2 Corinthians 5:13
For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you.
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Crazy for Christ and loony for the Lord! The apostle Paul is saying that if we appear to be crazy it is just God at work in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure. {Php.2:13} And it should be clear to anybody who has been living according to and led by the Spirit for any length of time that God's ways are most assuredly not the world's ways—far, far different. Far, far better!
Even from the start of His earthly ministry Jesus was different from the world around Him, so much so that His own family would think and say that He had lost His senses and they were going to try to control Him for His own protection. At the same time religious leaders from Jerusalem were saying that He was demon possessed because of His words and His actions! {Mar.3:21-22} A great reputation indeed, and one that we might share if we are imitators of God as instructed. {Eph.5:1}
I have always been blessed when ordinary, worldly people might take note of the difference in my life from what they consider to be the norm and ask what I am. While they are typically looking to find my religion or denomination, My response has often been, prompted by the Lord, to say “I am a radical, fanatical, fruit-a-matic, bible-believing child of God filled with the joy of the Lord” or something very much akin to that. And that has often been followed by a slightly stunned—but usually momentary silence—followed by a number of questions that provide opportunity to proclaim what a wonderful God I serve! Defined by our God and not by the world!
I am (and hope you are) radical because that means getting back to the root, getting back to the source of it all, Christ and Him crucified. {1Cor.2:2} I am fanatical, from the Latin fanaticus meaning ‘of a temple’—I am the temple of the Holy Spirit— because everything that I do I want to do as unto the Lord {Col.3:23}, proclaiming His excellencies. {1Pt.2:9} I will not be silenced! I am a believer of God's word, which is settled in heaven {Ps.119:89} and because, just as the apostle Paul wrote, 'All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable.' {2Tim.3:16} I am, thank the Lord, filled with the Joy of the Lord, the fruit of the Holy Spirit who dwells within me. {Gal.5:22}
When everything in the world goes wrong and we are able to consider it all joy {Jas.1:2} and remember to rejoice always {1Thes.5:16} and give thanks to God who always leads us in His triumph, (2Cor.2:14} when we are not surprised at the fiery ordeals that come upon us for our testing, {1Pt.4:12} and recall Paul's statement that we are to exalt in our tribulations {Rom.5:3} because we have a peace that surpasses all understanding, {Php.4:7} well, then the world will surely think that you and I are mad, crazy, nuts, bonkers, off our rocker! And there you are imitating Jesus! It only matters that we are pleasing, approved to God, as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. {2Tim.2:15}
I do think that this might be an appropriate place to bring a bit of Miguel Cervantes to bear. He has Don Quixote saying while imprisoned, "When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams—this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness—and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!" Jesus Christ IS life as it should be!
“I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear, and will trust in the Lord.
How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust, and has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.” (Psalms 40:1-4)
WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST |
