Downwardly mobile

Well: we all know about "Upwardly Mobile" - the definition of which the English Dictionary describes as "(of a person or social group) moving or aspiring to move to higher social class or to a position of increased status or power."

WOW!! so to be "Upwardly Mobile" we need to move up through the social classes to become richer and more powerful - exactly what the world out there loves to teach us so so often.

With a background in Human Resources, I have seen "Upwardly Mobile" in action - it never ceases to amaze and astound me. It's all in the way you present yourself, your social background, who you 'mix' with and of course your inextinguishable ambition.

Being 'upwardly mobile' is a pre-requisite for challenging those who seemingly have 'made it' to the top - whatever 'the top' may be. For ladies the 'crashing' of the glass ceiling is another 'must do' experience for the upwardly mobile female and proving 'girls can do anything' to many 'chauvinist male upwardly mobile' men.

So often in today's society of eyes on the goal, success at any cost type world, being upwardly mobile is integral for success and security for the future.

We instil being 'upwardly mobile' to our children very early in their upbringing, challenging them to succeed to push on regardless and never to accept second best.

So the word "DOWN" really has no place in the Upwardly Mobile's world or future.

"DOWN" is a word reserved for losers - it should be avoided at all costs and even if you are feeling a little 'down' you dare not show it lest the person directly beneath you on the never-ending ladder will pull it out from under you.

"DOWN" is a word that reflects on everything it touches - like down-hearted, down-trodden and downfall. It's a sort of 'says-it-all' word with connotations of desperation and depression. Something Upwardly Mobile wants nothing to with at all!

So looking at the words UP and DOWN from a world's perspective, UP is the ONLY direction to go. UP denotes GREATNESS  - DOWN  denotes FAILURES.

So how does God see us with our UP'S and DOWN'S? I was reading Philippians 2 and being "Upwardly Mobile" sort of flies in the face of what Jesus is teaching us here.

Philippians 2 screams at us that if you want to be truly great, then the direction to go is DOWN. Jesus taught us that self-will needs to be thumped on the head and self-abandonment needs to be the measure that we determine our success.

Paul continues in Philppians 2 to explain, in no uncertain terms, that the ONLY way to become great with God is to actually move down - become the servant, the downtrodden, the anonymous one.

Jesus, the servant of all, is the only example we can look to. Here we have the Creator of the universe, coming 'down' from his glory, becoming a helpless and hapless baby in a dirty stable and from then on it was a life of descending.

He had no home, he was mocked and ridiculed, he was spat on, he was found guilty of blasphemy and died a cruel and criminal's death - probably THE worst death in it's day. Hardly UPWARDLY MOBILE.

Jesus: the very highest in creation came DOWN to serve the lowest - Philippians 2: 7-8 "He (Jesus) made Himself nothing, but taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross."

After Jesus died he could go no lower - the one who possessed everything became nothing - He became 'DOWNWARDLY MOBILE' to the glory of God the Father who exalted Him above everyone and everything.

Please don't take me wrongly - God really has no problem with his children bettering themselves - he loves to see us succeed BUT....

What concerns Him and breaks His heart is when our UPWARD MOBILITY bolsters our own self-importance. Building ourselves up to the point of pushing our own plans, schedules and programmes with no thought of God, living life as we please in our own worlds of self-indulgence.

Of course God knows that self-indulgence only leads to self-destruction.

James hits the nail on the head when he writes "Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up." Humility, putting others first, purposely standing aside and letting others take the limelight - all things that God loves.

Making ourselves lesser and making others greater is foolishness in the eyes of the world yet God asks us to LOSE so that we may GAIN. God will honour us if we deliberately SMASH our selfish ambition, He will honour us if we LOSE our obsession to be in control, he will honour us if we actually LOSE our life in Him because He promises us ETERNITY!!

Being DOWNWARDLY MOBILE with God is certainly not easy - it can be unsettling to say the least BUT actually is the THE very highest calling we can ever have.

God bless you this week as you address being DOWNWARDLY MOBILE with God. Let Him be your guide as you submit to the challenge that Jesus Himself put out there and which Paul so clearly defines in Philippians 2. 



















