Remember Who You Are!

It's been sometime since my last blog, we have school holidays here in Australia and though I have continued to work through this period we have also been spending time with our children. Just last week we drove to Dubbo in the Central West of New South Wales to the Western Plains Zoo. A zoo which tries to replicate, with a great deal of success, the environment of the animals of Africa. Whilst at this zoo, I noticed a number of different animals within their very large enclosures. Though these animals were unable to leave their environments they continued to behave as they would normally do in the wild. That is the monkeys played and swung from their trees and the elephants pushed and pulled on logs just as if they were at home.

This started me thinking about the body of Christ, how though we are not within our natural or at least destined environment, we too are called to behave and be who we are! And what are we? We are Christ's body on this earth, a holy priesthood, called and chosen to represent Christ in every way. And yet when the winds of opposition blow against us, it is true to see in our lives this representation at least most of the time.

Ephesians tells us that we have been raised up with Christ, that we are indeed seated with Him in heavenly places. This tells me that we have a heavenly perspective that others simply cannot have. And though we strive and struggle to BE, it is just as important to remember that we ARE! Trying to BE and knowing that we ARE  is probably the hardest battle that any of us we have as believers and the body of Christ. This is because it is a mindset that needs to be changed and within this environment we are continually told to BE this or BE that. Forgetting that Christ has done it all for us.

I like what Jesus says to the Church in Sardis in Revelation chapter 3 ""Be watchful and strengthen what remains..." Though Jesus is speaking to the "dead church" in this verse, I believe it speaks directly to the body of Christ today. Strengthen what remains!!! What is it that remains? We are what remains, we are the remanent or the representation that remains as the light to a dark world and salt to the earth. We must remember to remain in Him, to strengthen our relationship that we have in Christ, establishing continually Christ as the head of the body which we are. Knowing that all comes from Him above and that He continues to be our sustenance and our source for everything.

In conclusion, though we are not in our natural environment, though we are continually battered by our circumstances and forces of another world, we must continue to remember who we are in Christ. We must continue to remain connected not only to Him, but to one another for when a limb is cut off from the body or a branch is cut off from the vine, it withers and dies.

Remember who you ARE!