Do you want to be a slave?

Do you want to be a slave?

“Paul and Timothy,
slaves of Christ Jesus:
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons.”
Philippians 1:1

The Word slave sounds so brutal and poor.  A slave is someone we associate crippling lowliness with.  Someone who has no freedom, no will to change the course of one's day, and no love.  A worthless object who only lives to benefit their master.  Serve! Serve! Serve! And perhaps the master will feed you his leftovers or expect you to eat the pieces of meat that dangled off the platter, like the fat or ligaments that are tough to chew.  And perhaps you'll have a place to sleep, but it won't be very warm and the sleep won't be long...just enough for you to wake back up and serve! Serve! Serve!

That's usually the picture in my head when I think of slave, but let's be more objective.  The treatment the slave receives is entirely contingent upon the will and personality of the master.  Do slaves live to serve their master's will and desires?  Yes.  Do slaves belong to their master? Yes.  Do slaves get ill-treated by their masters?  That depends on the master.

So here is what is true about slaves for sure:
1. They serve their master
2. They belong to their master
3. They live with their master
4. Their master can ask them to do anything, and they will obey if they are slaves

Before we talk about good treatment or bad treatment we have to get it straight that there is no objective reason to believe that slaves have it bad.  They may not have a lot of freedom in the sense that they have to do whatever their master wants, but that isn't bad unless their so-called freedom is good.  In other words, a child who wants the "freedom" to do whatever they want will probably choose not to go to school or eat their veggies or clean their room.  Habits that are all meant for the good of the child's health and good character in the long run.

So sometimes not having that type of "freedom" is better for us than having it--if having it lead to destructive choices.

Now let's consider the master.

The most important person in the slave-master relationship is the master.  The life of the slave is submissive to the primary life of the master.  A loving master will mean love for the slave who serves him, a cruel master will mean cruelty for the slave who serves him.  Whoever the master is will reveal the life of his slave.

We are all slaves.
Either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness.

Let me put the same concept into different words that all point to the identity of the master as the distinct difference between this kind of slavery to that kind.  Either way we are slaves, the only difference is in who our master is.
We will do what our master wants or at least do what we can to make our master pleased/satisfied.

Slave to Christ vs. slave to Law
Slave to righteousness vs. slave to sin
Slave to God vs. slave to self
Slave to grace vs. slave to law

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?
By no means!

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations.
For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-Romans 6:15-23

So I ask again,
Do you want to be a slave?
If you desire a life and a free will then the answer will be yes.
A slave is merely someone who's life depends on the will of its master.
You can be a slave to your own will.
The point is not to be or not to be a slave.
The point is the master to whom you are a slave to.
Remember the life of the slave is contingent upon the person that the master is.

The only way to not be a slave is to not exist.
If you wish to cease to exist, then that's another topic.

But if you want a life of awestruck goodness, fullness of joys, deep and meaningful moments of intimacy with others, love, truth and beauty, then those are things that only a slave can experience.  Because those things involve existing.  You can't experience if you don't exist.

The next time you think you're being forced to do something and it feels like slavery, consider who your master is.  Or consider when you feel free in doing something consider who you're master is.
Feeling enslaved or free has nothing to do with being a slave.  You are a slave whether you feel like one or not, because remember a slave is simply someone who does the will of His or her master.

It's all about looking at the master.
In which case I join Paul and Timothy in declaring with thankfulness that I am a proud slave of Jesus Christ.  The most loving, good, and beautiful master whom I love to serve and do what He wills because everything He does leads to my perfect contentment.

Who is your master?
And how's that going for you?

A slave to Jesus,
Jmegrey

PS: my Master even tells me to stop calling Him "master" and instead call Him "friend."
He's that awesome, but whatever I call Him I still only want to do what He wants because His will is my life's greatest contentment.

“You are My friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father.”
John 15:14-15

We will do our master's bidding, so knowing your master well will help us know ourselves well.  Our life is contingent upon the master we serve.

