Who Am I?

Not a pretty sight is it?
When I look at myself in the mirror, I sometimes wonder, "Who is that man?"
The face is familiar, but the it looks a lot older than the mind remembers.
In my mind, I'm still 18 - 20 years old. Full of vim and vinegar, ready to take on the world.
The body says, "Nope...your 60 years old and you have the aches and pains to prove it."

Knowing who you are in Christ is one of the ways  that we are able to make through each day.
To wade through the problems and situations that each of us find ourselves in daily.
Maybe it's health issues....
Maybe it's financial troubles....
It could be relationship troubles....
No matter what we face, we have to remember who we are in Christ, as a believer.

I like what James wrote to open the book of he wrote.
James 1:1 -  "James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ..."
Even though James was half-brother to Jesus, he understood, as he wrote this book, exactly who he was in relation to God and Jesus. He was a bond-servant. Doesn't sound too glamorous does it?
In James' day, a bond-servant was someone who had been set free by their master but chose to remain being a servant. I think that salvation puts us in that same place as James. Jesus gives us our freedom from sin and the penalty associated with it, but we have to make a choice. Do we accept the freedom and recognize it as a new way of living by remaining in contact and following His leading....
Or do we reject the offer of this new life so we can do what we want to do?

I choose to be a bond-servant.
I choose to remain close and follow Jesus.
Why?
Because over the years I have found the value and sense of purpose that comes from being a believer and, more than that, a follower of Jesus.
Here again, the Declaration at Rapha is a daily reminder of who I am and whose I am.

Because of Christ's redemption
I am a new creation of infinite worth

I am deeply loved

I am completely forgiven
I am fully pleasing

When my performance reflects my new identity in Christ

That reflection is dynamically unique

There has never been another person like me in the history of mankind

Nor will there ever be

God has made me an original

One of a kind

Special person

and so are you....

God on you.....

mb