Seeking the Life in Christ

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

I Am a Living Sacrifice

This I Believe

Meditations on My Core Christian Beliefs

March 4, 2025

I Am a Living Sacrifice

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Romans 12:1 (NRSV)

Read Romans 12:1-5

I believe one of the benchmark days in the life of a Christian is when we grasp the truth that the world's culture has told us a pack of lies about who God is, who we are and who our neighbor is, and that God in Christ Jesus is telling us the truth. When we come to this place, God transforms us into a new person by changing the way we think. (v.2a) In the second part of verse 2, Paul asserted that when we let God transform the way we think, we will learn to know God’s will for us, which is good and pleasing and perfect. This language is very similar to how Paul expressed God continually working in our lives in his letter to the Philippians: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13).

In verse 1, Paul is asserting a powerful truth that is both quite humbling and compelling. When the priest offered a sacrifice to God, it had to be perfect to be received by God as holy and acceptable. Because I am alive in Christ, I am welcomed into God’s sanctuary because God’s deems me as holy and acceptable as a living sacrifice.

My Takeaway: Today’s passage reminds me of Genesis 3:8, “When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden.” At that time, humankind hid in their sin and shame because they were afraid of God. Today, God deems me holy and acceptable, and I can enjoy fellowship with Him as we share in the cool evening breezes. Thanks be to Christ Jesus, who loved me and gave himself for me to make this possible.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(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.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Monday, March 3, 2025

Christ Lives in Me

This I Believe

Meditations on My Core Christian Beliefs

March 3, 2025

Christ Lives in Me

I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

Galatians 2:21

Read Galatians 2: 15-21

In this passage, Paul proclaims the foundation of the Christian faith:

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”

Galatians 2:20b

As the followers of Jesus, our life, our identity is in Christ. The Jewish believers were initially shocked to find that God’s plan of redemption included the Gentiles. As they struggled to accept this ‘new’ salvation of God, they assumed that it would mean the Gentiles would be incorporated into the Jewish faith and customs. Paul then confronts them with the news that God is doing a completely NEW work in and through Christ. While the Jews were the first to hear the Good News, that did not mean a Gentile had to become a Jew to receive the Good News. Salvation is not about incorporating Jesus into our existing life. Salvation is about completely letting go of our existing life and immersing ourselves into New Life in Christ Jesus.

The Life in Christ we seek is experienced only after we have come to the place in our lives when nothing, absolutely nothing, but the love of God in Christ Jesus satisfies the longings of our soul. The only way we can come to that place is to first experience that our efforts in the flesh to satisfy our longings for love, acceptance and worth do not bear lasting fruit. The Apostle Paul contrasts the flesh life with the life in Christ as the difference between night and day, as between death and life:

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 2:20

“You’ll never know Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you have.” (This statement has been attributed to both Mother Teresa and Corrie Ten Boom) How do we get to the place that Jesus is all we have? Getting to the place where we are broken, clinging to nothing but Christ is the work of our sovereign God, and God alone. Our part is to trust where God is taking us and to keep our eyes on Jesus.

My Takeaway: “Let your bearings towards one another arise out of your life in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5 (NEB 1961)) This verse changed my life and gave me my life’s mission statement: Seeking the life in Christ as my way of life. It is our life in Christ that enables us to choose a believing-obedience way of life that brings glory to our God and empowers us to be co-laborers with Christ for the Kingdom of God.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(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.)

Friday, February 28, 2025

Believing Obedience

This I Believe

Meditations on My Core Christian Beliefs

February 28, 2025

Believing Obedience

Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

Romans 1:5

Read: Romans 1:1-5

Paul’s letter to the Romans is a systematic presentation of God’s plan of redemption for the entire world. In the first five verses, Paul outlines this plan which he fully developed in the sixteen chapters of this letter. Perhaps more than any other book in the New Testament, Paul’s letter to the Romans has been used by God to keep his people on the right track.

