Where Do We Look For Approval??

“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on the cross!” – Philippians 2:8

                The humility of Jesus Christ, wow.  It is something we all know, Jesus was humble, but the IBS’s this week have truly been touching my heart.  The thought that He, Jesus Christ, would come and be a servant of man and leave the fact that He is God at the doorstep of heaven.  Looking at each of these verses has forced me to look a lot deeper into each one and God has really been showing me His love through the humility of Jesus Christ.  I really can’t rap my mind around the fact of what Jesus did for a world that would continually betray and turn on Him.  We do not have the capability to love Christ the way that He love us, and yet He loves us.  A lot of people choose not to love Christ at all, and yet He loves them. The Bible says those that you love the most, a lot of times, will not return that love, and I know how true this can be.  It can be so hard to continue loving those that keep spitting in your face and yet Christ loves us.

                I find me laughing at myself as I read this verse and think of the rest of the chapter.  How often do I look for approval in the eyes of man?  The answer is all the time.  I can even remember times I looked for approval of man over the approval of God.  We look for the approval of people who, even if they don’t mean to, will at some point let us down.  Just like we will disappoint those around us, because we are human.  We look for approval from things and people who are not eternal, that don’t always have or best interests in mind or that will only do us good here on earth.  We have a heavenly Father who loves us so much, He sent His son to die in our place.  Jesus Christ, leaving all of His rights of being God behind, died on the cross for us.  We are the termites of the earth, we are cockroaches compared to Jesus, and yet He gave up His life for us.  When I really think about this, I really do laugh at myself.  My Savior who is perfect and holy asks only for my life in return for all He has done for me, and yet I so often look for the approval of man.  This life is just a mere fraction of eternity, what should I be living for?

Undeserving

“rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of servant, being made in human likeness.” – Philippians 2:7

                When a child purposefully disobeys their parents, in many ways they are saying I know better than you.  Parents lay out rules for their child’s benefit, but children love to disobey them.  I remember seeing a sign in an ice-cream shop that said “Quick! Move out, Get a Job, and Pay your way, while you still know it all.”  The sign was talking about teenagers and how, more often than not, this is their mind set towards life.  How often is this our attitude toward our heavenly Father? So many times when God tells us no, we say maybe.  He gives us countless examples and we still think that we are different and that we know better. Jesus Christ is our example of how to live our lives as children of God and yet we so often put ourselves above Jesus and say “I don’t (or can’t) do it that way.”  Jesus laid aside Himself and had His eyes set on others, He was God, yet He took on the nature of a servant.  The Son of Man came down to this earth born in a smelly manger, to wash some dirty feet, be betrayed by His friends, to suffer a death that we all deserved, and we complain when we are stuck on sweeping duty.

Many times our pride gets in the way and makes us think that we deserve better.  We think that we need to help God out and show Him what we are capable of, because sweeping doesn’t even start to hit all of our strengths.  It can be so hard for us to put ourselves in the position of nothing.  We all want to have meaning, and the pride in us loves to get noticed.  Yet, our Savior placed Himself in the position of a servant and He still does.  Jesus Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, interceding on our behalf.  This is so mind blowing and humbling.  Jesus is praying for me; the one that continually messes things up, the sinner.  Why?  Because He loves me so much, He doesn’t care about Himself and He is not controlled by pride.  My God serves me, so how much more should I commit my life to be His servant.  In all truthfulness, I don’t even deserve that honor.

Mind Blown

“In your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage;” – Philippians 2:5-6

                As a child growing up my brothers and I would enter into a world of imagination and play for hours.  Whether we were Jedis swinging lightsabers, or cowboys firing our guns, we could always have an adventure.  We could make up any super power and in that moment we could believe we truly had that super power.  I remember playing “Rock, Paper, Scissors” one day and my brother called God.  I immediately told him that it wasn’t fair, because God beats all things.  I say all of this because when I first read this verse, I tried to imagine what it would be like to be God.  He holds the universe in His hands, He knows every breath we take before we are even conceived, and He has power over all things, because He made all things.  I can’t even fathom how immense the power of God is, it blows my mind trying to think about it.  But, what blows my mind even more is that Jesus Christ, being God, denied Himself that power and lived as a human.  Even when Satan tempted Christ in the desert, He held fast to His confidence in His Father, but He didn’t claim His own rights as God.

                There were so many instances within Jesus life where He could have made use of who He is, for example when He was put on the cross.  Jesus could have used His equality with God to stop any pain, or stop the whole process completely, but He didn’t.   Why?  Because He loved us, dirty sinners, with an unexplainable unconditional love.  The account of when Jesus washes the disciples feet was burned into my mind the first week here, at IGNITE.   I feel as if I have used it to so many times already in my IBS’s, but the elephant of that story is still so powerful.  Jesus Christ is God, and yet Jesus washes His disciples feet, putting Himself in the lowest position on earth.  But, the thing that blows my mind about this account the most, is that Jesus had the foreknowledge and knew that they were going to abandon Him, deny Him and betray Him.  Yet, even knowing all of this, knowing that the ones He was about to go to suffer the wrath of God for were going to turn on Him, He washed their feet to show them servant hood, to show them His unconditional love. 

