CRISIE HUTCHINGS

There is a real need in our world to know God. The need is not great just in the world but in our churches. We preach and proclaim the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob  and Jesus, but rarely are we in touch with that God.

Christian media is saturated with the message, to know what God thinks of us. To know our “identity” in Christ and see ourselves as God sees us, but the problem with that is we are so preoccupied with how God sees US that we’ve taken our eyes off of Him! We are so busy trying to feel better about ourselves that we are searching the scripture to find ourselves in God, when God never told us to find ourselves. His agenda was that we would find CHRIST and LOSE ourselves!

Our world is broken, it’s a given, and so are most of us in the church. But we can’t find our identity in searching for ourselves in God, we find it by beholding WHO HE IS!  Let me explain….

The simple message of the gospel….  world rejects God, God continues to love them, enough to provide a sacrifice for their rebellion and reconcile them EVEN while they were in their sin, and thus demonstrate His love for them.

Romans 5:6-10   ⁶ For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. ¹⁰ For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Now, you tell me, what image do you get from that passage? Certainly not one that describes who we are to God. Because if that were the case, we don’t shine too brightly here. But who does? God, Himself. When I behold the glory of God, who loved me AND died for me in my ungodliness, it says much more about Him that it does me and in that knowledge I am transformed!!

It can’t possibly be about me…because if it were, my spiritual view would become skewed and limited. No wonder we are having such an identity crisis! We want to see ourselves as good and right and OK, but the truth is we are not, without Christ, and even with Christ, the only reason we are, is due to His work, not our own effort.

So where is our esteem in that? Where is our self-image? Hidden, swallowed up by His image and His beauty!!!

So no matter how you look at it, we are nothing. He is everything. Some might fear that seeing ourselves like this will cause spiritual breakdown and identity confusion. On the contrary, it is in the seeing Him that we are brought to a place of peace, boldness and confidence.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a God of mercy, justice and endless patience who wrestles with men and hears their voice. He is the God who allows men to bargain for their life and the lives of those they love and settles on their price. He is kind and stern, yet yielding. Men of God are honored for their great exploits, but it is God who does them, men just participate.

In all of the Bible, we are shown the glory of God in the face of Jesus. the heart of God. The sorrow and regret of God and the great, great love He has for mankind.  We witness the fire of His anger toward wickedness and how it rips apart the lives and nations of men. He is relentless and forgiving but by no means clearing the guilty. He is HOLY. Other than. Fully and completely Perfect.

My concern is if we continue to search for who we are, we may never find Him and that loss is one we cannot afford!

Let Christ be glorified in All,

Crisie