Luke 9;23-24
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
*I must give the meaning of 'lose it' within this text, so that you can understand exactly what those men, who heard Jesus speaking this teaching, understood Him to be saying to them. Effectively, it is spoken to you too.*
In the Greek: apollumi; (ap-ol'-loo-mee) to destroy fully [reflexively it means to 'perish' or 'lose'], literally and figuratively
Now, you should be within the same frame of mind as those who heard Jesus speak this teaching. Can you say that you are within that frame of mind? Yes, you are there? Okay. Ask yourself this question........
"Why am I still selfish?"
Christ spoke to probably the second most important, if not the most important, issue that we face when it comes to "following" Him. Ourselves!!!!!! We LOVE us some US. *as I laugh at myself for typing this*
Today's encouragement is quite brief, yet necessary. It comes in three parts, but I ask, in order to reach the other two, you must clear the first. #1. Denial of self- Seriously consider your mode of operations. Truly seek to 'lose it'; self. Of course, if there be difficulty (which there will be: speaking from experience) you do have a blueprint to look at for motivation. Christ Jesus.
#2. Taking up your cross- Bearing with your issues and assignments given, without losing faith that you are going to receive your reward for carrying them the distance laid out by the Father.
#3. Following Christ- Which is the adjunct to #1, for the denial of self is to be because you find Christ to be what you are actually striving to become. Learning Him increases or enhances every area of you, what you perform, and those areas you dwell in.
And, what I pray you all 'see' is that Christ, Himself, sought to inform every person with this teaching. Go back to 23. He, Christ, says, "If any man WILL" (capitalization for emphasis). This Truth is not hid from anybody! All you have to do is want to do. That is why I made my statement concerning this hitting the second most important issue about us as humans. Honestly, some of us all of the time, and all of us some of the time JUST DON'T WANT TO!!!! What Christ is saying is that this has to be your decision, you must make it and make it "daily". So, what's it going to be?
My way or The Highway......
Holla,
Yer Brova Catalyst
2 comments:
AMEN!!! I think the most challenging part is like you said, the wanting to. NOT: wanting to... look spiritually mature or wanting to... impress other people. But actually just wanting to. PERIOD.
"As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man." -Proverbs 27:19
People are better reads than we think. Some of us can discern the true intention that is reflecting out of you. If you don't want to be about it, fine. Maybe you're not ready for solid food yet. Just don't say you are about it... It makes for a bad representation of Christ.
If we're not ready to deny ourselves, then we should be ready to deny Christ. It's really one or the other. When we realize we don't want to deny Christ, maybe then we will actually be able to WANT TO deny ourselves.
Once more Sisza Kennedy, what amazes me the most are those who come to Christ, like He doesn't know their actual intentions, and present there desire to Him. I call that disposition, "Jesus is my Hook-Up" mentallity.
So sad.
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