Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Phil. 2:6-8
So remember in 1Cor. 11:17-22 discussed earlier that the Church of Corinth had been sited for having divisions amongst them and that their communion gatherings were really not about communion and rather played into the divisiveness of the culture and time. There were no megachurches....these gatherings were held in local homes...so it further played into the rights/freedoms of the homeowners to do as they pleased. As an American there is a prevailing culture here. It's one where OUR RIGHTS take great precedence. We have the freedom of speech. The Right to Bear Arms. The Right to Remain Silent (one which we rarely ever demonstrate). We have the right to assemble peacefully....(but it often tends to turn into anything but peaceful). And the list of our rights goes on and on...and what's really sad is that we are more familiar with Constitutional Rights, than we are with our GOD GIVEN RIGHTS.
Now some of you are saying or thinking they are one in the same, and no where in scripture will you read that we are encouraged to cling to our rights. As a matter of fact in lieu of the text, as followers, believers, disciples of Christ He gave us the example of forsaking, giving up, laying down our rights for the sole purposes of demonstrating humility and obedience to the Father.
At Calvary Church whenever a missions team prepares to go on a trip, we have a form called " Release of Rights" where the missionaries are encouraged to read, study, pray over, then sign as they go off to serve. What's striking to me is we can go to Africa, Honduras, Czech Republic, Haiti, and other corners of the world relinquishing our rights willfully for the cause of Christ, but on our own soil we will grow roots in our feet to STAND OUR GROUND regarding our rights. See the problem with the Party is that the Party that we ascribe to, promote, or even throw we feel (at it is true to a degree) is our RIGHT to have. We can play with, drink with, party with whomever we so choose....but as a Christian our goal should be to lay down those rights as Paul did 1Cor. 9 all for the sake of the cause...the call of Christ!
See.....the people of Corinth were somewhat oblivious to that fact that while it WAS their RIGHT to have a party, they were infringing upon the will, the heart of the Father for His bride, the church because they called it communion. I heard from Donnie McClurkin that in order for someone to be saved, someone has to be sacrificed. For every person reading this blog today, there were people that sacrificed their very lives for you, and I'm not even talking about servicemen and women, but rather a mother that bore you in her womb. I'm talking about Christ himself who laid down His rights so that you may have ETERNAL LIFE. So again.....I leave you with this lingering question, your RESPONSE-ABILITY who are you sacrificing for? If , WE THE PEOPLE, are the people of GOD are to be on mission daily, we too have a responsibility to the lost, and in order to win them.....we will have to lay down something in order to show them the love of JESUS CHRIST, the question is will you? LGLP
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