Pastors are often called for help when people are at their lowest.  It’s an unfortunate fact of life.  I suppose it’s why you develop armor.  You begin to feel that nothing will surprise you.  However, although the armor does protect, sometimes there are so many things battering against it that you end up dented and bruised, amazed at the circumstances around you.  That’s where I find myself now.

One of the constants in ministry is that people are sinful and will do selfish things.  Unfortunately, there are some events that are so sinful and selfish that you wonder how they could happen, especially when believers are involved.  How can someone apparently give no thought to the utter chaos they leave around them, only to do exactly what they want to do?

Where would we be if Jesus had been that way?  Instead…

“Although he was in the form of God and equal with God, he did not take advantage of this equality.  Instead, he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, by becoming like other humans, by having a human appearance.  He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)

It is because of this sacrifice that we receive eternal and abundant life!  And, as a reward for His selflessness, He receives a particular kind of glory:

“This is why God has given him an exceptional honor— the name honored above all other names—so that at the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will kneel and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)

This glory is what we should give every day of our lives, every time we gather together for worship, and especially on Easter!  But there is another way we give God glory.  The reminder comes at the beginning of the passage.  Philippians 2:5 says: “Have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.”  We give God glory by being like Jesus Christ, and we are like Jesus Christ when we are willing to sacrifice for others.  So, this Easter, I would ask that you look at your life to determine where you are being selfish and sinful, and instead seek to be like the one who gave Himself for you.