The Privileged Life
Ephesians 3:7 By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News. 8 Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. 9 I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.
It is no mystery that we are to be going about spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. But sometimes we get too far away from the basics of the whole thing with special ways to reach people, or special ways to sing songs of worship, or special ways to discuss God's Word. And in the whole thing, the main point gets lost in the translation and we miss the point. Sometimes we can believe so much in our abilities and talents that we forget the Holy Spirit is the "heart" of the whole thing. Also, a passive aggressive pride can come into the picture and pollute, yes pollute the intentions of what we are doing. A great example of this pride is found in the continued polluting of religion that is contrived by our human impressions of what God wants from His servants.
The Pharisees of Jesus' day found themselves in a place of contention with Jesus and His teachings because it took them out of the equation. They had made themselves and their position such a huge part of the whole religious experience that they had left God out of it. So, what should have been a very precious experience in relationship with God morphed into a religious experience that was lifeless and hypocrytical. Jesus exposed their lack of true relationship by sharing that anyone with the Holy Spirit can access God in that "special" way and have a deep relationship. They thought they owned a very special place in relationship with God and made sure that all those who followed them were very aware of their "high" position. It probably all started out very innocently for them until they started believing they were "special."
We all are very uniquely made by God and He takes that uniqueness in each of us and uses it for "His" glory, but not our glory. It all falls apart when we start believing our own "press clippings" as the saying goes and we become puffed up inside and miss the point that we are made to serve God and God alone. Paul himself said in the above scripture that it was a "privilege" to serve Christ by spreading the Good News. In our world attitude that is reversed and we say it is a privilege for God to get to use our talents and gifts. Wow. What a difference. It is amazing also that Paul was a significant part of sharing the gospel with the Gentiles and he knew he was a significant part of God's plan as stated in verse 9 I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. But Paul didn't state this in order to show he was a person of privilege in position. Paul said it was a privilege to get serve Almighty God and he lived his life always honoring God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh that we would have this same perspective in our service to God. It would change everything. The prideful attitude of the world would be expelled and the servant attitude of Jesus would take its place!!! Then we would be a part of the real Privileged Life! If we look at verse 8 we see Paul saying 8 Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ.
Too many worldly attitudes in the church and time for them to be replaced with servant attitudes that honor God and not ourselves. When we come into the presence of the Lord those attitudes have no choice but to be left at the door. Psalm 16:I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord. I have no good besides You.” Of course we must keep our perspective in line with God's Way and not the world's and this scripture speaks to that very point. 1 Corinthians 1:26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.
Choose a Godly perspective when living your life. It will probably contradict what a worldly perspective will try to feed you, but that is good and very liberating. We are privileged to have the gospel as our story of salvation and we must be the servants God has called us to be and share it. It is a privilege....
The Pilgrimage continues.....
David Warren