Then Jesus said to His disciples,
"If anyone
desires to come after Me,
let him deny himself,
and take up his cross,
and follow Me. For whoever desires
to save his life will
lose it, but whoever
loses his life for My
sake will find it.
For what profit is it
to a man if he gains
the whole world, and
loses his own soul?
Or what will a man
give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of Man
will come in the glory
with His angels, and
then he kept that will reward
each according to his
works.
Matthew 16: 24 -- 27
I have just
finished a study on the book of Galatians and prior to that the books written
to the Corinthians and we have found that when the church is infected, even
could say invaded, by those with other theological and ideological philosophies
that are in contradiction to the word of God problems occur. The Corinthians had a problem with the
melting pot of travelers passing through their land from various parts of the
world, and with the idols and false worship and various gods and goddesses that
were brought into the church in one form or another that created problems whereby
Paul had to address those problems.
Problems have always been a part of the church from its foundation so
that when Paul wrote to the Galatians there were problems but furthermore Paul
needed to speak to them in regards to the freedom that a Christian has in Jesus
Christ. We have that freedom today
unless we find ourselves more important than Jesus Christ. What do I mean? Have you truly converted to the Lord Jesus Christ and have you
set aside all sins that will beset you?
You may sin by omission and then find out that the sin exists and you
need repentance, but you must come to a place where you deny yourself for any
outward committed sin. Jesus was
speaking above that we are to lose our life in Him. What desire holds the highest priority in your life? Have you converted to the Lord Jesus Christ
whereby death has no hold upon you for you know for a fact that you will be
with Him no matter what occurs to you in this life for all men die and you will
die also. Jesus had this to say: "Then Jesus called a little child to
Him, set him in the midst of them, and said,’ Assuredly, I say to you, unless
you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the
kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever
humbled himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven" (Matthew 18: 2 -- 4).
I read many devotional statements and comments, some of those being
posted on social media Facebook, and on the surface they are very good words,
and yet they do not address what Jesus Christ addressed and how He addressed
what it means to be a follower of Him.
Jesus did not mince words! The words
of Jesus are harsh, clear! Far too often
we make reasons and rationalize our actions and thoughts so that we are not
humbled and lack the fear, the fear of reverence, and the fear within that
reverential thoughts and actions that humble us to follow Him at all
costs. Oh how we like this sloppy agape, this pablum that is being presented when what is actually needed is that
we all are to be addressed with the words of Jesus which does not rationalize
or feed us soft oatmeal, rather tells us how to live as an Authentic Christian.
As we learned in our study of Galatians that for many there is a desire to make
a good showing and this is done by good works, good works done for a person's
own self, rather than out of your faith comes good works and that faith is upon
Jesus Christ. Paul said: "But God forbid that I should post
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been
crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6: 14). Can you say as did Paul, that you are
crucified to our Lord Jesus Christ? Are
you truly converted to the Lord Jesus Christ are only have a hope that one day
you'll be in heaven? In today's world,
in today's culture, the promotion is that each person is an individual and each
individual must be empowered for they teach that individuality is a very husk of
the personal life. Individuality
separates a person from another and even isolates a person. Individuality is a childlike attitude and it
is so often mistaken that it is to be a person's personal life and until that
life is crucified Jesus Christ it will remain isolated. It is not wrong to be an individual and to
have some individuality for God created this natural covering for our
protection in our personal life; but individuality must go in order that the
personal life may come out and be brought into fellowship with God. Unfortunately, individuality often
counterfeits personality as a lust counterfeits love. People have been taught that a person needs to be independent and
have self assertiveness and yet it is this very thing that hinders our spiritual
life more than anything else. Are you
having trouble believing? It's probably
because individuality is in the way and individuality never can believe. God is working in you and He will push you
to your very margins of your individuality and you're going to have to answer
to this one way or the other. It is
important that you surrender and break the very husk of your individuality and
let your personal life in Jesus Christ emerge. God wants to bring you in union with Himself. And that union is that you are converted to
Him and you deny yourself and pick up your cross and follow Him. To deny mean to deny your independent right
to yourself, and then the real-life has a chance to grow. I guess the question for all of us is: will
we do it? I pray that it is true for
all of us that we deny ourselves pick up our cross and follow Jesus Christ and
do His will.
Next week I
will begin my blogs on the book of Ephesians, this letter Paul wrote to the
church of Ephesus. I hope it will be
beneficial for you to see how the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to address problems
in the church, and what God has said to them and to us and then apply that in
our lives. I look forward to the study
I hope you will too.
Though the fig tree you may not blossom,
nor fruit
be on the vines;
though the labor of the olive may fail,
in the
fields yield no food;
though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
in there be
no heard in the stalls --
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy
in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk
3: 17 -- 18
Praise God! We are
not orphans
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