Stevemidkiff's Blog

What Kind of Person Do we Imitate?

Are we inhaled in holy mimicry?

Who are we hanging out with?

Who are we allowing to have an influence on us?

So what qualities should we look for in people to mimic?

Imitate those who do good works

Imitate those who teach with integrity,

Imitate those love with dignity

Imitate those who communicate in sound speech

Titus 2:7–8

Imitate those who lead pure lives

1 Tim. 4:12

Imitate & follow what we are taught in Scripture

1 Cor. 4:16–17

Imitate those who receive the gospel with joy,

Imitate those who live for Jesus

even in the face of suffering

1 Thess. 1:6

Imitate those who work hard

2 Thess. 3:6–9

Imitate those who suffer for the sake of Jesus

1 Thess. 2:14

Imitate those who advance God’s Word

Phil. 2:22

Imitate those who care for the needs of others

Phil. 2:20

Those we imitate are not perfect;

Those we imitate are still being transformed.

Not that we have already obtained this

or are we already perfect,

but we press on to make it our own,

because Christ Jesus has made us his own

Phil. 3:12–15

People worthy of imitation are humble.

They acknowledge they have more to learn.

Imitate Jesus through Them

In truth, we should imitate others

only insofar as they imitate Christ.

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ

1 Cor. 11:1

The people we look up to are sinners, just as we are.

Ultimately, then, we must look up to Christ through them.

Paul exhorted the Philippians

to have the same humility as Christ

Phil. 2:5–11

We want to know Christ & be like Him

Phil. 3:10

everything else pales in comparison to gaining Jesus

Phil. 3:8

So mimic those who mimic Jesus.

Adapted from Christina Fox

Prayer is an exchanges

Prayer changes our weakness for God’s strength.

Prayer changes our folly for God’s wisdom.

Prayer changes our troubles for Gods peace.

We shouldn’t underestimate what prayer can do.

Because then we’re minimizing God

And why in the world would we belittle God???

Have Faith in our Lord Jesus

For faith I Him can most

Certainly change any situation.

No matter how destructive it is.

No matter what the trouble may be,

We lift our heart to God in faith

This can change current

Circumstances in a moment.

God is still on His throne.

God can turn

defeat into victory in a second.

It is our privilege to trust Him.

Through acts of faith,

they toppled kingdoms,

By faith

they made justice work

By faith

they secured promises for themselves.

By faith

they were protected from lions

By faith

they were protected from fires

By faith

they were protected from sword attacks

By faith

they turned disadvantage to advantage

By faith

they they won battles

By faith

they routed alien armies.

By faith

women received their loved ones

back from the dead.

By faith

they endured torture,

By faith

they refused to give in & go free,

By faith

they preferring a better resurrection.

By faith

they braved abuse & whips.

By faith

they braved chains & dungeons.

We have stories of those

who were stoned,

We have stories of those

Who were sawed in two,

We have stories of those

Who were murdered in cold blood;

We have stories of vagrants

We have stories of those

Who were wandering the earth in animal skins

We have stories of the homeless,

We have stories of the friendless,

We have stories of the powerless

We have stories of those those

and the world didn’t deserve them!

By faith they survived

as best they could

By faith they triumphed

on the cruel edges of the world..

They lived by faith

Praised the Lord for them

Now in the surrounds of

this great cloud of witnesses

We take the challenges

Jesus has in love gifted to us

And stand with them in Christ

By faith

Hebrews 11

We should be infinitely patient with ourselves.

Nothing is to be gained by getting into self hate.

We may scold ourselves & scourge ourselves unmercifully;

but it really doesn’t do much good.

We have to develop our own self-respect;

We respect ourselves by being very gentle & very considerate

and very patient with ourselves.

We need a self-culture

And with this as our first & principal charge;

We ‘ll succeed when we both loves ourselves

and treats ourselves lovingly & respectfully.”

F W Boreham adapted

Our real identity is not in our “outer person” but in our “inner person”

2 Corinthians 4:16

We are spiritual beings who are temporarily clothed with the perishable & mortal,

but the time is coming when “this perishable will put on the imperishable,

and this mortal will put on immortality

1 Corinthians 15:53

When the Lord returns, what we are outwardly will be perfectly conformed to

the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to us inwardly.

