It’s Who I am in Christ, Not Who I am at Work – Purity 1321

It’s Who I am in Christ, Not Who I am at Work  – Purity 1321

Purity 1321 04/9/2024 Purity 1321 Podcast

Purity 1321 on YouTube:

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the sun setting over the Oswego
Harbor West Pierhead Lighthouse comes to us from Celestial Blue Photography’s
Rocco Saya who shared this scene on social media commenting that the sun did
make an appearance on the day of the big eclipse, but it apparently was
obstructed by clouds at the “magic moment” when the moon eclipsed its light.

Well, It’s Tuesday, and although I enjoyed unobstructed
sunshine for most of the morning and early afternoon while doing a spring clean-up
of my backyard, my view of the eclipse was similarly obstructed by overcast
clouds causing me to agree with Saya’s other comment to his FB friends that we –
“…can’t have everything in life”. I would add that if you are counting on the
circumstances of your life to fulfill you or to give you “everything in life”,
you will be severely disappointed. 

We don’t look to blue skies and sunsets to give us
joy. We don’t look to eclipses to give us a sense of meaning and purpose. We don’t
look to thing things on earth or the things in the skies to give us those
things.  No, we should look to the
Creator, God, not the creation, to give us  a sense of purpose, joy, and worth.  And luckily Our God revealed Himself
throughout history and used men to tell us all about it in the Bible. We don’t have
to look for a sign in the skies or listen for a voice from heaven, God shows us
who we are and tells us what we need to know in Scripture.   And He doesn’t only tell us about Himself
and the history of His interactions with man, He also tells us about who we are
when we put our faith in Christ. 

This world would tell you that your identity and
your worth is based on your accomplishments, talents, preferences, and
performance but who we really are and what we are really worth should be
determined by the One who has perfect knowledge and who made us.

I’m on vacation this week but as I was enjoying
myself outside yesterday I received a negative report from a colleague at work who
was assigned to use my truck and reported  “there was no way he could work out of it”
because of its disorganized – overstocked state and that he was concerned about
negative comments about my “less than exemplary work”. Now this man is a
brother and a friend, so I appreciate his “warnings” and readily admit to disorganized
state of my truck when I left for vacation and humbly accept that people may
criticize my skill sets (although I do perform the jobs I get to the best of my
abilities) but then he wished to “encourage” me by reminding me that “we work
for the Lord” and convict me that how I “choose to work is not a good testimony”.
He then admitted that he may have his own issues in some regards but stood on
the fact that he gets “his work done.”  –
whereas I guess the perception is that I don’t (because I don’t work overtime
and will pass my unfinished work on to those who do and will readily ask for and
accept help if I need it). He then reminded me that we have a “great job” – Its
great… sorry for the sarcasm – it is a well-compensated job and I appreciate how
it provides for my needs. But my colleague did admit that the job isn’t perfect,
and neither are we, but “we need to be a reflection of Christ”.

While I understand what my brother is saying and
appreciate that I could keep a more organized truck and strive to “do better”,
I have to admit that I take issue with the performance based – works based –
bill of goods that he is trying to impart me with.  While I agree with the Colossians 3:23 sentiment
to do everything “heartily” as to the Lord, I think there is a fine line here
in thinking that we are approved, significant, or secure because of our
performance and that the opinions of our fellow men are similar to what God
thinks about us.   The truth is our worth
in Christ (who we are supposedly trying to “reflect”) doesn’t work that
way.    

As I stated I am doing everything to the best of my abilities
– and somehow got a satisfactory evaluation from my supervisor during my last
review, I believe, and even get customer accommodations on occasion. Oh by the
way, I couldn’t stop myself and had to check my “numbers” and I discovered that
I have exceeded my performance goals more than I have “missed the mark” so far
this, although I can’t claim perfection.  I know I am not the best tech but do my work
to best my abilities and am satisfied with my work.  The standards of performance and the opinions
of others are subjective and honestly I don’t put my sense of personal worth in
“doing a good job” because there will always be room to criticize me, and my
performance will vary from time to time. If I were to put my sense of worth in
my performance, I would be fearful of not measuring up to others (how good do I
have to be?) or depressed because I am not “the best” (Is top 10 good enough,
what about top 20?) Or do I have to be approved by all of my cp-workers to feel
a sense of worth?  Or do I have to be
number one to “reflect Christ. – He is perfect after all. 

The reason I am so zealous about my faith is because
I am accepted by the Lord because of who I am in Christ, not because of “Who I
am at Work” and honestly it bothers me when Christians fuel this worldly
performance driven evaluation of our reflecting Jesus.  That’s not how it works, although you may have
been taught in the church!  Legalistic standards
created “Sunday best” and the Pharisaical attitudes of being “above the law”
and often drive people away from faith or cause us to live in despair over our
shortcomings.  

I have been going through Neil Anderson’s “Who I am
in Christ: A Devotional” and just yesterday read about how our worth is NOT
determined by our “talents”.  And so I am
sharing what I read yesterday to stop the condemnation I was under and to
remind myself that negative reports should be evaluated not by our “feelings” but
should be check out according to the actual truth – the facts are my performance
is satisfactory-ish, lol – like I said not perfect in all the areas, all the
time,  and more importantly – the truth
of God’s word. 

