17)
And he is before all
things, and by him all things consist
18)
And he is the head of the body, the church:
who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might
have the preeminence.
19)
For it pleased the Father
that in him should all fulness dwell;
|
I |
t
is common knowledge that the process of thinking begins in the head (brain).
However, this process switches from our
head to the Lord (the
"head") when we get saved. Our "fatal flaw" after salvation
is in insisting upon trying to operate by our own knowledge.
It
is the nature of Man to be determined to get to "work" that which has
proven to be unsuccessful. Most have a "thing" about wanting to
appear intelligent. If we can just make something "work," we will
have a source of pride. The Lord wants us to face the fact that with all we do, we will always fall short of perfection. He has
filled us with the Holy Ghost that this need not be so. However, the only way
for this to be a reality for us is for us to allow Jesus to fulfill His purpose
in our lives. That purpose is for Him to be absolute ruler of all—all that
pertains to us, all that happens to us, all that would "dissuade" us.
With
most of the things that we do, it seems as if we allow ourselves to forget just
exactly who we are. You see, before anything is done, we need to consult Him.
This is because it is to Him we belong and therefore, all that we do "affects" Him. Since He is the only One Who does not
make "mistakes," in order to do His work the way that He wants it, we
need to consult Him. In all things,
He is our guarantee of success.
All
of the things that the Lord is trying to "purge" from us can only be
conquered (erased) by replacing them with something else. We have not changed
because of our "natural" resistance to change. The
"natural" must be changed into the spiritual, or the man has no
chance of going to heaven.
Some
are reluctant to come initially to the Lord because of feelings connected to
the spiritually of relatives. You know: "You want me to believe my mother
wasn't saved?" Frequently, we will try to "hang onto" our families religious affiliations for the sake of family
unity. The truth of such situations is that if "old time religion"
did not keep one's relatives from sin, it was not worthy to be followed—and is not
honored by God.
Unless
the saints of God have no honesty left within, one frequently hears from them
statements of a desire for help. We already have Him, yet will refuse to go to
Him to obtain that help. If we want to know where to go and what to do, we need
to ask the Lord. Often we will not ask, for in finding what to do, we also are told what not to do. You see, once we know this,
we would have to change—and this is
that to which we are resistant.
We
are no longer to live for ourselves. Jesus has become the "head of the
body" that He might do the living in
us. This is why it is so crucial that He be a part of all we do. After a situation becomes a problem is
not the appointed time to consult Him—or
the pastor. If we would submit ourselves to his guidance, He would help us to
avoid the "drastic" measures often necessary at the end of our own
decisions.
One
cannot escape accepting the life of Jesus if one accepts His death,
burial and resurrection. In that He was unencumbered by sin and therefore, His
death was without its "sting," through partaking of the death and
being raised to "new life," we are conferred the status of the
sinless. How, then, can we get up from that watery grave, persist in our
fleshly ways and proclaim our righteousness?
Though
we give ourselves much credit for our intelligence and maturity, we seem not to
understand that whatever the Lord
sets as a requirement of pleasing Him, He expects of us. Consequently, by simply meeting His requirement, which involves
doing as He says, we will be blessed. There is never a time when the Lord will
not bless an individual for being obedient to Him.
Since
Jesus is "the head of the body," He is the One with the
"Plan" and He knows what is necessary to fulfill it. Not only does He
know the components of the actual plan, He knows what must be done in us that we might be usuable in the plan. Once again,
to accomplish this, He gives us the means of preparation—and the greater that
preparation, the more you will be able to be used. Thorough preparation also
means that one will have the "foundation" needed to be able to
"stand" and to know why he
stands and be able to persuade someone else
to stand.
If
there is any "formula" to be had for salvation, it is that the key to
success is praise—at the beginning,
middle and end of all tests.
One
is living a fairy-tale existence if he thinks that tests can ever be avoided.
They can be fought by the unwise, but preparation also comes through testing. The harder the test, the greater the preparation. The greater the preparation, the more usefulness. The more usefulness, the greater the opportunity for service.
We need never fear "burn out," for we will never be prepared for that
for which we will not be used. Unfortunately, too many turn God's attempts at
preparing them into occasions for complaining. What is not accepted is that
God's point is to get us to learn to praise Him in all things, because He knows
that our victory and deliverance will be in our ability to learn to praise Him
in all things.
Now
is not the time to think or even wonder if a "mistake" of any sort
has been made. Things in the spiritual world are "heating up" and
therefore, of necessity, our "testing" must, also. All we seem to
be able to see is what is happening to us and how we feel about it, missing
what is trying to be accomplished. Since our focus is all about us, our concern
is all about us and instead of seeing the "need" in others, we see
our need of assurance that the Lord has not left us in this "mess".
We need to accept that He is "on our side" so that we can go ahead
and rest in Him.