Be humble like Jesus.

In today’s day we are taught by society to put yourself before all others. Thats is completely opposite of what God’s word says and what Jesus demonstrated for us.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Psalm 25:9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.

Matthew 18:4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 23:12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

1 Peter 5:5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,

Here is what Jesus did:

Philippians 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

We also know Jesus humbled himself by leaving heaven to come here to earth. He gave us the example of humbling himself by washing the feet of the disciples, having compassion on the less fortunate. Think about the many way Jesus humbled himself as our example of how to live life as His followers. 

So to be like Jesus is to be humble which shows love to others by putting them first. Are you humble? Pride has no place in the life of the follower of Jesus.

Tom

Honor God with what He has given you. 3-3-16

Love your enemies

As a follower of Jesus this may be the hardest scripture in all of the bible:

Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

As the bible tells us it is easy to love those who love us but what about those who don’t? Do we care about them at all? The bible says yes we should and we should go out of our way to try and help them. You see when we help an enemy that may be the time when a change may take place in their heart or our heart and reconciliation can take place. If neither side tries then we know for sure it will not happen. For the enemy who does not follow Jesus, it may be our opportunity to bring them to Jesus and that should be our main focus in life!

God says when we do good don’t expect anything in return, do it just for the sake of the Lord and out of love for mankind. God also says when we take this step of obedience, our reward will be great, I tend to think God is talking about in heaven here not on earth. Although He can bless you on earth too! 

Remember God is kind to all, for we were once evil and ungrateful before Jesus came into our lives. So may we be the same to others, even our enemies!

Tom

Who you are in Christ.#25

Today we will wrap up this series of who you are in Christ. There are more I am sure we could point out but I hope you got a picture of what we become as followers of Jesus.

I want to close our with this awesome reminder of what we have in Christ.

Ephesians 2:18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

We have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit! Remember this event happening when Jesus gave up His life on the cross?

Matthew 27:50-51 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

The temple curtain tearing from top to bottom reveals to us we now have no need of a priest or anyone else to go to God on our behalf, we have a direct line right to God! Now that is awesome! Do you take advantage of this blessing by spending much time in communication with God. This is one of the ways to build a strong relationship with Him!

So today know that in Christ you have direct access to the heavenly Father! The heavenly Father wants to talk to His children and we as His children want to talk to Him!

Tom

Look to others interests! 3-2-15

Get godliness! 3-1-16

Who you are in Christ.#24

This is a beautiful picture for the follower of Jesus:

Colossians 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Why is beautiful? Well when we are in our sin we are on a one way path to hell. When we become followers of Jesus we are covered by his shed blood and thus God no longer sees our sin. So we are hidden in Christ! Praise our Lord Jesus.

We can also look at this verse another way. Since we have died to our old way of life and now live a life pleasing to God it means our life is so much in Christ that God won’t be able to tell the difference! WHOA! Think about that! We won’t reach that to perfection on this side of heaven but we are striving every second of every day to do so!

So this day we see we are hidden with Christ in God! That is who we are in Jesus!

Tom