buildingbodies4christ

building on the foundation of Jesus Christ

Archive for the tag “True Identity”

29 Nov 2018

Just a Hair Cut

The other day, I had a haircut. Nothing unusual about having my hair cut; I do it every five weeks. However, I usually tell my stylist to continue doing the same thing every time. It’s been styled this way for a long time. But when I went in the other day, I wanted something different. I wanted some layers. She asked how many layers? “No idea, so do what you think is best” was my reply. She proceeded to cut. As we normally do, we chatted all the while she chopped away. I glanced at the mirror when she was done, thanked her, paid her and left for the gym.

After I got home and showered, I finally took a look at my new haircut. This may sound strange, but I finally looked like myself. I felt like myself. My new haircut was really the old me coming back to life. Strange, I know. A haircut is just a haircut. Right?

There are many things we use to cover ourselves besides clothes. I don’t think I was using my previous haircut to cover anything, but it’s just strange how different I felt with the new do. However, I do realize now that I had let others tell me how they thought I should wear my hair. Have it this length, no bangs, let it fall around my face, etc. I realized now, that’s not me. I need to be authentic to who I am – who God created me to be.

I know, it’s just hair. But it says a lot about my personality. I want to please others more than I want to please myself (or God). I let others tell me how to act, what to wear, how to walk. But that’s not me. It may have been for the best of intentions, but I have to be who God created me to be.

I have not given myself over to doing anything outside of God’s will. That’s really not who God created me to be. But I do want to be authentic to my true self. What’s that look like for me? I don’t know. I need to discover who I am without input from others – only God gets to be the voice defining me. God says quite a bit in His Word about our characters. But He gives us leeway on how that looks for us based on our gifts, talents, abilities, experiences, etc. What really matters is that we love God more than anything else and love others as much as we love ourselves – everything else is gray matter.

Danielle Strickland said recently “love brings us back to ourselves.” It’s a sobering, reclaiming, waking moment when God plants His love on us, like a kiss from heaven. He demonstrated His love for us by His Son Jesus. These are the weeks when we focus on Jesus’ birth. This is the time we can demonstrate more love for others to tell them this mysterious love that changes things.

Danielle mentioned in her talk about how the brain responds when we are in love. There are three areas that “light up” when we’re in love – pleasure (joy), risk and attachment. In Hebrews 12:12 it says it was for Jesus’ joy, He endured the cross for us. He loved us so much that He put everything on the line for us. God risked His Son for us. Jesus endured the shame for us. Our response to Him? We are to love Him like that.

For our greatest pleasure, we are to risk everything for Him. We are to abide in Him as Jesus abides in His Father. We are to be in love with Jesus. This type of love brings us back to ourselves – this love makes us who we are supposed to be. It’s an enveloping, mind-bending, arm-wrapping love that transcends understanding that brings us back to ourselves. It’s who we are meant to be and can change everything. It’s more than a haircut that can make us see ourselves differently. Love is the missing link to who we are to become. It’s the joy of our heart to risk it all for Jesus – is it true for you? How’s your love life?

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:10-12

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16 Feb 2017

Proper Understanding

Question: “What is the chief end of man?” Answer: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” I read that in a book by John Piper (Let the Nations Be Glad) yesterday morning. I have heard this saying some time ago but it hit me fresh again as I began to read in chapter one. In the first chapter, John Piper gives the case of God’s glory as the foundation for our worship. Scripture after scripture, he reminds the reader that throughout the Bible it’s about God’s glory. He said that God’s goal is “to uphold and display the glory of his name.” I think we’ve forgotten how to truly be in awe of God.

In generations past, they had a different view of God. I think it’s been just a century of prosperity that we have displaced God’s glory with our own. We worship the wrong things and the wrong people. We truly don’t worship God in the manner we should. I witness the subdued attitude when we gather together to worship and notice the difference at a basketball or football game. I’m no better at worship either. There may be a time or two of hand-raising and a few tears, but are our hearts truly worshipping God in the right manner?