In the NRSV Bible, the first five verses of Romans 1 are one sentence and are somewhat convoluted, making it difficult to grasp Paul’s point. The NLT breaks this passage into five sentences where Paul’s passion is easier to see. Paul is writing to a group of Christians in Rome, which in his time was the political, financial, and military center of power for the known world. Implicit in Paul’s announced intention of his letter is that while Caesar may claim to be god, the only true and living God has sent His Son to be the Savior for the entire world.

I chose this passage as one of the essential scriptures that form my core Christian beliefs for two reasons. First, I find it so valuable because of the way Paul shows God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in complete unity in providing for the redemption of humankind.

Secondly, I chose this passage for the phrase, “so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.” (v.5) I like N.T. Wright’s translation of this phrase where he uses, “believing obedience.”

Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about believing obedience among all the nations for the sake of his name.

(N.T. Wright, v.5)

This is the explicit purpose of God’s redemption of humankind: that we would live in a state of believing obedience to Jesus and thus bring glory to his name. This was the practice of the first-century followers of Christ. When challenged about their ideas, Christians pointed to their actions. They believed their behavior said what they believed; it was an enactment of their message. They lived out the life in Christ as seen in The Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13.

My Takeaway: The good news about the Good News is that Jesus enables his followers to live in a state of believing obedience.

For God is working in you,

giving you the desire

and the power to do what pleases him.

Philippians 2:13

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(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.)

Thursday, February 27, 2025

I Believe Jesus is With Me

This I Believe

Meditations on My Core Christian Beliefs

February 27, 2025

I Believe Jesus is With Me

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

Matthew 28:18

Read: Matthew 28:16-20

In Matthew 1:23, an angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream and quoted the prophet Isaiah, ““Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” (NRSV) In verse 20 of today’s passage, Jesus affirmed the words of Isaiah, “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” My belief in this statement of Jesus is the foundation of my Christian beliefs because Jesus has given me, and all his followers, a huge assignment. The only way I can accomplish my assignment is having the presence of Jesus by my side.

What does it look like when Jesus’ followers believe that all authority in heaven and earth have been given to him, and that he is with his followers always? The first century Christian communities practiced making the life in Christ their way of life. Through their faith in Jesus, they lived out the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, and their lifestyle embodied the virtues of love set forth by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. And they changed the world.

But this was not a one-off proposition. Every generation must choose whether to believe Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth and that he is with us always. And every generation must decide whether to accommodate their faith to the prevailing culture or to teach new disciples to obey all the commands Jesus gave us. (v.20)

My Takeaway: The first-century followers of Jesus witnessed to their faith not in words, but in deeds. Their behavior said what they believed. May it be so in my life.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(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.)

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

I Need to Listen to the Voice of Jesus

This I Believe

Meditations on My Core Christian Beliefs

February 26, 2025

I Need to Listen to the Voice of Jesus

Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!

Luke 24:31

Read: Luke 24:13-35

I noted in yesterday’s meditation that many of Jesus’ followers turned away from him because they didn’t think Jesus was living up to their expectations. Some of the followers who didn’t turn away from Jesus were discouraged after Jesus’ crucifixion and thought he wasn’t the Messiah he claimed to be. They didn’t think their Messiah could be crucified; therefore, Jesus’ mission had ended in failure. “We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel” is how the disciples on the road to Emmaus put it. (v.21) They couldn’t see Jesus for who he was because the whole counsel of scripture was not the rule of their faith and life. (See my meditation of February 18, 2025)

To their discouragement, Jesus spoke a truth I need to hear today: “Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (v.27) Yesterday I noted that Jesus’ call to repent is a call to surrender my agenda, or ideas on how God should rule His Kingdom. In place of my personal agenda, I believe I am called by God to embrace the Word of God. I am called to the exposition of all the scriptures where I will hear the voice of Jesus reveal his fulfillment of God’s plan of redemption.

In today’s passage, as Jesus took the bread and blessed it, the eyes of the disciples were opened, and they recognized him. (V. 30-31) This is the other place to hear the voice of Jesus. In the sacrament of Holy Communion, as we come by faith to receive the bread and cup, we experience anew the presence of Jesus in our lives as we look forward to his coming again in final victory.

