Did I leave it with my family home? Did I leave it at work? Did I leave it in that outfit I use to go out on the town? Maybe I left it at church and can pick it up today? I'm not talking about Paul's statement of being all things to all people. I'm talking about not being true to your God given identity. What exactly does that mean? Take Jeremiah for instance. Around the age of 13-15 God called him to be a prophet. That's kind of young isn't it? God told him to never take a wife, to not father children and to own nothing because his life was going to be miserable. God told him that he would prophecy doom and destruction to the Israelites due to their abandonment of God. Jeremiah's prophecies would take them from their arrogant self sustaining selves to enslavement under the hands of the Babylonians. Would you have liked to have the identity of Jeremiah? I use Jeremiah but there are a host of others that were and are called by God to be his identity to their world. Wait! That's what we are supposed to do when we become Christian! The very first step in our Christian life is to identify with Christ and no longer against Him. We are to "put on" Christ. We are to put on the "armor of God". We are to stand firm to the end and overcome the evil one. That is our identity.
When I get up I have the best of intentions of manifesting the identity of Christ in my life. I even read the Bible and journal about what God has brought me through the previous day. Then I type this blog and proclaim to you what God has given me to proclaim. Today he has asked me to talk about identity and where we left it. We know that when we go off to church, work or a friends/families home that we "put on" clean clothing, brush our hair and look presentable. We put away that which may offend and focus on what will be a good time for all. We do this day in and day out and consequently never really live fully the identity that God gives us. We laugh at the crude jokes, share lustful looks with others, swear occasionally so that we "fit in" and even go to the bar for a drink "with the guys" before going home. We present and represent an identity that is pleasing to the world but not necessarily pleasing to God. I think God likes football. He created it. So, watching a game isn't a bad thing. When football (or any other sport/hobby) gets in the way of what God is wanting to do and is doing, they are no longer part of God's identity that is to reside in us. What you put in the way of God manifesting himself in your life? Why do you do it?
Living out the identity of Christ in us costs us nothing. We don't believe that though and even Scripture talks about counting the cost of following Jesus. The disciples were sent out to minister to the masses. He sent them with the clothes on their basks because he had already clothed them with everything they would need on this short journey. None of them returned to say,"If I had just had my fly fishing outfit." None. Their identity was worn in their lives. Yes, we know that Peter in particular had difficulty with this area of his life. Yes, they all fled from the Cross but John. Yes, the one called Judas cast off the identity. What are you going to do? What is your identity in Christ? Are you going to wear that identity? Are you going to put on Christ when it fits you and no other time? Do the people around you know that you have died to self and put on Christ? Where did you leave your identity?
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