{"id":7701,"date":"2012-10-24T05:48:11","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T13:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=7701"},"modified":"2012-10-24T06:16:13","modified_gmt":"2012-10-24T14:16:13","slug":"the-proper-perspective-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=7701","title":{"rendered":"The Proper Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y0wn7dqdhQE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ . . . \u20142 Corinthians 2:14<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The proper perspective of a servant of God must not simply be as near to the highest as he can get, but it must be the highest. Be careful that you vigorously maintain God\u2019s perspective, and remember that it must be done every day, little by little. Don\u2019t think on a finite level. No outside power can touch the proper perspective.<\/p>\n<p>The proper perspective to maintain is that we are here for only one purpose\u2014 to be captives marching in the procession of Christ\u2019s triumphs. We are not on display in God\u2019s showcase\u2014 we are here to exhibit only one thing\u2014 the \u201ccaptivity [of our lives] to the obedience of Christ\u201d (2 Corinthians 10:5). How small all the other perspectives are! For example, the ones that say, \u201cI am standing all alone, battling for Jesus,\u201d or, \u201cI have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold down this fort for Him.\u201d But Paul said, in essence, \u201cI am in the procession of a conqueror, and it doesn\u2019t matter what the difficulties are, for I am always led in triumph.\u201d Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul\u2019s secret joy was that God took him as a blatant rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive\u2014 and that became his purpose. It was Paul\u2019s joy to be a captive of the Lord, and he had no other interest in heaven or on earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. We should belong so completely to the Victor that it is always His victory, and \u201cwe are more than conquerors through Him . . .\u201d (Romans 8:37).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are to God the fragrance of Christ . . .\u201d (2 Corinthians 2:15). We are encompassed with the sweet aroma of Jesus, and wherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.<\/p>\n<p>Journal DJR<br \/>\nGood Morning Lord,<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s sometimes hard to believe that you are excited about me.    Especially when I&#8217;m not excited about me &#8230; and probably when I am excited about me.   I guess the difference between you and me (one of many) is that you dont change &#8230; whereas I go up and down.   You made a decision a long time ago that you were going to pay a high price and redeem a bunch of sinning humans.  Ever since that decision, history has marched on,  the humans kept on sinning and you kept on loving.<br \/>\n     It seems that we can get to a level of stability and unchanging, this side of heaven.  Paul and some of the other gospel writers say so.   So that is my prayer today.   Make me more like you in that way &#8230; unchanging in the face of changing circumstances.   Not just Stoic.   But reflecting and channeling your love into the world &#8230; the same, no matter how pleasant or unpleasant the circumstances.<br \/>\n     I love you.<\/p>\n<p>Note:  Sometimes when we are searching for the right song  &#8230; we find two songs that together bring a more complete complement to the written material.   In those cases we&#8217;ll put the second song in at the end.  DJR<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"555\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M_BC2ZiUOnE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ . . . \u20142 Corinthians 2:14 The proper perspective of a servant of God must not simply be as near to the highest as he can get, but it must be the highest. Be careful that you vigorously maintain God\u2019s perspective, and remember [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7701"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7701"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7705,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7701\/revisions\/7705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}