                This is an example for us in so many ways, but in this instances we can take the example of not putting ourselves above others because we are saved.  We are no better then those who do not know the Lord.  Instead of putting ourselves above them, our hearts should break for them.  They are blind and we can see; yet, so many times we don’t share the reason for our sight.  Christ is God and He humbled Himself below His creation, how much more should we humble ourselves and love everyone around us?  Not looking at them for their sin, but looking at them as a child of God that He wants to redeem. 

"Do what ever you have to, even if that means running someone over"

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Rather, in humility value others above yourself.” – Philippians 2:3

                When the world says to not look to your right or to your left, there is a completely different meaning behind it then when we hear it here at IGNITE.  When the pastors here tell us to keep our eyes ahead and not look to the side, they are talking about keeping our eyes on the Lord and what is His will.  When the world has said this to me, it was encouraging me to not look at other people’s needs or wants, but to keep my eyes on myself and what I want.   How many times in America do you hear, “you have to do whatever it takes to get yourself to the top, even if that means running someone else over, that is just life.”  Everything in the culture I have grown up in is about self, “What’s in it for me?”  The results of this love of self is heart breaking.  Just one example is how high the divorce rate has become in our country.  Even when the numbers did drop a little, studies showed it was because people no longer were getting married.  Why make a commitment to another person when I can just live with them with no commitment?  As Christians we need to constantly be on guard, so that we too do not fall into the trap of self.

                In the Bible we are told many times, if we want to truly live then we must die to ourselves.   We are to pick up our cross and live being the salt of the earth.  Our flesh so easily gets focused on itself and what it wants, our hearts are naturally wicked.  Yet, God calls us to a higher standard, He calls us to live in J.O.Y (Jesus, Others, Yourself).   And when we follow this plan for our lives, then we truly have His joy and peace.  The verse says “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,” nothing.  That means every day I should constantly be humbling myself below others, and I know that I do not do that.  When we say we need to die to ourselves daily, moment by moment, there couldn’t be a truer statement.  It has to be a constant prayer, we have to constantly be in communication with the Holy Spirit.  I know for myself it can be easier to die to myself in big situations, where the choice is kind of thrust in my face.  But, the Lord calls us to be faithful in the little things as well.  That is when we need to be constantly aware of ourselves and others, making a concentrated effort and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us.  Because, it is with the little things, which are easily brushed off, that Satan tries to work himself in.

Loving, Even When It Seems Impossible

“Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account.  Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.” – Hebrews 13:17

                I have read this verse a thousand times and it is one of those verses everyone loves to quote.  But, as I read it again, it hit me.  When I was a squadron commander there was some of my flight staff that thought I only got the position because I was a woman, and that I was completely incapable of leading the squadron.   There was a lot of walls, tension, distrust, and unwillingness.  For the first half of my time this made my job so much harder, even if my staff did submit to my authority and listen, I could tell nowhere inside of them did they want to.  It is extremely hard to lead a group, when they have no interest in working as a team.  I can completely relate to this verse, in every single line.  Everything that happened within my squadron I had to give an account of.  I take the responsibility for anything that happens, but mostly the failures.  So, logically why would I do anything to purposefully harm my team?  My main goal was to watch them grow and just make sure they had the tools and the means to do so.  Throughout the time of distrust from half my staff, my job was not exactly full of joy.   I am not saying that I didn’t enjoy it, I did, but when we all were on the same page (and were happy to be there), there was so much more joy in my job.  I enjoyed every moment I got with them, even if they weren’t “happy” moments.

Thinking of all this, God totally convicted me, “Cassandra, if you know how it feels, then why would you ever do that to someone else.”  I know how hard it can be to submit to authority.  When your authority earns your respect, they know what they are doing, they care about you as a person, and they are just simply a good leader and team player, it is so easy to submit their authority.  But, then there are those who you know have no care for your human existence, and yet you still have to submit and submit with love.  Oh, how impossible it can sometimes seem to be.  The Bible says the world will know us by our love.  I think that moments they notice the most, is when it is hardest to love and yet we do.  It is so much harder to love, then to hold on to anger, and so much easier to disobey then to submit.  Yet, God is telling us to submit to our authority and He doesn’t just say our good authority.

Has My Salt Lost Its Flavor?

