03-Feb 2007  

Sunday School:

Choruses: I’ve got a river of life (F); Micah 6:8 (Eb); Father Glorify Yourself (C); Open my eyes Lord (F)

Scripture reading: #658

Tonight – Home Fellowships!

Wednesday evening @ 7 - Gain advice without obligation from the widest possible circles

I am irritated by people who, despite Galileo, Copernicus & Newton - believe that they are the center of the universe.

Philippians 2:1. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2. then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

3. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

6. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7. but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Let’s look at it from an older version of the Living Bible.

Philippians 2:1. Is there any such thing as Christians cheering each other up? Do you love me enough to want to help me? Does it mean anything to you that we are brothers in the Lord, sharing the same Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic at all?

2. Then make me truly happy by loving each other and agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, working together with one heart and mind and purpose. 3. Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself.

4. Don't just think about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and in what they are doing. 5. Your attitude should be the kind that was shown us by Jesus Christ, 6. who, though he was God, did not demand and cling to his rights as God, 7. but laid aside his mighty power and glory, taking the disguise of a slave and becoming like men. Christ humbled himself

Some time back I was having a good time while facilitating a 'group' of irascible teens who were parodying the Army's then current, "Be all that you can be..." recruitment slogan.

Since that was their mood when coming into the 'group' that day, I met them where they were and we used that as a springboard.

"If the Army isn't your 'diving board' into life, what do you propose would fit you better?" I asked. Lots of animated conversation then ensued with visions of rock stardom and professional sports and even a couple of future legal-eagles thrown in.

Accompanying the projected grandeur of their dreams was more than a dollop of swagger.

"Where did you learn that - thing?" I asked one guy while making motions to exaggerate his affect. Everyone laughed.

"That's (rock star name withheld)..."

"Oh." I responded, "How humble."

They then proceeded to inform me as to how rock stars don't have to be humble.

The conversation gradually shifted to the despicable personality quirks and traits of those victimizers they had known...one trait seem consistent. Victimizers seemed to them to be rude and arrogant in their abusiveness.

I asked them who was perhaps the most opposite of (the rock star they had previously named). They eventually decided that, of anyone they had heard of, it probably was Mother Teresa.  

If we are called Christian, then we are called to come into the image of Jesus.

We are called to service.

· Consider Jesus who did not consider ‘equality’ with God…Too many Christians try to grasp everything they can get their stingy little fingers around. Our hand can only grasp to help or be helped if it is open and held out.

We are called to make things better.

· To edify is to…I’ve heard it said ‘Whatever floats your boat –‘ I think perhaps we ought to be helping people ‘launch’ their boat! It’ll probably float, but they might not be able to get it into the water by themselves. Sometimes they don’t know where the boat-launch is, all they can find is a steep bluff dropping off to the water.

We are called to humility.

· To consider others as better – collegiality is rarely practiced in church settings. There has historically and typically been a superficiality in church circles that precludes real friendship. Get real! Not who you want someone to think you are, but who your husband or wife know that you really are.

“Be all that you can be” probably means that you won’t be thinking that you have arrived.

“Be all that you can be” probably means that you have a very solemn assessment of who you really are and how you got where you are.

“Be all that you can be” probably means that you find yourself intuitively wondering about the plight of certain folks you see along life’s way - and wanting to help.

“Be all that you can be” probably means that you find a great deal of frustration quite frequently as see folks seemingly locked in a destructive spiral pattern in life.

Humbly serving and trying to make things better doesn’t mean you will see much success in your efforts…but you will be coming into conformity with the image of Jesus. You will be finding your place in the universe.

You will be in the middle of your universe, but it won’t revolve around you.