Musings...

I have just finished reading a book that explained many of the customs and traditions of first century Jewish life, especially Galilean Jews.   It has been quite fascinating and I'm sure that I will be re-reading it many times just to take it all in.  There have been many things that I would love to share, and maybe over the course of the coming days/weeks, I will share different points, but today as the book came to a close, the author quoted a Greek philosopher's observation he had the opportunity of making of an early church.  His name was Aristides and here is what he wrote:

"They abstain from all impurity in the hope of the recompense that is to come in another world.  AS for their servants or handmaids or children, they persuade them to become Christians by the love they have for them; and when they become so, they call them without distinction, brothers.  They do not worship strange gods; and they walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not found among them; and they love one another.  When they see the stranger they bring him to their homes and rejoice over him as over a true brother; for the do not call those who are after the flesh, but those who are in the Spirit and in God.

And if there is among them a man that is poor and needy and if they have not an abundance of necessities, they fast two or three days, that they may supply the needy with the necessary food.

They observe scrupulously the commandment of their Messiah; they live honestly and soberly as the Lord their God commanded them.  Every morning and all hours on account of the goodness of God toward them, they render praise and laud Him over their food and their drink; they render Him thanks...

Such is the law of the Christians and such is their conduct" -Broken Bread, An Ancient Look at the First Last Supper by Jay McCarl

The thought that came to my mind, was this, if Aristides had the opportunity to observe my church, would this have been his testimony?

Living Cruciform

I started a new Bible Study a couple weeks ago, The Broken Way by Ann Voskamp.  I will be honest and say that I started this study with some excitement BUT also some fear.  The passion of my life is to be more like Christ.  To change and grow and become the woman, wife, mother, daughter, friend, pastor's wife, missionary, that He wants me to be, yet, at the same time, nobody, including me enjoys being "broken".

The truth is, the day I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, when I was 5 years old, He also became the LORD of my life.  I will admit that I have not always lived my life over the last 50 years as if that were true, BUT the the fact remains whether I admit it, or live it out on a daily basis HE is still LORD!

Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

So basically, IF Christ is my LORD, my old self-centered, self-exalting desires, MUST come to an end.  That "old me" has been killed, crucified...and my life is NOT my own, but is now Christ living in me... Christ directing and empowering all that I do.  It is NONE of me and ALL Jesus!

BUT HOW, do I do this... the ONLY way, is to get up each day, and present my life anew to Christ. To say, "Here's my life, Lord.  Do whatever you wish to do with me today.  You are the driver, I'm just your passenger.  I trust you to take us and guide us through this day."

In Romans 12:1, Paul says that I am to present my body to God as a "living sacrifice".   So I am to be dead to myself, but alive to Christ.

After 50 years, you would think I had this all figured out, and that I would live my life with this reality in focus everyday, but I don't.  It is still a daily struggle.  There are mornings, that I wake up and think, "just for today, I'll just do my own thing."  Problem with that is, I miss all that He had planned for me that day!

Then to live "Cruciform" means to live my life in the shape of the cross.  To live so that everyone around me sees Jesus, and NOT me!  That my whole life is focused and centered on HIM and HIM alone.  To trust HIM completely, to take the broken pieces of my life and fit them together in a way that will bring honor and glory to his name.  Believing that only then will I have an abundant joyful life.