Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart.
Lean NOT to your own understanding.
In ALL your ways acknowledge Him.
And He SHALL direct thy path. (Proverbs 3:5,6)
Not my words but precious words from God written down by a very imperfect man who was close to God. Don't get me wrong when I write the word imperfect, I'm not condoning imperfection. God doesn't condone imperfection. God recognizes it, but never excuses it as being inconsequential. Seriously. You may be flippant about sin in your own life, but God never is, never. Do you ever wonder why you have to die on a daily basis? You don't get a single day off from the death you must die every single day. Sounds awful doesn't it? Like a horror Groundhog's Day movie (which I'm sure probably exists in more than one movie out there somewhere- I'm not going to look that's for sure.)
You know when I talk about a daily dying that I'm not talking about a physical death at all. I am however, talking about a REAL death. Because if it isn't real then what is the point of it at all? If we're only playing make believe Christianity and donning fake costumes, using fake props, reading scripted lines, then you do realize the ending of the ongoing fairy tale will be a very dark one and not the light, happy, eternally joyful one you think you're going to get. The ending will be as fake as all the other fake parts that came before it were. You're reading me right, I'm putting the truth on display and ripping off all blinders right this very moment. You can either keep reading or stop right now if you don't want your spiritual flesh to be on fire with the antiseptic I'm going to use on it.
Are you an actor playing at Christianity? Are you?! What role have you taken on as an actor? Have you envisioned yourself to be the pious churchgoer, or maybe the demure deaconess, or you could be the rebellious on again, off again Christian. I don't know your role, only you know. Would you like me to stop telling you that you are in a role at all, that you're not acting? Or are you playing the part of the highly offended, very indignant, self-righteous Christian in this moment? Cuts deep doesn't it? Or rather, that antiseptic is burning into your open wounds now isn't it? Either way, cutting, wounding cleaning, I don't care, I just want you to realize that Christianity has become so often a role we tack on to our life achievements, flouting it about as needed in conversations- showing off our diploma in the graduating class of Christianity - Master's degree of course - we would settle for no less on our life's resume. This Master's degree however is in the Dramatic Arts, because it's merely a role you play as needed. Your audience plays along with you and even gets involved showing off their own acting skills. Everybody has their roles to play and they go on stage in a moment's notice, literally sometimes a single second is all they need to start their acting. You could say each and every person who play acts Christianity is an immersive actor, living their role as the show of their life goes on. They don't have to wait for any auditions, why would they? Their life is the role they are playing and the parts in that life are many. One part, that part of being a Christian can be, and often is brought out on stage as needed. Some people climb on the stage of Church, others on the stage of prayer meeting, while still others set up benefits and charities, and some write blogs, they do this all while acting the part of a good Christian person. More often than not the starring role as preacher, pastor, priest and so on is that of an amazing Christian actor. None with that title, that office, are guaranteed to be genuine Christians, their role is just a little bit larger than your average every day Christian actor's.
Stop. You want me to stop don't you? You don't like me saying that Christianity today has become so many people, the majority in fact- just play acting at being a Christian. You truly believe you are a sincere Christian with a heart surrendered to God, a life saved by the death of your eternal Savior, Jesus Christ.
Do you die daily? I mean really. Remember, I mentioned the dying part when I first started this? Do you really die daily? What's it mean to die daily, do you know? What do you think you know about dying daily? It's something that Jesus talked about.
Luk 9:23 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.
Luk 9:24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
1Co 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
2Co 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
2Co 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal
LET HIM DENY HIMSELF and… TAKE UP HIS CROSS… DAILY.
What cross are you bearing today? What cross have you knelt down and wrapped your arms around just so you could hoist it up off the ground and pull it up onto your shoulder to carry? What cross are you walking through life with, slowly, step by step, with the weight of it hard pressed against you causing your arms, shoulders, back, hips, legs, and feet to ache? Where is the cross you are laying upon the ground and placing yourself upon? Where are those huge nails and the heavy hammer resting, as you wait for them to be picked up and driven deep into your flesh? Tell me, WHERE is all this in your life?!
About now you're ready to quote other verses of the Bible to me- such as "My yoke is easy, my burden is light." You want me to toss out all that nonsense about crosses because Jesus already died upon the cross for you so you don't have to die upon any cross. What about this..
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ….
The truth is, you don't have a physical wooden cross to carry, there are no huge metal nails to be plunged into your hands and feet- you know this and I know this- it's not the wooden cross we are to pick up daily to follow Jesus. We have to live- CHRIST.
WE DO NOT LIVE CHRIST WITHOUT DENYING THE SELF IN US THAT HIDES THE CHRIST IN US FROM OTHERS.
Christ has to be a REAL part of our lives. Our recognition of Christ must be foremost in our lives, not an afterthought. Denying self.
