Teaching Them To Obey Everything

Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.”

Recently, some long-time friends whom I hadn’t for a while came for a visit. Tis friend mentioned that she had noticed a significant chance in the demeanor of my wife and kids, “Your wife seems so much more at peace, and your kids don’t seem as wild and aloof. What has changed?”

As much as I would have liked to take credit, I could not. I simply explained that: In the past we both scrambled around as if we were in control of all things before us and that our hard work alone could control all of our circumstances. Once we realized that it is God who is in control of all things and not us this helped us to “chill out” considerably.

There’s really no point in loosing sleep over things that you can’t control.

Jesus said it best,

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

God made us, he knows what we need, and if he says, “Don’t worry” then we need to cheer up, and focus on what’s important!

Father knows best,

~DAC

Galatians 2:20“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

I know it’s been a while but I couldn’t pass this one up.

This scripture reminded me of the classic Jekyll vs. Hyde struggle. Paul reminds us of our new role in Christ whereby we are no longer to live our lives for ourselves, but for Christ who lives in us through the baptism by which he saves us (yeah- look it up :)).

The main challenge for me is that, though Christ now lives in me and my purpose in life has changed, I still have to deal with the daily struggles that life in “the world” has to offer:

• Bills
• Relationships
• Selfishness (My own and others)
• Pride
• worldliness
• ad infinitum

I guess that’s why we need to consider ourselves, as Paul did, as Crucified with Christ.

A dead man has no worries.

A tough one - I know. But we have the rest of our lives (in Christ) to figure this one out. It will probably take that long for us to grasp what Jesus said in Luke 9:23-

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me…

~DAC