Bottom Line.

{up front: a sermon/ encouragement/ inspiration/ rabbit-trail/ commission/ answer to my own questions and responses to words I've been told}

When did being a Christian necessitate a certain dosage of fear in our bones?  

I’ve never believed I could be 100% fearless because I have to be cautious. 

Believe in Jesus Christ, trust His Spirit to guide your words and actions as you surrender to Him to do so, make every effort to imitate Jesus, repent when you’ve sinned, and believe that God in His grace will forgive you, I've been told.  Life= summarized. 

It is just man’s handmade criticism and greed that influences teachings and mentalities of this: a Christian cannot throw off all restraint and claim they’re just living by the Spirit, as if they have absolutely no responsibility anymore, as if sin isn’t a big deal, as if they don’t have to be on guard, as if they can make decisions willy nilly….   Is that what everyone who speaks of living fearlessly says? No. But it’s man’s pride that makes such extreme distinctions, as if there cannot be a middle ground. Some confuse “no grey areas” and “no compromise”  with “no balance”.   God is not relative or changing or mediocre, neither is His word unclear on any issue we live with. Right. So why do we fear? Answer me that.  Well, we don’t want to think we’re totally indestructible, for we are only human. And we’re definitely not immortal, so we mustn’t think of ourselves that way. We’re only vessels for the Spirit to flow through. True. But not only.

We are vessels OF the Holy Spirit.

I think we subconsciously think we can’t grasp and act on that because we’ll be putting ourselves on some pedestal of being “spiritual beings” or something. Some people live in that extreme of mysticism and obsession with their own spirituality or spiritual state. Under the pressure of judgment, we don’t want to be oober-spiritual, even in the Christian sense. We definitely don’t want to be fanatic/ hippie/ mystics or anything like that, then.  Back to that first point—do we really, honestly, live and make choices not wanting to be called something we’re not , such as extreme, careless, ridiculous, or judging? Do we make choices to not be these things out of fear of those who choose to be these things every day?

Look at the life of Jesus. We’re called to imitate it, right? Told to imitate it, by the Creator and Founder of the universe? All right.  What did Jesus do? This was a slogan said all  the time when I was a kid: What would Jesus do?  I think in recent days we’ve morphed this idea into “what do I believe God would want me to do?”  Which isn’t wrong.  But Jesus came to earth for a reason. He didn’t send down a rulebook. He didn’t even write in another set of stone tablets a list of what to do. He could have. After all, that’s what many of us seem to want, even those of us who advocate against the “checklist religion”. Jesus came to earth to be our example. So we should look at His life. Look as what he did. The Bible doesn’t always share explicitly what His emotions were.   Joy. Hope. Peace. Courage. Gentleness. Patience. All the fruits of the Spirit. Do we imagine Jesus was not the epitome of every single one of these, though? Of course He was.  We have the perfect example. Don’t be bogged down by the excuse that you are only human, that you are never going to be God! Absolutely you are human, and which of you ever thought you would be God? Never! It’s not even on our radar, not even in our thought process to become Him. It’s ridiculous to use the “He’s God and we’re not” card for stopping ourselves from living fearlessly.  We should always keep our pride in check and keep ourselves from idols and stop trying to control things in our lives, absolutely; relinquishing the grip we try to get on things, relationships, everything, and repenting of it all, is key to freedom and forgiveness. And we should not fall into the trap of thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought.

Here is where we are at. We have billions of words and feelings swarming around our brains at any given second. We are human. We are fallible.

Here’s what the Bible says. Not what we say, but what God says. Will you or I argue?

I am God’s child (John 1:12)

I have been justified (Romans 5:1)

I am Christ’s friend (John 15:15)

I belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20)

I am a member of Christ’s Body (1 Corinthians 12:27)

I am assured all things work together for good (Romans 8:28)

I have been established, anointed and sealed by God (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)

I am confident that God will perfect the work He has begun in me (Philippians 1:6)

I am a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20)

I am hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)

I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7)

I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me (1 John 5:18)

I am blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3)

I am chosen before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4, 11)

I am holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4)

I am adopted as his child (Ephesians 1:5)

I am given God’s glorious grace lavishly and without restriction (Ephesians 1:5,8)

I am in Him (Ephesians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:30)

I have redemption (Ephesians 1:8)

I am forgiven (Ephesians 1:8; Colossians 1:14)

I have purpose (Ephesians 1:9 & 3:11)

I have hope (Ephesians 1:12)

I am included (Ephesians 1:13)

I am sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13)

I am a saint (Ephesians 1:18)

I am salt and light of the earth (Matthew 5:13-14)

I have been chosen and God desires me to bear fruit (John 15:1,5)

I am a personal witness of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8)

I am God’s coworker (2 Corinthians 6:1)

I am a minister of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

I am alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5)

I am raised up with Christ (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:12)

I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6)

I have been shown the incomparable riches of God’s grace(Ephesians 2:7)

God has expressed His kindness to me (Ephesians 2:7)

I am God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10)

I have been brought near to God through Christ’s blood(Ephesians 2:13)

I have peace (Ephesians 2:14)

I have access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18)

I am a member of God’s household (Ephesians 2:19)

