Dear Daily Message Readers,
READ: 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5
1 Corinthians 2:3 (NIV) "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
The word marginalized has acquired a negative meaning over the years in the dictionary world. According to Dictionary.com, the word marginalized means to "relegate or confine to a lower or outer limit or edge. It is used to describe what happens when one is pushed away from the center of the action, especially in social situations. In essence, the individual is shoved away from the center and is placed in the outskirts. When this happens, a person is ignored, and relegated to the outer fringes of the world.
Have you ever noticed that our culture and society tends to marginalize Jesus? Let me explain. Sure, people may say they respect Him, admire Him, and are obedient to His teachings, but in public and inside, they wish He had just stay out on the edges where they (and others before them) have placed Him in their list of priorities.
Some religious groups, for instance, have sidelined Jesus as if this type of action means nothing. They do not want to accept Him for who He says He is, the Son of God and Savior of all who believe (John 3:16, 8, & 14:6). They also want to diminish His everlasting authority over their lives by reducing Him to just a good or even a great teacherbut not God incarnate (Phil. 2). If they can only move Him out of the center of their lives, they will be free from His influence. Then, once this is complete, they can place (and keep) themselves at the center of their lives.
Christian, where is Jesus in your life right now? Have you pushed Him out of the center to the edges, where you do not have to listen to Him anymore? Or is He at the very center of your life? Is He the One you worship, give full obedience to, and would follow into the deepest valleys of life?
Scripture is clear: Do not accept the pressure of our culture. Do not marginalize the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior, Jesus Christ Faith Lesson: Jesus belongs in the center of all we do, not on the side or in the margins.
In Christ,
Darin Smith
READ: 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5
1 Corinthians 2:3 (NIV) "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
The word marginalized has acquired a negative meaning over the years in the dictionary world. According to Dictionary.com, the word marginalized means to "relegate or confine to a lower or outer limit or edge. It is used to describe what happens when one is pushed away from the center of the action, especially in social situations. In essence, the individual is shoved away from the center and is placed in the outskirts. When this happens, a person is ignored, and relegated to the outer fringes of the world.
Have you ever noticed that our culture and society tends to marginalize Jesus? Let me explain. Sure, people may say they respect Him, admire Him, and are obedient to His teachings, but in public and inside, they wish He had just stay out on the edges where they (and others before them) have placed Him in their list of priorities.
Some religious groups, for instance, have sidelined Jesus as if this type of action means nothing. They do not want to accept Him for who He says He is, the Son of God and Savior of all who believe (John 3:16, 8, & 14:6). They also want to diminish His everlasting authority over their lives by reducing Him to just a good or even a great teacherbut not God incarnate (Phil. 2). If they can only move Him out of the center of their lives, they will be free from His influence. Then, once this is complete, they can place (and keep) themselves at the center of their lives.
Christian, where is Jesus in your life right now? Have you pushed Him out of the center to the edges, where you do not have to listen to Him anymore? Or is He at the very center of your life? Is He the One you worship, give full obedience to, and would follow into the deepest valleys of life?
Scripture is clear: Do not accept the pressure of our culture. Do not marginalize the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior, Jesus Christ Faith Lesson: Jesus belongs in the center of all we do, not on the side or in the margins.
In Christ,
Darin Smith
Hi from the UK, by the way. Remember we have a big family, with the coolest, perfect dad. In love: in 
