February 4, 2015
Who is Visible in Your Flesh?
“Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from
Nazareth?”
John 1:46a
One of the many obstacles we face
as we seek to make the life in Christ our way of life is overcoming the vast
array of prejudices and pre-conceived notions that are deeply embedded in each
of us. It is virtually impossible to meet another person and receive them
simply as one, like you, knitted together by God in their mother’s womb. (Psalm
139:13) Instead, our mind processes millions of bits of information,
impressions, feelings and experiences to form a picture of who we think this
person is. We are so controlled by our prejudices we would do well to join our
voices with the Apostle Paul, “Oh, what a
miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin
and death? (Romans 7:24). Paul found his help in Jesus, and so shall we.
I want all of my relationships to
“arise out of my life in Christ” (Philippians
2:5 NEB); therefore when I sense my flesh-life, my prejudices, trying to ascend
in my life, I know it is time to be still before God and remember who I am, and
whose I am! As I rest before the Lord, I recall that my mission is to live my
life “so that the life of Jesus may be
made visible in (my) mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11a NRSV).
The reality of our lives is that all
too often it is not Jesus but our prejudices that are visible in our moral
flesh. As we become aware of our prejudices pushing Jesus into the background,
our first response is to remember Paul’s answer to his dilemma, “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ
our Lord. So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus”
(Romans 7:25a, 8:1). Our next response is to spend time quietly before the Lord
and reaffirm the reality of our existence, “Christ
in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Next reaffirm that the
world’s culture is telling you a pack of lies about who God is, who you are,
and who your neighbors are. (John 8:44) Then reaffirm your belief that God in
Christ Jesus is telling you the truth. (John 14:6). It has been my experience
that the more I reaffirm the beautiful truth of who I am in Christ, the less my
prejudices are able to elbow their way to the forefront of my life.
A good link to help you rehearse
who you are in Christ can be found here:
Sē’lah
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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book
of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence.
Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)
These
meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his
way of life. The meditations are
published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/
and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may
subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by
subscription.
Publications by Alex M. Knight:
·
Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New
Testament and Psalms is available
at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.
·
The second
edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.
·
Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus
Christ is available as
an e-book on Amazon Kindle.
Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible,
New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.
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