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Saturday, September 27, 2008

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More on Becoming Wise and Strong

When I finished writing yesterday's challenge, I realized that there was much more on the subject that needed to be said so this is part 2 of becoming wise and strong.  We know that we need to and that we should but how do we do that?  The point is, we don't really.  We simply position ourselves so that God can do what he desires in us.

It is all about being in Christ, really being in him "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3).  This was at the heart of all of the apostle Paul's struggle for the churches that he had founded.  He said that, "My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ" (Colossians 2:2).  It all comes back to simply knowing God — and that knowing is not knowing about him, but knowing in the sense of being in an intimate personal relationship with him. 

He has shared his glorious riches with us, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).  He is in us.  And we are in him.  Paul says, "We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ" (Colossians 1:28).  He in us and us in him is the only way for us to become everything that God wants us to be.

The road to wisdom and strength begins by laying down anything that we have.  We lay down our wisdom, our ideas, what we think we can do.  Paul had to do the same thing.  He had to strip his gospel down to "nothing . . . except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2).  We must be all about Jesus or we will be about nothing at all!  The words Paul uses are weakness, fear, trembling, and his message was not with wise or persuasive words.  It was simple.  Jesus.  And the Holy Spirit.  Why do we need to lay everything down?  Why does the gospel need to be less complicated than we have sometimes made it?  "So that your faith might not rest on man's wisdom, but on God's power" (1 Corinthians 2:5).  How much of what we do personally and in the church only draws attention to us and to how smart or big or popular or whatever we are.  None of that builds real faith!  Let it all go, for faith's sake.

" 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty" (Zechariah 4:6).

The road to wisdom and strength begins with us laying our stuff down and embracing only Jesus.  He is "God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began" (1 Corinthians 2:7).  And, as we embrace Jesus, the Spirit comes along and reveals to us all of the truth that is to be found in him.  The Spirit of truth comes to teach us all things and so much more (see John 14:16-27).  God wants to reveal all things to us by his Spirit and his Spirit is the one who "searches all things, even the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:10).  When we open ourselves to Jesus and his Spirit, we open ourselves to the life of which it is written,

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

God's Spirit knows the heart and mind of God.  And that is the Spirit which we have been given.  It is the same Spirit which Jesus Christ drew on to know his Father's heart and mind while he was on earth.  Apparently, because of all of this, Paul can go so far as to say that "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16)!  How's that for wisdom and strength.  Everything that Jesus had is ours!

"We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us" (1 Corinthians 2:12).

Do you find that amazing?  I sure do.  Because of Jesus and the Spirit which God has freely given me, I have all the wisdom, knowledge and strength that I need for anything.  "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).  I truly can!  God, help me to live up to the potential that you have placed in me!  Help me to see and to hear and to wrap my brain around what you in your amazing love have prepared for me and freely given to me!

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