MYTH OF BEING RELIGIOUS-II

SORRY. AUDIO VERSION WILL NOT BE UP UNTIL SATURDAY. It will at www.embersfellowship.blogspot.com.

There are two ways to view Jesus and your spiritual life. One is DEIFICATION and the other is INCARNATION. You have a choice to go the way of deification or the way of incarnation.

Deification is man becoming God. The way of deification is to believe that Jesus was born a human and became God over time. It's almost as if He realized more and more that if He continued to walk the walk of perfection, He must be the chosen one to become God.

This same line of thinking has application in our lives. If we believe that we can become better and better and achieve some sort of level of righteousness on our own, then we are caught up in the process of "deification". Some forms of Christianity have excelled in this with elevating certain teachers or even certain experiences as more spiritual than others. What happens is believers are divided into first-class citizens vs second-class citizens in the Kingdom. We are naturally set up for this kind of thinking as we elevate our pastors, our teachers, evangelists and our authors.

Incarnation is God becoming man. The way of incarnation is to believe that Jesus was God taking on flesh to become man in order to establish a personal relationship between man and God. Jesus knew who He was and what His mission was. He was God-made-flesh.

This same line of thinking also has application in our lives. In a sense, we are to become Jesus-to allow Him to become alive and powerful in and through us-to take on His person-to flesh Him out. By walking, thinking, loving and talking like Jesus we are fleshing Him out in our lives as we encounter those He brings to us.

Here's how I see it. There are two primary miracles that we must embrace: The Greatest Miracle is the incarnation of Jesus-the Word became flesh-God, born as man. Jesus replaces the OT dwelling place of God. NOTE this in Matthew 1:23: "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us").

Jesus came to do four things: FIRST-To reveal God. No one has seen God and Jesus made Him known through Jesus.

SECOND-To be sacrificed-to permanently take away the need to pay for what we do wrong or what we do right.

THIRD-To demonstrate God's love as Jesus was full of grace and truth. If there was ever a man who was God in the flesh, He would act and talk like Jesus.

FOURTH-To redeem us. Mortals can participate in the miracle by being apprehended by Jesus and rescued from our own shallowness and self-absorption.

The 2nd Greatest Miracle is that you can be born of God, taking on His flesh through Jesus. Jesus even says that we will be able to do greater things than He did. Jesus is multiplied through those who have ears to hear and eyes to see-serious followers of Jesus.

Jesus marked the world and you are to be the touch of God on earth-the salt and light.

Jesus moved to a different drummer and you are to be separated from the herd of the world by your genuine love for the world around you.

Jesus made a point of reaching out to the needy and you are to be lovers-especially to those who are ignored by the world-the broken, the outcast, the bruised, damaged and disenfranchised.

Jesus motivated the most extensive movement ever out of His weakness and you are to be a fellowship of prodigal lovers or wounded healers.

The bottom-line is being religious misses the point. Jesus doesn't want us to demonstrate for Him through our religiosity, He wants us to demonstrate Him as we walk like He walked and talk like He talked.