Christ Like

Isn't it just like God to lay something on your heart and then not let you escape it.

As I have been thinking about "Christ Like" Greg Scandrett posted an excellent post on his blog about exactly that, what acting like Christ would really entail.

One of his points is:

hang out with the most despicable, looked down upon and shunned people we can find?

I find myself very critical of "the church" with regards to this issue... as that has been something that God has not only laid on my heart over the last few years, but has also demonstrated clearly to me how to actively engage these people.

Yet I am entirely hypocritical as I am upset with "church leadership" at not embracing the derelict and most desperate of people (the kind who need and are the most often to accept Christ) while I surround myself with fellow white middle class "Christians" who think and talk like I do. There is nothing wrong with having healthy friendships like these but I know I consciously shy away from reaching out and embracing in love those that need it the most because they are "dirty."

One thing I can tell you for sure about being "Christ Like," it is usually uncomfortable, rarely easy, and often runs counter to what you would consider normal behavior. But at least no one has ever accused me of being normal.

Cross Post from Puaahunter - Christ the Man

This is a cross post from "the justin"'s blog on a conversation we had this morning.

RyanWork says:
last night I was thinking about our call to be "Christ Like"
and how we as Christians, our entire view of Christ in terms of "who he was" centers around his divinity
If you ask someone to describe Christ
the description will be entirely about his divinity "He was a miracle worker, he was holy, he was sinless" etc
all attributes that we as humans CAN NOT EVER posses
so if Christ calls us to "Christ like"
shouldn't we instead focus on the humanity of Christ
who he was as a human
"compassionate, kind, forgiving, etc"
understand more about the human traits that Christ embodied, and then make an effort to model our lives after those human traits, because we CAN live and posses those same traits

.justin says:
while giving our WORSHIP to the divine-fullness of Christ...
a very good thought ryan!
i like the logic too... understanding that we, the church-past have eleveated Christ to his fully-GOD status and have made that the goal, sometimes forgetting about his fully-man status, the phil2 "emptying"
it fits in the "modern model" of FORMULA. if i do A + B i become C [or just like christ]
but when that formula doesn't work, we get beat up by our own condemnation.
because it's supposed to work... "I read the Bible this morning and i prayed for 15 minutes, i shouldn't be having these sinful thoughts or doing sinful things!!! i suck! i'm not like Christ! Jesus never had these thoughts or feelings!!!
and the formula is broken.
so is our hope, and our picture of redemption.
i became a christian, it was sold to me that i would be holy... but i am not.

RyanWork says:
exactly
we CAN'T be holy

.justin says:
why does my body do the very thing i desire it not to do?

RyanWork says:
that is an attribute of Christ's Divinity
not his humanity
we should strive for holliness of course
but also realize that we can never attain it in this broken body

.justin says:
but, with that attribute of Christ's divinity he has the power [and the desire] to DECLARE us Holy!
he speaks Holiness and RIghteousness OVER our sin.

RyanWork says:
but if we concentrate on embodying the humanity of christ, and emulating those attributes in our own life
I think we would find ourselves "acting" how we perceive holiness to be
anyway
it was just a thought I had last night
I was thinking I don't know very much about Christ "the man"
I know all about Christ my savior, and Christ the redeemer and Christ the creator... but in my Christian upbringing, I don't know if I was ever taught about Christ "the man"

.justin says:
i guarantee you weren't!

RyanWork says:
which... at least for me after I thought about it... is the most important aspect of who and what Christ was[1]
because his humanity is the sole aspect of who he was that I CAN relate to

.justin says:
because you are a post-modern thinker!
we are the fruit of a philosophy shift... the old model is breaking down, we are trying to create a new model.
there will always be models.
unfortunately.

RyanWork says:
indeed

.justin says:
because we are humans, seeing "dimly" as it was once said.
good thoughts.
thanks.

Just a clarification, I sorta misspoke on the line: "which... at least for me after I thought about it... is the most important aspect of who and what Christ was"Christ's humanity is not the most important aspect of who and what Christ is, but ONE OF the most important aspects of who and what Christ was.

His humanity should be of equal importance to his divinity. I do not want to propose that we focus ENTIRELY on Christ's humanity or that him being human is the most important aspect of who Christ is, because then we create the same problem, only shifted to the other side of the pendulum, where we focus entirely on Christ's humanity instead of his divinity.

I just think "the church" has ignored or forgotten to teach us about Christ's humanity in favor of teaching us about his divinity. Christ embodied fully man, and fully God... and if we are to understand and emulate Christ, then we need to understand the full Christ, meaning Christ the man as well as Christ the divine.

Been gone too long

Been a while since I posted, so as an offering to get you, my readers to return, I offer you THIS BEAUTY as a token of my gratitude...

Seriously... For all those Apple fans who just can't get enough accessories for their iPod I think we have found the limit.