were ministering to members of the church, and on the way back ran errands for the church. Again, you could say we were serving purposes, but that wasn’t the point of the journey. Our reason for going is that Michaelene and I were invited to attend the Minister’s Appreciation dinner at Mid-South Christian College. Everything else we did was great, but our purpose was to fellowship with others at the dinner we were invited to.
If I had missed out on our purpose in going to Memphis, I might have missed out on what God had for me there. At the dinner, the speaker challenged us in our identity. He spoke of why missionaries and preachers lose joy and power in their ministry, and compared that with Christ and who He was. You see, Jesus was caught up in His identity as God’s Son. He proclaimed it (they wanted to stone Him for blasphemy because He did!). He walked in that strength, and began in that strength, and, as the speaker said, He was in a constant cycle of Grace because Jesus began in His identity as the Son of God. Which led me to ask: “Who am I, then?” It put the whole trip in perspective for me, heck, even my whole life! I am not a husband, father, or preacher, a neighbor, friend, or worker; these are things I do! Who I am is simple: I am a child of God because Jesus lived, died, was buried, rose again, and is at the Right Hand of the Father. Everything else I do is informed, or should be informed, by that identity
In many ways, we get like this with our purpose. We seek Christ, and are born-again into Christ, yet we wrap our identities in exterior things instead of being caught up completely in Christ! Whatever we do, wherever we go, whatever relationships we have, those are not who we are, those are what we do. Being children of God through Jesus Christ is who we are, and THAT is why so many of us lack peace. That is why we get so worried when the things of this world trouble us. It is this identity that allowed Jesus Christ to endure the Cross and despise the shame. It is this identity that allowed the Apostles and early church to live and die for Jesus Christ and spread His Gospel everywhere, and is why Christians STILL live and die for Jesus’ name. Their identity is not in this world. They are children of God through what Jesus Christ has done. And so should we be.
John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
1 John 3:1-3
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
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