TO BECOME A "LITTLE CHRIST"? (FROM ACTS 11:26)

When the people of Antioch (now in modern-day Turkey) thought they were mocking the followers of the new Faith System headed up by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by calling them "Christians", they did not know how right they were!

In Acts 11:26, we are told the following: "when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch". When the unsaved locals called them "Christians" as Dr. Luke records in this book of Acts, it was not an endearing term meant to honor these new disciples of Jesus. They called them, in a snarky and sarcastic way "Christianos"....or "Little Christs". In other words, just like today, these people looked down on these saints and basically said "bless their hearts, look at them....they believe in a Man nailed to a Cross Who lived in an outpost across the Mediterrean Sea, years ago. They can't even see Him."

Christianos - Little Christian. 
It is now 2000 years later. Many of us are not just little Christians, in the form of being mini-Jesus's but too many are little in mind, thought, word, deed and Bible knowledge. We can fix that now. The Bible exhorts us to the following: "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:5-8).

Do you want to be a "Little Christ"? Then the Bible tells us to do the following:

1  - Have the same mindset of Christ, Who KNEW the Father and what the Father's Will was.

2 - The Father's Will can be found in all Scripture, from Cover to Cover. Therefore, KNOW the Word of God through reading the entire Bible, no matter how long it takes, then asking the Holy Spirit to reveal everything through our reading and study of the Word.

3 - Be Humble (Jesus existed in the Form of God...because He was God, yet He did not hold on to His Throne in Heaven while yelling "this is Mine...and I am the King". He never did that. Jesus humbled Himself and died on a dirty Cross, killed by filthy and evil men - to do the Will of God the Father.

4 - Be Obedient. verse 8 above tells us that Jesus became "obedient to the point of death even death on a cross".  We must become obedient to the Will of God to the point of dying to ourselves in the sense of giving up our fleshly desires, lusts, ways and more.

So you want to be called a "Little Christ", let us be resolved to do ALL four of these items above in order, as laid out in Philippians 2:5-8 so that when we are accused by an unsaved world of being like Jesus, the verdict will be - YES I AM!

PRAY FOR.....HUMILITY

He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble His way (Psalm 25:9).
If there is one thing God hates, it is pride. In fact, it was pride which led to the downfall of the once great worship leader of heaven - Lucifer, who declared himself to be greater than God. (Read here to see how vile Lucifer's pride was). The opposite of pride is humility - real humility, not the false which which causes the religious to stand in the market place like the pharisees did. They looked the part, appeared to be holy and acted like they were fasting, but their hearts were full of religious pride and sin before God.

Humility which causes God to give grace (while He resists and rebukes the proud) is not just a freedom from arrogance and pride, but a genuine, conscious and intentional attitude which regards others as worthy of your service and mine. It is the kind of meekness like Jesus, Whose meekness could never be confused with weakness. He was, after all, the Son of God. We are, after all, if we are born again, sons and daughters of God. Our meekness and submission to the Will of God (love God first and love others) is BASED on this positional truth!

To be clearer, our firm and sealed position as joint heirs with Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven is what affords us the privilege and opportunity to be like our Lord, and to be completely grateful for our salvation by walking this thing called Life out as, Micah 6:8 instructs us! God says this, which applies to our point: "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).

In this verse, we see the following:
- God has shown us what is good (our salvation and sealing via the Holy Spirit until the Day of Redemption or when we die and go to Him).
- Because of this fact, He requires something in return of all Christians: 
  1. Be fair with everyone in our dealings and to not take advantage of ANYONE.
  2. Love people and be compassionate towards them, as God is to us.
  3. Live a Christian life of surrender to Christ daily, in true humility.

This is an equation which gives life while summing up the Christian Journey. Most believers are somewhere along the scale of humility when converted from darkness to light. However, too many in the west use our wealthy churches and its ministries - from the vast and exciting world of Christian media and to parachurch ministry - use their position in Christ to not so much enrich themselves but as to become very turf-oriented, forgetting from whence cometh their gifting. So let us resolve to pray, no matter what our status in the Journey with Jesus, for humility and surrender as we begin each day, so that we may receive guidance, direction and blessing with a humble heart and soul. Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, I thank You that You gave Your Son as a ransom for many, that sinners - vile and unworthy though we are - could and would be saved if we believe the Gospel, repented of those sins and accept the finished work on the Cross for our salvation.  Help us to be more like Him oh Lord. To be like the Humble, suffering Savior Who gave Himself and served and loved and put others before Him, knowing all along that He was God, the Ancient of Days.

Help us to understand how blessed and fortunate we are as Your children, that we don't need to call down fire and judgment and hell from heaven on bad people, even though we may feel like it, but to remember at those times that we should be grateful that our names are written in Your Book of Eternal Life! Help us to put aside ALL encumbrances which clog our communication lines with you and could cause us to stumble that we may remain humble, like Your Servant Moses, whom You called the "most humble man ever on the earth". Lord, we love, adore, worship and magnify You and Your Name above all others and that includes, most certainly, ourselves. Help us to remember WHO You are so we can remember Whose we are and our lives will reflect this gratitude and truth, in the Mighty and Strong Name of Jesus, we pray, amen and amen and amen!!!

