by Dennis Biddison
 
Acts 17:6 “Those who have turned the world upside down.”

This is one of my favorite descriptions of the ministry of the early church. When God works, things get turned upside down. Remember, what is upside down to man’s thinking is right-side up in God’s thinking. To be greater, you become less. You get by giving. You are the happiest when your focus is not on yourself. You are the most blest when you are giving, serving, etc. That sounds pretty upside down.

How, as God’s children can we turn our world upside down? I want to list several important ways.

Live by an upside down order.
When you are nothing, you are greatest. (“But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” Matthew 23:11) Your spiritual maturity can be gauged by your true humility. Major Ian Thomas writes: “A man is only worth as much as can be seen of God in him.” The Christian life is a life of no longer living to self, for self, or by the power of self. Andrew Murray says: “It is no wonder that the Christian life is so often feeble and fruitless, when the very root of the Christ-life is neglected. We must seek a humility which will rest in nothing less than the end and death of self.”

Serve in an upside down strength.
When you are weak, you are strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10: “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”) Any service for God that does not rest on a humble dependence on God is not God’s work. We must learn to expose every area of service to the Lord in humble dependency upon His adequacy, and in total rejection of our own adequacy. This is not easy, because I often can make things happen. I can be the cause of my own effect, and it will make me look good, feel good, and appear successful. I must reject that dependency on self, in favor of a dependency on Him. That is all part of the grace walk - which brings up our next area.

Walk in an upside down method.
Our Christian walk is not by self-discipline, nor by self-indulgence. I have mentioned many times that Christians tend to place themselves in one of two distorted camps. They want to make a bunch of rules and formulas and do’s and don’ts and base their spirituality on how well they are self-disciplined enough to stay within these guidelines. Or they want to reject guidelines and rules and justify self-indulgence. The true (upside down) way a Christian should walk is by grace. I relate to God only on the basis of Christ. I recognize my acceptability to God is totally on the basis of grace. I understand that my accessibility to God is only on the basis of grace. But I recognize also that walking in that grace enables me to please God from the inside out, and empowers me to walk in a way that is pleasing to Him. When you truly walk in grace, you will help those around you turn upside down because it will be God at work.

Grow in an upside down fashion.
We make forward progress in reverse - through trials and suffering. This kind of growth appears entirely upside down. Though these trials appear as stumbling blocks, they are designed to be steppingstones -- this seems entirely upside down.

Head toward an upside down goal -- apparent failure that is truly successful. Jesus was basically a failure in the world’s eyes. His schooling was negligible. He was a fanatical street-preacher and a rabble-rouser. He was totally repudiated by all the ecclesiastical dignitaries of his day. He had no theological training, and was looked upon with contempt by all that considered themselves “learned.” He was financially a failure and he even had to borrow a coin just to give one of his illustrations. He never had a home of his own. He was born in a borrowed stable. He lived and ate in borrowed homes. He rode a borrowed donkey and was crucified on a borrowed cross. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. What a failure!

Our goals are spiritual goals, and may not see the success of the world. Someday, we’re all going to stand before Jesus Christ and receive our rewards. I honestly believe the greatest rewards are going to be given to faithful saints who rarely saw anything that resembled spiritual success -- but they were totally faithful to their Lord. May we, as God’s children live uprightly in an upside down world.
 
 
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