Be Yourself

Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17



How do people know that you are a Christian? Is it because you give ten percent or better of your income to your church? Do you know all the latest worship songs? Or maybe you have a Scripture quote ready for any and every occasion? All of that is fine but none of it really points to a life lived in Christ. We try, God bless us, we really do. We start campaigns like WWJD. We read all the right books and attend seminars and retreats. But even when our hearts are in the right place, most of us are good at getting wrong. One of the strongest, dearest Christian men that I know, our former pastor, B.E. Palmer tells many stories of doing crazy things because he thought it was what God wanted. In the early stages of his relationship with God, he decided that if something felt uncomfortable, he should do it. After all, isn’t sacrifice a huge part of commitment to God? Of course he is quick to point out the error of his thinking, by presenting humorous stories of his failed attempts. Yes, sacrifice is a part of our relationship with God but it has to be directed by God, not by our own erroneous thinking.

So, how do we let people see Christ in us? By living our lives, just as God created us to live. Each of us was created in God’s image but with a unique personality. We can go all kinds of wrong by living according to our flesh but if we surrender our lives to God and live as He directs we’ll come much closer to what we were meant to be.

Too often we try to use the WWJD as our guide. Well, I don’t know about you but I’m not Jesus. Just recently I experienced a social situation in which one participant wanted to abuse the name of God. Throwing the names I call sacred as if they were dirtballs. I have been there before with the same person and respectfully asked him to respect my feelings toward that name even if the commandment of the same ilk meant nothing to him. This time I couldn’t summon a polite response. I wanted to shout at him and if I were using WWJD, I might have. I’m not one to call someone a viper but Jesus did. The truth is I don’t know what Jesus would do. Is this gentle Jesus meek and mild or ticked off Jesus tossing tables around? What I can do, is surrender what God has placed in me, into the hands of Jesus, to be used as he sees fit.

As it says in the Scripture, we are new creatures in Christ but the raw material remains the same. Some of us were created to be bold, outspoken and provocative. Others were created to be quiet, observant peace-makers. Being Christian doesn’t mean behaving exactly the same way Jesus behaved. It means behaving exactly the way Jesus directs. It means modifying our behavior to fit better into the kingdom of God than into the world.

What would Jesus do? He would consult his Father and that is precisely what we need to do as well.

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