Monday, April 15, 2013

Cost of Discipleship Pt 34 - 'Take my yoke upon you...'


Chapter 4- Discipleship and the Cross (continued)

Mat 26:39  And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Mat 26:42  He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

Bonhoeffer-'Jesus prays to his Father that the cup may pass from him, and his Father hears his prayer; for the cup of suffering will indeed pass from him-- but only by his drinking it. That is the assurance he receives as he kneels for the second time in the garden of Gethsemane that suffering will indeed pass as he accepts it. That is the only path to victory. The cross is his triumph over suffering.

Suffering means being cut off from God.  Therefore those who live in communion with him cannot really suffer. This Old Testament doctrine was reaffirmed by Jesus. That is why he takes upon himself the suffering of the whole world, and in doing so proves victorious over it. He bears the whole burden of man's separation from God, and in the very act of drinking the cup he causes it to pass over him. He sets out to overcome the suffering of the world, and so he must drink it to the dregs. Hence while it is still true that suffering means being cut off from God, yet within the fellowship of Christ's suffering, suffering is overcome by suffering, and becomes the way to communion with God.

Suffering has to be endured in order that it may pass away.  Either the world must bear the whole burden and collapse beneath it, or it must fall on Christ to be overcome in him. '

*

Bonhoeffer continuing- ' For God is a God who bears. The Son of God bore our flesh, he bore the cross, he bore our sins, thus making atonement for us. In the same way his followeres are also called upon to bear and that is precisely what it means to be a Christian. Just as Christ maintained his communion with the Father by his endurance, so his followers are to maintain their communion with Christ by their endurance.  We can of course shake off the burden which is laid upon us, but only find that we have a still heavier burden to carry-- a yoke of our own choosing, the yoke of our self. But Jesus invites all who travail and are heavy laden to throw off their own yoke and take his yoke upon them-- and his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.  The yoke and the burden of Christ are his cross.'

*******

My Thoughts-

There is NO greater suffering than our being cut off from God. He is love. 

Our concept of love is so skewed that people just don't realize that God's love is the only love that means anything at all. All the so called love we have believe we comprehends means nothing if it's not of God's love.

Our Creator.
Our Redeemer.
We have worth only in Christ, we have no worth of our own.  Yet so much in us that lives in our nature of flesh tells us that we have self worth on our own. Worth simply because we exist.

I've been reading the Old Testament lately and it hasn't ceased to amaze me the battle after battle, the killing of whole cities full of people- men, women, and children all because they worshipped not God but pagan gods.  We are appalled by the mere thought that someone could be killed for not worshipping God. We believe that it's horrific, and if it's horrific then we have to determine God is heartless and horrific, but we KNOW He's not!

It ALL goes back to the beginning and God CREATING us, we are HIS creations and He wanted us to live in a world filled with LOVE. He created us and gave us a CHOICE to love Him or ourselves.  That's what it was, that choice in the garden of Eden. To love God and out of that love obey Him, or love ourselves and obey our own will.  We chose to obey our own will. We turned our backs on God. We refused His love. We were GUILTY! When we chose to obey ourselves we were denying ourselves all the love of God.

God didn't snap us out of existence in that moment of turning on Him instead He gave us HOPE. He told us this-- 

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

There would be SOMETHING between OUR SEED and SATAN'S SEED.  That something would be an enmity.

ENMITY- The state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.

Something - this enmity - would come between Satan and His evil desire to make all of mankind his own.

We weren't to be left to ALL become Satan's.

Right away there was a choice and it's told to us in the history of Abel and Cain.  One chose God the other chose self (Satan).

From our BEGINNING, our Creation by God we were blessed by being created at all.  We are GOD'S or SATAN'S.

Every single innocent killed will be GOD'S when the dead in Christ are raised at His second coming.  Not ONE single innocent, not one single person who has God as their GOD, who has their CREATOR as their GOD will suffer eternal death. 

This life in a world of sin isn't what is ultimately IMPORTANT. NOT getting to live a full life, a life to old age, isn't IMPORTANT. Being born into this world gives us the opportunity to be God's, this is what is most IMPORTANT!

Not being God's IS being Satan's.  We don't seem to comprehend that, so we call God a horror for destroying that which isn't of Him, but it can't be any other way because all that is not of God is HORROR.  Our senses have been so dulled, so perverted we just can't see this. Satan has duped us so thoroughly that we think there is something other then God and Satan. We believe there is some middle ground that we can walk upon, that God should walk upon allowing those who choose Satan to still live. 

It's either God or Satan, there is NOTHING ELSE!

Our Savior SUFFERED for US! Our Savior DIED to bear our sins, our guilt! Our Savior wants us to be GOD'S. Our Savior wants His Father as our Father.  We must CHOOSE God and in choosing God, we choose to live the life that our Savior lived and all that means!

Read this again… is their truth in this?

Bonhoeffer-'Jesus prays to his Father that the cup may pass from him, and his Father hears his prayer; for the cup of suffering will indeed pass from him-- but only by his drinking it. That is the assurance he receives as he kneels for the second time in the garden of Gethsemane that suffering will indeed pass as he accepts it. That is the only path to victory. The cross is his triumph over suffering.

Suffering means being cut off from God.  Therefore those who live in communion with him cannot really suffer. This Old Testament doctrine was reaffirmed by Jesus. That is why he takes upon himself the suffering of the whole world, and in doing so proves victorious over it. He bears the whole burden of man's separation from God, and in the very act of drinking the cup he causes it to pass over him. He sets out to overcome the suffering of the world, and so he must drink it to the dregs. Hence while it is still true that suffering means being cut off from God, yet within the fellowship of Christ's suffering, suffering is overcome by suffering, and becomes the way to communion with God.

Suffering has to be endured in order that it may pass away.  Either the world must bear the whole burden and collapse beneath it, or it must fall on Christ to be overcome in him. '

*

Bonhoeffer continuing- ' For God is a God who bears. The Son of God bore our flesh, he bore the cross, he bore our sins, thus making atonement for us. In the same way his followers are also called upon to bear and that is precisely what it means to be a Christian. Just as Christ maintained his communion with the Father by his endurance, so his followers are to maintain their communion with Christ by their endurance.  We can of course shake off the burden which is laid upon us, but only find that we have a still heavier burden to carry-- a yoke of our own choosing, the yoke of our self. But Jesus invites all who travail and are heavy laden to throw off their own yoke and take his yoke upon them-- and his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.  The yoke and the burden of Christ are his cross.'

Truth!

When we choose self over God we are choosing to walk with Satan and our burden truly is HEAVY!

When we choose God over self we are choosing to walk with God and our burden is born by CHRIST first and foremost! Our Advocate is our all in all, and we must follow Him and only HIM.

Please LORD, please help us to choose YOU over ourselves.

In Your LOVE! In YOU!

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