Who is your master?

My chains are gone, my debt is paid, praise Him!

Going to work might feel like it has nothing to do with God's grand and epic purposes for your life and for the ultimate unveiling of His glorious Kingdom approaching earth in fuller measures, BUT what you feel and what is true don't always match up.  Today God is doing what only God can do--and that is a great work through you, because you have this hidden treasure in you like jars of clay full of miraculous water turning into wine!  Psalm 107 is the prayer on my mind and in my heart today as you and I go to work, study, or rest today.

"Others went to sea in ships,
(going to work)
conducting trade on the vast waters.
(Doing work)

They saw the Lord’s works,
(being mindful)
His wonderful works in the deep.
(Admiring God)

He spoke and raised a tempest
that stirred up the waves of the sea.
Rising up to the sky,
sinking down to the depths,
(GOD's initiative)

their courage melting away in anguish,
(our initial reaction)

they reeled and staggered like drunken men,
and all their skill was useless.
(Our reality)

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
(our desperate response)
and He brought them out of their distress.
(GOD's control)
He stilled the storm to a murmur,
(God's plan)
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
(God's power)
They rejoiced when the waves grew quiet.
(Our resulting praise)

Then He guided them
to the harbor they longed for.
(God's care)
Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love
and His wonderful works
for all humanity.
(Right relationship)

--
Again:

He turns rivers into desert,
springs of water into thirsty ground,
and fruitful land into salty wasteland,
because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.
He turns a desert into a pool of water,
dry land into springs of water.

(...because? There is no reason for God to do the good things He does, but everything points to a reason for Him to turn away from us because we are always dishonoring His Holiness, and relating to Him wrongly as if praise need not be constantly rising from our lips to Him.  Yet see how His goodness continually shows up!)

Let whoever is wise
pay attention to these things
and consider the Lord’s acts of faithful love.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭107:23-31, 33-35, 43‬ ‭

Consider your way of relating to God today.  Do you relate to Him on the basis of His faithfulness and Your dependence on Him or do you relate to Him based on your feelings and His dependence on what you want.

The right way of relating to God is when He is God and we are His created ones made for worship.

“Give thanks to the Lord,
for He is good;
His faithful love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim
that He has redeemed them
from the hand of the foe
and has gathered them from the lands —
from the east and the west,
from the north and the south.

Example 1:
Some wandered in the desolate wilderness,
finding no way to a city where they could live.
(Feeling restless or without a home)

They were hungry and thirsty;
their spirits failed within them.
(Losing energy and hope)

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He rescued them from their distress.
He led them by the right path
to go to a city where they could live.
(God's action)

Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love
and His wonderful works for all humanity.
For He has satisfied the thirsty
and filled the hungry with good things.
(God's good and perfect plan!)

Example 2:
Others sat in darkness and gloom —
prisoners in cruel chains —
because they rebelled
against God’s commands
and despised the counsel of the Most High.
(Our disobedience)

He broke their spirits with hard labor;
they stumbled,
and there was no one to help.
(GOD's control)

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He saved them from their distress.
He brought them out of darkness and gloom
and broke their chains apart.
(God's action)

Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love and His wonderful works
for all humanity.
For He has broken down the bronze gates
and cut through the iron bars.
(God's good and perfect plan!)

Example 3:
Fools suffered affliction
because of their rebellious ways
and their sins.
(Our foolishness)

They loathed all food
and came near the gates of death.
(Our situation)

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He saved them from their distress.
He sent His word and healed them;
He rescued them from the Pit.
(God's action)

Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love and
His wonderful works for all humanity.
Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
and announce His works with shouts of joy.
(God's good and perfect plan!)

But He lifts the needy out of their suffering
and makes their families multiply like flocks.

The upright see it and rejoice,
and all injustice shuts its mouth.

