Don’t Want the World

We’re going to have to take this section slow, one awesome statement at a time. After Jesus had confronted the devil coming from the mouth of Peter he speaks these words in regard to setting our minds on the things of God. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Wow, and ouch and YES! I so want to come after Jesus, I want to share in his power, in his life, in his glory, but to do so I must die. I must be sacrificed, brutally, for the cross is no symbol at this point, it is a guillotine, a gallows, an axe used to whop off criminals heads.

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” – Matthew 16:24-26

If I want to follow after Christ I must deny myself, deny my wants, my longings, my desires, my passions, my plans, and take my cross, take up the instrument that will kill me, and follow Christ. Follow Christ where? To die. I am to follow Christ to the bitter end, each and every day sacrificing myself with that cross that I may follow Christ and go after him. What will this profit me, this self sacrifice? Let us look on to discover the answer.

Sunset + Humidity + HDR Pro + Lots of trial and error = This by Tyler van der Hoeven

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Right. What?! Wanna keep your life? Loose it! Yet keep your life and you’ll loose it. The one big difference in these two statements is in how we keep our life in our loosing it. Namely, by loosing it for the sake of Christ. We keep our lives for ourselves and glory and satisfaction and you’ll loose it all. Yet loose your life for the sake of Christ, for the sake of following him, for the sake of finding something better in Him, and you’ll keep it.

This is hard but very practical, forget the idols of the world and have Christ as your only passion and you’ll find life in the Son. Crucify the lusts of the flesh with that cross and find life in the Son of God. Do you want to find true life? Loose your life here, loose all your distractions and idols, loose it all and throw it on the alter and Christ will fill you to the brim and overflowing with the joy of salvation and the fullness of his presence and abundant life. Do not think however that we must do all this dying on our own, for just as Christ took our sins on the cross so He also shares in our suffering, enabling and strengthening us to do that which is His good pleasure.

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.Rejoice therefore, for it is God who is at work in you not only to do the thing which pleases Him, but also to create the desire in you to do that very thing. This is the thing that gives Him glory, not when we succeed in following Him, but when he carries us home in His own strong arms.”- Philippians 2:12-13