OTHER VERSES TO MEDITATE UPON TO GROW IN HUMILITY:

Matthew 18:1-4 “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

First Peter 5:5-6 “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.” 

PRIDE AND THE FALL OF SATAN, PART 1: "I WILL"

There has never been a time where pride, ego and self-aggrandizement combined with social gospel -which has nothing to do the real Gospel, have all come together to confuse even some of the faithful. This has always been the intention of the Evil One, who was created along with the main angels of God - led by Gabriel and Michael - yet fell from his lofty perch as worship leader in the Heavenlies when he thought he was more important than God.

We read about this incident in Isaiah 14:12-15 where God Himself, through the Holy Spirit inspiring Isaiah to write, revealed exactly how Lucifer (Satan) fell from grace to the detriment of him, one third of the angels and all created mankind. We read here thus:
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!

For you have said in your heart:

I will ascend into heaven,

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;

I will also sit on the mount of the congregation

On the farthest sides of the north;

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,

I will be like the Most High.

Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit"

The five "I Wills" (highlighted in BOLD above) shows the pride and self-importance of the being now known as Satan which has billions from creation and billions now and until the end of time, to end up in eternal destruction in a place called hell. If that is too strong, try this one: "Eternal Seperation from God". Lucifer used his high position as the worship leader in Heaven or "son of the morning" and his freedom to be his own personality, yet under the final Authority of God, to promote his own agenda. Since then, he has been spreading lies, deception and worse and contributed 100% to the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden as recorded in Genesis Chapter 3. So how do we avoid that "fall" today? How do we, in the land of the living, go from "I will" to "Thy will"?

Tomorrow: "Humility"

DAY 9 - CAN PRAYER SAVE AMERICA?

Week 1 of 40 Days of Prayer, by the Christian, to the Holy One of Israel, had us looking inwardly at the sorry state of the soul and the war against it. We prayed for the mercy of God and pressed in properly, with Psalm 28 as our platform.

Week 2 begins with a rediscovery of the lost practice of Praise, powerful Praise....the kind which we must live for and acknowledge as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. Simply put, America will not truly prosper until America learns to bow the knee. This is the focus as we start this week of intercession.

To repeat - America must right now, this day, begin to put on "sackcloth and ashes" and start looking up in Praise. He will accept nothing less:

Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD, over many waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. (Psalm 29:1-4 ESV)

DO YOU RECOGNIZE JESUS?

by Mari-Anna Stålnacke of Finland!

Jesus was not just any teacher. Jesus came so the dark corners of our lives could be restored. Jesus came because without him we would not be whole. His life, death, and resurrection changed our destiny. Yet many of us still live in darkness.

Jesus arrives quietly, humbly, and in peace. 
Do we recognize Jesus in the middle of our Christmas celebrations?

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion.
Sing aloud, Daughter Jerusalem.
Look, your king will come to you.
He is righteous and victorious.
He is humble and riding on an ass,
on a colt, the offspring of a donkey.(Zechariah 9: 9, CEB, emphasis added)

Mari-Anna Stalnacke

Traditionally, entering the city on a donkey is seen as arriving in peace rather than as a king arriving on a warhorse. Jesus came in peace. He was a humble King who came on a colt. The world is used to warhorses and arrogant egos. We tend to pass by quiet and lowly things. That happened to many 2000 years ago. And that happens today.

Jesus arrives quietly, humbly, and in peace. 
Do we recognize Jesus in the middle of our Christmas celebrations?

He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the warhorse from Jerusalem.
The bow used in battle will be cut off;
he will speak peace to the nations.
His rule will stretch from sea to sea,
and from the river
to the ends of the earth.
Moreover, by the blood of your covenant, 
I will release your prisoners 
from the waterless pit. 
Return to the stronghold, 
prisoners of hope.
(Zechariah 9: 1o-12, CEB, emphasis added)

Jesus did not come to impress the strong but strengthen prisoners. Jesus came to free the captive. What does held you captive today? Bitterness, fear, doubt, greed, worries, sin, selfishness? That’s why you need Jesus. That’s why Jesus came.

To set you free.
To make you whole.
To bring you hope and future.

Jesus arrives quietly, humbly, and in peace. 
Do we recognize Jesus in the middle of our Christmas celebrations?

Gracious God,

Thank you for coming for us.
We need you!
We need to be set free!
Come, Lord Jesus!
Thank you for coming in peace.
Help us to seize the real things.
Enable us to recognize you.
Come, Lord Jesus!
Bless us with your peace.
Bless us with your grace.
Bless us with your presence.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: Do you look for Jesus? How do you recognize him?

(Linked back to HERE - Mari's website)

(image by Google images)