Showing posts with label Perspectives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Perspectives. Show all posts

Monday, March 29, 2021

BE GREAT? YES... - Jesus recognized desire and ambition for significance and accomplishment. He even affirmed them, and gave instruction how to direct these passions - but His perspective required an important reorientation. Desire and ambition should be intense, in the right expression, toward the right objective - because God is great, with great desires, so those whom He created reflect this characteristic. The critical element then, is not to kill desire but to sanctify it by yoking it to love for God and love for others, expressed by becoming a servant. Being great in God’s eyes comes from being great like Him, and in Him, who was the most exemplary servant ever. Jesus said that true greatness is achieved in servanthood. Jesus came from glory and lowered Himself from the heights of heaven - He taught us how to be great. The awesome paradox that the Son of God, entirely equal with the Father as His express image, became a flesh and blood human in order to die, is the quintessential act of loving servanthood. This qualified Him to receive the greatest Name above every name. Consecrate your passion, dedicate your desire, submit your ambition, by offering your body as a living sacrifice to God - His Holy Spirit will inspire your desire, fashion your passion, and condition your ambition, to bear the beautiful fruit of His Spirit for His Kingdom's sake. The greatest in the Kingdom will be the servant of all! Be a servant of His love, His compassion, and His grace. Exemplify Godly ambition!

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Be great? Yes...

The greatest in the Kingdom will be the servant of all! 

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Jesus recognized desire and ambition for significance and accomplishment. He even affirmed them, and gave instruction how to direct these passions - but His perspective required an important reorientation. Desire and ambition should be intense, in the right expression, toward the right objective - because God is great, with great desires, so those whom He created reflect this characteristic. 

,

The critical element then, is not to kill desire but to sanctify it by yoking it to love for God and love for others, expressed by becoming a servant. Being great in God’s eyes comes from being great like Him, and in Him, who was the most exemplary servant ever. Jesus said that true greatness is achieved in servanthood. 

.

Jesus came from glory and lowered Himself from the heights of heaven and so He taught us how to be great. The awesome paradox that the Son of God, entirely equal with the Father as His express image, became a flesh and blood human in order to die, is the quintessential act of loving servanthood. This qualified Him to receive the greatest Name above every name. 

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Consecrate your passion, dedicate your desire, submit your ambition, by offering your body as a living sacrifice to God - His Holy Spirit will inspire your desire, fashion your passion, and condition your ambition, to bear the beautiful fruit of His Spirit for His Kingdom's sake. Be a servant of His love, His compassion, and His grace. Exemplify Godly ambition!


Worthy Ministries

 

“Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, ‘What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?’ But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.’” - Mark 9:33-35

 

Yet as believers, we often consider ambition to be a bad and worldly thing.

But Yeshua (Jesus) said, “He who would be greatest among you must be the servant of all.”

So think about it … did Yeshua say we shouldn't desire greatness?

No, to the contrary, He recognized desire and ambition for significance and accomplishment.

He even affirmed them, and gave instruction how to direct these passions. But His perspective required an important reorientation.

C.S. Lewis had something illuminating to share about this subject:

"If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." (Excerpt from "The Weight of Glory").

Lewis agrees with the Lord that desire and ambition should be intense, in the right expression, toward the right objective.


Some people have great and passionate worldly desires and ambitions for wealth, power, fame, etc, and even these desires reveal an aspect of God's image which every man carries, because God is great, with great desires, so those whom He created reflect this characteristic.

The critical element then, is not to kill desire, as for example Buddhist religion demands, but to sanctify it... How?

Simply by yoking it to love for God and love for others, expressed by becoming a servant.

Being great in God’s eyes comes from being great like Him, and in Him, who was the most exemplary servant ever.

Yeshua said that true greatness is achieved in servanthood.

In this light, ambition, passion, and desire, under the unction of the Holy Spirit do not serve pride or vainglory, but are expressed in humility, servanthood and self-giving.

Yeshua came from glory and lowered Himself from the heights of heaven, and so He taught us how to be great.

The awesome paradox that the Son of God, entirely equal with the Father as His express image, became a flesh and blood human in order to die, is the quintessential act of loving servanthood.

