It's not about you! It ain't even about me!

by Karen Griffin Strickland on Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 7:35am

Sunday March 27, 2011 was an especially unusual day. As usual there was Sunday morning service at the Lord of the Harvest Ministy in Freedom, PA. As usual, there was praise and worship and testimonies and offerings and oh yes! As usual there was a word from the Lord. There is always that at the Lord of the Harvest...a good word, an excellent word, a challenging word, a healing word, a delivering word, a DELICIOUS word. As usual it was served up by Pastor Wayne Bradley Cobb as only God can do it through him. As a matter of fact, when you sit at the feet of a master teacher and are accustomed to feasting on manna from on high, you have to be careful not to take it for granted. And, in case you do, and you feel like you are in a most glorious place, God can and does always come along to remind you that there is a higher height and a deeper depth in Him. Then he uses the man of God to begin the ascent as He takes you there. Well, that is what happened today...

Ephesians 1:3-7

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

7In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

So often we look back to a time when we chose to "get saved". In other words, we decided at some point to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Seeing this confession of faith as a conclusion we came to in response to a word we heard or someone's witness, or maybe even a tradgedy in life, we say it's "all good" because we know Jesus! The scripture is clear. Our salvation and destiny was already worked out in the mind of God, before the foundation of the world. He did the choosing, according to His good pleasure and the riches of His Grace. Our decision to accept Christ was not the beginning place for our salvation. It did not start with the event or circumstabce that brought us to the place of acknowledging our need for a saviour. Foreordained... we had been invited into a relationship with Jesus Christ before we were born. It does not matter what pit He retrieved us from or how we used to be, because we could do nothing to save ourselves. Foreordained... to be holy and without blame before Him in love. Only the blood of Jesus by the grace of God could cause us to be holy and without blame. Even today, as we see ourselves, our thoughts, our behavior, our motives, we are not without blame. Blameless can only happen by His choosing, His adoption, according to His grace and good pleasure of His will. It is a consequence of redemption through His blood, His forgiveness of our sin according to the riches of His grace.

1 Corinthians 1:23-25 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

25Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

While we can get so self-righteous and arrogant in our minds because we "know Christ", it ain't about us or what we know. It is because He has chosen and called us to know Him. This arrogance that we sometimes show to others in our effort to share Christ is no reflection of the Spirit of Christ. Christ is the power and wisdom of God.He is our power and wisdom if we get out of His way. The Spirit of Christ is the strongest expression on the planet. Yet the personality of Christ was so different than that of some who name the name of Christ. He loved us first. He chose us.His goodness and mercy brought us to repentance. His sacrifice made a relationship possible. It ain't about you. It ain't even about me. It is all about Jesus! (there is more from this message to come)

Karen Griffin Strickland
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. Psalm 28:7 (KJV)

0 members like this