Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Christ in me

I'm the new kid. Always the new kid. I've moved plenty of times in my life and I'm cool with that.

However, since I am the infamous "New Kid" I am blessed to see this Truth that otherwise I may not see.

I'm weird.
Christ in me makes me Weird.

In our own flesh, when we meet new people, we smell them out. Tip toe around them to see if we can identify with them. By the age of 14 you've been hurt so many times already that you don't just trust people. You may meet new friends here and there but few forever friends. (College is a possible exception.)

I talked to my amazing teen girls this morning on this subject, and I'm sorry to call you out sweetie if you read this, but one girl said it so clearly.  I asked her, "How do you make new friends." She said, "I don't really, the friends I've had, I've had since kindergarten."

With that thought in mind I want to challenge you.

I hate this cliche, because it is said as a joke so often, but I know no other way to put it, "I Know there is a GOD".  I Know this by seeing who I once was and who I have been, and am being, created into, in His Image.

I used to be a sniffer. As I said before, "Infamous new girl right here", I have been sniffed out plenty of times, and have done my share of sniffing. I hate it because it puts you on your tiptoes because you want people to like you.

But somewhere along the lines God has transformed me and my sniffing ways-and it makes me look weird. Haha, it does. :)
I no longer have to look for a reason to love you. I don't have to look for a commonality.  I no longer look for ways we mesh or how I may perceive you as weird.

I no longer worry if I may not spot a weirdness in you and someone else may, and accuse me of being weird by association. Wow, don't you love being a girl. :)

This love can't be severed. There's nothing you can do to lose this love. It's a love beyond myself. It's a love that I did not create and you did not earn. It's the Love of Christ!

Romans 8:38-39 (ESV)
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I love because I can't help it. I don't care if I've known you 20 years or 20 seconds, the Love of Christ has Radically transformed my heart and my life.

I no longer worry if I may get hurt. If I've died to self, that's for God to deal with, not me. I love you because Christ radically loves you, and it is Christ in me loving you. 

You don't have to give me a reason to love you, I just do. It's an unconditional, ridiculous, could wrap you in my arms to show you a glimpse of the love of Christ. I am no longer easily angered or hurt, because the Love of Christ covers that.

If you talk about my momma, or you insult my child, it no longer angers me. (When I'm prayed up) It breaks my heart for you because there is a truth of God that you have yet to experience.

You always hear the phrase in church, "I don't have to like you, I just have to love you."  I think that's junk.

Jesus went to the cross for those who were spitting on Him. Beating Him. Cursing Him. Accusing Him of things He never did. Lying about Him.  He went to the Cross for a world that hated Him.  I don't think He could have done that without "liking" them too. (I could get into all the theology there, and there's alot of great stuff there to discuss.)

Christ didn't only see their immediate actions, He was faced with the big picture. A sinful world in need of a sinless Savior. He, out of His Great Love for HIS children, died for the ones who put Him there.  That's the love I want to have for every person I come in contact with. The Love of Christ. The Love that sets me aside and sees the big picture: "Who this person is through the eyes of Christ."

I told the girls this morning. This is not a love you can work on or practice. Pursue GOD, Pursue GOD, Pursue GOD! Pray for this love - when God gives it to you, when God blesses you with the Love HE has for His children, it is "drop you to your knees overwhelming".  It is a love that only He can create in your life.

For instance: if you have a Pepsi bottle full of Pepsi, and you begin to pour in water.  The water will displace the Pepsi. After a while, with that constant feeding of water, thats how your life will look. Very little you a whole lot of Him and this love is an outpour of that water going in.

So I'm okay with being weird. If loving you through Christ makes me wierd, if I can skip the "sniffing stage" of our relationship, and that makes me weird. Ha, I'm cool with that. :)


John 13:35 (ESV)
"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

John 15:13 (ESV)
"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

I think forever friendships are beautiful, baring eachothers burdens etc. But What I think is Radical, is when two friends come together in love, laying aside their differences or fears and loving eachother without division through the "LOVE of CHRIST."
First part common, second part Radical! I want my life to look Radical in CHRIST!

Matthew 5:23-24 (ESV)
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Proverbs 12:16
A fool shows his annoyance at once,
   but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.



HIS Clay~


I'm Linked With:
   Raising Mighty Arrows

Deep Roots At Home



9 comments:

  1. Hi Melissa - I love the pepsi analogy. Its great and I so believe that as we displace "us" with "Christ" we will love more the way you describe. Great post.
    God bless
    Tracy

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  2. Thank you, a reminder and lesson I needed all in one. I am working on being lonely and not having those friends from kindergarten :) but maybe I have been looking at it all wrong. I need to connect to those who I can connect with through God. If we love all maybe that love will lead me to what I have been seeking.

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  3. Tracy- I just adore your feedback. Thank you and absolutely. Pour me Out LORD so theres more room for YOU to Fill me! Thanks!

    Faith Confessions - Slam jammin exactly! I pray for you that the Lord will give you eyes to be a friend to the friendless and a personality that will attract thirsty souls. When God pulls you away from your Kindergarten friends, there are SO many blessings that can come from that, if you're looking for them. Even though its tough and painful. New friends and new oppurtunities for you to minister.

    A Comfort Zone is a sin and an area that God's not able to have 100% control of, In that I'd say, our eyes. When I was comfortable I wasn't looking for ways to be used in my every day. Thank you SO much for your response!

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  4. Another weird Christian here visiting from WLW. Enjoyed this post. Thanks for the reminder that when we love, it's Christ loving through us. And prayer gives us the strength. Blessings to you and yours.

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  5. I loved this! Convicting and comforting at the same time.

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  6. I sure these girls were truly blessed by meeting with you! I desire that Christ's love be supremely visible in my walk and my talk! Thanks for sharing!

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  7. So well put Melissa! The love of God in us is such an unstoppable force if only we will trust Him enough to embrace it and pour it out!

    Great post =)

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  8. Melissa, I'm weird and I know it. I love my weirdness, but I especially love that God is transforming my heart and I'm becoming even more weird (weirder ?) for Him. I don't want to look like the world - I don't want to fit in. More of Him and less of me I what I need. Great encouragement!

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  9. Boy, I don't think you are weird!!Along with John the Baptist, I say, 'You must increase and I must decrease'. I am very visual, and so the Pepsi bottle analogy works for me. sounds like something I would have told our children when they were younger. Thanks for these words to encourage the sisterhood in Jesus!

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