Tag Archive - Jesus Christ
HUMILITY
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With the NBA finals going on with all the superstars and hype, I thought we could use some fresh air of humility.
In 1997, basketball superstar Michael Jordan had been on four championship teams, But the Chicago Bull‘s new assistant coach, Frank Hamblen, after 25 years in the league, did not have a championship ring. Jordan dedicated himself that year to winning a championship for coach Hamblen. The Bulls won their fifth NBA championship in 1997, and Frank Hamblen got his championship ring.
Many people believe that humility is like self-degradation. They think it is a denial of your gifts and talents. Some say you have to grovel in the dirt and tell everyone how lousy you are. Yet Michael Jordan shows us what real humility is about. He put all the attention on his coach. Instead of putting the spotlight on himself, he put it on his coach. He didn’t promote himself or his abilities. He used those amazing abilites to lift up another person.
Michael Jordan gives us a picture of what we are to do in our relationship with God. True humility takes the attention off ourselves and on God. You see, when we put ourselves down, we are still focusing on ourselves. When we are talking about how awful we are, we are still talking about ourselves.
True humility is focusing on another. Just as Michael Jordan wanted to win a championship, not for himself, but for his coach. Christians want to do their best, not for themselves, but for their Lord Jesus Christ. Humility is not a denial or abasement of our gifts, abilities, or blessings. It is the acknowledgment of the One who gave them.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. ” (Philippians 2:3–4, NIV)
The War Is Finally Over!
Hiroo Onada, 1944
On March 10, 1974, Lt. Hiroo Onada was the last World War II Japanese soldier to surrender.
Onada had been left on the island Lubang in the Philippines on December 25, 1944, with the command to “carry on the mission even if Japan surrenders.” Three other Japanese soldiers were left on the island as Japan evacuated Lubang. One soldier surrendered in 1950. Another was killed in a skirmish with local police in 1954. Another was killed in 1972. Onada continued his war alone.
All efforts to convince him to surrender or to capture him failed. He ignored messages from loudspeakers announcing Japan’s surrender and that Japan was now an ally of the United States. Leaflets were dropped over the jungle begging him to surrender so he could return to Japan. He refused to believe or surrender.
Over the years he lived off the land and raided the fields and gardens of local citizens. He was responsible for killing at least 30 nationals during his 29 year personal war. Almost a half million dollars was spent trying to locate and convince him to surrender. 13,000 men were used to try to locate him.
Finally, on March 10, 1974, almost 30 years after World War II ended, Onada surrendered his rusty sword after receiving a personal command from his former superior officer, who read the terms of the cease-fire order. Onada handed his sword to President Marcos, who pardoned him. The war was over.
Hiroo Onada, 1974
Onada was 22-years-old when left on the island. He returned a prematurely aged man of 52. Onada stated, “Nothing pleasant happened in the 29 years in the jungle.”
Like Onada, many people are still fighting a lonely war against their sin. Struggling with sin and shame. Living a meager life from the scraps of religious duty and obligations. Hoping that will help them get by. Inflicting pain and hardship on others because of their own misery. Like Onada, nothing pleasant ever happens.
The message of Easter is that the war is over. The battle has been won. No longer do we need to hide. We can come out of the jungles of our own making. We can give up our rusty swords of defensiveness and unforgiveness. We can return to the our home and enjoy the blessings of pardon and freedom.
The message of Easter is that we are finally free. Christ has conquered sin and death. Let us rejoice.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. ” (Romans 8:1–2, NIV)
It’s Not Me!
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
Isaiah 53:7 (NIV)
Have you ever been accused of something you didn’t do?
Most of us have at one time or another. The teacher got on to you for talking when it was the kid sitting behind you. A brother or sister told your parents that you did something that they did. A co-worker said it was your fault their project wasn’t finished because they were covering up their mistakes. There are countless other examples.
The bottom line was that you were blamed for something you didn’t do.
I know from first hand experience that the natural response is to defend your self. “It wasn’t me,” you cry. “I didn’t do it!” You want to do whatever you can to prove your innocence. To remain quiet is not an option. To stay calm is next to impossible.
Yet when Jesus stood before all of his accusers, he barely spoke. When crowds demanded His blood, he remained silent. And most of all He was innocent. His life was pure. Yet He allowed the accusations to stand.
Why would He do such a thing? How could He do such a thing?
It was not His innocence that was at stake that day, but our sin. For that day, He took our guilt and draped it over His shoulders. He did not say a word, because He was guilty. The accusations were true, because our sin became His. As it says in Isaiah 53:6, “the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
How could He do this? It was His love for us. A love so deep that even an innocent man could remain silent.
Hope In the Cross
The Russian author and Pulitzer Prize winner, Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent several years in a Soviet prison camp doing hard labor. He was sent there because of comments he made about Stalin and the conduct of the war.
