Self part 1
I think--I hope--in that last Rant series about being strong we saw that our strength comes from grace. From love. From each other. From God. But in case y'all didn't pick up what I was laying down, and because my pastor taught me to preach it until my heart is empty on it, I'm going to follow that up with a series about self. But not selfish... selfless. Let me quote my memory verse: "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" (John 5:30). That was Jesus speaking. The red letters. Even Jesus Himself--literally the fulness of God in a body--knew that He couldn't do anything by Himself or of Himself. Because He knew it wasn't about Himself. He was the sacrifice that was given for US. Look at Matthew 20:28, "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." The difference between being selfish and being selfless. Not doing things for Himself... but for us. Literally giving His life to ransom us from death. Because before the cross we WERE dead in our trespasses and sins. Adam ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and on that day he surely died. See, Jesus came to give us life, and that more abundantly. But first He had to give us a death. The second death. The death TO death. The death OF death. So that we could be free from sin and death. And then, three days later when He rose again, He gave us life. And not just any life, but HIS life. That abundant life that He spoke of. His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life. A life of love. And love is giving. He gave us the knowledge (so that we could believe what we know) that we have everything we need. And having everthing we need--knowing and believing that we have everything we need--is what equips and empowers us to give what we've got. When you know you have what you need you can stop trying to get. You can give. And you'll WANT to give. Because what you've got is too big, and too good, and too important to keep to yourself. What you have is what everybody needs. Because what you have is love. And the desire of the human heart is love. I believe that we do everything we do because of love. Either because we don't know that we have it and we will do anything in the world to get it... or because we do know we have it and we do everything we do to share what we've got. 2 Corinthians 5:14 (NLT) says, "Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we beleive that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life." Its all about love. And, one more time, love is giving. Its about self... but only in the way that we do nothing of our own selves. Or, really, FOR our own selves. And, listen, I'm not saying you shouldn't take care of yourself. I'm simply saying that if I take care of you and you take care of me... neither one of us has to worry about ourselves. We'll all be covered... when we cover each other. When we stop being selfish and start being selfless!