Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
11 20 2024

Audio Version

Made is God’s Image.  What is SELF?

The Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary defines SELF as an attitude of seeking one’s own advantage or pleasure rather than that of others.

Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary defines it as one who is dominated by self-interest and inconsiderate of others, arrogantly asserting his or her own will.

Have you ever thought how slow the death on a cross takes?

Actually, it depends on where the executioner places the arms.  If he places them above his head, they would die in 10 minutes.  If out to the side like Jesus, it could take days, but in his case, 3 hours.  Death is a slow process.  Just like our death to selfishness is a slow process of dying to ourselves a little every day. 

We will struggle our whole life with dying in the flesh.  But we must die so we can be raised with him.  I hope you are seeing this at a deeper level.

I read this strong piece last week about the compromises we make…that we justify…all of them and all of them are an abomination to God and just because he gives us Grace
doesn’t mean we can continue to do them.

A person cannot know God or the things of God in the flesh.  WHY?  They are beyond him.
1 Cor 2:14 says, “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit”.  That is what the world thinks about us.  Foolish

Romans 8:7-9  says clearly: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, “IF in fact” the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him!”

John 8:30-31  As he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him [the Christian church, the people who believe on Christ], If ye continue [abide] in my word, then are ye my “disciples indeed”;

I was reading a commentary on this yesterday and they said, “There’s a world of difference between being a disciple and being a “disciple indeed”. The whole Christian world, with its 100’s of million plus Christians, are disciples of Christ…but being a disciple indeed was not written by accident.  It’s like hearing someone talk about a Christian disciple generally or talking about  “disciple indeed”, like a Billy Graham, or Watchman Nee or Dawson Trotman

John 8:32” And if YOU abide in my word] ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  (That is clearly you and me.)
John 8:33 They answered him, We are Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, You shall be made free?

John 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin”.

That is something ministers do not preach on very much today. Very few preach on not sinning. The assumption in too many Christian churches is that you can’t help it; you are flesh and blood… you have to sin. They all point to Romans 7, but they forget about Romans 6 and 8.

Rom 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

But you have Romans 6, four times saying, ‘being therefore made free from sin.’

Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Grace does not put up with that stuff. The Grace of God chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live Godly lives in this present evil age. No, sin does not have dominion over you. You are free from sin. Am I saying you will never sin again in the flesh? Of course not! BUT as Christ grows in you (and you die daily), sin will no longer have dominion over you. That’s the teaching of God’s word if you can receive it. Anything else is less than the truth.

John 8:35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free [from sin], ye shall be free indeed.
John 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed [the Jews who believed on Christ]; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.

That means they (and we) are killing him. Every time you kill another human, you are killing Jesus Christ.
If you hate another human, you are hating Jesus Christ. If you steal from someone, you are stealing from Jesus Christ. And it goes on but that is not something that registers in most Christian minds.

John 8:38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father:
and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

The bible teaches us the importance of actively working to overcome self-centeredness and strive to live more in line with God’s image through acts of love for Jesus and service to others.

Being made in God’s image signifies our calling to and our potential for;  love, compassion, and morality, but it doesn’t mean we automatically live up to that potential. 

Dying to self is part of being born again by the spirit; the old self dies and the new self comes to life (John 3:3–7). 

1st Corinthians 15:31 says, “I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily”
Each of us was given free will, which allows us to choose actions that are not aligned with God’s character; sadly, in the process of growing up or dying to self, those actions often lead to self-centered behavior

A dead man has no rights.  Right?  So, if “You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world” (Colossians 2:20, NLT). Then we have a choice each day to die to our selfish interest and draw on the Holy Spirit to walk in the image and character of a loving Father.
Choose you this day who you will follow and be a “disciple indeed.”

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I will sing of the goodness of God  Carrie Underwood.