Showing forth your true intentions
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
I never can really tell these days what God's Spirit has in mind for me to say to you when opening up a new blog. What I can say is that it is God's Spirit continues to guide me throughout the word as I share each time with you
With all that is going on in the world around us my attentions are turned toward what we need to do as followers of Christ in demonstrating and witnessing to the world around us what it is to be a child of God. There is a passage of Scripture found in Mark 8:34-38 that describes in detail what it is we as people who claim to follow Christ need to show the world around us if we are going to be thought of as a real in our beliefs. It says "and when he had called the people to him with his disciples also, he said to them, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospels, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 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 comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels."
It occurs to me that if we are going to do anything at all for the kingdom of God we need to be ready for unexpected discouragement. Throughout my life I have found that a lot of this discouragement will come through a Christian brother or sister; a church or a Christian organization, but most certainly from the most least expected places. Interestingly enough Satan spoke directly through Peter in an attempt to stop Jesus from doing the will of the father at one point and it was David's elder brother who tried to discourage him from slaying Goliath. There is an effective way to unashamedly share your faith and show that you care about strangers; it is by simple prayer in a restaurant or letting people know that you like to pray before meal, or even asking them if there is anything that they want you to pray for in their lives? I think for a long time now we have lived with the mentality of trying to save our lives first before we care about anyone else. The facts are that as we go into a life of ministry in service to God we should not expect to survive. It isn't until I got to the point of realization that when I came to Christ I forfeited my life, my desires, and my personal goals to bring glory to God. Believe me that didn't happen overnight, and I personally flaunt for my life for many years after I realized what that meant. It is now years later that I can finally say I have grown comfortable with the idea of not saving my life first.
I have known people all of my life who have clawed, and fought to gain control of possessions in this world, only to end up leaving all of that physical wealth and stuff for someone else to squander because they had no respect for what it took to gather it together. Most real wealth in this world is in some way inherited from someone worked for had all of their lives. Our spiritual wealth is quite a bit different than that because it is a treasure once accumulated that can never be taken away or stolen by this world. The wealth the blessings, and the security of my life no longer abides here. I often think about the words "or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" My answer to that in this day and age is that THERE IS NOTHING of this world that comes anywhere close to being worth what I already have in Jesus. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
I never can really tell these days what God's Spirit has in mind for me to say to you when opening up a new blog. What I can say is that it is God's Spirit continues to guide me throughout the word as I share each time with you
With all that is going on in the world around us my attentions are turned toward what we need to do as followers of Christ in demonstrating and witnessing to the world around us what it is to be a child of God. There is a passage of Scripture found in Mark 8:34-38 that describes in detail what it is we as people who claim to follow Christ need to show the world around us if we are going to be thought of as a real in our beliefs. It says "and when he had called the people to him with his disciples also, he said to them, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospels, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 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 comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels."
It occurs to me that if we are going to do anything at all for the kingdom of God we need to be ready for unexpected discouragement. Throughout my life I have found that a lot of this discouragement will come through a Christian brother or sister; a church or a Christian organization, but most certainly from the most least expected places. Interestingly enough Satan spoke directly through Peter in an attempt to stop Jesus from doing the will of the father at one point and it was David's elder brother who tried to discourage him from slaying Goliath. There is an effective way to unashamedly share your faith and show that you care about strangers; it is by simple prayer in a restaurant or letting people know that you like to pray before meal, or even asking them if there is anything that they want you to pray for in their lives? I think for a long time now we have lived with the mentality of trying to save our lives first before we care about anyone else. The facts are that as we go into a life of ministry in service to God we should not expect to survive. It isn't until I got to the point of realization that when I came to Christ I forfeited my life, my desires, and my personal goals to bring glory to God. Believe me that didn't happen overnight, and I personally flaunt for my life for many years after I realized what that meant. It is now years later that I can finally say I have grown comfortable with the idea of not saving my life first.
I have known people all of my life who have clawed, and fought to gain control of possessions in this world, only to end up leaving all of that physical wealth and stuff for someone else to squander because they had no respect for what it took to gather it together. Most real wealth in this world is in some way inherited from someone worked for had all of their lives. Our spiritual wealth is quite a bit different than that because it is a treasure once accumulated that can never be taken away or stolen by this world. The wealth the blessings, and the security of my life no longer abides here. I often think about the words "or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" My answer to that in this day and age is that THERE IS NOTHING of this world that comes anywhere close to being worth what I already have in Jesus. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Comments
Post a Comment