What consumes your thoughts? What is the thing that lies at the fore front of your mind on most days? We are told as a man thinks in his heart so is he. What is your main thought that dominates your soul? My mind used to be so filled with fear and doubt about most things in life, but thankfully I have allowed and worked with God to be rescued from that debilitating process to a large degree. (We all have our moments!) In essence the Christian life is one of going from Glory to Glory BUT! While we vacillate between what God says of us and what we allow our minds to dictate to us we fail to make a choice and life over runs us. We were saved to be the head and not the tail, but many of us refuse to take on that role, we find it easier (read safer) to stay in the roles that life has dictated to us.
Can you imagine the call of God on the Apostle Paul’s life and he refuses due to the fact of his previous way of living. “Oh no that cannot be me sorry Lord I am a miserable man that has killed Christians and made life hell. All the mistakes I have made Oh my goodness I cannot, I will not, I should not, etc etc etc..” No instead Paul makes the decision to accept and live the word that God had for him. He too like you and me had a choice to accept and live in the call or to move in his own understanding again and again. Where would that have left us? My thoughts are we would have been reading the Georgine doctrines rather than the Pauline as God would have had to find another.
Having so many choices in our lives is a blessing but at the same time it’s a curse. Because we have so many choices we have options and if there is a hint of pain with an option that would lead to change, we refuse to make that choice. And yet making that choice is the one thing that will lead to life and a fulfilled lifestyle. The Kingdom is about God and His ambassadors, and ambassadors are meant to be representatives of the King. An ambassador in many ways is the King in that place he lives. Can you imagine the picture people in the society get of the supposed King! He is afraid, schizophrenic, sad, co dependant, controlling and you fill in the other adjectives.
As Christians who are indwelled by the King whom we represent, and His image is stamped into our DNA, and He has even promised not to leave us but to fill us if only we will embrace who He is in us. We don’t even have to make a new image up the blue print is already over laid and the file downloaded, but we have to open it via belief. In preference we (and all too often) move away from the image and prefer the false image that we have been so used to living in. We wear a mask, and are scared to take it off because how will I cope if I make the choice to live differently? Can I really trust the blue print? What if it fails me? This then stops us walking through the doorway that leads to faith that leads to growth that leads to rest and that is the goal of the kingdom to cease from our works (read standards) and embrace His, which is provided free of charge and clear of debt.
Let me encourage you today to take the mask off, if even for a moment each day and practice living in who you really are, and not in the false belief of what you have been told you are. To walk through that door of faith and trust the one who called and saved you in the first place, in the total belief that He has made you able to be His ambassador and His friend.
Those are my thoughts, Pastor Rob
Rob Cunningham | Senior Minister |
The Promise Centre | Post: PO Box 435 | Wagga Wagga NSW 2650 |
Street: 48 Vestey Street | Wagga Wagga NSW 2650 |
Ph: +61 2 6921 5021 | Fax: +61 2 6921 5121 |
Email: robc@thepromisecentre.com.au |
Web: www.thepromisecentre.com.au |
“To be all we already are in Christ and to help others see this truth….”
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