The
Christian life is not nearly as complex and confusing as we make
out to be. Though a believer is
"born again" into the family of GOD, and
thus young and impressionable; Paul said that when he became a
man, he was compelled to put
away childish things. To their own chagrin, many a professing saint at age 12
and beyond spiritually, are still on the 'bink and bottle',
and clueless in their Christianity.
Micah
simplifies things for us here into three dimensions: our
personal integrity, our forbearance toward others, and our walk
with GOD. Hundreds of "thou
shalts" and "thou shalt nots"
are distilled down into these basics of practical faith.
"For I say,
through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think ..."
A proper perspective in the first dimension is critical to
bringing the other two into focus. To be effective in
ministry to others, a humble view of self is indispensable, for:
"GOD resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble."
The man who can discern the phonetics of
the finger of GOD, will be slow to stone others for their
shortcomings of sin.
"And again HE stooped
down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it,
being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one,
beginning at the eldest, even unto the last..."
When
the early church of Acts struggled with the nuts and bolts of
every day Christianity, the elders sent this communiqué back to
aid believers regarding that first dimension.
"For it seemed good to the
HOLY GHOST, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than
these necessary things; that ye abstain from meats offered to
idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from
fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do
well." The cheerleaders
of circumcision are alive and well today; but their team of
pride and dead works is on the losing side ... eternally speaking.
Of a truth, if a man would rule his own life well, he would
discover the whole of his existence ruled of the LORD, and that:
"decently and in order".
"JESUS saith unto him ...
follow thou ME."