The Well
The Well |
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Connecting Hope to the Hurting | |
Friday
March 21, 2008
By this time it was noon, and darkness fell across the
whole land until three o'clock. The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly,
the thick veil hanging in the Temple was torn apart. Then Jesus shouted,
"Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!"And with those words he breathed his last.
Luke
23:44-46
There are many ways we think of Jesus, but most of us see Him in bodily form with long brown hair and a full beard. Yet, just before He breathed His last, He entrusted His spirit into His Father's hands.
As humans, we are made in three parts: spirit, soul (mind), and flesh (body). The spirit of who we are determines our personality and how we respond to things, the soul of who we are is the center where we think or believe, but it is our flesh that houses the other aspects of us. I know I have talked a little about this before, but bear with me as I write what came to my mind as I was awaking from my nap Sunday afternoon.
His spirit determined the nature of Jesus Christ. As we submit to Him on our journey of becoming more of Him and less of us ¾ we literally take on the aspects of His nature. Yes, we keep our personality, but eventually it is the fruit of the spirit that develops and grows in us.
We know that first and foremost Jesus lived out the first fruit of the spirit ¾ love. One of the things that Jesus taught, talked, and walked more than anything else was love. He wanted us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Yet, how can we do that if we go around thinking little about ourselves or too much about ourselves; either we will not notice others because of our inferiority, or we will not notice others because of our sense of superiority. (Now, that had to be God, I am not smart enough to come up with that one!)
So, as we submit to Jesus Christ in a real sense, we will have a healthy attitude toward ourselves. We will stop being selfish, self-centered people and become people who love others. As we fall more and more in love with Jesus we will begin to emulate His spirit until His nature will become our nature. It is then that we become authentic human beings ¾ real people! As more and more Kingdom people accept us ¾we are able to accept ourselves, and we become more capable of loving others outside our circle.
Well folks, that is the essence of what the next two days will be for you. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, will be to determine how comfortable you are with who you are. Where are you on the road to becoming more of Jesus ¾ less of me? I look forward to hearing some feed back!