 

Broken Jars

I never cease to stand amazed at Mary Magdalene's faith - Here a prostitute - a reviled person according to the Pharisaical law - the lowest person - luckily not stoned to death for her sins, changed by the Son of God, and she was never the same again.

This same Mary of whom seven demons had been cast morphed into one of Christ's staunchest allies, showing courage and bravery far exceeding most of the disciples. She was there at the beginning of Jesus ministry, stood with Him at the cross and was the first one there on that Sunday morning of His awesome Resurrection.

It was my privilege to host a study on Twitter just recently on the subject of Mary's visit to the empty tomb and it was brought home to me once again the deep faith of this amazing young woman who loved her Lord with everything she had.

It was this same Mary of the "Alabaster Jar" fame. Mary who broke the Jar of sweet smelling perfume at Jesus feet and washed his dirty feet with her hair and tears broken before her Lord in adoration and praise.

For a woman to do this in those days with her long hair, which by the way was her 'glory' was an amazing sign of her humility. Mary unwound her hair and in that instant also unwound her glory and acknowledged the glory of Jesus as God, Lord and Master.

In another way Mary was saying "My glory is nothing - Yours is everything." What an amazing young woman.

The washing of people's feet was a job for the lowliest of slaves way back then. A job done by a slave openly treated with disdain. You can imagine the state of the roads and paths, the dust, animals, carts, mud and slush and with open sandals as common footwear - I need say no more.

If you visited a home it was customary and tradition that you removed your sandals before you entered. Manners then dictated that the host or hostess ordered the 'unimportant slave' to wash his or her guest's feet.

It was into this scenario that Mary appeared  - a picture of humble worship.

When Jesus entered the house of Simon that fateful night, He was not offered any such niceties - nothing, No kiss or oils for His head (both signs of respect), no water provided for cleanliness - nothing.

It wasn't until Mary appeared with her Alabaster Jar of expensive perfume that things started to happen here in the home of Simon the Pharisee. She immediately threw herself at the feet of Jesus and broke open her alabaster Jar filling the whole house with it's perfume.

Her tears were aplenty as she washed His feet and kissed them - her beautiful hair wiping the dust, mud and grime off his His feet. Immediately Judas was up in arms at her accusing her of wastefulness.

We catch just a glimpse of how Jesus must have felt - when He openly and suddenly turned on His host - read it for yourselves in Luke 7:44-47.

Mary's absolute humility and her willingness to actually throw off her own 'glory' has been a huge lesson for me personally. There were probably more than a dozen people in that room, at least, and none of them caught or even glimpsed a moment of the personal communion Jesus shared with Mary at that moment.

Mary dismantled her glory, her pride and her ego right there in front of all those people - she was ridiculed, accused and almost thrown out on her ear.

God wants us to dismantle our ego, pride and glory - He wants us to stop living for ourselves. He wants us to stop being pious and 'religious'. He wants us to take them all apart and like Mary lay them at His feet.

God doesn't care who we are, how important we think we are, how we feel, who we have been with and what our position in the church or work is - He wants YOU!! The real you.

Jesus didn't reach down and break that alabaster jar FOR Mary - she had to do it herself - We have to break our own selves to become one with Jesus - no more pretences - no more thinking we can do it our way - we have to hand the OUR way over to JESUS' way.

Often when we have gained that 'closeness' to God it has come after we have been broken in our spirit and in our lives - when we have nothing left - it is then Jesus picks us up. God loves a broken and contrite heart.

So let's decide today not to carry around our own Alabaster Jar of treasures. If we want to have that amazing encounter with Jesus as Mary had, we have to break it open and smash our pride and glory and in so doing give the ultimate glory back to Jesus - the one who deserves it.

God bless you as you become a 'broken person' for God this week.

Deliberate Sin! - Forgiven or Not?

The whole world was absolutely shocked and shaken to our core this week when the news broke that a "German Wings' aircraft had crashed in the French Alps killing all 150 on board.

Our hearts broke as the news flashed around the world that the Co-Pilot looked as though he had deliberately crashed the aircraft because of his on-going depressive illness. It was shocking to the say the least and very very disturbing.

