15 Feb 2008
1. We are preoccupied with self
The Ephesian church began well, but when revelation came, the church was critized for "But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first." We all began well, enthusastic for the Lord, but when the worldly pleasure and pressure comes in, we are being absorbed.
Lust, pride and money are some of the cautions I have always to guard against. Pride is about self, the ego of being someone, attain some status.
The pursuit of the things, the pleasure and the pressure, make us lost in the world. The more preoccupied we are and concern for ourself, the more we fail to pop out our head above the cancopy of worldly life and see what is beyond.
2. We end up loving the world
16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions
We end up loving the world and down we went for a spin. These desires are not from the Father and moreover, 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires
I want, I need, I have... is all I and the worst is that these end with the world. Therefore pursuit the things not of this world, so that our focus is not to elevate self, but Christ.
So easily said than done. The peer pressure, the comaprisons.. the wants, the status... all serve to motivate us in the pursuit of self actualization than Christ centered. How?
3. We need to recognize that we are chosen by God
God has chosen us - for a special purpose. See the wow? No? then seek the wow! How can a soldier for Christ be preoccupied with worldly matters?
Know that God chose us. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Don't know? Then know it. That focus on who we are in Christ. We know God, we pledge our allegiance to Him, that's where we find our identity in Him. We need to go back, go back to the stage we we first know God and know His calling and His intention for each one of us. He called us - know that - and chose us.
Stop here and ponder and go back - your encounter with God, the blessings He showered you, know Him again and seek Him again.
4. Live life with God's power
2 Pet 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness
Ask for it, asl for the Holy Spirit. Break away from our old self, have a radical change.
If we continue to live life as we used to be, there will be no transformation. Christ need to be in us. We need to pop out, we need to elevate out of this worldly cancopy and live a life not focus on self but Christ.
How? For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, [3] and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
A lot of work - but a change is needed. A conscious effect is needed, so that we preoccupied with the matters of God and Christ and slowly these vitues become part of us.
5. A life of faith
We put trust not in self, not seeking the comfort with the self and world, but live a life in christ and through faith. It's time to soar.
40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect
We know God, we know His provisions. Pursue Him and know that all will be well. Put faith in things that seem so far away, but cling onto the promise and hope God called and given to us.
Don't know? Ask.
Each day is a journey. It will become part of us, if we choose to walk in faith and not in self, we learn to rely on Him. Fatih grows and we grow together in Him
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