“If you love Me, keep My commands.” – John 14:15

                In today’s day and age I think the seriousness of this verse can be lost, especially in the United States.  The verse does not say if you love Me, it would be really nice if you kept my commandments.  It doesn’t say if you love Me, keep the commandments that you are comfortable with or that your society agrees with.  No, Jesus is giving us, as His disciples, a command.  If we claim to love Him as our Lord and Savior, then we need to keep His commandments.  Now, it would be easy to look at this and say, “well, that can’t be true, because we are sinful by nature so there is no way that we would be able to keep His commandments, even if we do love Him.”  There would be some truth in this statement; as humans we are unable to do good, we cannot keep ourselves from sin.  Yet, that is why Jesus starts His statement with “if you love Me.”   If Jesus was not part of our lives, then this command would truly be even more impossible.

When someone loves something or someone, it is extremely evident in their life.  Usually, they talk about that person or thing more than anything else, they make life decisions and sacrifices for what they love, they don’t care what others think, and they will change their lifestyles to fit that thing or person.  Yet, so many times, even though we as Christians claim to love God, we aren’t willing to pick up our cross and follow Him.  We are comfortable with how we live and if the world says it is okay, then why change?  The world’s standard and God’s standard are so far apart, that I think it is easy for us to put our standard in the middle and think we are okay.  But, the Bible says to be in the world, not of the world.  How can we be the salt of the world, if we have no flavor?

Jesus knows, better then we know ourselves, that we will fall short on many occasions.  He knows that we will not always keep His commandments and follow His will.  That is why the very next verse says, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.”  He is speaking of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.  One cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit, unless they love God and have committed their life to Him.  He says that He will not leave us as orphans: hopeless, alone and confused.  Jesus is continually interceding on our behalf and He sent us the Holy Spirit, who lives within us.  We love Him, because He first loved us.  He came and died for us, so that we could have a personal relationship with Him.  Because He loved us, Jesus obeyed the Fathers will and went to the cross.  With all of the pressure of the world bearing down on His shoulders, with the knowledge that He was going to be separated from His father, Jesus sweat blood.  He asked the Father that if there was anyway for the cup to pass from Him, let it be so.  He wasn’t jumping up for joy at the idea of being crucified, but He loved the Father and said, “let Your will be done.”  Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep my commands.”  He commands us to not live as the world because He loves us. He asks us to keep His commandments because He loves us and because we (if we love Him) live to bring Him glory.  How can I glorify my savior if the salt in my life has lost its flavor?

What Do We Trade For Money?

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you’.” – Hebrews 13:5

            Why do we as people have this yearning for money?  So many of our thoughts are centered on money, we make life choices based on money.  I can’t even count the amount of times I was talking to another college student and they tell me what they want to do with their lives, but the main reason they have chosen that career is because that’s where the money is.  We make choices that will affect our happiness for the rest of our lives based off of what the world says is important.  So many times I see people make choices that go against everything that is within them, simply because they can’t make as much money in other fields.  The amount of times I have heard some of my professors or people that I worked with tell me that I was wasting all my potential by entering the IGNITE program, can’t be counted on my hands.  The question I always got was why, and my answer seemed to always be so hard for them to grasp. I got the response, “you really think you can make a difference? Okay, so you help one child, what good does that do you or the rest of the world?  You need to make money, think of yourself and don’t limit your future.”  Yet, if money was the thing that guided my future and was what I put my hope in, what would I be living for?  Hebrews says to keep ourselves free from the love of money.  But, what is love?  There are a couple of different types of love, but the verse that I thought of in this moment was 1 John 3:16, “This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”  Jesus laid down His life because He so loved us, He died to Himself, so that I might live.  How often do I see people laying down their lives for money?  People choose careers that they hate for the love of money, people tear relationships apart because they love money, people sacrifice their families for the love of money, people trade other people’s wellbeing for their love of money, but most importantly people trade eternal life with their creator for the love of money.  They trade everything for something they can’t depend on.  The Lord says to be content with what you have.  The funny thing is, is that those who are poor, yet content in their circumstances, have more joy then those who are rich and not content. 

            The word ‘because’ always follows the word ‘why’.  As people who are force fed the lies of the world daily it can become easy to ask God, “Why should I be content?”  Why should we be content in a world full of sin?  One that rips us off, cheats, steals, takes advantage, discriminates, and the list could go on and on.  The world tries to make us believe that everyone is out to get us and that people will have no problem running us down, so we need to think only of ourselves.  We become self-centered, and then when we are not content, we ask God why He would ask us to do what might seem impossible.   The author of Hebrews gives us that why, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”  This is one of God promises to us.  He asks us not to be content with the sin in this world, but to be content in Him.  In Philippians 4:12-13 Paul says, “I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.  I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.  For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.”  When we place our love in money, we place money over God; ultimately, making money our god or idol and we are never truly content.  God is asking us to be content, because we can rest in the fact that He will provide for our every need.  He is faithful, even when we are faithless.  When we are content in Him is when He is truly able to use us, because that is when we realize we can do nothing on our own.