Deliberate acts like this one astound us and we are so ready to judge and condemn. It was only last month here in Australia that the news broke that a father may have deliberately driven his car at high speed into a tree killing his wife, his eldest son and himself, leaving the youngest son in a critical condition and also an orphan.

We cry out in frustration WHY?? - When there is so much help readily available do people commit these atrocities and harm others?

When I was pondering these types of situations I couldn't help but ask the question that I guess many have asked before me - "Can I deliberately keep sinning and keep asking forgiveness?"

A very tough verse in the Bible regarding "deliberate" sin is found in Hebrews 10:26. "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth, no sacrifice for sins is left."

Can't get much plainer than that! But let's just think about it for a moment. What does 'sinning' actually mean and what do we mean by 'deliberate' sinning.

Sinning is anything that comes between you and God - of course there is the obvious sins as laid out in exodus 20, greed, wanting what others have, sexual immorality, murder, stealing and the list goes on.

Sinning also includes unforgiveness, haughtiness, gossip and even not giving God His rightful place in our lives or not giving Him His due reverence. in fact anything that hinders our relationship with Him.

So if we sin and harbour say unforgiveness in our hearts and we are convicted of that and repent, does that mean we can never be forgiven?  Of course not - Our Lord is so willing to forgive us.

After all it was from the words of Jesus Himself that Peter was told in Matthew 18: 21-22 when he asked the question "Lord how often do I have to forgive a believer who wrongs me? seven times?" Jesus said "I tell you not just seven times, but seventy times seven".

But the author of Hebrews talks about deliberate sinning, the fact of 'keeping on' or 'going on' sinning deliberately.

I feel the key here are the words "keeping on" or in some versions "going on" sinning deliberately.
"Going on" sinning means that you are continuing in deliberate sin without feeling the least bit repentant or confessing this sin regardless of what that sin is.

You don't feel any remorse about this deliberate sin in your life and you have given up and/or refusing to go to battle over it.

So in other words if you are continuing in deliberate sin regardless of what that sin is, without confessing it, if you are happy in that state and feel nothing, no compunction to cease it then you are committing a 'deliberate' sin against God which leaves you in a very precarious situation indeed.

Jesus died for all of our sins, the past, present and future. He died for ALL sins BUT we need to confess those sins, turn away from them and ask His forgiveness.

But if you are 'going on' or 'keeping on' sinning feeling no remorse at all and no confession of your guilt then like it says in Hebrews 10 "there no longer remains a sacrifice for your sins"

Gods judgement is very clear. the Hebrews chapter goes on from verses 27-30 to explain the judgement of those who deliberately "KEEP GOING" into sin.

Okay, so how do we go about ensuring that we are indeed safe eternally with Jesus? Well, if right now you  are walking with Christ, you are trusting Him daily, and you have given Him all of your life, then you will never face His judgement. You are safe in His arms and your eternity is assured with Him.

You may ask "well what if I do fail?" We are saved by faith alone through Christ. Depend on Him to forgive you and be ever so willing to keep asking for that forgiveness.

We all fail, but the closer we walk with Christ and the closer we draw to Him the less likely we will be to keep falling over the same tricks of Satan who is so intent of driving us away from the presence of God.

We can trust God that ALL sin is paid for at the cross - but we have to ask and accept that forgiveness from God Himself.

If you turn to Jesus right here where you are and confess your sin, acknowledge that you can nothing without Him, then He will forgive you - He will indeed!

So if you are struggling with deliberate sin, ask God's help, genuinely ask His forgiveness. You need to fight this sin with faith and a contrite and humble heart.

Don't harden your heart and soul to the wiles of Satan. In 2 Corinthians 2:4 in the Message Bible Paul says "After all we don't want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for still more mischief - we're not oblivious to his sly ways."

If we keep on deliberately sinning, our hearts will eventually harden to the extent that we will feel nothing of the guidance of God's Spirit. Don't give Satan an even chance, turn your deliberate sin over to Christ the only one who paid the price to obliterate sin from our lives in the first place.

God bless you as you hand your sins deliberately over to God - Asking His forgiveness and accepting His miraculous saving gift of cleansing and mercy.