I.B.S. #42

1 Corinthians 9:27

- "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

We arent to run this race aimlessly, as the previous verse says, as if we are fighting against the air. We need to be putting our bodies into subjection of what we are doing. If we are preaching to others the truth, but aren't practicing what we preach, we won't understand what we are telling others to do. Intresetingly, Jesus seems to ask that we do all that He did, and while that seems impossible because He is God and we are sinners, we can do what He did through the power of Christ. Jesus asks us to love others, He did that; Jesus asks us to care for others, He did that as well; Jesus asks us to pick up our cross everyday and die to ourselves, He did that as well. This is one of the greatest things that I love about Christ, that we can look at His life and see that He will never ask us to do something that He didn't do. It makes me think of the episode of the Office where Michael Scott is looking for the employee to take his position. He makes up a bunch of strange challenges to see who can handle each challenge, yet they're challenges that he wouldn't do himself because they were too dangerous. As we are representing Christ and trying to bring His word to others, we cannot tell people what to do but then not live that example out. Christ lived His life and only asks that we do what He did. Only through Christ are all things are possible.

Write "don't doubt" on my arm.