Want to be "first?' Be 'last!'

Really good notes from church this morning:

Pastor spoke regarding Luke 22:24-30, where Jesus' disciples were arguing about greatness:   ²⁴ Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. ²⁵ And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ ²⁶ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. ²⁷ For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.
²⁸ “But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. ²⁹ And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, ³⁰ that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Such irony! After having heard the Christ speak so often, they still didn't 'get it.' They still thought that they needed to jockey for position 'in the kingdom,' as we do even now, eh?

But Jesus served people! He served his disciples, even as he served others. He showed us how to 'be first' ~ by 'being last!' Not to expect people to serve us, and not to serve others for notoriety, but simply in order to serve!

We say we are 'of Christ' ~ what are we going to do with that?

Why do we need to compare ourselves with others, or worry about what others think, when the God of the universe is "rejoice[ing] over [us] with singing??" ( Zephaniah 3:17)

In verses 28-30, the disciples have been exposed in their petty thoughts, but still he rejoices over them, and promises them greatness and blessings beyond their wildest dreams! (He knows we're human and faulty, and loves us anyway!)

Don't try to be perfect ~ just be faithful.

Great quote from C. S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" ~

But there must be a real giving up of the self. You must throw it away ‘blindly’ so to speak. Christ will indeed give you a real personality: but you must not go to Him for the sake of that. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all. The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it.
    Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

Wow ... good stuff.

Hope

Many days, I realise what a walking miracle I am ... but then, many days, I feel as if I'm just a walking mess.

Trying to remember what Beth Moore says about demoralisation ~ that it is a tool of Satan to discourage us. He watches us to learn what our worst fears are, about ourselves, and what we could/will become, then he plies us with the fear that we ARE becoming that.

BUT, we are loved, chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed, forgiven, and blessed, by God!

Ephesians 1:3-8 ~ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

God is who he says he is! God can do what he says he can do!

I am who God says I am! I can do all things through Christ! God's word is alive and active in me!

Now, to actually believe that, instead of the garbage I've always been taught about myself by my family. That I wasn't wanted, shouldn't have been born, have been the cause of all of my family's problems, and should be happy to have been allowed to live in their home, and to have to act as a servant to them.


I am so glad I finally learned that this was their problem, and not mine! However, the issues from those years of training are hard to overcome ... they have been the backdrop of my life for ever since I can remember. So hard to rid myself of this, although I have other family and many friends who are great people, who love me much and actively.

Jeremiah 31:3 ~ The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.

Jeremiah 29:11 ~ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.