A few years ago I attended a weekend conference at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. It was a men\u2019s conference and one of the speakers was Ray Lewis, the outstanding linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens. He spent a long time on his testimony, approximately 30 minutes longer than what he was allotted. But we all loved it. The one thing I remember extremely well is the central theme of his message. \u201cStop wearing someone else\u2019s jersey\u201d; instead<\/em>, wear your own jersey. We understand this as all sports fans have their favorite player or players and they have a jersey or jerseys with their name on the back.<\/p>\n It’s great to have our heroes and our role models. We all seem to want to emulate someone either more famous, or popular, or talented than we are. And most of us have a way of wearing masks for different occasions to portray something about ourselves other than who we really are. And as fathers, and possibly mothers, we have a tendency to direct our children to be what we want for them rather than what they\u2019re actually designed for. Even to the point of living vicariously\u00a0through our children.<\/p>\n But God didn\u2019t create us this way. He has a \u2018body\u2019, called the church, made up of individuals and families that are designed to complete the \u2018body\u2019 to bring glory to him. Scripture teaches us about the different gifting. \u201cFor just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ\u2026 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, \u201cBecause I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,\u201d that would not make it any less a part of the body.\u201d <\/em><\/strong>I Cor. 12.12,14<\/p>\n What this really says to me is, quit trying to be something that you are not. Be who you are. When you really stop and analyze this, it is so freeing. The masks are not necessary, you\u2019re involved in what God has gifted you to do, and the amount of energy you save can be used more effectively. When I played high school football, I was an offensive guard and a defensive linebacker. One day our coach decided to try me as a running back in practice. I was a miserable\u00a0failure. It lasted about 10 minutes. That was not who I was.<\/p>\n In God\u2019s infinite wisdom, he has uniquely created all of us. Psalm 139 expresses it well. You are not a mistake. You are uniquely and divinely created. You have a purpose which no one else can fulfill. So, be who you are!<\/em><\/strong> And take Ray Lewis\u2019s advice; quit wearing somebody else\u2019s jersey. God has knit one especially for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unique purpose A few years ago I attended a weekend conference at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. It was a men\u2019s conference and one of the speakers was Ray Lewis, the outstanding linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens. He spent a long time on his testimony, approximately 30 minutes longer than what he was allotted. But we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":405314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[556,557],"class_list":["post-405366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abiding","tag-created","tag-unique"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Wonderfully made<\/h3>\n
\n\u201cFor you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother\u2019s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.\u201d <\/em><\/strong>Vss. 13-16<\/p>\n