I am responsible for ME!

Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.  Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

2 Corinthians 5:9‭-‬11 KJV

This verse is the ultimate in personal responsibility.  Alone and without excuse we will all stand before God to give an account for our lives.  The choices we have made, the friends we have chosen, the deeds we have committed and the words we have spoken will all be laid bare.  Christianity’s emphasis on confession, repentance and final judgment makes it perfect for helping us accept personal responsibility.   Christianity’s core doctrines help us see that no one else but us is responsible for the

 ATTITUDES we have fashioned, the ACTIONS we have favored, the 

 AFFECTIONS we have fostered and the AFFILIATIONS we have formed.  

 

When we accept personal responsibility for these areas, then we are empowered to change them.

Responsibility means that we “accept the ability to act on our own behalf.”  The word goes back to the 16th Century and was created to describe a person who is “legally answerable for his/her conduct or actions.”  This is something that too many people avoid.  They believe that by shifting blame to others and making excuses for themselves, they can put the responsibility of their life’s condition on someone or something else.  This, it seems, has been human nature form the beginning.  In Genesis 3:12-13, both Adam and Eve blamed others for the choices they made.  Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent and the serpent didm’t have a leg to stand on!  LOL  

You can not control what people do around you, you can't even control what they do to you. You do however have 100 percent control over what you do. The Locus of control in your life is within your skin. 

We spend much of our lives railing against our lack of ability to control other people and our lack of ability to control our situations. The reality is God wants us to focus our locus of control on ourselves and let him do his work of Judging the universe and others to Him. OurJob is to 

Love and serve Him. 

To please him with our choices and leave others and indeed our situations to him. 

I was hasten to add here this isn't a call to passivity indeed we are to flesh out what a Christ like life should look like in our circumstances.  

We will make God honoring plans, 

take God ordained action and 

pray to hear the Phrase at the end of our lives, "enter into my rest, good and faithful servant"

Due to a clerical error during WW2, Corrie Ten Boom was released from Ravensbruck one week before all the women her age were killed. She began traveling and telling the story of her family and what she and Betsie had learned in the concentration camp. Eventually, after the war was over, she was able to obtain a home for former inmates to come and heal from their experiences. And she continued to travel tirelessly over the world and tell to anyone who would listen the story of what she had learned.

"It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavy-set man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken. It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. ...

And that's when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were!

Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent. 

"You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk," he was saying. "I was a guard in there." No, he did not remember me.

"I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us." "But since that time," he went on, "I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, ..." his hand came out, ... "will you forgive me?"

And I stood there — I whose sins had every day to be forgiven — and could not. Betsie had died in that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. "If you do not forgive men their trespasses," Jesus says, "neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." ...

And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion — I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. "Jesus, help me!" I prayed silently. "I can lift my hand, I can do that much. You supply the feeling."

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

"I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!"

For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then."

You must take responsibility for your attitudes.  IT’S ON ME!

·      You must take responsibility for your actions.  IT’S ON ME!

·      You must take responsibility for your affections.  IT’S ON ME!

·      You must take responsibility for your associations.  IT’S ON ME!

The Fellowship Of His Suffering

Here is a powerful Devotion from my Brother Norman Kissinger. Read this it will help you get to the next level spiritually.

"The Fellowship of His Sufferings

Phillipians 3:10

My father-in-law told me one time back in the early 1970s when his kids were young that they were arguing in the backseat of his VW and he ran into the back of someone at a stop sign in St Louis. Frustrated, he put the car in reverse and backed up and hit the person behind him.

When he got out to explain everything to the drivers, both of them said they perfectly understood because they had children too. They had experienced 

the fellowship of his sufferings.

We tend to have a common bond with those who have been through the same experiences as us. Having work for almost 30 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, I have an an immediate empathy anytime I see anything on Facebook about Corrections Officers around the country. And I believe that is because we did not just share the same experiences but we shared the same suffering. 

I'm not so sure it is the experience that is the uniting bond but the suffering that unites us.

My son, who is in the Marines, displays the same empathy for any fellow Marine. Again, I believe it is because he was able to share the same suffering in all of the difficult training in the service with them.

After many years as a Christian, I think I understand this verse a little better. I understand now that in order for me to grow as a Christian I must suffer the way Christ suffered. How can he ever have fellowship with me if I have not been through some of His pain, rejection, slander, and every other form of suffering that he went through. 

Of course I didn't take on the sin of the world but every time that I suffer in any trial I am understanding Christ a little bit better.

The truth is most of us Christians will never attain the fellowship we claimed we would like in Christ because we are unwilling to pay the suffering that would be necessary to get there.

I can never really know what it's like to be a Marine no matter how many times my son would explain it to me because I've not been through his 13 weeks of basic and his Advanced Training. But in the same way my son could never understand what it is like to work in a place where you're outnumbered 50 to 1 and everyone would kill you if they had the right motive.

So let's face it, we often pretend we're getting close to Christ and we may be learning a few things from His word but it is only when we go through trials that we are truly understanding Him better.

But, as I was meditating on this verse, I also realized there was another side. Not only do I have to suffer, but in order for Christ to better relate to me He has to know that I've suffered. How many times as a baby Christian have I come to Him and poured out my baby complaints when He probably saw our conversation  like a three-year-old talking to his mother. The three year old is complaining over a missing toy and the mother is stressing over paying the bills. A relationship is going on there but not much Fellowship. 

I now see that in order for Christ to move closer to us as well as for us to move closer to Him, the fellowship of our suffering and going through shared experiences with him create that bond and a deeper faith.

No I'm not claiming we need to look for suffering. Enough of it happens because of our decisions and Satan's attacks. But at least I see the value in suffering a little bit more. This may be why Christians in places like the Eastern countries where Christianity is going to cost you a lot have such a deep walk with the Lord.

With the political unrest growing at a level that can only be rivaled by the Civil War or the 1960s and an economy that may collapse in the coming months. We Christians may benefit in one way. We may finally begin to grow closer to the Lord as we share in the fellowship of his sufferings and He is able then to trust us with more of His own heart.