Therefore being saved by the power of Jesus Christ, we are also saved from the power of this world system. Even though we are still living in this world, we must learn to disconnect ourselves from this world system, for with Christ we have been unshackled. Whereas before we were slaves to sin, but now we are free because Christ opened the prison gates.
Yes, we are still workers in the field, and, yes, we still pay taxes to Caesar, and, yes, we are still subjects to the laws of Caesar because we are still living in Caesar's world.
Caesar, however, believes he is a god in his own mind: demanding worship and demanding obedience to his commandments. He likes for people to kneel to him and kiss his ring. He likes to ride on his chariot through the streets and bathe in the praises of his people. For in Caesar's own mind, the earth and all of the people belong to him.
Therefore being born again in Christ, however, our connectivity is now with God, and our link to Caesar has been broken.
Why, then, do we still live as if we are in bondage to Caesar?
Perhaps we need to remind ourselves that Caesar does not own the earth as well as to remember that Caesar is not a god.
But breaking our connectivity with Caesar's world is not easy to do, for in our lifetimes we become attached to Caesar's systems as umbilical cords---living as if we are receiving vital nutrients from our own mothers. Though breaking these cords is not easy; neither can we do it by ourselves: for we need help from God.
For even Moses experienced doubt when God called him to do what appeared to be an impossible task, saying to God, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3: 11) But when God strengthened Moses in his weakness, his faith in God was greater than his fear of Pharaoh's world.
The disciples and apostles of Christ had less education than a high school diploma, and perhaps, like Moses, they felt unqualified and unprepared, saying Who am I? But when God strengthened them, their faith in God was greater than their fear of Caesar's world.
Like Moses, all of us have our weaknesses. Fear can grip and bind us as we consider things as impossibilities, for Caesar's world is attractive to our eyes and to our senses. The aroma of success and popularity is appealing. The smell of new clothes, new cars, and new houses can lure us into a web of debt, so that we buy today and pay forever. We live for the moment. We live for the thrill. And when the thrills no longer thrill us, we can easily plunge into the arenas of drugs and drinking for another sensation beneath Caesar's trapdoor. For the ways of Caesar's world are the same as sticky glue.
As Christians, some of us will never own new clothes, new cars, or new houses. Our faces will never appear on glossy covers of slick magazines. Photographers will never rush to our doorsteps to snap our pictures. Some of us will never write a song, write a book, or preach a sermon. And some of us will live our lives, going on with Christ, and the world will never know that we were here.
Yet, some of us will never do anymore than we are doing now unless we stop and ask God, Who am I? And when God strengthens us, we will do far more than we could ever imagine, even with others never knowing our names.
Over the past two thousand years, the martyrs of Christ were slaughtered as sheep in the hands of Caesar. They were buried in holes of the earth without tombstones. To us, they are anonymous. But we are where we are today because of the blood they shed for us, which should compel us to believe that Caesar's world is small and not really that important when we consider Christ and His love for us and for the future He has planned for us.
So then, it is not important that people should know all that we do, but rather that which Christ can do through us for His glory. No matter how small we may think we are, and perhaps to think that the little things we do are not important, they are important to God. For even the building of a house begins with one nail, but it takes a thousand nails, working together, to hold the house together.
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." (1st Corinthians 2: 9)
Yes, we are still workers in the field, and, yes, we still pay taxes to Caesar, and, yes, we are still subjects to the laws of Caesar because we are still living in Caesar's world.
Caesar, however, believes he is a god in his own mind: demanding worship and demanding obedience to his commandments. He likes for people to kneel to him and kiss his ring. He likes to ride on his chariot through the streets and bathe in the praises of his people. For in Caesar's own mind, the earth and all of the people belong to him.
Therefore being born again in Christ, however, our connectivity is now with God, and our link to Caesar has been broken.
Why, then, do we still live as if we are in bondage to Caesar?
Perhaps we need to remind ourselves that Caesar does not own the earth as well as to remember that Caesar is not a god.
But breaking our connectivity with Caesar's world is not easy to do, for in our lifetimes we become attached to Caesar's systems as umbilical cords---living as if we are receiving vital nutrients from our own mothers. Though breaking these cords is not easy; neither can we do it by ourselves: for we need help from God.
For even Moses experienced doubt when God called him to do what appeared to be an impossible task, saying to God, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3: 11) But when God strengthened Moses in his weakness, his faith in God was greater than his fear of Pharaoh's world.
The disciples and apostles of Christ had less education than a high school diploma, and perhaps, like Moses, they felt unqualified and unprepared, saying Who am I? But when God strengthened them, their faith in God was greater than their fear of Caesar's world.
Like Moses, all of us have our weaknesses. Fear can grip and bind us as we consider things as impossibilities, for Caesar's world is attractive to our eyes and to our senses. The aroma of success and popularity is appealing. The smell of new clothes, new cars, and new houses can lure us into a web of debt, so that we buy today and pay forever. We live for the moment. We live for the thrill. And when the thrills no longer thrill us, we can easily plunge into the arenas of drugs and drinking for another sensation beneath Caesar's trapdoor. For the ways of Caesar's world are the same as sticky glue.
As Christians, some of us will never own new clothes, new cars, or new houses. Our faces will never appear on glossy covers of slick magazines. Photographers will never rush to our doorsteps to snap our pictures. Some of us will never write a song, write a book, or preach a sermon. And some of us will live our lives, going on with Christ, and the world will never know that we were here.
Yet, some of us will never do anymore than we are doing now unless we stop and ask God, Who am I? And when God strengthens us, we will do far more than we could ever imagine, even with others never knowing our names.
Over the past two thousand years, the martyrs of Christ were slaughtered as sheep in the hands of Caesar. They were buried in holes of the earth without tombstones. To us, they are anonymous. But we are where we are today because of the blood they shed for us, which should compel us to believe that Caesar's world is small and not really that important when we consider Christ and His love for us and for the future He has planned for us.
So then, it is not important that people should know all that we do, but rather that which Christ can do through us for His glory. No matter how small we may think we are, and perhaps to think that the little things we do are not important, they are important to God. For even the building of a house begins with one nail, but it takes a thousand nails, working together, to hold the house together.
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." (1st Corinthians 2: 9)
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