Bitter or Better?

You've heard it said, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger".  What about these difficult and many times tragic situations that we continually endure?  What is it doing to our hearts?  What is it doing to your heart?  Is life making you bitter or better?  The thing about this life is this-it's not easy and it is never going to be.  We are born, we live, and we die, with all manner of hardships, tragedy, sorrow, illness, and loss.  We are mistaken if we think that our lives are harder than everyone else's.  Life is hard, period.  This is not paradise.  But the good news is that we are on our way home and along the way, hopefully, we will learn a few things about God and how to be like Him.  We have a choice, to become bitter or better...

How do we avoid becoming bitter?  "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."  Colossians 3:1-3 (NIV)  Set your hearts and minds on the things above.   Die to your self.   Let your life be hidden with Christ in God.  Take your eyes off of yourself and place them firmly and deliberately on the King of Glory, daily!

In 1 Peter Chapter 1:3-25,  we are given a "living" hope.  We could also call that "hope" for living.

Born Again to a Living Hope

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.  Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.  It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Called to Be Holy

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy, in all your conduct, since it is written,"You shall be holy, for I am holy." And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,  since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for  "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.  The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever."

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.  (ESV)

We must keep these things in mind:

1.     We are born again to a "living" hope.
2.     We are tested and the result should be praise and glory and honor at
        the revelation of Jesus Christ.
3.     We should not serve ourselves but others.
4.     We should be prepared for action setting our hope fully on the grace
        that will be given to us.
5.     We should be obedient being conformed to His holiness.
6.     Our conduct should be as those ransomed by the precious blood of
        Christ.
7.     Our faith and hope are only in God.
8.     We should purify our souls by our obedience to the truth.
9.     We should love one another earnestly from a pure heart.
10.   We have been born again of the imperishable, through the living,
        abiding Word of God.

If we set our hope and minds on these things, we will be prepared when difficult times come.  Some people ask, "How can you be so calm in the midst of these things?"  The answer is this, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee."  Isaiah 26:3 (KJV)

So the choice is yours today, bitter or better?

Dear Lord,  Thank you for the precious blood of your Son who offered us the grace which we can set our hope and minds on.  Please let us conduct ourselves as those ransomed by that precious blood.

Image courtesy of Photobucket.com.

The Process of Losing Myself...

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 10:39 (ESV)

"The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." John 12:25 (NIV)

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:7-14 (NASB)

The process of losing yourself for Christ's sake can be a long and arduous process. I have been going through the process for more than thirty years and I am not finished yet. I guess we are never really finished until we are at home with the Lord. The point is that we must press on forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. We need to continue in the process of losing ourselves that we may gain Him.

When we come into this world we are extremely egocentric. We are focused on ourselves and our needs. As babies, that is okay because that is how babies get their basic needs met for food, sleep, cleanliness, and comfort. But at some point we are supposed to grow up, we are supposed to become less egocentric. We are supposed to learn how to share, empathize, and care about those around us. We are supposed to regard others as more important than ourselves even. "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;" Philippians 2:3 (NASB) This is where we fall down, where we get stuck. So many of us have never moved beyond the egocentricities of childhood.

Jim Eliot said, "He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." If we give up who we were to become who the Lord wants us to be, we are rich indeed. We gain more than we could ever lose. We gain the knowledge of Christ which means more than to know about Him. We come to the place where we know Him, we have a personal relationship with Him, and we live our lives for Him. We know Him in a personal way and He gives us salvation.

We also gain His righteousness. We go through life trying to be good, trying to be righteous and we always fall short. Many times our attempts at righteousness turn into self-righteousness. Until we admit the truth that we, by ourselves, are spiritually bankrupt, we can never understand that the righteousness we can have in Jesus is the only righteousness that is incorruptible. The sins that were to be put to our own accounts are instead put to Christ's account and it is reckoned to us as righteousness! Romans 4:22-25 says, "Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written, that 'It was reckoned to him,' but for our sakes also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification." And we discover that our sins have been put on Christ's account on the cross. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)

Finally, we gain the fellowship of Christ. When we become Christians, it is not the end but only the beginning. We begin to be transformed into His image which is, again, incorruptible. We need to let the resurrection power go to work in our lives to change us, to help us lose ourselves and become like Him. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Galations 2:20 (NASB)

Dear Lord, Thank you that in the process of losing myself I gain more than I could possibly imagine. Help me to give up who I was to become who You want me to be. Teach me to count it all loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing You...