Wednesday, December 31, 2014

New Beginnings with Heavenly Leanings



Friends,

The story is told -- At the beginning of a new year, a high school principal decided to post his teachers’ new year’s resolutions on the bulletin board. As the teachers gathered around the bulletin board, a great commotion started. One of the teachers was complaining. "Why weren’t my resolutions posted?" She was throwing such a temper tantrum that the principal hurried to his office to see if he had overlooked her resolutions. Sure enough, he had mislaid them on his desk. As he read her resolutions he was astounded. This teacher’s first resolution was “not to let little things upset her in the New Year.” Or how about this one…a son called his parents to wish them a happy new year and when his Dad answered the phone, He asked his dad,” well Dad, what’s your new year’s resolution? His dad replied, "To make your mother as happy as I can all year," When his mom got on the phone he asked her the same question. His mom replied my resolution is "To see that your dad keeps his New Year’s resolution." Or some of you may have given up on resolutions taking the same attitude as the characters in the cartoon Calvin and Hobbes: The cartoon character Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes once said, “God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I’m so far behind I’ll never die.”  This might be the case with you…just keeping up with what you have may be enough.  But, even if this is the case, it is important not to forget that we have responsibilities to focus in on eternal matters of the spirit and soul…to keep our commitments that the Lord wants and expects us to keep.  We need to consider keeping first things first as we enter into the New Year. If we do, we will be blessed beyond the season.

Philippi was a Roman colony on foreign soil.  In a like way, the church is a “colony of heaven on earth.” Paul has been the athlete in his letter to the Philippians…now, he is the alien (3:17-21).  We are all aliens…citizens of another world, living on earth.  This should help our perspective as it relates to the lives we live.  Paul continues to deal with the difficulties presented by the Judaizers, or culturally Jewish Christians.  He uses some strong language to describe them, calling them “the enemies of the cross of Christ.”  These people are not spiritually-minded, but earthly-minded…holding to rituals and beliefs that God had given to Israel, but fulfilled in Christ.  Following regulations under the guidance of flesh, rather than submitting to the Spirit, is their calling card and it shows their allegiance. Jesus has already broken down the wall separating Jews and Gentiles (2:14-16)…now the Judaizers are trying to rebuild it.  Unfortunately, this is a problem that still exists today.  Some choose to build walls and regulations where the Lord never intended, rather than build the unity of the Spirit.  It is bad enough that such ones go astray…worse, still, that they lead others astray.  It is no wonder that Paul weeps over them.

When a lost sinner becomes a Christian, this person becomes a citizen of heaven, and his or her name is written in the Book of Life (see 4:3). This person begins eternal, heavenly living at that point.  Paul’s point, in relationship to conversion is -- we may have to live in this world, but we should not be citizens of it.  It is necessary to continually remove the yoke of the world’s pleasures and priorities that seek to bind us.  The good news is that we who are believers can be and need to be exemplary citizens…any person can choose to be a “spiritual citizen” – it is a choice.  Citizens of heaven understand spiritual matters; they are governed by heaven’s laws.  And the greatest spiritual matter that governs us is love…we are more concerned about others than ourselves, more interested in giving than getting.  The heavenly citizen glories in the cross (Galatians 6:14), not in self and experiences a new vision – looking ahead for the Savior. He or she is willing to share the Good News.  When Joseph was revealed to his brothers, he chose not to dwell on his brothers’ past, but to see matters from God’s point of view – He looked ahead at God’s plan for them.  The fact that Jesus is returning is a powerful motive for living a dedicated life of service…today.

Christians who are looking ahead, Paul says, will receive a glorified body, like Christ’s (1 John 3:1ff). This will happen in a moment (1 Corinthians 15:42ff)…and at that moment, everything in this world will be completely worthless to us, which relatively speaking, is how it ought to be today.  But, we say – I like my things. This is fine…there is nothing necessarily wrong with this…just don’t hold on to them too tightly.  When Jesus comes again, He will “subdue all things unto Himself” (3:21b) or “arrange in ranks” or “bring everything under His control” may be a better way to interpret it.  Citizens of heaven allow Jesus to arrange matters in their lives according to the proper priority, living for things that truly matter…with eternity’s values in view.  Even though matters increasingly crowd our priorities and choices, being a citizen of heaven should be the most prized possession we have!  Let’s remember this as we enter into 2015. 

Steve Ely offers this -- During a practice session for the Green Bay Packers, things were not going well for Vince Lombardi’s team. Lombardi singled out one big guard for his failure to "put out." It was a hot, muggy day when the coach called his guard aside and leveled his awesome vocal guns on him, as only Lombardi could. "Son, you are a lousy football player. You’re not blocking…you’re not tackling…you’re not putting out. As a matter of fact, it’s all over for you today, go take a shower." The big guard dropped his head and walked into the dressing room. Forty- five minutes later, when Lombardi walked in, he saw the big guard sitting in front of his locker still wearing his uniform. His head was bowed and he was sobbing quietly.  Vince Lombardi, ever the changeable but always the compassionate warrior, did something of an about face that was also typical of him. He walked over to his football player and put his arms around his shoulder. "Son," he said, "I told you the truth. You are a lousy football player. You’re not blocking…you’re not tackling…you’re not putting out. However, in all fairness to you, I should have finished the story. Inside of you, son, there is a great football player, and I’m going to stick by your side until the great football player inside of you has a chance to come out and assert himself." With these words, Jerry Kramer straightened up and felt a great deal better. As a matter of fact, he felt so much better he went on to become one of the all-time greats in football and was recently voted the all-time guard in the first 50 years of professional football.

This entire message is about perspective.  We need to consider our perspective as it relates to how we live.  Christians allow the Lord to set their priorities.  We should not be looking to set our own priorities and then say…okay, Lord, give it your rubber stamp of approval.  When we are living for Christ, everything changes.  We may all be busy, but is it the Lord that is guiding us in our busyness?  Or is He left behind, because we are not following His priority for our lives.  This is what we mean when we say, Jesus is Lord.  He is Master, Ruler over everything.  When we dedicate our lives to Christ, this is what we claim.  I am no longer Master.  My attention is on Him.  If I am heavenly living on earth, this affects everything.  When we are living as citizens of heaven, we should dedicate a certain amount of time every day to be with the Lord, in study and prayer.  We should come to worship focused on him, having prepared ourselves for it.  Our prayers should be in tune with the prayer leaders.  We also sing from our hearts, and not just our mouths.  We should be intently focused on the Lord’s Supper.  The first checks we write each month should be to the Lord.  We should not only hear the sermon, but live it out in our lives.  When we live as citizens of heaven, it changes…not only our perspective, but our priorities, as well.  Be a winner at the most important thing that matters in this life…living as a heavenly citizen on this earth.

Blessings, Don

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