In our prosperity, we’ve lost something fundamental in our view of God. Most of us can get by without God. We don’t need Him as society once did. Our needs are met without much thought to how we get what we have – we’ve earned it ourselves. We’ve done it all ourselves or at least that’s the perception. That was the way I thought for many of my early career years. Everything though comes from God. We get nothing on our own. It’s all by the grace of God.

There is an identity crisis in this land. We don’t know who we are, and we have no idea who God truly is. First, if Jesus is our Lord and Savior; then we have a new identity. We have been adopted into God’s family. We are heirs with Christ. We have His righteousness. Jesus traded our filthy rags for His cloak of righteousness. We have been set free from the bondage of sin. We are secure in our knowledge of our eternal home. Jesus provided our new identity by His death and resurrection. Not because of our goodness, but because of His.

There isn’t anything that we could have done to make our place secure; it’s a gift. We have a position in God’s family based on Jesus and not our performance. There is nothing we can do to earn His favor. And in this gift of salvation, we are complete; we lack nothing. Complete but unfinished. There is work that still needs to be done in us. Every now and then, I get a thought of what I could have been if not for the fact that Jesus pursued me and changed my life. Those are the times when I truly worship God.

Every now and then, I also get a glimpse of the greatness and glory of God. Louie Giglio has a message on YouTube called Indescribable. I found it last week and watched the different pictures of the universe – the vastness, the beautiful images of the known universe – flash on the screen. He said that we should remember that God holds all of it in His hands. We are this one little speck on this one little planet in the vastness of what God has made. Pastor Louie said that he wasn’t trying to make us feel small, but to remind us that we are small. And yet, God watches over us with the love of a Father. His eye is on us.

Paul wrote out a prayer for the saints in Ephesus to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ; to know this love that surpasses knowledge and be filled with the measure of the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18,19). I think we miss this understanding. Maybe its head knowledge, but I don’t think we have grasped the heart knowledge of how true this really is. When we finally have a proper understanding of who God is and what He has done, then I think we will truly worship Him in the proper manner. God is Creator – the known universe testifies to His glory. God has created us for a personal relationship with Him that we may glorify Him and worship Him – the one true God. We are made in His likeness so that we can glorify Him through our lives.

Do you understand who you are and your purpose? I think I am finally coming to my own revelation. I hope you do as well. Let it be said of us – we know how to worship God because of our love for Him.

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. Ephesians 1:4-6 (NLT)

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29 May 2013

Identity

I had a phone call from a collection agency – again. No, I don’t have any debt that needs to be collected. But it gets my heart to thumping nevertheless. A few years ago, someone had stolen my identity. This person used my medical insurance number to obtain medical services. It snowballed from there. It took a few months to get it all squared away once I learned of the theft. But I still have to resolve issues every now and then. This call reminded me I needed to check my credit report just to make sure nothing else was going on. It was all good – whew. Every call I receive of this nature reminds me how much I have to be thankful for. God has blessed me even though I deserve none of it. These calls also remind me of where my true identity lies.

Christ gave me a new identity on the day I received the gift of salvation. It was a long time ago. I didn’t deserve it, but He invited me to join Him on mission. Well, that’s not what I thought when I went up front in my home church on that day. But the Holy Spirit told me to go so I did. A few years after that, God called me to sanctification – big word. I didn’t know what that meant either at the time. God was calling me to be set apart for His purpose. There was a lot that needed to be cleaned up. He set about cleaning up my mind and my heart. One step at a time, slowly my mindset began to change and my heart began to line up with His. It’s an ongoing process of transformation, and I have yet to arrive at the destination. God is more concerned with my progress than my destination though. The destination is already set upon the Rock. The journey there is the challenging part.

My spiritual identity can never be stolen like my identity on this earth. What I have physically can be stolen, but that is not where my treasure lies. These things are nothing compared to what I will have in the future. God has blessed me abundantly – more than I could ever ask for. A few years ago I went to Australia, and I thought that was the best trip ever. But what I am realizing now, the best is yet to come. Yes, I will go on mission with Him. Jesus is my friend, and I want to go with Him on the biggest adventure I will ever have! Praise God for making all things new!

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10

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