Since our 27 month old grandson Jack was a baby he has been riding with me in my pickup, which happens to have a large Oregon State University OS decal in the back window. When he was about 20 months old or so I was dressing Jack in a pair of Oregon State sweat pants and when he noticed the OS emblem on the pants he pointed to it and said “pickup.”
Jack has been wearing Oregon State gear since he was born but now he (and all the rest of us) calls all of his Oregon State gear his pickup clothes. He has pickup shirts, pickup pants, and even pickup rain boots and they are among his favorite clothes to wear.
At a young age Jack made an identification that has changed the way he looks at his wardrobe and has helped make our lives easier as he is always willing to put on pickup clothes.
When we identify with Jesus it changes the way we look at ourselves and our lives. Regarding the way that he identified with Jesus, in Galatians 2:20 Paul wrote; “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Paul realized that by giving his life to Jesus and totally identifying with Him that he no longer lived for himself, but that he had died to himself and now lived for Jesus. With that identification and realization Paul put his own goals, dreams, desires and ambitions aside and lived to follow and serve Jesus, wherever Jesus called him to go and whatever Jesus called him to do. Paul’s total identification with Jesus meant that Jesus was able to work in and through his life so completely that it was as if Jesus Himself was doing the ministry. Which He was as He empowered Paul to serve Him.
With whom or what do you identify? Like Paul, can you say, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me?” What difference does or would this total identification with Jesus make in your life?
Identifying with Jesus, as Paul did, is a continual process, the more we understand of ourselves the more we can give to Jesus as we grow in our understanding of Him. This month spend some time with Jesus growing in your identification with Him and see what He desires to do in and through your life as you follow and serve Him.
God’s Grace and Peace,
Mark
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The National Football League was founded in 1920 and has a long history of change and innovation. Although many of those changes have come incrementally or quite slowly, 2014 saw the league making a couple of its more bold and risky moves. This year they changed the format of the Pro Bowl and for the first time ever, scheduled the Super Bowl in an outdoor stadium in a cold weather city. Time will tell if these changes will pay off or not, but you have to give the NFL credit for being willing to shake things up a bit.
In our spiritual lives it can be easy to become comfortable with the familiar, to get into a rut, to run on auto pilot. It’s not that being in a comfort zone is all bad, that being in a rut can’t still take us forward or that auto pilot isn’t a safe way to fly, in fact, the problem may be that all of those things are too safe and keep us from taking risks for Jesus and from experiencing new ways that He wants to work in and through our lives.
If you look up the word new in a concordance and read the verses listed it’s clear that God is into doing new things. He puts a new song in our mouths, He gives us a new heart and a new spirit, He has made a new covenant with us, He makes us a new creation, and ultimately, He will give us a new heaven and a new earth.
God likes to do new things for, in and among His people and as we move through the pastoral transition process, we should be prayerfully looking for, and even expecting, God to do a new thing among us. And as we seek God’s work and will in our individual lives, as well we should not be surprised that God is doing a new thing in us too.
As God works and moves to do new things among us may Psalm 149:1 be true of us, “Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.”
Trusting as God Leads,
Mark
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On his way to work one morning a businessman came upon a professional mover struggling with a large and heavy box. The mover was trying to get the box through a doorway that appeared to be just barely wider than the box.
“Can I help you?” the businessman asked.
“That would be great,” smiled the mover. “Grab hold of the other side of this box.”
For the next few minutes the two men lifted, pushed, pulled and perspired. But no matter how hard they worked the box didn’t budge an inch. Finally, the business man straightened up and shook his head, “I don’t think we’re ever going to get it out!”
“Well no wonder!” roared the mover. “I’m trying to get it in.”
How often does that happen when we are working with other people, or even with God? We think we know what we’re doing, only to discover that we are working at cross purposes. No matter who we are working with, the one thing we can do to keep this from happening is to take time to listen to each other and to know what we’re trying to accomplish, and when we’re working with God it is especially important for us to listen to know what He wants to do.
In that regard, Paul’s prayer for the believers in Rome is very applicable. In Romans 15:5 and 6 he wrote:
“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We are all different, with different needs, interests, perspectives and preferences, however, as we listen to each other and seek, discern and follow the will of Jesus, we can live and serve in a unity that not only gets the work done that He has called us to do but do it in a way that brings glory to God.
As we go into the new year in this time of transition as a church family, may we take the time to listen closely, to pray frequently and together discern and follow God’s will for us.
With Hope,
Mark
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“But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” Galatians 4:4-5
I am so thankful that my recent eye surgery corrected the double vision that I had been experiencing for over a year. And I am thankful for all of the phone calls, cards, cookies and prayers during that time. I know that your prayers allowed my surgery to be more successful than my doctor expected. One of the surprising aspects of having my vision corrected was realizing how much the double vision had been affecting my life. The prisms put in my glasses helped me to cope and manage most of the time, but it was so freeing to have my vision healed at the source.
In many ways that is what Christmas is all about, Jesus coming to us so that we may be healed at the source, that our hearts might be changed by Him. Through the centuries God’s people had tried to live in relationship with Him through the Old Testament law and all of the other laws, interpretations and rules their religious leaders had developed, but the reality was that even if a person lived up to all of it, Hebrews 9:13 says they were only outwardly clean.
But Hebrews 9:14 goes on to say, “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from act that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”
As we celebrate all that Christmas means to us, may we always remember that Jesus came to save, cleanse and heal us. And may we live in the victory He came to give us as He sets us free and gives us the gift of life.
May Your Christmas be Filled with Jesus,
Mark
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