What Are You Willing to Walk Away From? (Stephen)
In Matthew 10:39, Jesus said "And he that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it."
When you enter public office or military service there is a swearing in, a losing of your life to serve your country "So help you God." When you come to Jesus, you are doing the same - surrendering your life to Him and allowing Him to rule, you are willing to lose your life for Him. But many of us hide behind "Christianity," and are not actually willing to pick up our cross and follow Him, not willing to die for Him as He did for us.
Living this life is not about attaining power, financial security and comfort. The true reaility is that we can only begin to enjoy the benefits of this life by following Christ because He said He came to give us abundant life, eternally. Moreover, this surrendering to Him is about being prepared for His return. It is only when you've become sick and tired of being sick and tired that you willingly give up who you think you are and come to know who you really are in Him, and begin walking into your blessing knowing that He restores all, as He did for Job.
As Paul wrote in Galatians, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me (v. 20).
When you enter public office or military service there is a swearing in, a losing of your life to serve your country "So help you God." When you come to Jesus, you are doing the same - surrendering your life to Him and allowing Him to rule, you are willing to lose your life for Him. But many of us hide behind "Christianity," and are not actually willing to pick up our cross and follow Him, not willing to die for Him as He did for us.
Living this life is not about attaining power, financial security and comfort. The true reaility is that we can only begin to enjoy the benefits of this life by following Christ because He said He came to give us abundant life, eternally. Moreover, this surrendering to Him is about being prepared for His return. It is only when you've become sick and tired of being sick and tired that you willingly give up who you think you are and come to know who you really are in Him, and begin walking into your blessing knowing that He restores all, as He did for Job.
As Paul wrote in Galatians, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me (v. 20).
Comment (1)
April 7, 2010 at 11:03 PM
I think our practices of "swearing in" are useful analogies. Notice how these practices are exclusive. One cannot lose her life to, say, the US military and to the Russian military. She cannot serve two masters. Does that hold true here? Is losing one's life for the sake of Christ as Lord incompatible with losing one's life for the sake of the US military or the oath of certain government offices? It is easy to think that the Kingdom of God operates on some other plane that does not interfere with the plane of military or other "public" service. But clearly in Mt. 10 it does not operate on a different plane. The apostles can't go weaponless to Israelite towns only to seek weapons if they happen to run into some local terrorists. Nor can they send a military unit ahead of them to clear out hostile elements before they come through with their Kingdom mission. They can't be missionaries for Herod and for Jesus. Losing one's life to Jesus is to refuse to lose one's life to anyone or anything else, and Jesus' way is nonviolent peace in the face of violent threats.
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