Mar 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them,
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Mar 8:35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
Mar 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Mar 8:37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Mar 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
Jesus called out to the PEOPLE along WITH his disciples…
Whosoever would be a follower of Christ, would have to-
1. Deny himself
2. Take up his cross.
3. Follow Jesus.
Saving ourselves before being willing to die for Christ, we lose ourselves.
Being will to lose our lives for Christ, we save ourselves.
It is possible to gain everything in the world- and lose yourself- if you do not have Christ, and all you gained in the world means nothing in the grave, and nothing in eternity.
If you have gained Christ and not the world- it is very visible, very well known, very obvious, highly apparent in your life. You are KNOWN to be a Christ follower and NOT because you are telling people you ARE a Christian, but because YOU are living your life as a Christian. You are not a follower of the WORLD, you are a follower of CHRIST. You are not a follower of SELF, you are a follower of Christ.
Is your life one of SELF-DENIAL?
Is your life one of carrying the Cross of Christ's sacrifice for mankind's salvation?
Is your life one of following Jesus… really following Him?
Is your life ready to be sacrificed for Him?
Are you willing to preach Christ even if it costs you your life?
Are you willing to tell others of Christ even if it costs you your worldly pride, your high standing in society, ridicule among your peers, your jobs, careers, family?
Are you willing to endure the shaming of the world, the world's laughter, the world's spite, the world's anger, the world's loathing…all to be able to live and tell of Christ your Savior and the Salvation He offers?
Honestly, for to be anything other than honest would be very wrong.
Honestly, we are living so much in conformity to the world that we believe those who are known Jesus freaks, known religious weirdos, known to be in various religious organizations by strange clothes, odd rituals, unusual ways of life- are all STRANGE and we aren't going to follow Jesus to those extremist ways. We are going to keep our feet on the ground in the NORMAL world because do to otherwise would mean being considered among those weirdos we just spoke of and we don't want to get too carried away in our not being OF the world.
We tell ourselves that Jesus would not expect us to be oddballs to others, He'd want us to fit in with the world. We tell ourselves lies. It's scary to think of not being of the world, especially for those of us who are of the world so much we have convinced ourselves it the being of the world part that keeps us grounded in life- Jesus is just a pastime with the hope of being fulltime one day in eternity. It really does NOT work that way. In ALL we do He has to be a part of that, because in eternity He is all in all, always! He won't give us salvation and pat us on the back and tell us to go on now, go play in the world, only now do whatever you've been doing to please yourself on earth for eternity.
Honestly, again there's nothing else here, I am just like you a struggling Christ follower, praying, praying, praying that I can give up self, that I can give up the world, that I can give up anything that would stand between me and my Savior, Jesus Christ.
I don't want to be a person play acting a Christian! I want my life to belong to Christ in truth! If I were treating Christ like I would treat a huge worldly treasure known to be buried in my back yard just waiting for me to dig it up, I would be relentless in my digging and searching until it was found! So why aren't my hands dirty with digging? Why aren't my fingernails worn down and cracked? Why aren't my shoulders and back, my arms and legs aching from the time spent digging? Why is my life one of self-serving pleasure pastimes that I have deemed harmless simply because it is the way of the world nowadays? I have A LOT of questions for myself. A lot of soul searching. A lot of self-introspection over whether or not my Christ following is just me playing pretend Christian in a world of pretend Christians, or am I really denying self and taking up my cross and following Christ? At this moment I'm going to simply holdfast to Christ as my Savior and trust Him to lead me… If my world is a pretend world, may God forgive me and bring me into the real world, as a real Christ follower- trusting in HIM for my salvation completely, living for Him as He would have me live! I will not give into any Satanic despair that tries to threaten my love of God! My hope is in God always! May your hope be in God too. If you suspect you are a pretend Christian, that you're play acting at being a Christ follower… just ASK for forgiveness, trust you ARE forgiven, and seek God in all you do. Hang on to Christ and His promises … hang on no matter what until our Lord and Savior returns!
I long to trust in the Lord with all my heart
I long to lean NOT unto my own understanding
In all my ways I pray to follow Christ
In all my ways I hope He directs my path
Like the imperfect Solomon, the wisest of the wise yet still so imperfect, who wrote the passage from Proverbs at the top of this rambling- I, not the wisest BY very far, am imperfect as I seek to trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean NOT to my own understanding. I long to follow Christ as HE would have me follow Him, I want Him to direct my paths- all of them! I don't want to be of the world, I want to be of Him!
Please, Lord, please, all through the grace and mercy, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, my Savior, now and forever! Please, save me, save all who are searching for you with all their hearts and not leaning to their own understanding! Please. In the name of our Lord! THANK YOU most gracious LORD, all honor and glory to You always, without end! Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment