Monday, July 27, 2015

Serving Self

 

Every person is born into this world with a combination of the traits, talents, and temperament of their forefathers.  When we are innocent little children, we belong to the Lord (Mk 10:14).  However, as we grow and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Deut 1:39), each one of us comes into our inheritance from Adam:  we are carnally minded, selfish, under bondage to the god of this world, under the sentence of death.  Our vision is darkened by the cloud of sin and iniquity in which we come to live.  We may be living a good life (doing constructive things) or living an evil life (doing destructive things).  Although, in either case, we are serving ourselves if we are not serving God.  Our minds are on the desires of our human nature (Rom 8:5).  We are all born heirs of the kingdom of Darkness due to the fall of Adam (Rom 5:12-21).  We are all born blind to the reality of the kingdom of God (II Cor 4:4).

Now everyone experiences problems at one time or another during their life here on earth.  It is the legacy of our common ancestor, Adam.  Sometimes we are troubled, agitated on every side.  We are, at times, perplexed, having doubts about our life and we may be in despair, hopelessly obsessed, oppressed, depressed, or defeated.  The children born into this world are sometimes persecuted, abused and made to suffer at the hands of others.  We may be cast down, humiliated and sometimes we are destroyed or killed.  Jesus said, 'In this world you shall have tribulations' (John 16:33).  We are all troubled people until we enter the kingdom of God.

 The kingdom of God:

What is the kingdom of God? 

Where is it?  

The kingdom of God is mentioned numerous times in the New Testament.  Jesus taught us to pray, 'Our Father in heaven, may your name Thy Kingdom come...' (Mt 6:9-10)  The kingdom of God is where His will is done, whether on earth or in heaven.  A person can be, spiritually, in the kingdom of God while still living on this earth.  Jesus explained this when the Pharisees asked him when the kingdom of God was to come.  He replied, 'The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.’ (Luke 17:20-21) 

The Kingdom of God is within us... You and me as the children of the most high King! So if it is so that we are already citizens of this Kingdom then may we live each and every day as selfless as Christ our King did while He was here on this earth. We have Him as our best example of what it means to be selfless and give ourselves for others. It's easy to get wrapped up in this life to the point where we become selfish and uncaring.

God guard our hearts and minds and help us to be aware of the hurting and broken around us... And help us to be a help to the weary. May the Gospel message be on our lips continually.

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