Day 325: "If Anyone Wishes To Come After Me ..."
Read: Luke 9:20 - 25
“Losing proves nothing, except that I am a Loser.” “Wrong! Wrong!, Losing is a
much keener test, a much keener expression, of your truest love.”
“Losing would contradict your self-love and Losing would show your
obedience to your lover and not to yourself!” In order to prove our love
for God, we must lose to ourselves. We are to act against our normal
character and do badly against our innermost being. When we strive to
truly lose to ourselves, we strive to show our obedience to our lover,
Christ, and not to ourselves, our wants and desires. How much do you
love yourself? How much do you love your wife? Your children? Just how much
of yourself will you just simply give up for them?
There is an whole lot
of this 'losing' that must go on just to say "I love you" with the
greatest possible depth of meaning we believe we can ever muster within
ourselves. Luke 9:23,24 teaches “If anyone desires to come after Me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross daily. And let him follow
Me. For whoever desires to save his life, he will lose it. But whoever
loses his life for My sake, shall find it.” If anyone desires to
come after Jesus, let him simply deny him/herself and take up their cross
DAILY. Daily to “Lift high the cross”! The cross beam which was not so simply
unceremoniously strapped to your arms which victims had to not so simply carry far and
wide to the sight of their own crucifixion?
That kind of
self-denial? I will carry my wife over the threshold of my home. My own
grandchildren upon my shoulders when they are born doing each with the
greatest length, breadth, height, depth of love that I possess in my
heart. However, just deny myself, lose my life for the greatest
expression of love their ever will be, Jesus Christ,
who died for me
while I was not even born yet? What do I got to do? What lengths,
breadths, widths, heights, depths do I have to go to strive to meet this
threshold of love while remembering that once I make this choice there
is no possibility of ever turning around or going back to the way it was
(Luke 9:62)? Simply, who do I love the most?
Submitting daily to
Christ’s Will. It means putting our own personal desires, what you want
to do secondary to what the Lord wants. What God wants must so come
first in our lives, not what we want. Scripture teaches us "The whole duty of man is to “fear
God and keep His commandments because this applies to every person.”
(Ecclesiastes 12:13). This is an eye - opening prospect because my
Father, by example, taught me the whole duty of a man was to care for his family down to his last breath. Perhaps this is the Word Jesus is communicating to us now, to all who're God's children, through His disciples. "If anyone wishes to come after Me, they must love My family as I first loved them."
Let Us Pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of The Living God, truest, dearest,
most precious love of my life, Your Word strives to teach us a disciple
of Christ must recognize the Lordship of Christ over his entire life,
which involves complete submission to His will. Your prayer to your Father in Gethsemane convicts me of my own failings to wholly submit.
"Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not
my will, but yours, be done." I try so very hard to love you as you
first loved me when you died in my place, for the truest sake of ultimate love,
willingly took the burden of my shame upon your shoulders, carrying
it ever so far away to some far distant shore along the sea of
forgetfulness never to be seen nor heard from again. Lord, I desperately
wish to follow you, I so desperately wish to love the whole of your family. I pray, please help me to daily bear this cross in such a way as to give the truest, fullest, most loving expression of glory, honor and praise unto you.
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Read: Luke 9:20 - 25
“Losing proves nothing, except that I am a Loser.” “Wrong! Wrong!, Losing is a much keener test, a much keener expression, of your truest love.” “Losing would contradict your self-love and Losing would show your obedience to your lover and not to yourself!” In order to prove our love for God, we must lose to ourselves. We are to act against our normal character and do badly against our innermost being. When we strive to truly lose to ourselves, we strive to show our obedience to our lover, Christ, and not to ourselves, our wants and desires. How much do you love yourself? How much do you love your wife? Your children? Just how much of yourself will you just simply give up for them?
There is an whole lot of this 'losing' that must go on just to say "I love you" with the greatest possible depth of meaning we believe we can ever muster within ourselves. Luke 9:23,24 teaches “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily. And let him follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life, he will lose it. But whoever loses his life for My sake, shall find it.” If anyone desires to come after Jesus, let him simply deny him/herself and take up their cross DAILY. Daily to “Lift high the cross”! The cross beam which was not so simply unceremoniously strapped to your arms which victims had to not so simply carry far and wide to the sight of their own crucifixion?
That kind of self-denial? I will carry my wife over the threshold of my home. My own grandchildren upon my shoulders when they are born doing each with the greatest length, breadth, height, depth of love that I possess in my heart. However, just deny myself, lose my life for the greatest expression of love their ever will be, Jesus Christ,
who died for me while I was not even born yet? What do I got to do? What lengths, breadths, widths, heights, depths do I have to go to strive to meet this threshold of love while remembering that once I make this choice there is no possibility of ever turning around or going back to the way it was (Luke 9:62)? Simply, who do I love the most?
Submitting daily to Christ’s Will. It means putting our own personal desires, what you want to do secondary to what the Lord wants. What God wants must so come first in our lives, not what we want. Scripture teaches us "The whole duty of man is to “fear God and keep His commandments because this applies to every person.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). This is an eye - opening prospect because my Father, by example, taught me the whole duty of a man was to care for his family down to his last breath. Perhaps this is the Word Jesus is communicating to us now, to all who're God's children, through His disciples. "If anyone wishes to come after Me, they must love My family as I first loved them."
Let Us Pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of The Living God, truest, dearest, most precious love of my life, Your Word strives to teach us a disciple of Christ must recognize the Lordship of Christ over his entire life, which involves complete submission to His will. Your prayer to your Father in Gethsemane convicts me of my own failings to wholly submit. "Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done." I try so very hard to love you as you first loved me when you died in my place, for the truest sake of ultimate love, willingly took the burden of my shame upon your shoulders, carrying it ever so far away to some far distant shore along the sea of forgetfulness never to be seen nor heard from again. Lord, I desperately wish to follow you, I so desperately wish to love the whole of your family. I pray, please help me to daily bear this cross in such a way as to give the truest, fullest, most loving expression of glory, honor and praise unto you.
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"Relentless Pursuit" by Kim Walker-Smith and Skyler Smith: "Relentless Faith" by Mary Marshall
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Learn a Dance Movement combination, posted
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