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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 1, NUMBER 43, NOVEMBER 25, 2001 THANK YOU When I was just a little fellow, I am not exactly sure how old I was, I was told a story that has stuck with me to this very day. As a matter of fact, it has continued to influence my life. It is a simple little story and this is how it goes. One day two groups of angels were sent out from heaven to collect the prayers of all the people on earth. One group was sent to collect all of the requests that people made. The other group was sent out to collect all of the "thank you's" . As you can well imagine, the group sent out to collect the requests came back with the baskets absolutely full. The group sent out to collect the "thank you's", had baskets that were practically empty. It is funny how some things will stick with you and I have never forgotten that story. Many, many years later I found out that that story has a biblical parallel to it. In Luke 17:11 - 19, we find, "And it came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when He saw them, He said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And He said to him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole." We are in what is known as the "holiday season". Most of us celebrated Thanksgiving in one way or another last Thursday. Various other holidays will be taking place in the next month or so. We will be with family and friends, and many of us will be together in social settings as well. There will be gifts given, wonderful food eaten, along with all of the sights and sounds and joy of being together with those we love. One thing that I pray will be a constant with all of us as we enjoy the good times ahead will be the "thank you" in our hearts and on our lips to God. There is an absolutely beautiful passage found in Col. 3:12 - 15, in which Paul wrote, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." We have so much to be thankful for. If you happen to be reading this on your computer, than you are in your home, able to afford a computer. It is warm and safe and dry and your spouse and children may be somewhere else in the house. Therein must we be thankful. If you are reading this on Sunday, having received a copy at services, that means that you were at services - healthy enough to be there, blessed with another day. Therein we must be thankful. But more than all of this, we have received the precious gift of the Lord,
Jesus Christ. If we have taken advantage of His immeasurable love, than we are
saved, sanctified, and cleansed. We are on the road to heaven and therein, we
must be thankful. THE MIND OF CHRIST "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. 2:5 - 8) The more I study this passage the more I marvel at our incredible Lord Jesus. Paul affirms that before He became man, Jesus was really and objectively God. Everything that was distinctly divine, Jesus possessed. John put it so simply in John 1:1, where he wrote, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Existing "in the form of God"; possessing everything distinctly divine (the whole nature and essence of Deity), Jesus was equal with God and was God. Taking it one step further, Paul tells us that Jesus did not consider this equality as a robbery, or as a thing to be used to snatch or seize. You see, it was not necessary for Jesus to "snatch" or "seize" equality with God; He was already equal with God. And that being true, it was certainly not necessary for Jesus to maintain equality by force. So, being "equal with God" was not what the seizing or the snatching was about. Being "equal with God" was not the subject of the "seizing" or "snatching". The "seizing" or the "snatching" under consideration in this passage BEGINS with the equality with God. It is something that would radiate from it. That it true, but what does it mean? Jesus did not view His equality with God as a means of promoting Himself. He
would not use His divinity to gain, or to profit in "an egoistic or
despotic way from what and who He was". As a matter of fact, Jesus did just
the opposite. One man wrote that it would be natural to assume "that
God-likeness means having our own way, getting what you want, but Jesus saw
God-likeness essentially as giving and spending oneself out." But Jesus is not like that, meaning that God is not like that. He didn't come demanding His rights. He didn't come seeking to assert His own position for His own benefit. He came here to give and to be spent for us. I am reminded of Paul's words in Romans 15:1 - 3, where we find, "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not Himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me." Jesus, instead of acting as He could have acted, and by that I mean using His equality with God to seize and snatch everything good on earth for His own personal benefit, acted exactly opposite of that. He made Himself of "no reputation". Some use the term "emptied" there, and that is O.K. as long as we understand that Jesus "emptied" HIMSELF, and not that He emptied something OUT of Himself. It all relates in the context to how Jesus viewed His equality with God. He didn't lose or negate His equality with God in any way. What He did do was to put Himself totally and completely at the service of others, humbling Himself even to the extent of "taking on the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men". And continuing the thought, Jesus did that so He could die. Paul said to let that same mind be in us. Is that difficult? Sure it is! But it is part of what it means to be Christ-like. Greg Litmer
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