He tells of a time in the camp. After months and months of working twelve hours a day and being depleted physically and worn out, he said the doctors started predicting his death at any time. One day he was shoveling sand, and he became so weary that he said he decided he would just put his shovel in the ground and lean against it and take a few seconds of rest. He knew that doing so would surely result in a beating and, that a beating would probably kill him. He was so tired that he didn’t care. He propped his body against the shovel and gave up.
Immediately another prisoner came to his side. The man took the shovel and in the sand scratched the form of the cross. The man immediately covered up the cross because the guards were coming and would beat them if they saw it.
But Solzhenitsyn said that in those five seconds of looking in the sand and seeing the cross filled him with hope. He took the shovel and went back to work, not because of fear from the guards or beating, but from strength of hope, a hope given to him by the cross.
Christ never meant his form of death to become merely decoration. It was meant to be, as it was to Solzhenitsyn, a source of hope. It is a source of hope because the instrument of the greatest tragedy became the symbol of the greatest victory. The place where God was the weakest is where He showed His greatest power. And because of His strength, we find strength.
All of us will face times of hopelessness and discouragement. The difference for us in those times will be where we look. If we look within ourselves or to those around us, we will lose heart and give up. But if we look to the cross, like Solzhenitsyn, we will find the hope even in the midst of the most hopeless times.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ” (1 Corinthians 1:18, NIV84)
Finishing Line or Starting Line?
Many people see the cross as the end. They see it as the end of a struggle. It is the end of the ordeal they have to go through or the end of a struggle they have had to endure. Too often, it is something that signifies the end so we can get on with our lives. We see it as something we must face before we get to go to heaven. It is something we have to get out of our way, so that we can deal with more important issues, more pleasant things. For far too many people, the cross is something we avoid because it signifies an end.
The fact that when Jesus was on the cross, he uttered the words, “It is finished,” seems to enforce the idea.
Yet, when Jesus spoke to his disciples about the cross, He told them it was not the end but the beginning.
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Mark 8:34 (NIV84)
Jesus was telling them and us that life does not end with the cross. Instead, life does not, in fact it can not, truly begin until we take up our cross. The cross is not the end, but the beginning. It is not the finish line, it is the starting block for us. Until we take up our cross then we have not begun to live this life of faith. Until we shoulder our cross, we have yet to experience the fulness of life Christ promises.
Which is it for you? Is the cross something you pick up at the end or is it what you start with? Is the cross of Christ our end or our beginning?
Because of Him
. Roger Maris
On September 8, 1998, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire made history by hitting his 62nd home run of the baseball season. It was an emotional moment for four people sitting in the VIP section of the stadium. They were the grown children of Roger Maris, the man who hit 61 home runs in 1961 to establish the record.
The children of Roger Maris were an important part of the celebration that night. Yet none of them had played a Major League baseball game in their lives. Maris’s children did not receive special attention because of what they had done, but rather because of who their father was. He had made it possible for them to be present and honored because of his achievement years before.
There will be a day when we will sit with the saints cheering on the faithful. (Hebrews 12:1) There will be that day when we will sit at the heavenly banquet feast that God has prepared for us. (Matthew 8:11) And not a single one of us will be there because of what we have done. We will be there because of another’s accomplishment.
Years ago, Jesus Christ made it all possible because He died upon the cross for our sins. He willingly gave Himself as a sacrifice for us. Because He shed His blood, we live. We will be there, not because of what we did, but because of what He did. We will be there, not because of who we are, but because of who He is.
Don’t Forget What You’re Doing
A certain man was not much of a handyman, but he decided to save some money by changing the oil in his car himself. He prepared very carefully. He went to the store and bought a pair of vehicle ramps to drive his car up on. He bought a “creeper” so he could roll under his car easily. He also bought a special flat oil pan, a super special drip free, oil can spout, a special oil filter wrench and the oil filter. He took all of his stuff and headed home. He drove the car up on the ramps. Got on his creeper and rolled under the car where he took out the oil plug and drained the oil in the special flat oil pan. He unscrewed the oil filter with the special oil filter wrench and replaced it with the new filter. Grabbed the special drip free oil can spout and realized that he had forgotten to buy any oil. No problem, the store wasn’t that far away. So, he jumped in the car, backed it off the ramps and drove to the Store. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it. Cars don’t run very well without oil. Now along with everything else he bought, he had to pay for an overhaul.
He had everything right, except he forgot the part of an oil change, but tried to go on as if it didn’t matter.
I know a lot people who treat Christmas the same way. They have all the right decorations. They trim their tree beautifully. They spend too much money on all their gifts. But when Christmas comes, they still feel empty.
Perhaps they need to remember the main reason for Christ is Jesus. Without Him, everything else is just trimming. Without Him, everything else is pointless.
All the extras take their meaning, their purpose from Him.
So don’t forget what you are doing this Christmas season. Don’t forget Jesus. He’s the one that makes everything else work.
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