Irresistible Invitation by Maxie Dunham - Day 22

Irresistible Invitation:  Responding to the Extravagant Heart of God                   

Day 22: Christ Frees Us and Fits Us

 

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,

he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life

to your mortal bodies through his Spirit. . . . Rom. 8:11

 

Where are you in your Christian journey?

 

In Day 22, Maxie talks about the difference between being freed by Christ and being made fit for the kingdom of God by and through Christ.  They are two different and necessary things.

 

Maxie gives several examples of redemption, of being freed by Christ.  He starts the day’s devotion with the following story:

 

“Among Christians in Africa, the New Testament word for redemption translates as ‘God took our heads out.’  It’s a rather awkward phrase, but when you trace it back to the nineteenth century, when slave trading was practiced, the meaning becomes powerful.  White men invaded African villages and carried men, women, and children off into slavery.  Each slave had an iron collar buckled around his or her neck, and the collar was attached to a chain.  The chained slaves would be driven to the coastlines and shipped to England and the United States.

 

From time to time, as the chain of slaves would make its way to the coast, a relative, loved one, or friend would recognize someone who had been captured as a slave and would offer a ransom for the captors to remove the collar and free the person.  Thus the word for redemption:  ‘God took our heads out.’”

 

No matter how you want to view it, it is absolutely necessary that we are freed by Christ … freed from whatever collars are around our necks, freed from whatever chains hold us back from Christian living.

 

Maxie asks us: “What about you?  What are the areas in which you haven’t yet found freedom?  What is holding you back from receiving it?

 

Do you fell burdened by guilt?  Do you feel heaviness or pain in your heart because there is a severed relationship that needs reconciliation?  Do you feel helpless becaseu you are hold in the tenacious grip of a debilitating habit?  Is your energy drained because you live too close to the line of moral compromise, preoccupied with sexual lust or addiction to pornography?  In your heart of hearts, do you know that you are more than racially prejudiced and that your feelings verge on hatred?  Does your pride often put you in the position of thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to, looking down your nose at others?

 

We could go on and on.  You may want to stop reading now and probe your own heart.  Remember that as you do, God will meet you wherever you are.  The point I (Maxie) am underscoring, however, is that we all need deliverance.  And the good news is that Christ delivers.  He comes to free us – but that’s not all.”

 

It is not enough that we are redeemed from our sins.  We also need to be made fit for kingdom living.  Through our own abilities and actions, we are not able to achieve kingdom living.  Remember the words from Paul in Romans 7:19-20: “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”  Paul continues in that chapter to talk about “what a wretched man” he is.  He is not able to live into kingdom life. 

 

But Paul continues in chapter 8: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Here is where we are made fit for kingdom living.  By and through Jesus Christ.  In Maxie’s words: “We can’t give our sins to Jesus; We give ourselves to Jesus and he takes away our sins.”  Maybe you’ve been told along the way – “give your sins to Jesus.”  Maxie reminds us that the point is that we give our compete selves to Jesus, sins and all.  And Jesus takes away our sins.  Because of this, we are made fit for kingdom living.

 

Maxie asks the question: “Do you want to be holy?”  He asks, as it was once ask of him, because it is one we need to answer – over and over again.  We can only be holy if we agree to be made whole.  Maxie in his own life realized that he could be and would be as holy as he wanted to be.  Throughout his life, Maxie constantly asked himself, “Do I want to be holy?  Am I willing to yield?” 

 

What about you?  “Christ still has the power to show up wherever we are and to offer us whatever we need.  Sometimes that means freeing us and sometimes that means fitting us.  Remember though, that in the process of fitting us for his kingdom, God will put his ways into our hearts as well as write them on our minds.  This is, after all, the eternal mystery of grace.  Eventually we find that we want to do what pleases God.”  

 

 

The Heart of the Matter

-         If you didn’t actually stop to probe your heart regarding the questions in today’s lesson, please do so now. Pray for God’s revelation, rather than simply going by your own insights.

-         How do you understand the process by which Christ “fits us” for kingdom living?  In what ways can we help – or hinder – that process?

-         How has Christ been “fitting” you in your own life?