This qualified Him to receive the greatest Name above every name.

Perhaps you have been seeking to beat down your ambition, squelch your desire, and quench your unquenchable passions.

Apart from being nearly impossible, short of becoming a self-flagellating monk, these energies ought rather to be redirected.

Consecrate your passion, dedicate your desire, submit your ambition, by offering your body as a living sacrifice to God [Romans 12:1-2].

His Holy Spirit will inspire your desire, fashion your passion, and condition your ambition, to bear the beautiful fruit of His Spirit for His Kingdom's sake.

The greatest in the Kingdom will be the servant of all! Be a servant of His love, His compassion, and His grace.

Exemplify Godly ambition!

Worthy Ministries is a Christian organization based in the United States and Israel with a global outreach to more than 120 countries on a daily basis.

Though we are an internet ministry, we are also significantly involved in the land of Israel.

Each week, Worthy Ministries delivers thousands of daily devotionals and news briefs across the globe. This past year alone, we have sent out more than 5.2 million news briefs and inspirational devotionals. We have received thousands of encouraging responses from appreciative subscribers. And many millions have utilized our sites and services, including Worthy News, Worthy Chat, Worthy Devotions, and Worthy Christian Forums.

https://www.worthydevotions.com/christian-devotional/be-great-yes


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https://puricarechronicles.blogspot.com/2019/10/servant-of-all-if-you-want-to-be-great.html

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Christ Poured Himself Out

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Sunday, March 7, 2021

REACHING OUR MOUNTAINTOPS - Jesus Christ walked perfectly, always doing the Father’s will, and thus he provides the greatest example for us to follow. His ability to overcome the most challenging obstacles enabled him to endure to victory. His mind-set, his point of view, was one that extended far beyond the immediate circumstances. Because he trusted God’s Word completely, he won complete victory over every obstacle. Just as Jesus Christ did, we too gain strength and endurance in challenging situations as we maintain a spiritual perspective according to God’s revealed Word. We are to lay aside every weight. A number of things can become weights or burdens. Social and peer pressures, financial concerns, job security and health issues, are all things we may face at times. While it is not God’s intent that we avoid issues when they arise or pretend that they do not exist, we are, however, to lay aside encumbrances, anxieties, or fears about those situations. We are to put off the former ways of our old-man nature. The “new man” is the spirit of God that we receive when we are born again. We put on in our mind that which God created in righteousness and true holiness; then we live it. This is the renewed mind. Thinking the thoughts of God’s Word and acting upon them brings power to any born-again believer, for we now have a mind coordinated and in harmony with our spirit. Putting on the new nature is how we lay aside the weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us.

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Reaching Our Mountaintops

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Jesus Christ walked perfectly, always doing the Father’s will, and thus he provides the greatest example for us to follow. His ability to overcome the most challenging obstacles enabled him to endure to victory. His mind-set, his point of view, was one that extended far beyond the immediate circumstances. Because he trusted God’s Word completely, he won complete victory over every obstacle. 

.

Just as Jesus Christ did, we too gain strength and endurance in challenging situations as we maintain a spiritual perspective according to God’s revealed Word. We are to lay aside every weight. A number of things can become weights or burdens. Social and peer pressures, financial concerns, job security and health issues, are all things we may face at times. 

.

While it is not God’s intent that we avoid issues when they arise or pretend that they do not exist, we are, however, to lay aside encumbrances, anxieties, or fears about those situations. We are to put off the former ways of our old-man nature. The “new man” is the spirit of God that we receive when we are born again. We put on in our mind that which God created in righteousness and true holiness; then we live it. This is the renewed mind. 

.

Thinking the thoughts of God’s Word and acting upon them brings power to any born-again believer, for we now have a mind coordinated and in harmony with our spirit. Putting on the new nature is how we lay aside the weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us.

by The Way

 

Have you ever been stuck in a place and felt as though you could not move ahead?

I have. One of those times was while climbing a mountain.

I had reached a point in my climb where I was no longer moving up the face of the mountain.

The longer I stayed in that one spot, the greater my anxiety grew. I began to get bogged down with thoughts of inadequacy and inability.

