Life Is NOT About Us!

Hi Everyone,

I have a feeling I am going to have to divide this post into two. So I will try to post the second half tomorrow. There are so many things going through my head to blog about.

The first thing is that LIFE IS NOT ABOUT US!!!

That might come as a surprise to those of us in American culture that are taught (in general terms) from day one that life is all about me, myself, and I getting what I want when I want it, or life going how I want it to, or else."

I am not sure if other cultures among my international readers are the same in this regard.

But when life is "all about us" it creates SERIOUS problems! when life is "about me" it is the ULTIMATE SOURCE OF STRESS, for one thing, because then it is up to us to "pull it off," "perform perfectly," "make it happen," etc.

And THAT is impossible for us to "really do."

Even the terms we use to present the gospel in the West (I might get some flack for this) can have that sense of "it's about 'my life' in it."

Statements that are often used like these:

"I found God"

I made a decision to ask Christ into "MY life."

"God has a wonderful plan for 'YOUR LIFE.'"

Now honestly, possibly, sometimes we just don't quite know how to say what happened.

But Jesus didn't come to "make MY LIFE better."

The Christian life IS NOT about "US being in the center", with Jesus Christ somehow lingering in the background so we can pull Him out when we need Him....and ignore Him the rest of the time....maybe that is why we have so many issues in our culture in Christianity???

We are told in Scripture SOMETHING QUITE CONTRARY-----to "lose our lives" and "DIE to ourselves."

Matthew 10:37-39 "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. "He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it."

The "ME" is Christ, not us, and no we aren't suppose to hate our parents or children, it's just that we shouldn't have ANYTHING IN OUR LIVES THAT WE LOVE MORE THAN CHRIST-----and WHENEVER WE LOVE ANYTHING IN LIFE---MORE THAN HIM---NO MATTER WHAT that is, things GET OUT OF ORDER.

Romans 6:4-7 "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin."

It kind of goes with what I was sharing the other day. The Christian life and walk is ALL ABOUT HIM!!! (JESUS---IN US!) More tomorrow.