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| Plaques are like plagues, if one won't kill you the other one will. |
Here is the rub: our grandiose recognition verses the Cross. No one enjoys driving spikes into our wants and needs but that is exactly where God wants us. Crosses are for dying and taking yours up is going to be painful and costly. Selfishness need not apply for this ministry. So lets finally drive this spike in and get over ourselves. God doesn't need us or any superstars, not Paul or the polished Apollos, to complete His goals.
I was struggling with this post and then I received an email from a dear brother and church planter in Christ from Bangladesh, Mortuza Biswas. In his broken English he described it better than I have ever heard or read:
i’ll keep encourage the people, to tell others, about love of God! so, one day might my county will be safe, or even thou, our country will be save by Jesus. that is i dreaming. i know that, i am a little bug, and i am biting (eating) the wooden furniture. and one day, it will broke down. what i am saying that, traditional faith will broke down, and Christian faith will raise up. that’s i am thinking. God can do anything, over a night, but He gave me an opportunity to join his work.
So, a guy that lives thousands of miles away joins us in the thought that we should be blessed to join the Lord in His work. Isn't Christianity amazing? Thank you brother Biswas. Thank you brother Mark.
ReplyDeleteI was captured by a few comments from Byron on his 12/11/10 sermon, "(As Christians) We constantly try to finish what was finished in Christ. And we constantly try to accomplish what was accomplished by Christ. We constantly think that God, in some way, is displeased with us; and if he is displeased with us, He has to be displeased with Christ, because Christ is my covering. And yet, we work so hard to get what was given to us."
ReplyDeleteIt is good to be reminded that the thing I think I am working for, I can never attain. It is a gift that is extended out of the grace of the One who did the work for me. In this works based world we live in, the greatest gift of all time really is free. Our gift is free; bought and paid for, sealed by the Holy Spirit. God is pleased with His Son and, in Christ; God is pleased with us.
Byron went on to add... "He is Lord! Christ is Lord because He is real. He is Lord because He is my Savior. He is Lord because He rose from the dead. There is life transformation; He does have the power to change lives. To say that there is no life transformation as a normal effect of sovereign grace was to deny the gospel itself." Life transformation as a normal effect of sovereign grace; this is revolutionary!