Stamped With God’s Nature

Made In HeavenThe label “Made In America” used to connote high quality and real value. Today the cry for “Made In America” is heard often and the challenge to buy only such products has been going up for some time now. The problem is that stamp no longer represents what it used to. With union spoliation, that label in many cases has come to mean low to average quality, little to no value, and high cost. Things just ain’t what they used to be!

With the label Christian, we declare ourselves “little Christ’s” and so the world has the right for great expectations from us. We should be different and daring. We should never go along to get along if it means violating God’s Word. We should be bold in our obedience to God’s Word to the point of not making sense to a watching world. Remember this?

    “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

If we display the peace of God, better yet if we live in the peace of God, will we not be misunderstood? Will not our ways seem impractical and impossible? I would hope so!

Beloved if we have certainty and surety in our own abilities when it comes to tackling the issues of life, then we have little, if any, faith and reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ. This should not be so because we have been equipped to live greater lives:

    “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:2-4)

Have grace and peace grown in your spiritual life? If not, perhaps you need to increase your “knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Is your walk with Christ missing godliness? Is there something missing in your Christian life? Perhaps you need more knowledge of what it means to be a Christian.

Beloved we must understand the great heavenly wealth we have at our disposal. Now often that is confused to mean we will live our “best life now” and never have earthly worries. This is true if you’re reading out of the NTFV (New Touchy-Feely Version) Bible. However, if you are on the frontlines of the spiritual battlefield, there is a great chance you are lacking all that the Joy Boys are selling on Sunday mornings.

If fact if life is going swimmingly for you and you are not being spiritually challenged, there’s is a good chance that you are no where near the battlefield. Oswald Chambers puts it this way:

    “When God is beginning to be satisfied with us He will impoverish everything in the nature of fictitious wealth, until we learn that all our fresh springs are in Him. If the majesty and grace and power of God are not being manifested in us (not to our consciousness), God holds us responsible. ‘God is able to make all grace abound,’ then learn to lavish the grace of God on others. Be stamped with God’s nature, and His blessing will come through you all the time.”

Too often we look to the “lions of the faith” and they can be good role models for us. However, we have the greatest example of Christlikeness we will ever need. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostles were very much transformed by the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ because they had spent a great deal of time with Him. While we may not be able to spend 3 years walking and working side by side with Christ in the flesh, we have our Bibles, one another, and prayer to make us more like Him. And we must grasp the depth of grace God has lavished upon us to allow us to become more like His Son. This is what John is saying:

    “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:1-3)

Are you stamped with God’s nature or have you been molded by the presses of this world?

Are you a fountain of blessing or a sponge. If the latter, it’s time you were wringed out. Let Him do so…

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2013 David Jeffers

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