So far as I can tell, in many places on the planet, when two people get married, the assets of both people no longer belong to them individually, they are one. They each are now beneficiaries of the other’s stuff. What’s more, they also acquire the debt of the other person. After all, “the two shall become one.”
In America, when a couple get’s divorced, what typically happens is that the assets (and presumably the debt) the couple had gets split 50/50. If one person entered the marriage rich and the other poor, the poor person doesn’t walk away poor, they walk away with half. However, and I don’t know how new of an invention this is, there is something that a couple can enter into before getting married to prevent this from happening. It’s called a prenuptial agreement. It spells out who has the rights to what if the marriage ends in divorce.
As I think through my own walk with the Lord, and as I survey the body of Christ at large, it seems to me that we enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ with a prenuptial agreement.
Jesus in Our Lives
We don’t understand the debt that Jesus absorbed. We don’t understand that Jesus has taken upon Himself all of our debt and paid it in full on the cross. He became sin so that we could be righteous. We limit the access God has in our lives. We don’t let Him have access to all of our assets. We don’t give all of ourselves to Him. We limit how much control He has over us. Those who try Jesus and bail on Him entered into the thing with a prenup.
Us in Jesus’ Life
We don’t understand or realize what we have access to in Jesus. We don’t get who and what we are in Him. We don’t take advantage of the exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ever ask or think. We have not because we ask not. We don’t leave the world and cleve unto Jesus.
What conditions have you put on Jesus? What conditions do you think Jesus has put on you that may not even be reality? What are you missing out on in His life? What are you keeping Him from in yours?
Tear up that prenup. Give yourself over to Him completely. After all, He gave Himself over completely to you and for you.
Over the past, I don’t know, “season” (how’s that for a word that describes an ambiguous amount of time?), a common theme has popped up, both in people I have directly interacted with and observed from afar. It typically centers around conflict between people who say they are Christians. From problems in marriages to the division over the Emergent Church, a theme has surfaced. It has to do with the lordship of Jesus. Who is on the throne of your life, and what impact is that having?
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I’ve just finished reading and re-skimming the book The Diving Mentor by Wayne Cordiero, a pastor on Oahu. It is perhaps the best and simplest book on the why’s and the how’s of personal devotional time. If I can be honest, it is in this area that I have had one of my biggest struggles. Being a pastor I already spend so much time in the word. It does speak to me, it does change me, but most of the time I’m thinking, “How can I communicate this to others?” It needs to speak to me, it needs to teach me before I can teach it to others. It is this cool opportunity I have to spend so much time in the word that actually makes personal devotions one of the most challenging things for me.
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There is an ongoing discussion in amongst Christians concerning the idea of the inerrancy of the Bible. This discussion, coupled with past talks I’ve heard regarding the Emergent Church camp and it’s generally communicated views on scripture, as well as my own personal Bible study journey over the past 18 years, have today brought this observation to mind. (I needed something positive to chew on today as I ran the gauntlet of state DMV and DEQ bureaucracy trying to get the church van legal again.)
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This was the title for my study last Sunday on 1 Peter 3:18 – 4:6. Sometimes things happen after the fact that you wish would have happened before. I’ve just had an exchange online via a friend’s Facebook status. This exchange caused me to realize a few things about the Gospel and the people it is intended for, including myself. One thing I realized in a way I have not before is this:
The biggest obstacle to faith in Jesus is the same thing that draws people to Him – God’s grace.
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