A Strait Betwixt Two
If you died with the Messiah...
Why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Colossians 2:20
Text: 2 Cor 5:11-15
I had several thoughts on how to follow up on yesterday’s passage and then, this morning I read the last sentence of Keenan’s Lent devotional… "Our prayers (and actions) should aim to glorify God and not be self-centered." Great advice on any day, but especially helpful when trying to decide how to write a follow up to a sermon. Thank you Keenan.
With God’s glory in mind, a couple of additional thoughts that didn’t make it yesterday.
Currently, Cheri & I are streaming re-runs of the show Person of Interest and I’m watching Halo. In the last week, there were exchanges in both shows by the lead characters that perfectly, and I mean perfectly, sum up how Paul may have felt. And, as I admitted, why we may not.
In both shows, well intentioned people in the lead character's lives cautioned them, pleading with them to be more careful because what they were planning might get them killed. (Like the Ephesian Elder’s in Acts 20).
In both cases, the lead character's response was nearly identical…
“I’m dead already!”
This mirror’s Paul’s response in Acts 20:24. We simply don’t see ourselves like Paul and those 1st Century Christians. But we could...
I said it a couple of ways. This is hard and it will without question mess with your plans. Glorifying God has to be intentional. Living for the benefit of others; intentional. These are radical, and I’d suggest, only possible with assistance that can only be provided by the power of God.
Oh, you may be able to do it for a while on your own, but you will eventually fail. We cannot live a God glorifying life, a life prioritizing the needs of others before our desires and dreams, without the supernatural power of God to help us. It’s simply not sustainable without Him.
Ask Him and get ready for some changes.
