No Higher Calling

9Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11“The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12‘I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’13“And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’14“I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 18: 9 - 14 NKJV

There are expectations we christians carry with us as we walk through our daily lives.  We are expected to be righteous, God fearing and excellent in all that we do.  For to do anything less would be a failure on our part.  This is our higher calling.  We are to walk as Christ with all of the love and humility which He exhibited.  One of the greatest struggles I hear of when I talk to other believers is the almost impossible expectations which the world, and the church, place upon them.  Christians aren't supposed to get angry, vengeful or display any other form of negative human emotion we might think of.  Instead, we are to be a army of dutiful christian soldiers marching through life.  Tell me how that's working out for you.  As for me personally, I think that God sort of lowered His expectations of my behavior long ago.  Yes, I'm a christian, but I'm also human.  I'm a human created in my heavenly Fathers image.  I am a man with the breath of my Lord within me {Genesis 2:7}.  Do I screw up?  Absolutely!  I believe one of the mysteries of being a christian is knowing that Christ is in you despite all of your own failures {Galations 2:20}.  Remember that Jesus was the example we have been shown throughout the ages of a perfect man.  Jesus is all loving, all caring and...all man.  That's right, Jesus is all that I am or will ever be.  Knowing this, I am also all that Christ is.  The righteous christian will assuredly turn up his nose and snort, "Yes, but Jesus was the perfect example of a man and you...are a sinner!"  Let me clarify that by saying that I once WAS a sinner.  It is but by the work of Christ that I am no longer a slave to my former ways {Romans 6:6}.  We do well to recognize Christ as the example of a perfect man.  For that He most certainly was.  However, just because Jesus carried the mantle of  the worlds perfect man doesn't mean that things were always smiles and sunshine in His world.  Think you screwed up today?  Did you piss off the religious authorities of your congregation?  Jesus most certainly did that, among other human things. 

5Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6who, being in the form of God, did not consider it brobbery to be equal with God, 7but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Philippians 2: 5 - 7 NKJV

See, despite Jesus being the perfect example of man, He was still flesh and blood as we are.  Jesus was human enough to become angry and upset with what was going on around Him.  Yet despite His outbursts against the authorities of His time, Jesus was emotional enough to weep as well.  Yes, Jesus has experienced all which we have and then some.  You think there are other believers out there holding that yardstick to measure your christian performance every day?  Try being hounded by the religious leaders on a regular basis.  See, according to them Jesus didn't walk the straight and narrow line required by someone who claimed to be as holy as He was.  In fact, they didn't believe that Jesus was who He said He was.  How can sinful man be God?  They didn't get it.  Honestly, most christians don't.  Whenever I mention that it is the Spirit of Christ who dwells in each of us, I usually get quite a few blank stares.  This is the seperation mentality of christian teaching.  Despite there being scriptures which tell us of His Spirit in us, we continue to see Jesus as being enthroned in heaven apart from Gods children.  That's been the prevailing teaching of the day.  Knowing this, it isn't hard to see why it's so difficult for many to see Jesus as having the same attributes as we do...good and bad.  So, knowing that it Jesus who lives in me, what happens when I mess up?  What happens when I do something I shouldn't?  Does this mean that Jesus has run for the hills as far from me as possible?  Not at all.  In fact, I believe that it is in these times that He draws Himself even closer to me.  Why?  To remind me of just who it is that I really am.  To remind me that my identity doesn't lie in the eyes of the world but in He who is in me.  See, despite how hard the world around us tries to convince us that we're not walking the christian life, the truth is something far different alltogether.  It is the world around us that fails to walk with Him.

~Scott~