One of my favorite verses is Luke 9:23 where Jesus says,"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up His cross daily, and follow Me." I recently studied Peter's denial of Jesus and I realized that if I don't deny myself, I will also end up denying Christ like Peter did, maybe not in words but definitely in actions! Denying ourselves and taking up our crosses basically means "It's not about what I want, Lord, it's all about what You want!" It's acknowledging that He's in control of everything and I'm in control of NOTHING!!!!! I also realized that I can't even deny myself by myself; I need the Lord's help to do it!!!!!! Here's a poem that the Lord gave me about this:
Lord, put me on the cross today, I need Your helping hand,
I find that all my "treasures" here are castles in the sand.
Lord, put me on the cross today, I need a holy shove,
There are a lot of worldly things that I've begun to love!
Lord, put me on the cross today, this climb I cannot do!
I want to stay right where I am but also follow You!
He got me on the cross today and now I finally see
That the sacrificing of myself has finally set me free!!!
May God help you to be in "denial"!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
In the Garden
"And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying,'Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not my will, but Yours be done.' " (Luke 22:41-42) I used to think that when Jesus said "this cup", He was mainly talking about the physical pain of the crucifixion. In recent years, I knew that He was more referring to the time when He took on the sin of the world and He would be experiencing God's wrath and be separated from His Father. Just this week, as I was studying this passage again, it hit me like a ton of bricks: Jesus experienced that separation from God so that I would NEVER have to!!!!! Just think about it: before we knew Christ, we were too blind to know what we were missing--- God's presence in our lives, but now that we have Him, we NEVER have to know what it's like to not have Him!!!!! Christ had never known what it was like to not have His Father; how devastating for Him to feel that loss!!!! I know that this separation from His Father was WAY MORE painful than any of the physical pain that He experienced on the cross!!!!!!! After all, while He was hanging on the cross, Jesus did not cry out, "My God, My God, why do I have to go through all this physical pain?" No, He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You FORSAKEN Me?" His agony was the separation from His Father!!!!!!! This separation was the reason He sweated blood when He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane!!!!!! The Lord might ask us to endure physical suffering for His sake; indeed, some of His twelve disciples were even crucified for their faith! But NONE OF US ever have to experience being forsaken by the Almighty God!!!! Praise His glorious name!!!!
Now I want to encourage you that if you're in "the Garden", praying and either feeling like God isn't really there or that God won't want to be there because of what you've done, remember Christ's agony: He was separated from His Father so that we wouldn't ever have to be!!!!! Here's some promises for you: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." John 10:28-29 "For He Himself has said 'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.' " Hebrews 13:5b Lean on these promises as you can lean on a God who, because of Jesus, will ALWAYS be with you!!!!!!!
Now I want to encourage you that if you're in "the Garden", praying and either feeling like God isn't really there or that God won't want to be there because of what you've done, remember Christ's agony: He was separated from His Father so that we wouldn't ever have to be!!!!! Here's some promises for you: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." John 10:28-29 "For He Himself has said 'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.' " Hebrews 13:5b Lean on these promises as you can lean on a God who, because of Jesus, will ALWAYS be with you!!!!!!!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Happily Ever After!
Most people love when a story or movie ends with a "happily ever after" (myself included), and much of the time this includes a "boy-gets-the-girl" type of conclusion (yes ladies, you can sigh now!) As much as we enjoy this, the Lord has shown me that we who are His children already have the best "happily ever after"--- and that's spending eternity with Him!!!!!!!!! The romance is between our wonderful Savior Jesus, the Bridegroom, and His church, the Bride!!!!! Jesus is the most loving, faithful, and devoted suitor we could ever ask for! Ephesians five talks about what kind of a husband Christ is to His Church: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." That is how much Jesus is devoted to us and loves us--- He is dedicated to present us HOLY and WITHOUT BLEMISH (I don't know about you all, but I need A LOT of work!!!!)! Not only is He working on our holiness, but He is doing it "so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor." We will some day be with Him forever!!!! Now that's what I call a "happy ending"!!!!!!! Revelation 21:2-4 says,"And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Now that's what I call a HAPPY ENDING!!!!!!! (Can I get an "Amen!"?) That's a way better ending than the most romantic, happily-ever-after book or movie I've ever read or seen!!!!!
The reason I wanted to write this is because I think some of us who enjoy those happy endings can translate that into real life and think that "to be truly happy, I need to find my 'Mr. or Mrs. Right' ", and those of us who have found that right partner then might expect them to be that "perfect partner" in order for us to live happily ever after! I want to say that if you're a believer, you already have the best "happily-ever-after" that anyone could ever ask for!!!!! So stop looking to someone else for life and happiness; look only to CHRIST!!!!!
The reason I wanted to write this is because I think some of us who enjoy those happy endings can translate that into real life and think that "to be truly happy, I need to find my 'Mr. or Mrs. Right' ", and those of us who have found that right partner then might expect them to be that "perfect partner" in order for us to live happily ever after! I want to say that if you're a believer, you already have the best "happily-ever-after" that anyone could ever ask for!!!!! So stop looking to someone else for life and happiness; look only to CHRIST!!!!!
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