Until then, we must set our minds “p

on the things above, not on the things that are on earth

Colossians 3:2

We must put to death the deeds of the body by walking in conscious dependence

In the power of the Spirit

Romans 8:13

We are inherently motivated to have our needs met,

but we must continually remind ourselves that they

have already been fully met in Christ.

This truth liberates us from the bondage of selfishness & pride.

This truth frees us from being grabbers & allows us to become givers

who expect & need nothing in return.

C. S. Lewis wrote:

“Our real, new self (which is Christ’s & also ours & yours just because it is His

will not come as long as we are looking for it.

It will come when we are looking for Him.…

Give up ourself & we will find our real self.

Lose our life and we will save it.…

Keep back nothing.

Nothing that we have not given away will ever be really ours.

Nothing in us that has not died will ever be raised from the dead.

Look for ourselves & we will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness,

despair, rage, ruin & decay.

But look for Christ & we will find Him & with Him everything else thrown in.”

Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam,

but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you,

because the Lord your God loves you.

Deuteronomy 23:5

God turns curses into blessings.

In His great redeeming purposes for us,

He works every situation for the good of those who love Him.

This is the spin of grace.

God’s ways, though mysterious, are marvelous.

In the book of Numbers,

the king of Moab hired a pagan soothsayer named Balaam

He asked him to curse the Israelites.

But whenever Balaam tried to utter his curses,

only blessing came from his mouth.

Centuries later,

Nehemiah reminded the exiles who were repopulating

Jerusalem of this story, saying,

Our God turned the curse into a blessing

Nehemiah 13:2

We need to develop the confidence that while God’s plans

may be mysterious, they are ultimately for our good.

A host of enemies seek to unravel our lives & the devil finds

every opportunity to curse us with problems.

Sometimes the circumstances of life seem against us.

But through the power of Christ,

God moves to reverse all our problems, sooner or later,

both in time & eternity.

He does it because He loves us.

As Psalm 109:28 says,

“Let them curse, but You bless.”

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform.

He plants his footsteps on the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take,
The clouds you so much dread,

Are big with mercy & will break,
With blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for his grace.

Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour.

The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain.

God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

William Cowper

Where is God our maker, who gives songs in the night? Job 35:10

When we have sleepless nights & our brain won’t turn off.

We can ask God to help us fix our thoughts on Him

Then we can believe He’ll fill our lonely, dreary hours with His song.

It might be a night of bereavement.

We’re missing someone or grieving over what could have been.

Let God draw near.

He is the one who always is at our side with comfort.

He is fervent.

He is enthusiastic.

He is intensely thoughtful.

He stands supreme in the throng of the invisible.

He liberates.

He is radiant, active & intent on His purposes;

Now this is where He begins a song.

This may be a night of discouragement

We may collapse over our personal failure.

We feel so misunderstood,

We feel we’re nothing but a reproach;

But God comes near, with His song─

This is the song of hope,

This is the song strength,

This is music of His providence.

We need to sing this songs that He gives. —

Selected.

Our strength is demonstrated only by the hurricane.

The power of Christ is fully seen when we are pressed by a fiery trial.

God makes the fact that

“He gives songs in the night,”

by first making it night.

William Taylor (Adapted)

After the rebellious nations are destroyed, the glorious kingdom

of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is introduced.

Features of that period include increased fertility of the land & the

personal presence of the Lord in glory & excellence.

There will be mutual encouragement among the saints.

Every type of disability will be removed & great rejoicing will celebrate

the transformation of the desert into well-irrigated fields.

The hundreds of miles of desert route from exile back to Jerusalem will become

a “Highway of Holiness,” exclusive to God’s believers

The return of Israel from worldwide dispersion prepictures

the joy & gladness that will accompany the translation of believers

to the Father’s house when Jesus comes again.

A. J. Gordon’s adapted this verse for a hymns:

I shall see the King in His beauty,

In the land that is far away,

When the shadows at length have lifted,

And the darkness has turned to day.

I shall see Him in the glory,

The Lamb that once was slain;

How I’ll then resound the story

With all the ransomed train!

Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah!

To the Lamb that once was slain;

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!

Even so come Lord Jesus

Even so come!!!

Our plants are signed up for the witness protection program

So we keep them on the move for shelter & safeguarding

By pushing them toward the boundaries they’re wheelchair accessible

It also releases Jill Stephens Midkiff to get her horticulture juices flowing

Jill is jumping out of her hide.

She has a nail appointment tomorrow

And a hair appointment next week!!!