My Takeaway: There are so many voices in our culture clamoring for my attention and my allegiance. By God’s grace, may I hear the voice of Jesus, above the noise of other voices, as he leads me home.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(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.)

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

I Need to Give-Up My Agenda

This I Believe

Meditations on My Core Christian Beliefs

February 25, 2025

I Need to Give-Up My Agenda

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Mark 1:15 (NRSV)

Read: Mark 1:14-15

Two things caught my attention in this passage. When Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near”, I think of the prophecy in Isaiah 40 of the second Exodus, of God coming in person to establish his Kingdom on earth. There are some references to the fulfillment of the prophecy coming after 70 times 7 years, which would roughly coincide with the time Jesus spoke these words. Thus, those who heard Jesus make this proclamation, heard him claim to fulfill the prophecy, that he, Jesus, was God coming to His Kingdom. The Gospel of John is not the only place where the divinity of Jesus is revealed. (We can also see this in Mark’s quoting of Isaiah 40 and Malachi 1 in the opening passage of Mark 1)

Secondly, the word, repent, caught my attention. I quoted the NRSV above because the NLT added some words; “Repent of your sins.” That is not incorrect, but it does connote turning away from things you should not be doing. I think Jesus had something deeper in mind. By the end of Jesus’ mission many of his first followers turned away from him because he was not living up to their expectations. They were not so much interested “in the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” (Matthew 11:5) They wanted a Messiah who would form a great army, drive out the Romans and establish Israel as a great nation. To those people, Jesus said repent. Repent from your agenda, repent from your idea of how God should rule His Kingdom. Repent and believe in God’s Good News.

My Takeaway: I need to give up my agenda because my life does not belong to me. By creation and redemption my life belongs to God.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(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.)

Monday, February 24, 2025

I Need to See the Way God Sees

This I Believe

Meditations on My Core Christian Beliefs

February 24, 2025

I Need to See the Way God Sees

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

John 1:14

Read: John 1: 1-5, 14

John begins his gospel with the same words the writer of the Book of Genesis used: “In the beginning.” John then describes the creative energy that God used to form the universe as God’s Word. For John, Word is not just words like we read in a book or hear a person speak. Word is the very essence of God. John tells us Jesus is God’s Word.

The crowning achievement of the creation story in Genesis is God’s creation of humankind. As John opens his Gospel, he tells us God’s crowning achievement continues to be His care and love for His people. John writes that when we believe in Jesus, we are given the right to become children of God. We are reborn with a birth that comes from God.

In verse 14, John brings together some of the great biblical themes in Exodus and 2 Samuel. The Greek word translated “home” is used in Greek for tent and invokes the Tabernacle in Exodus where God dwelled with His people. When John wrote, “And we have seen his glory” he invoked the memory of Moses seeing God’s glory in Exodus 32. When John wrote, “the glory of the Father’s one and only Son” he invoked God’s promise in 2 Samuel 7 that from David’s house will come a son who will build a house for the name of God and who will reign as King forever. (See I Need to Trust God, February 17, 2025) Ultimately, we will see in the Gospel of John that Jesus’ glory is revealed in his self-giving love in his crucifixion.

John’s use of Word to describe the creative essence of God and of Jesus, takes me to Isaiah 55:11 (NRSV),

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

My Takeaway: In one verse John showed that God’s plan of redemption in Jesus was revealed throughout the Old Testament. If I want to understand the Gospel of John, and the New Testament, I need to see the way God sees.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

(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.)

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

I Am a Living Sacrifice

Monday, March 3, 2025

Christ Lives in Me

Friday, February 28, 2025

Believing Obedience

Thursday, February 27, 2025

I Believe Jesus is With Me

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

I Need to Listen to the Voice of Jesus

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

I Need to Give-Up My Agenda

Monday, February 24, 2025

I Need to See the Way God Sees

Seeking the Life in Christ

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