Dirty Rags

The biggest change that has come in my life since leaving traditional church has been humility. If you take away the things that you thought made you godly and realize they were just idols and sources of pride it can leave you very humble. Religion is so works based that it can leave you with a great sense of accomplishment. All the things that I once held in such high regard have since been made know to me as rubbish. We can be such a prideful people and take such pride in the things we do when all that really matters is Jesus. When you shift your focus from the things that you do to the thing that Jesus did, you begin to do things not to add to your resume but to please and honor Christ. I took great pride in that I was a youth pastor, ordained, licensed to preach, led service when the pastor was away, preached at other churches, preached at revival. When I began to see that Christ did the only thing that matters, these idols became in my heart just what they really were, a pile of filthy rags. You have to learn to let go of the works and see the cross as an all encompassing work. He died not so we could build bigger buildings and take pride in our accomplishments but to boast in what He did and take that message to world.

In Phillippians 3 Paul runs off an amazing list of His qualifications for righteousness under the law. This is the same as our righteousness by works mentality. The things that we think will bring us closer to God. He goes on to say in verse 8 that he counts all these things as rubbish compared to the knowledge of Christ.

I have come to learn that all that I have done previosly, all my works, my credentials, my accomplishments and qualifications are just that...rubbish. A pile of rags compared to the knowledge of Christ Jesus. It is good that I have seperated myself from these things and can see Jesus in light of what He is...my savior king who saves me because of my faith in Him not because of my works.