I don't have anything to prove.

When you think "my identity..", who do you say you are? or  Who do you want to be?
Is all this seeking who we are , us trying to prove something?

This question seems so hard to answer to me so it got me thinking...

What is the core of these questions, "What is my identity?" or "Who am I?". Okay so maybe we should ask, "What does an Identity consist of?" Is it something able to be labled? Such as popular, nerd, athletic, artistic, musical, dramatic, ugly, pretty, crazy, reserved, black, white, gay, straight, christian, or muslim? Are one of those lables what people see when they look at us? Are those lables what we think of ourselves? Do these things proclaim why we exist? (maybe thats the real question..."What am I doing here?")

None of those things tell anyone who you are. They all talk about things you believe about yourself or do. Not that they are all bad things. Like I am indeed a christian. But is that my identity? Is who I am really found in something I believe?

Hard questions. Because when we talk about this we get so close to the Truth!

We want to be known. Yeah, you're scared of someone knowing the deepest scariest places in your heart.. But guess what you're asking when you ask about your identity. You want someone to recognize WHO you are. Not what you do. Not what you look like . Not what you like. (Don't even get me started that all these things will pass away!)

You want someone to know the deepest parts of you. The good and great parts, the evil desires, the beautiful desires, and still want to know you. To strip down everything we consider our identity and see the core of why we exist. I don't know that we can find our 'identity' in any word. I do believe, however, that we can find freedom from trying to be someone, and let Jesus break through our walls and let Him stand there as our stronghold.

I've found my identity in many things before. Some good to the worlds standards, even some bad to the worlds standards. I have never been filled before allowing Jesus to BE for me.

Look guys, I know you all know something about  me. If you've known me lately you  might even say I'm a pretty good girl. Please, don't flatter me. "Pretty good girl" is not my identity.

Identity isn't what we long for. We long to be known and loved.

Maybe we were never meant to search for who we are. Maybe we just are.

Just maybe we don't have to prove anything.

Maybe we don't have anything to prove...

Just maybe Jesus really is who He says He is.

"For the death that He died, He died to sin once and for all; but the life that He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Romans 6:10-11
                                                                  

Edify

We are to edify and lift up others. (1 Corinthians 10:32-33)

To edify is to instruct or improve someone morally or intellectually.

The past two years I have been wrestling with the fact that all things are lawful for me. Where do I draw the line of things I wont do? What is my reasoning for drawing that line?

I have friends who run hard and fast away from the Lord, and I think what if I do drugs with them? drink with them? The offer had been presented many times. Had been presented. Turns out, the people who persisted in pressuring me to to join them in drinking or drugs were trying to get me to fall, to sin.

 Three questions rise up for me:
Firstly I think, what kind of friends do I really have here?
Second I think why do they want me to fall?
And what If I had joined them?

Pertaining to the first question, these friends are lost. Their actions are just a bi-product of intense searching, self-fullfilling, and yes.. desiring of intimacy with Jesus. Those who know not the Love of Jesus may not consider the endless filling of holes in their life to be a search for Jesus, but indirectly, it will show them that nothing but Jesus can truly save and heal and bring the joys of the Christian Way.

Why would they want me to fall?? These friends are just longing for an even playing field. Their act of hatred was not directed towards me, rather to The Way in general. If I fall, they might not feel as bad "committing the crime", it would be some sort of justification.

What if I had joined them??
I may just have justified their actions. " If Casey the Christian can do it, surely I can."
Or I may have just accidentally proclaimed "The LORD Jesus does not mean as much as I say to me, therefore don't bother getting to know Him."
Possibly I just ripped any hope from them, they already do not believe or know Jesus, everything I do is supposed to point to Him. I am supposed to be the Messenger bringing love and JESUS with me wherever I go. If I do something that hinders this love, where is my true devotion? Even if its just a possibility, the chance is too high of a price.

So now,  where do we draw the lines and why?

If you are possibly stripping hope from someones life, do not live dangerously.

Do not do anything to cause anyone else to stumble. If you (who are of age) drink, yet someone else forbids that of them self for reason of it being sin against God, then don't drink. Who after all is your God? Not yourself and not the alcohol!

Consider others ways more righteous than your own, those who abstain from things, and do everything to edify them.

Your liberty (being able to do whatever you want, as a christian) is not affected by another persons conscience. But because of our command to live in love and esteem others higher than ourselves, we must not do things to serve them.

Love and NOT knowledge is the basis of christian conduct.

and Note from my Bible pertaining to 1 Corinthians 6:12

"All things are lawful for me was the theological slogan the Corinthians had adopted to justify their behavior, Paul affirmed his own doctrine of Christian liberty. But the Corinthians needed to understand that the "lawfulness" of any given behavior was qualified by its "helpfulness". Freedom to act as one pleases is not really freedom at all. It is the most insidious form of bondage."