A Servant and a King!

I am just a guy with a lot of flaws, with a lot of traits which keep popping up in the most inopportune moments. Just like you or the next door neighbor, I am just an individual, with a lot of individualities which inconveniently make me frail and weak and full of defects buy weed tins near me. I cannot even pretend to be like Jesus, who being in His very nature God, did not consider being God something to use to his advantage, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a common servant (Philippians 2:6-7, emphasis mine).

Thanks God for his glorious grace, for his redeeming love for humanity, for we are so filthy and corruptible, that even in our path to sanctification we keep picking up dirt and mud. Thanks God for His servant son, our redeemer, for as we try to walk in his path we just keep messing up his work at the cross.

I cannot imagine me being a saint, and though I do not fornicate or steal or lie or use foul language, even though I don't kill or covet and I have managed by the work of His Spirit in me to defuse most of the clinging nasty habits which were not willing to let go, I still see how each day has a trial of its own in my walk as a saint; and my flaws are so many that I don't even try to take stock of them, I just let the Spirit of God pull them out like nasty weed, and wipe them clean as they show up.

I look around me with disdain, with frustration at times, the rottenness of the church, and then I look inward and I realize it's not only them, it is me also, and then I remember the salutation words of Paul to the Corinthians "To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. (1 Corinthians 1:2)

A rotten people indeed, the Corinthians carried all the flaws a local church could have, yet Paul called them the Church of God, he called them sanctified, he even brought up the fact that they were called to be holy. Because in spite of their flaws, in spite of the strife and contradictions and conflicts, in spite of the obvious sin clinging over them; like us, they called on the name of Jesus, and like ours, He was their Lord and savior. And the redeeming power of the cross had put a coat of whiteness over them. For God's grace is not conditional except on the cross, and Paul was being the incarnation of that grace.

So, where does that leave me? I guess I'm called to give grace and be me and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. I guess I am just called to be still and know that He is God, and if he let go of His throne for a season to take the heart of a servant, am I better than Jesus? Which right do I have to refuse to do the same? Be a servant that is!

Or, aren't I called to be an imitator of Jesus, for Paul says "Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1). And Jesus said "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mark 8:34).

And so I ask: Am I for real, or am I just a big hypocrite trying to look like the real thing? For one thing I do often hear the voice of God pointing me in the right direction, and I do identify his voice through confirmation of scripture and prayer and circumstances and other Christians, which often leads me to believe there must be something real in me. For one thing I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit is in me, For He often give me evidence of His indwelt presence, especially in those times when I am about to stick my foot in my mouth or step on somebody's toes. And I do try to follow the lead of the spirit, and to the best of my ability I do obey the commands of God as I interpret them. And yet I can give plenty of testimonies of times on which God spoke and I did not listen, and each one of those times managed to leave a scar within me, to remind me that what God says is always important.

And yet I still manage to mess things up on occasions, like an untrained child who need to be constantly corrected by his parents. I am still just a boy growing in the heart of a jungle, and with a father who is zealous and jealous and caring and nurturing, yet strict and righteous and demanding; a father who does not hesitate to use the rod if required, to keep me on the straight and narrow jungle boys marijuana.

Will I continue to make mistakes? I believe as long as I live in this flesh I'll get my occasional bumps and scratches and bruises. Paul Says in Romans 7:21; "although I want to do good, evil is right there with me." And though I intentionally and thoughtfully watch my steps, and prick up the ears of my heart to listen to the warning whispers of Christ in me, my flesh will continue to kick, and shove, and push, trying to get out of its grave. And I will need to continue to kill it each day, until the day of Christ.

For it is by His grace that I am alive through faith in Christ Jesus; and if you truthfully and wholeheartedly confessed Christ as you Lord and savior, then so are you also.