Pat on the Back: Goodbye Me, Hello Him: An Attitude Adjustment Party

The area of the Judean Desert where Jesus was tempted by the devil

A Pat on the Back:

Goodbye Me, Hello Him

“An Attitude Adjustment Party”

by

David Brown

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” John 1:1-3.

The above scripture from the Gospel of John is no doubt extremely powerful, true and one of my favorites. Come to think of it, the entire Holy Bible is my most favorite book, and those of us who know it and believe what it says know that it is definitely, “The Greatest Story Ever Told.”

I am writing this post because of a recent conversation that I had with my very best friend and Brother-in-Christ. The same person who I entered into a mission of wanting to do what it takes to spread the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, Son of God and Messiah. It was a long conversation in how we are to act in the presence of the Lord. We have to know that as Christians, we are to be no less like God and truthfully, no greater and no better than Him.

You see, as Christians we are on a worldly if not, heavenly mission. We are witnesses to the greatest man who ever walked this earth. I say man, but He was certainly more than that. He was and is the Word, and as John says in Chapter 1, Verse 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This verse is from the New International Version of the Holy Bible as is all that is quoted in this post.

Every Sunday, I do what is necessary to attend my home church. This includes a period of fellowship first and then Bible Study and then the main service which includes Worshiping to the Lord through great music and praise and then a period of the Offering and then Communion. Following Communion, which represents Christians spending a few moments in meditation remembering what Jesus did for us when He went to the Cross with a broken body as well as a bleeding body from a whipping that no man should ever have to endure. He did and He did it for us.

Did Jesus do this to receive what the title of this post says, “A pat on the back?” No! He endured the beatings, the name calling and the going to the Cross because He knew it was coming, it was prophesied in the Old Testament, time and time again and because He sacrificed His life so that we could live a life like He did: One without sin and transgression. This is not to say that we do not sin, but we have to turn to Him when we feel ourselves falling away from the straight and narrow path.

There are many things that we do as humans and we can only hope that they are for the better rather than the worse. However, we have a daily tendency to fall away from the Lord and what He taught us and what is written in The Holy Bible. Why do we do this? Because we are a jealous people, we are a people who want something that is more in the way of materialistic things than spiritual and Godly things. I for one fall in this category at times and forget that we can't take the things that we have in this human world with us when we are called Home. It is nice to have for a while, but these things that we have do tend to get old.

Jesus never gets old.

I clearly remember a Christian song sung by children that goes something like this: “Jesus loves us because the Bible Tells Us So.” Well, this is true, He does love us and we have to turn right around and love Him for what He did for us. It is said to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18). Why should we do this? Because the Bible tells us so.

Here is something else that we have to be careful of. This is something that we all might find ourselves in from time to time and that is the act of jealousy. We have to be careful here. God said to Moses on Mount Sinai in the Book of Exodus that He Himself is a jealous God and that we should not worship any other. I take this as we should not be jealous of one another as we are all in this game together. We are a team of soldiers who believe in the same thing. We need to teach others through worship, through study and through prayer that we are not jealous of one another because if we get into this situation, not only is the jealous person hurt but so is the one who we find ourselves jealous of.

In the Book of James in the New Testament, he talks about jealousy and envy. Here is what is said: “...If you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.” (James 3:14). And, “For where you have envy and self ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” (James 3:16) There are actually two types of jealousy and one is Godly jealousy and the other is that of sinful jealousy. The title: “What does the Bible Say about Jealousy” at http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090321150517AANJTPg, the following explains the two fore-mentioned types of jealousy: “Godly jealousy is jealous to protect someone from being led astray and into false worship. Sinful jealousy is when a person is concerned about them self and worried that someone may withdraw from a relationship with them because of a rival.”

Reading the above paragraph really makes me think about some things that have been a part of my life for the longest of time. I lived a life of jealousy for a long time and most of it fell in the sinful type. I found myself working and working and seeing nothing come of it. I consider myself a hard worker, but at the same time I also find myself falling short of a completed goal. At the same time I see people around me getting everything they could ever ask for and then some. This is not the right way to live and I struggle with this every day. I strive for being not only good but to be God like. I know this comes from reading the Holy Bible, knowing the Word and not getting a pat on the back for doing something good.

I hear everyday, whether it be on the radio or on the television set or on the street, “Me, me, me, me.” It is not about me if you believe. It is about Him. It is about Jesus Christ and our lives have to be Christ-centered. We have to live as He did and we have to act accordingly. We have to watch not only what we say but what we feel and what we think. We have to take the Me attitude out of our lives and bring in the Him attitude.

Let us not be jealous of one another. Let us come together and have the attitude adjustment party. Let us come together in the center and be like Christ. Let us do this through great worship, let us do this through knowing the Word and let us do this by loving one another as we would ourselves. Let us dump our pride and jealousy and rise to the occasion of Jesus Christ.

I personally start now and I challenge you, brothers and sisters in Christ to do the same.