As the seconds turned to one minute, two minutes, and more, I grew increasingly unsure of how to get up the climb.

I had grown frustrated and exhausted considering thoughts of defeat.

Having allowed myself to become burdened by the immediate circumstances, I was ready to give up and quit.

Not only was I not reaching my goal, I was no longer even moving in that direction!

I needed to change my outlook, get a new perspective on the situation, and get up that climb!

“Perspective” is defined in one dictionary as “a visible scene, especially one extending to a distance.” It also can mean “a mental view or prospect.”

God’s Word clearly tells us the best perspective to acquire and maintain in order to reach heights of victory.

Hebrews 12:1-3:

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

“For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” 

We are to look “unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”

As we consider his ways, we keep from becoming wearied and faint in our minds. What a mental view we can have as we learn from the example set by our Lord and Savior.

Jesus Christ walked perfectly, always doing the Father’s will, and thus he provides the greatest example for us to follow.

His ability to overcome the most challenging obstacles enabled him to endure to victory.

What perspective did he carry in order to accomplish all that was before him?

His mind-set, his point of view, was one that extended far beyond the immediate circumstances.

“For the joy that was set before him,” Jesus Christ endured the cross and is now “set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Because he trusted God’s Word completely, he won complete victory over every obstacle.

As we examine Hebrews 12:1-3, we will gain a greater understanding of the perspective needed to win in life.

Just as Jesus Christ did, we too gain strength and endurance in challenging situations as we maintain a spiritual perspective according to God’s revealed Word.

Hebrews 12:1:

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

Here we see we are to lay aside every weight.

The Greek word translated “weight” here only occurs once in the Bible, and it refers to a bulk or mass, and thus a burden or encumbrance.

A number of things can become weights or burdens. Social and peer pressures, financial concerns, job security and health issues, are all things we may face at times.

While it is not God’s intent that we avoid issues when they arise or pretend that they do not exist, we are, however, to lay aside encumbrances, anxieties, or fears about those situations.

We are to “run with patience the race that is set before us.”

Would anyone ever strap on a heavy backpack before running a footrace? Just like those running a footrace, we compete in the spiritual competition to win. Additional burdens do not help!

We “lay aside” every weight because weights and burdens can so easily surround one and set one back.

To “lay aside” means to put off from oneself. In Ephesians, our loving heavenly Father tells us what to put off and what to put on.

Ephesians 4:22-24:

“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

“And be renewed in the spirit [life] of your mind;

“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

The “old man” is a figure of speech meaning the old ways which a person had before being born again. That old-man nature can be like carrying deadweight.

We are to put off the former ways of our old-man nature.

The “new man” is the spirit of God that we receive when we are born again.

We put on in our mind that which God created in righteousness and true holiness; then we live it. This is the renewed mind.

Thinking the thoughts of God’s Word and acting upon them brings power to any born-again believer, for we now have a mind coordinated and in harmony with our spirit.

Putting on the new nature is how we lay aside the weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us!…

This is an excerpt from the September/October 2006 issue of The Way Magazine.

For more information on subscribing to The Way Magazine, Click Here

About The Way Magazine™

The Magazine of Abundance and Power

Published by The Way International, this bimonthly magazine is filled with practical articles about living the Word of God. Beginning with the very first issue over sixty years ago, The Way Magazine has been providing men, women, and young people with timely Biblical truths they can put into practice for consistently powerful results. Today, The Way Magazine continues to help establish spiritual principles in the lives of faithful believers worldwide and is a vital link for them to the rightly divided Word of God as it reaches out worldwide from The Way International Headquarters in New Knoxville, Ohio, U.S.A.
Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille, the founder of both The Way Ministry and The Way Magazine, set his vision for this unique and dynamic publication, and this is still true today:

“The Way Magazine stands alone in its category as the foremost Biblical magazine, reporting the activities and findings of the men and women who are sincerely interested in the great accuracy of God’s Word….We are concerned not with intellectuality, tradition, trend, or the glamorous elements to be found in newsstand periodicals—but that the Word of God might be presented in all of its greatness and simplicity in an attractive, easy-to-read format for the blessing of God’s people.”

https://thewaymagazine.com/reaching-our-mountaintops/


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