I belong to the Body of Christ. I belong to the Northern Virginia Clergy Council. I belong to a growing family. I belong to a team of workers at the Fairfax County Health Department, and Reston/Herndon Little League as a manager. But most significantly, I belong to Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of my life, the master of my eternal fate and the focus of my devotion. It’s a daily battle to fight off competing owners of my life: the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus is writing to a group of believers who faced the challenge of competing loyalties. The love of money, immoral deception, worldly worship and sin’s allure all recruited individuals into their belief system. In some ways modern culture looks tame compared to the openly iniquitous and secular society of the Ephesians. Yet, Paul highlighted those believers in Christ Jesus, who were set apart for Him. Holiness begins with our proximity of belonging to God, for God. Our high standard of moral behavior flows out of faith in Jesus Christ and His high moral standard for living. All are saints who trust in Christ alone.
Security comes to those secure in their Savior. Because we are owned by God, no other prospectors can claim Christ’s claim on us. Our Lord has the deed to our soul and no one and no thing has the authority to take us away from Him. Our soul’s title insurance is trust in Jesus. Furthermore, the more we rest in God’s ownership of our life the more we are filled with joy. Our head knows we are His, but until our heart engages in an emotional uplift we remain unmoved. Faith is a fortress for our joy’s protection from anxiety. When we declare our belongings belong to Jesus, we fear no unnecessary loss. Joy rests secure in Jesus.
Furthermore, where we belong is what we become. Just like members of a club tend to take on the traits of other club members, so we become more like Christ as we understand and apply our membership of faith. We pay our dues in daily devotion of love for our Lord and people. We move from duty to delight the more we delight in God’s ownership over us. Christianity is not a compartment that contains the religious part of our life. Christ is our life. What He owns, He takes care of. Thus, because we belong to Jesus, we don’t belong anywhere outside His will. All our belongings are God’s for His purposes. We become like Jesus, because we belong to Jesus.
Our prayer: Father God shine the light on the areas of our lives that we have not turned over to you, and through the power of your Spirit help us to trust you with our lives totally. We give you the reins of our lives that we might experience fullness of joy and abundance of life in Jesus name we pray amen.
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Pastor Todd A. Brown
First Baptist of Chesterbrook
1740 Kirby Rd. Mclean Va. 22101
First Baptist of Chesterbrook
1740 Kirby Rd. Mclean Va. 22101
Vision:" Disciples Making a Kingdom Impact"
Mission: Exalting, Evangelizing, Equipping, and Encouraging every soul in Christ
Listen to "Life Notes" & "Kingdom Impact with Pastor Brown
Mon-Fri at noon and Sundays at 9am and Wednesdays at 9pm on WBGRonline.com
www.fbcc-va.org
www.fbcc-va.org
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