You Are Valuable

There is a popular song on Christian channels by Casting Crowns that has a course, “I’m just a nobody telling the world about somebody that saved my soul; until whole world only knows Jesus.” The sentiment is nice and I sincerely believe the intent was good, but then so was the Spanish Inquisition which started as an outreach to Jews. The concept we are nobodies is s lie: 

“from Jesus, the Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins with his own blood and has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 1:5-6). We are royalty! We are Kings and Priests! We are through Christ and His blood a royal priesthood, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9). We sre not nobodies! We are children of God (), who bear in our person and body the very image of God!, “” (Genesis 1:26-37). 

The concept Casting Crowns is drawing from is a flawed Hern Hutt belief that Count Zinzendorf who among his many errors said, “preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.” This smacks of monkery and ascetic nonsense, “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” (Colossians 2:24). It is that man made religion of denying yourself and wormy point of view of oneself that stoked the Medieval Church and its errors for centuries. Zinzendorf in fact was part of a movement, The Moravians and The Brethren that in many ways was a Protestant Monasticism, particularly in prayer vigils and simple dress. 

The idea we should die forgotten and only Jesus be magnified sounds like good piety, but it undermines the Gospel. The whole point of why Jesus came was to tear down the separation between us snd God, so that we may be close to Him forever. Our personality and individuality and unique makeup was so valuable to God that he died for us when we were sinners and enemies of God: 

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6-11). 

There is nothing in the Bible about us wanting to blend into the background and Jesus being alone in the light, rather He the Light of the World (Matthew 5:14-15) calls us to be lights for Him, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven,” (Matthew 5:14-16) and to use our unique gifts (1 Corinthians 12:28) and personality. God is in love with us and like a husband he loves us in all our quirks, eccentricities,  and personality traits. Any voice that woukd say God wants you to be stoic and disappear ao God can alone be is Santanic! God loves who we are and wants us to be our unique selves. So much of suppression theology and doctrine had crept into the church and its toxicity is destroying people and maligning Christ’s identity! We are who we are because God formed us thus, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.” (Psalm 139:13). Yes we battle bad traits and temptations, but our personality, thoughts, feelings and more were crafted by the Creator to be expressed and free. 

I get so vehemented when people think God is like Spock, devoid of emotion when The Holy Bible shows God is passionate, where do stoics think we got emotions from?!: 

“But they rebelled And grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them,” (Isaiah 63:10) 

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephensians 4:30) 

“And Jesus made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business." His disciples remembered that it was written, "ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME." (John 2:15-17) 

“Jesus Wept.” (John 11:35) 

“But you, O Lord, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision.” (Pslam 59:8) 

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17) 

“Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “I loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I hated. I turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the jackals in the desert.” (Malachi 1:2-3) 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) 

“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” (Romans 5:6-11 NLT) 

Lots of emotion, God hates and loves, laughs and is grieved. This is why I am so bothered by Casting Crowns “nobody, until whole world sees only Jesus” and Zinzendorf’s “die forgotten,” because this is stoicism and a false view of us Christians who are the Bride of Christ (Revelation 19:6-9). We are valuable to God! Our every facet of our personality is precious to the Lord Trinity. God does not suppress His personality, why would he ask us to suppress ourselves and act like forgettable disciples, when we are so precious that God shed his precious blood on the cross to secure our salvation and rose from dead. We are not to be faceless instruments of God, we are His ambassadors, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” (2 Corinthians 5:20), and we are Kings and Queens (Revelation 1:6 Jubilee 2000 and Jerusalem Bible). We are meant to be seen and have our individuality while being One with God and yet not erased; just as husband and wife are one flesh, yet many unique members, “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). 

We are not to fade into the background like set pieces in s play; we are to share in God’s Light, to dance with Him before the world, showing the love of God. Our lives matter and anyone who says “die forgotten” or your “a nobody” is wrong; you are precious to God (Romans 5:4-11) and you are royalty (1 Peter 2:9, Revelation 1:6). Amen.