Saturday, March 14, 2009

Is Being His Enough


In listening to the recent pod cast on the God Journey-“Thoughts on Structure” I was jerked up straight when I heard Wayne saying to a couple of folks he was recently with, even though you are not wearing the official badge of being a “pastor” you are pastoring these people you are engaged with.

Look, let’s cut to the chase okay, what the hell does having an official or unofficial name-title have to do with being His?
The pastoring, equipping that is being done in the church which IS His body, is being done in and through us (that’s you and me) as us.
I’m convinced it’s only because of not knowing whose we are that we need someone to confirm to us by saying stuff like this that we are pastoring, equipping the saints even though we wear no official name tag.

Folks it’s the gifted One in us as us that is doing this miraculous further transforming work of grace in each of our lives.
Is He not fully able to touch, impact, arrest, and get their attention through you, through me as you, as me?

I love what Paul has to say, “Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.”

In another translation it says of the Christ, “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”

More and more I am wondering if Jesus just might have known what he meant when he said, “He also told them a parable: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.”

Folks I want to say this as lovingly and truthfully as I know how, it’s NOT a seminar, it’s a revelation of Whose we are, and only He is able to make that yours personally!

The reality of His life this new wine is that which is wanting to transform us fully into His likeness and image, spirit, soul and body from the inside out, and in the process of being processed folks will be drawn to Christ in us as us, without any official or unofficial tags or titles except for BEING His!

Rich

1 comment:

Free Spirit said...

Yeah, titles just confuse the issue for me.

This jumps off the page when I read it:
“But made himself of no reputation"
Can you get MORE opposite of the world's vision than this??

At the core of religion... reputation is ALL that matters.