December 7, 2020 NOT OUR OWN
1 Corinthians 6:17, 19-20 “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
Romans 14:8 “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
We take pride in ownership. Much time and energy is spent in acquiring and maintaining the things we own. Certainly there is nothing innately wrong we owning material possessions, but if not careful, our possessions can come to own us. It is the way of the world for owners to be the boss, to be the ones in control, to be the ones who makes the decisions, and the one who is responsible for success or failure. This engrained mindset of ownership works against and is in opposition to the ways of God and our spiritual relationship with Him. A primary and basic truth of scripture is that when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we die to ourselves and are joined to Him-He becomes our Lord. That is a rather drastic reality-we go from owning our lives to dying to our lives and from our ways to His ways. That is a foreign concept and an undesirable concept to those who do not know the Lord-it makes no sense to them. It is a giant step forward for us spiritually when we not only acknowledge that we belong to Him, but live in such a way that the life we live reflects His ownership. A simple but basic truth is that those who are under the Lordship of Jesus make it a priority to do the things that please Him and to carry out His instructions and commands. It may come as a surprise, but putting ourselves under the Lordship of Christ is liberating and it also greatly simplifies life. It does not over-simplify to say that when He is Lord, we in turn have but one goal, and that goal is to follow Him and do as He says. (This is not saying that we are puppets who make no decisions and have no responsibilities; He has called us to be stewards and has given us power and authority to be about His business, and His business is all-inclusive, impacting every aspect of our lives.) As someone aptly said, “Let us go to our own funeral.” Nothing can compare to belonging to God; all who are under His Lordship receive abundant life from Him. It’s not a matter of His life and our life-when we join ourselves with the Lord, we become one spirit with Him.
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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