Identity.

Today's Reading:

Genesis 1:27

Jeremiah 1:5

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Colossians 3:1-3

Who are you? Are you a sign that you belong to the world or to him? It is hard for people to answer what do you worship. Because almost no one would say, my body, car, house, title etc. but if I say what are you afraid of losing it makes it a bit easier. I am afraid of losing my beauty to age, or my car or position.

As a guy who once lost everything, I can tell you who I was. My car, my house, my job, my future or even who I was seen with. I was sick. In fact, so sick that when I lost it all in 1993, I actually cried when I had to sell my car. Wow, was I shallow. These were my idols.

I was lucky. I lost it all and God humbled me. I think still, my ego is my biggest fear. My job plays into this. People either love me or hate me. To stay sane I focus on the love part. But love can be addicting and it can easily make your head swell if you begin to buy your own press.

What is your fear and weakness? If I were Satan and wanted to trap you in something that you loved, where would I strike?

It is not something you conquer. It is like alcoholism, you live one day at a time as life can wrap you up and blindside you. You will never see it coming and maybe when you see it now, you don't even know how you got here.

We are commanded not to have false gods or worship idols but I think we do it all the time. I am convinced we are a society that is currently worshiping the Old Testament god Molock and we just don't know it. That is a deeper subject and one worth examining. But, in our own lives, what are those things that you just wouldn't risk losing.

If you knew by standing for what you believed would get you fired or cause you to lose X, would you speak? If what you KNEW God's law was against, would you be willing to take a stand and lose?

I believe we will face this test each in our own way. It may be a test or it may be life threatening, but each of us will face it.

God is looking to us for a SIGN that we are His people. We constantly ask Him for a sign. I think the tables have been turned. The Old Testament teaches us that even the Sabbath is A SIGN TO HIM that we are His people. How are you showing Him?

The only thing now, thank God, I am unwilling to lose, is my soul.

This puts me many times in very difficult positions, especially in the New York media circles. So be it. I have been purchased with His blood. That is too high of a price for me to squander. Besides, I have never been happier nor more at peace. It all comes from Him. May I be better today than I was yesterday at being a sign that I belong only to Him.

Question:

Where does your identity lie? Is it in how you look, or is it how you act? Is it how you talk, walk, run? Is it found in your job? Family? Relationships?

Application:

Today, choose this day whom you will serve. There will be a time coming when we all will have to give count of our days and whom we serve… What will your answer be?

MLK Pledge - #4:

Pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free.

Quote:

“Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange?

The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

The principle runs through all life from top to bottom, Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else."

Have you fallen behind on the challenge? Catch up on what you missed here.

Have you fallen behind on the challenge? Catch up on what you missed here.