Let whoever is wise pay attention
to these things
and consider
the Lord’s acts of faithful love.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭107:1-43‬ ‭

This psalm shows a sequence played out in different ways.  It doesn't matter who started the oppression--whether external or internal--what matters is that God saves and we give Him praise.

Whatever your situation is, whether the cause is you or something outside of your control, it doesn't matter.  What matters is that we look to the Lord for all our needs-both ones we have control over and ones we don't.  His rescue is not contingent on our obedience but on our cry for help.  The resulting response of this kind of cry is always thankfulness.

This is the repeated sequence of Psalm 107:

1. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress.

2. Let them give thanks to the Lord
       for His faithful love and
       His wonderful works for all humanity.

Consider not what started the distress but who takes care of it. God is in control.
His part is control,
Our part is praise.

I find myself mostly in acts of disobedience and rebellion toward God, and this psalm is the freedom that I seek.  It's not who I am that compels God to rescue me, but it is who He is that compels Him to rescue me.

Thank You Lord for Your faithful love in the midst of my unfaithful love, and for Your wonderful works for all humanity,
Jmegrey

God's purpose to grant us everything through suffering

You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord . . . (James 5:11)

Job is the guy we all know who suffered the most in the history of mankind besides Jesus.  He lost everything he had and everyone he loved (except his nagging wife), and experienced the worst kinds of mental, spiritual and physical pains.  But worst of all Job suffered when he not only did nothing to deserve it, but did everything to deserve the opposite of suffering!  He was an obedient, steadfast, and righteous man of God.  Yet he went through so much pain and turmoil in his life.  He is a type of Jesus.

Yet in the end Job received from God more than what he had in the beginning.  Job not only received the earthly things back in multiplication but he also received more of God relationally--a gift that God alone can give to a created human.  The gift of greater fulfillment.  This all happened because God used Job's pain to bring him closer to the knowledge of who God is and, in turn, led Job to intimacy with his Maker.  The devil had his purposes for seeing Job suffer, which Job's friends also agreed with, but God has His own purpose for Job's suffering.  In the end the purposes of God will prevail and our part is to remain in Him for that very reason.

“Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.”
John 15:2

Pruning time is our opportune time to grow for every child of God.  When pain hits our lives, we can know the Surgeon is working on the health of our hearts.

That sounds counter-cultural since hard times and pain will equate to bad times and misery by the interpretation of culture.
But we know that God has His way of making all things new and He begins by pruning away what is hindering us from truly blooming in abundant fruit!
In order for a butterfly to hatch it has to leave behind its caterpillar lifestyle and enter into the encasement of a cocoon.

He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?
Romans 8:32

To be encased or "stuck" in time, away from our wants and desires, is not to be withheld from them.  Rather, God is shaping us to enjoy our desires to the fullest capacity by making our hearts set on Him, making us whole, so that the rest of us can gather His gifts without losing our wholeness in the process.  Everyday He wants to bless us even more, but if we do not have whole hearts then we will be tempted to find wholeness in a gift we do not have yet....essentially turning our lives into a continual treadmill bonanza.  Step off the treadmill and wait in whatever circumstance God has you in because God is a good and loving Father who wants us to enjoy life and enjoy eternal life to the fullest!  It begins now in our brokenness.  Our weak natures are being transformed into the new nature.  By the time we reach full communion with God in Heaven we will finally understand His purposes for our pain on earth as necessary for our complete joy in heaven.

Find your life here and you will lose it at death, but lose your life and you will find it both here and in Life everlasting.  (Luke 17:33)

We waste our time believing the lies of the devil who tries to set our sights on his own purposes for our suffering, but we are called by Christ to set our eyes on the purposes of God.  Oftentimes, we feel this the most when we get defensive or disappointed with people.  When our hearts consider our suffering from the perspective and purposes of the devil then naturally we don't like it.  We begin to complain and get angry.  But who is the One in control of our circumstances?  Who's purposes are we viewing our circumstances from?

“Brothers, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door!

Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises.

