“YOU AND I do not naturally submit to anyone or anything.
Insist that I be your slave, and you have a civil-rights case on your hands!
American history illustrates what happens when one human enslaves another.
We resist submission to another person with every fiber of our cholesterol-free lifestyles.
In a culture where the individual has reached godlike status, submitting to anyone or anything outside ourselves is beyond reason.
Self-interest soars high above service in our hierarchy of interests.
These attitudes are part of our cultural thinking.
They are also the very feelings that prevent us from knowing the freedom that comes from giving ourselves to Christ.
Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mat. 16:24).
Denying–not embracing–self is the first step to becoming a servant leader.
If you desire to lead as Jesus led, you must desire first to follow Jesus; this is how leadership training among God’s people begins.” C. Gene Wilkes, Jesus on Leadership, “How Do We Lead by Serving?”, 23
INCARNATE 