I am secure (Ephesians 2:20)

I am a holy temple (Ephesians 2:21; 1 Corinthians 6:19)

I am a dwelling for the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:22)

I share in the promise of Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:6)

God’s power works through me (Ephesians 3:7)

I can approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:12)

I know there is a purpose for my sufferings (Ephesians 3:13)

I can grasp how wide, long, high and deep Christ’s love is(Ephesians 3:18)

I am completed by God (Ephesians 3:19)

I can bring glory to God (Ephesians 3:21)

I have been called (Ephesians 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:9)

I can be humble, gentle, patient and lovingly tolerant of others(Ephesians 4:2)

I can mature spiritually (Ephesians 4:15)

I can be certain of God’s truths and the lifestyle which He has called me to (Ephesians 4:17)

I can have a new attitude and a new lifestyle (Ephesians 4:21-32)

I can be kind and compassionate to others (Ephesians 4:32)

I can forgive others (Ephesians 4:32)

I am a light to others, and can exhibit goodness, righteousness and truth (Ephesians 5:8-9)

I can understand what God’s will is (Ephesians 5:17)

I can give thanks for everything (Ephesians 5:20)

I don’t have to always have my own agenda (Ephesians 5:21)

I can honor God through marriage (Ephesians 5:22-33)

I can parent my children with composure (Ephesians 6:4)

I can be strong (Ephesians 6:10)

I have God’s power (Ephesians 6:10)

I can stand firm in the day of evil (Ephesians 6:13)

I am dead to sin (Romans 1:12)

I am not alone (Hebrews 13:5)

I am growing (Colossians 2:7)

I am His disciple (John 13:15)

I am prayed for by Jesus Christ (John 17:20-23)

I am united with other believers (John 17:20-23)

I am not in want (Philippians 4:19)

I possess the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16)

I am promised eternal life (John 6:47)

I am promised a full life (John 10:10)

I am victorious (I John 5:4)

My heart and mind is protected with God’s peace (Philippians 4:7)

I am chosen and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12)

I am blameless (I Corinthians 1:8)

I am set free (Romans 8:2; John 8:32)

I am crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20)

I am a light in the world (Matthew 5:14)

I am more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37)

I am the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21)

I am safe (I John 5:18)

I am part of God’s kingdom (Revelation 1:6)

I am healed from sin (I Peter 2:24)

I am no longer condemned (Romans 8:1, 2)

I am not helpless (Philippians 4:13)

I am overcoming (I John 4:4)

I am persevering (Philippians 3:14)

I am protected (John 10:28)

I am born again (I Peter 1:23)

I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I am delivered (Colossians 1:13)

I am redeemed from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13)

I am qualified to share in His inheritance (Colossians 1:12)

I am victorious (1 Corinthians 15:57)

{list compilation source:   http://crossinglouisville.com/sermon/our-identity-in-christ}

Caring and careful, yes; but, nowhere have I ever read that we need to be constantly fearful (or even cautious, for that matter).   If anyone’s ever read anything different, share it.

We’ve heard that we shouldn’t pick a few verses out and put them together to satisfy a question or topic; we have to read it all to understand the context. So read the verses surrounding these verses. Let them be the stone thrown in and explore all that’s beneath the expanding waves until you come to the shores. Read the chapters, the books, the testaments, the Holy Words of Jehovah.

Please don’t be afraid.

Some say to be radical. Some say they are going to be reckless for Jesus. Some go too far and are careless under the umbrella of grace, hurting themselves and God’s beloveds around them. Some go so far as to claim sin as excusable and relative. That’s one end of the spectrum

Some say to keep striving. Some believe they can achieve perfection. Some become enveloped in pride because they believe and behave as being superior to unbelievers. Some even become so wrapped up in spirituality and the spirit world that they miss reality and the purpose of why we are here on earth. Some even get pulled into the devil’s temptation to withdraw and look inside themselves for all the answers, to trust in their own power, to go to their own wisdom and intuition for guidance and strength.

Does life lie somewhere in the middle?

No.

It stands above it all.

Life is in Jesus.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

We’ve been told to imitate Him.

God told us to imitate Himself.

So we must.

I made my mind be controlled and caged by caution, my pride acting upon my insecurity,  instead of being controlled by the Creator of all.

No more.

God told me to imitate Himself.

So I must.

When we have a book that shows us how to do something and we want more than anything to learn how to do it, we read the book, right?

That’s elementary. 

This is real.

This is now.

So let’s do this.

Bottom line:{This is my life purpose. It is everyone’s.}
Read the Bible. Believe Jesus is your Savior. Surrender to the Holy Spirit’s working through you and in your life.  Seek to imitate Jesus and hope that through all your actions and words, His name will be proclaimed and glorified and others would be drawn to Him.  Humble yourself and pray.  Pray unceasingly. 

{p.s. Never forget God’s love. Never forget that it is present in peace, pain, pleasure, darkness, jubilation, exhaustion, abundance, and confusion alike. You’ll never fully understand it, but don’t ever stop desiring to understand more of it. If one word is to be meditated on, extrapolated, searched out, picked apart, and have a forty-volume commentary on it, then it should be on this powerful, free-flowing love He’s offered to us.}