Friday, December 29, 2017

Day 184 - The Christmas Gift

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file.

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"You see, Jesus died to give us the right to be called Children of God. That’s what the entire Bible is all about. He didn’t die to give us a role to play. He didn’t die to make me a businessman, or a husband or a father. Neither did He die to make me a victim."

As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 21.

The most important gift Jesus Christ gave you and me is the gift of salvation. No longer do we need to fear the possibility of what our eternity will look like. Jesus has secured our future by his death and resurrection. But, His giving of gifts didn’t stop there. I believe that, behind salvation, our gift of being called God’s Child is the second greatest gift given to us by Jesus. Our identity as God’s Child is what makes us victors even when the world does all it can to label us with victimhood.

Jesus is the Son of God. The way I read The Bible, He is God’s only “natural” son. By Jesus giving up his position in heaven and coming to earth to pave the way for us to get to God, we become adopted children of Jesus’ Father. I don’t want to get sacrilegious, but Jesus’s gift of identity actually makes us siblings to Jesus. Think about that for a second. The same Jesus that walked on water, healed the sick and raised Himself from the dead is our brother! That’s mind blowing.

But it should do more that just blow our mind that Jesus is our brother. It should give us a sense of heavenly confidence. Not a confidence that leads to pride and a swelled head. But a new-found confidence in who we are given the lineage we have been adopted into.

Jesus Himself stresses this point in an interesting way. Check out today’s Bible reading below;

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. John 14:12 (NIV)

Jesus said that we would do even greater things than He in this world. On the surface of things, I’m not sure exactly what that means. After all, I haven’t even walked on water lately or done anything that I would consider even remotely close to this amazing event. Have you?

I hope this fact doesn’t disappoint you in any way. The fact is that anything BIG we get to do in our lives that might even come close to the miracles of Jesus are God’s doing anyway. It just isn’t up to us. All we are called to do is live out this gift Jesus gave us in being an adopted child of the Heavenly Father.

That’s why it is so critical that we live out a role neutral life when it comes to our identity. Jesus didn’t die to give us a role. That great  job you have right now isn’t there as a gift from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even that role as victim that you might be facing at this moment didn’t come as a result of Jesus’s work on The Cross. He didn’t die to give us roles, why would He die to make us victims. Jesus died to make us victors. That’s what we are as Children of God.

I hope you can live differently today because of your standing as a sibling of Christ. That’s a place of power, authority and prestige that, if applied in the roles you play today, will make a difference in your battle to live like the victor God made you to be. If things take a downturn in your life today, remember you are a “Kid Of The King!” Keep your head high because a great price was paid to purchase for you the gift of salvation as well as the gift of identity.

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