The prayer of faith will save the sick person,
and the Lord will restore him to health;
if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.
The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours;
yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain,
and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land.
Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit.”
James 5:9, 13, 15-18

When we suffer it doesn't mean we have to smile.  It means we have to look at God, often through tears and anguish,  and speak to Him because it shows us that we believe He knows what is going on and is in control.  Our limited scope will naturally leave us bewildered most of the time, but being bewildered does not inhibit us from being open to God.  What hinders us from being open to God is not looking to God at all.  When our focus remains on our circumstances and our expectations then we close ourselves off from our only hope.  We give the devil what he wants: our misery.

However, Christ reminds us that communion with the Father is our lifeline in this life and in our eternal life.

“You took off your former way of life,
the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires;
you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; you put on the new self,
the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.

Since you put away lying,
Speak the truth,
each one to his neighbor,
because we are members of one another.

Be angry and do not sin.
Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,
and don’t give the Devil an opportunity.

No foul language is to come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.

All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.”
Ephesians 4:22-27, 29, 31-32

Putting truth into action today:
Let's wait in every season of feeling encased and remember that Time is in God's good hands and He will bring to fruition our deepest desires when we remain steadfast in Him.

Today is about waiting on the Lord during our times of suffering, and in the meantime, setting our eyes on Him from the place of our encasement.  Be open to His purposes.

Jmegrey

Morning message to my youth

Hello and good morning my precious, valuable, worth the cross, spiritual family!

Each of us is being transformed today just as we were yesterday and just as we are until we come face to face with Jesus.

"Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."
-Luke 17:33

Being in Sin is "I" in the center.
Being in God is "others" in the center.

S. I.N. leads to a life:
Stuck
In
Nothing

G.O.D. leads to a life:
Getting
Our
Dream

Obviously I made those acronyms just to help remind us of the truth.

Sin is best defined by its middle letter.
Which is "I"
Sin is when I am all about me.
When all I can do is think about me.
Sin is self-centered behavior,
Sin is self-promoting,
Sin is self-indulging,
Sin is self-ish.
And we were born with a sin-nature.


The Bible says in John 1:29:
"Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

He took our SIN.
So everyday we are being made into what Christ died to give us: a New nature (His), and giving Him what He took on the cross: our sin.

In this life we'll never get to the point where we are sinless,
but by God's grace,
we will sin LESS.

This is the offer of a life abiding in Christ that leads to true and everlasting life.

Take action in cooperating with the Spirit of truth inside you today:
Who can you be about today at the cost of losing your self to some degree?
Take hold of that transforming opportunity!

Message inspired by Max Lucado's book "Because of Bethlehem"

Be loved by Jesus,
Jmegrey

Listen and understand

“Summoning the crowd, He told them, 

“Listen and understand: 

It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” 

Then the disciples came up and told Him, 

"Do You know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard this statement? ” 

He replied, 

“Every plant that My heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted. Leave them alone! They are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 

Then Peter replied to Him, 

“Explain this parable to us.” 

“Are even you still lacking in understanding? ” 

He asked. 

“Don’t you realize that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated? But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a man. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

Matthew 15:10-20 

--

Jesus is talking about a person's actions in two different ways.  One is the action seen by what one does, the other is the action born of what one thinks.  The former is merely external behavior while the latter stems from what's inside.  

So, what is Jesus saying here?  How can we know what our hearts are like?  By our actions or by our thoughts?  According to this passage it will be by our thoughts.  

This is always unpleasant at first because the lips can lie, but the thoughts speak the ugly truth.  There's something about the veil of thoughts that make them appear harmless, but Jesus blatantly speaks of what we think as being what we truly are.  So, in order to see ourselves more clearly we must examine our thoughts before we examine our actions.  

Knowing what is really in our hearts will allow us to then bring our filth to God for Him to cleanse by the washing of the Word.  

What are you thinking today?  

Now, bring those thoughts to God and let Him wash you in the water of His Word. 

Jmegrey