Selflessness..

I'm including part of an article by Randy Thomas. His article is very enlightening in that it strikes at a deep chord as to what is wrong with our "Westernized" form of Chrisitanity..its a call to grow up and become mature sons and daughters. Selflessness must be part of the foundation of our lives - it is the basis of Christ-likeness....

If you want to read the whole article, its excellent - go to: http://randythomas.org/other-writings/ and then click on the article/testimony: "Same-Sex Struggles". So here it is:

I could sit here and write about the importance of going to church, worshiping the Lord, developing a disciplined life, seeking out mentors and accountability partners, and exposing yourself to edifying art and entertainment. I could make a list of all the authors and speakers who have been instruments the Lord has used to speak into my life.

While all of that is important, the theme that I keep coming back to in life is that we were created to know and be known. And if we want to know and be known by God and others in way that is true to who He is and what He wants, we have to do so selflessly.

Much of what I have seen in the Western Church before and after becoming a Christian is geared toward the believer and helping the believer be a more fulfilled Christian. The problem is that we're so distracted in our efforts toward fulfillment that we forget the greatest commandments: to love our God with our whole being and to love each other as we do ourselves. That Christian axiom is the epitome of a selfless expression of knowing and being known. We live in a great time and place to be edified as much as we are, but such knowledge doesn't become wisdom without selfless application in all of our relationships.

It is selflessness that makes me yearn to know a God who has His own opinion, an opinion that might be contrary to my wishes or desires. It is selflessness that makes me want to defer my agenda and be open to His. It's selflessness that moves me to lift up others in prayer when my soul would rather worry about my own circumstance. It's selflessness that refuses to view men as sexual objects and instead see them as Christ does, and to treasure women for how they uniquely reflect God in a way that neither I nor any man ever will. It's selflessness that drives me to forgive and seek forgiveness.

Every time I come to what I see as the end of the road, I give up my self. I hand Him all of me. That is where every single one of my Christian "greeting card" moments have come from. This is what sustains my walk and transforms my life in so many ways. Romans 5:1-5 states

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

That passage provides a template for developing Christ-like selflessness. It helps us to realize that tribulation eventually leads to hope by transforming our very own character, a character expressed in our relationship with God and others.

I want you, dear reader, to walk away encouraged to know that God knows you and all you have done, and He loves you regardless. I want you to discover what I have discovered: that self-sufficiency never works; the only real freedom is a selfless approach to all of our relationships. By living this way, the Lord releases us to live up to our potential for which He created us.

Thanks to Randy for his transparency and honesty. My prayer is that the "church" will become a place of transparency, honesty and healing...much like a spiritual hospital...that means all of us as the "church" need to become whole and fully integrated as persons (body, soul and spirit)one step at a time, one person at a time.

Acceptance of one another as sons and daughters made in the image of our God & yet not afraid to challenge one another to live a life worthy of the true gospel - this is grace and truth in perfect balance.