I have to admit to whoever is reading my blog, that there are days when I begin to get negative and slightly depressed when I view what is going on in our nation. I have to continually guard against a “negative spirit.” I can easily get fearful and start worrying. I become concerned about the future. So what pulls me out of my slump? What gets me facing daily life with a positive attitude again? Well, I have to admit that my wife is a great encouragement. She is a very positive person, who has been the biggest encourager in my spiritual journey.
Howcver, the exercise that brings me back to a positive view of life is knowing that I belong to the Kingdom of God, in which Jesus is Lord. I simply have to trust that Jesus is in charge and that the reign of His kingdom is active in my life. I remember that Jesus taught us to pray, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In that prayer I am declaring the Lordship of Jesus in my life and the culture I live in. I find great comfort in knowing that I am under the protection of the Lordship of Christ. If I have any doubts, I need to feed my mind with scriptures such as Colossians 1:17-18, which says in part, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Wow, what a thought! All things around me are held together by the Lord Jesus.
A wild man will not ashamed to talk about the Lordship of Jesus. The name of “Jesus” should be a natural part of his conversation. He is one who gladly puts himself, as an act of his will, under the Lordship of Jesus. Listen to these words from I Peter 5:5-ff. Being under the Lordship of Jesus means that we clothe of lives with humility. “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” God opposes the tendencies of pride in our lives, but he takes care of these who are under His hand. I find comfort in knowing that I can give all my anxieties upon him.
This kind of attitude toward modern life is countercultural. A wildman just doesn’t fit the typical description of the modern male. Gary Moon in his book “Apprenticeship with Jesus” qutoes A. W Tozer on this point. “A real Christian is an odd number anyway. He feels supreme love for one whom he has never seen. He talks familiarly every day to someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another, empties himself in order that he might be full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, goes down in order to get up. He is strongest when he is weakest, richest when his poorest, and happiest when he feels worst. He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, give away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which passeth knowledge.”
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