Look at what he said in Mark 8 to the crowd and his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life[c] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
To take up your cross meant you were about to die… its like saying, take up your noose and walk to the platform. Jesus requires everything of me. He requires everything of you.
So I have decided to read through the New Testament and see what my life should look like. I started to look at scripture and see that if you truly love Christ, it will show itself in the form of good works. If you truly love Jesus, you will do what he says to do (1 John 2:3-6).
The more I thought about this… the more I figured that my life didn’t reflect scripture. James says that true religion is to help the widow and the fatherless… when’s the last time I helped a widow? Scripture says that those in the early church gave everything they had to the poor and that there was no one in the early church with needs because everyone just shared their stuff. I look at my church and most of the people seem like they need something… Are we, am I, living the life that scripture called me to?
I don’t think so.
So I am embarking on a journey to find out how my life should look. Like James says, I am holding the word of God in front of me and using it as a mirror to ferret out the parts of me that don’t reflect Christ.
Enjoy!
The jury is still out as to whether or not all this will get posted on this blog or whether I will create another one specifically for this purpose…. I am open to your opinions?
1 comment:
I'd definitely like to hear your musings on this journey. As you already know VERY well, I'm quite... abhorrent of legalizm in any form or fashion, just because it's not about us. It's not about how good we are, it's not about how much we love God, it's not even about whether or not we're saved. It's about God being God and that being enough.
On the other hand, I do agree with you. I do need to love God. Most of that comes from Him, but there is a degree of that which belongs to my own muscles and brain. I've recently had to decide that my lack of quiet-time and Bible study is purely, exclusively, and totally my own fault. Liek I said, there's a degree of it that comes from regeneration, from God making us able to do good that we cannot do, but there is also that part that comes from me actually articulating the joints between my femurs and tibias, placing my patellae on the floor and submitting my attitude and actions to the written will of God.
This has always been a strong source of contention in my life. When God said "...apart from me you can do nothing..." what did He mean by "nothing?" If He means "...live and move and have our being..." then what does He mean by "apart from?"
If we cannot "live and move and have our being" apart from God, but I obviously lived and moved and had my being before I was saved, so then is that like a loophole that means that since God was "here" then we weren't "without Him?"
I'd love to hear your musings about all of this. Kee 'em coming...
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