Christ Himself is the overarching First Rule. He envelops our lives in the workplace, marriage, familiar relations and (especially) in the way we do church. The Son of man is the singular Focus of our lives, working Himself out day after day as He patiently teaches us how to deal with every secondary concern.

It is only fitting that Christ should receive credit for every spiritual accomplishment because we wouldn't even being aware of spiritual accomplishment unless He deliberately taught us about these things. And we would have absolutely no capacity for accomplishing any good thing if not for His Spirit equipping us for this purpose. We may have good reason to become frightened sometimes, but we shouldn't be crippled by fear as long as Christ is our Leader. On the contrary, we should rejoice to let God tear us down and start us once again from the bare beginning if that He decides is necessary.

We needn't enslave our obedience to mere guilt-tripping. Our specific spiritual callings are sufficient for us because Christ Himself is sufficient for us.

All people are equally hopeless when they are distant from Jesus Christ. Consequently, anyone who has been saved by Him should be convinced that He can do anything.

If we follow Christ, then our confidence is in Him only. For Him there is no situation too impossible, nor is there any soul too far gone. Though our fleshly minds scream in protest, actively and progressively surrendering to Christ is the greatest accomplishment to which we or anybody else could ever attain.

No part of us is worth anything apart from God. However the parts of our identities that belong to and spring forth from Christ contain eternal, heavenly value.

Whatever we cling to in opposition to Christ amounts to eternal loss. It is infinitely imprudent for us to clutch our western heritage or our religious conditioning as if these things were more important than obeying Christ. The more we get to know Him through daily obedience, the more we will find out what is truly important, the more all the things that define us will be charged with godly significance.

by Patrick Roberts

www.BooksByPatrick.com

About the Author

Patrick is an average Christ-seeker. His goal is to turn people to Jesus Christ.