So from Neil Anderson, I present that:

I Am a
Member of Christ’s Body

“Now
you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

1 CORINTHIANS 12:27

Anybody who regularly relates to people on a
deep level knows that they don’t inherently feel good about themselves. We are
not born with an innate sense of worth or value. The natural man has no
identity in Christ, so from the time we are born into this world, we are
constantly pursuing some sense of identity, purpose or meaning in life.

The self-esteem
movement has been profoundly affecting every aspect of life. More and more,
people are searching for some sense of significance, and the philosophy of
attempting to find it within yourself has even found its way into the Church.

I have heard
Christians say a man finds his identity in a job and a woman finds her identity
in her children or family. Some say this teaching comes out of Genesis 3, where
it states that a man shall work by the sweat of his brow and a woman shall bear
her child in pain. But that is the curse of the Fall, the result of man’s
choosing to live independent of God. If a man finds his identity in his job,
what happens when he loses his job? If a woman finds her identity in her family
or children, what happens if she never gets married?

Who we essentially
are is not determined by what we do or the roles we live out in society. It is
who we are that determines what we do, and then what we do brings a sense of
satisfaction and fulfillment.

The Search for
Self-Worth

So
the question is, “Where does a person
find a legitimate sense of identity or worth?” Is it in talents? No, it can’t
possibly be. God has given some one talent, some two talents, and others five
talents (see Matt. 25:14–28). You may say, “Well, God, how could You do that?
Don’t You know that the only person who can have any legitimate sense of worth
or identity is the five-talented person?” But that is not true. I know a lot of
five-talented people who are struggling for a sense of worth, just like the
one-talented person.

Well, then, does our
worth lie in intelligence? No, according to 1 Corinthians 1:27, “God chose the
foolish things of the world to shame the wise.” Okay, how about appearance? If
we only appeared good, certainly we would have the acceptance and affirmation
of others. But according to Isaiah 53:2, Jesus had “no beauty or majesty to
attract us to him.”

One time I asked my
son, “Karl, suppose there is a young girl at your school who has a potato body,
stringy hair, bad complexion, stutters when she talks and stumbles when she
walks—is there any hope for happiness for her?”

He paused for a
moment and said, “Hmmm. Probably not.” In the world’s system, probably not, but
could she have a legitimate sense of worth in God’s system? Absolutely.

Is our worth found in
spiritual gifts? No, I am sure it is not. God has not equally distributed
gifts, talents or intelligence, but He has equally distributed Himself. Our
identity comes from knowing who we are as children of God, and our sense of
worth grows out of our commitment to become like Him.

Legitimate Sense of
Worth in Christ

Show
me people today who know who they are as children of God and have committed
themselves to Him, and I will show you those who have a profound sense of self
and of worth. Show me somebody who is continually growing in the fruit of the
Spirit, whose life is characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Will that person have a good sense
of identity and value? Yes, I am sure of it. And the beautiful part of that
truth is that everyone has exactly the same opportunity.^[1]

Not to “toot my own horn”, but I do know who I am as
a child of God and have committed myself to Him, and as Anderson indicates, I
have a profound sense of self and of worth. 
I marvel over how much I have grown in the areas of the fruit of the Spirit
and have a great sense of peace and joy as long as I don’t let the world’s performance
based system, or the opinions of men speak to me more than truth of what my
Heavenly Father says about me. 

There is NO condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,
right? So if someone comes at you with a negative report and tells you to “do
better” to “reflect Christ” take it under advisement, look at where they are
coming from and see if they have a point, 
but at the end of the day remember we are not accepted because of our
performance and we will never be “free in Christ” if we are busy in our attempts
to measure up to some subjective standard of performance or to be “well
considered” in the eyes of men – most of whom are desperately wicked and head
for perdition.   In only in Christ that I
would I ever be accepted, secure, or significant and I won’t let the opinions
of others, or the changing circumstance of the world erase the truth of my new
identity in Christ.  \

It’s who I am in Christ, not “who I am at work”,
that’s sets me free. So please excuse me, as I reject your performance based
evaluation of my sense of worth and choose to keep on walking and talking with
God in the way He leads me. 

 

——————————————————————————————–

Today’s
Bible verses come to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.

(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This
morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Death and Eternal Life

Philippians 1:21
(NIV2011)
²¹  For to me, to live is
Christ and to die is gain.

Today’s
verse falls under the third point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Death
and Eternal Life.  

3. To live is Christ; to die is gain.

Today’s
verse determines our mission in life.  To
live is Christ – so we live to proclaim the good news of salvation through
faith in Jesus Christ alone, until our dying breath. And if we die? We go to
see Him. We can’t lose because we are victorious through Jesus. The only loss
we suffer is when we fail to remember who we are in Christ or fail to tell
others of how they can be saved, forgiven, and set free through Him.

———————————————————–

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from “According to Your
Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A
Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online
for less than $10 at many sites.

MORNING READING: JOHN 13

“[Jesus] rose from supper and laid
aside His garments,
took a towel and girded Himself.” – John 13:4

In this picture is presented supreme humility. O to grasp
the same spirit, that my life may be characterized with the humility of my
blessed Lord.

He rose from Supper. Here was the deliberate and
intentional advance for the expression of humility. It is true that He was
incarnate humility, but it is also true that He deliberately came to express
it.

He laid aside His garments. He emptied Himself of all His
glory. He who was rich became poor.

He took a towel and girded Himself. He took upon Him the
form of a servant. Girding is essentially the sign of service. He could say, “I
am among you as the One who serves” (Luke 22:27).

Teach me humility, O Lord.^[2]

—————————more tomorrow————————

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