Posts Tagged ‘ Carry your cross ’
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
1 Peter 3:12, ESV
What you do matters.
What you think matters.
If you are consistently thinking impure and evil thoughts, if you are doing what you know God does not approve of, do not expect Him to answer your prayers nor rescue you from challenges.
Odds are, you created those challenges.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Galatians 5:16 ESV
You can try being a good person and avoiding sin, and you may even have some success, but to live a truly good life takes relying on the Helper: the Holy Spirit.
Allow wisdom into your life, and open the door by starting at Proverbial Thought!
I spent some time both as a teenager and a young twenty-something, both before and as a Christian, despising this world and even this life.
As a teen, I fully hated this world. It offered almost nothing good to me, and even the good seemed tainted by bad.
It was being introduced to Jesus Christ at a small church that my life and my outlook on it began to change.
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Ephesians 4:17-25, ESV
a regular life
i now give
a regular life
filled with the usual
hating the world
but finding it mutual
until God came along
and turned all that around
a brand new life begun
without much resound
but as God was working
through His Son Jesus Christ
this regular boy
was given extraordinary life
now the mission is clear
and the way seems obvious
who am i now
a disciple of Jesus
i will take the news
of the life that He lives
into the rest of the world
my life i now give
Change your mind, and find the wisdom of God through some of the thoughts at Proverbial Thought!
There is no need for a great debate on Calvinism, Arminianism, Molinism, or any other -isms of soteriology (study of salvation) based on the poem today.
We should all agree that we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession”. In fact, this poem is based on that very passage of Scripture:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:9-12, ESV
Regardless of how free a choice we had in the process of salvation, it is still true that God chose us as His own, and He has given us the command and the privilege of sharing the Gospel with our fallen world.
chosen
chosen before i knew You
selected for Your purpose
still needing Your Truth revealed
to have any usefulness
when i finally came around
and You got through my thick head
my heart became softened
my life redeemed from the dead
now i seek out Your chosen
finding them still evil
telling them how You changed my life
and resisted the lies of the devil
no longer deceived by lies
now aware of all Your Truth
they can truly live their lives
knowing they are chosen by You
Choose wisdom, and find some at Proverbial Thought!
The poem today is based on two passages of Scripture:
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days …
Deuteronomy 30:19-20a, ESV
… and …
And [Jesus] said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Luke 9:23
Like last week’s poem discussed, we must choose every day to love God and love others, and it requires personal sacrifice.
the Choice
the Choice to be made
every single day
is to love people
or decide to hate
a decision to lie
or offer your life
or give everything
over to Jesus Christ
the Choice is in Him
to turn away from sin
and see that in Jesus
true life will begin
your Choice is the same
give up a life of pain
for a life that Jesus
can restore from blame
In all things, seek the wisdom of God, and get started at Proverbial Thought!
I am a fan of Mikeschair, and I have posted about their music before over here.
When many preachers and teachers talk about God assisting people, they like using the stories of Jesus walking on water (John 6) and calming the sea (Matthew 8, Mark 4, Luke 8). These are stories that show God’s power and sovereignty over creation, therefore showing His power and sovereignty in your life.
One verse I have always enjoyed since reading it many years ago is Isaiah 43:1-3a (ESV):
But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”
Knowing we have a Savior, One who can control our circumstances, who sees our brokenness, hurts, and fears, who saw our hopeless state of sin and rebellion against Him and sacrificed Himself for our forgiveness, we can follow Him in confidence and hope!
Don’t know where to begin
It’s like my world’s caving in
And I try but I can’t control my fear
Where do I go from here?
Sometimes it’s so hard to pray
When You feel so far away
But I am willing to go
Where you want me to
God, I trust You
There’s a raging sea
Right in front of me
Wants to pull me in
Bring me to my knees
So let the waters rise
If You want them to
I will follow You
I will follow You
I will follow You
I will swim in the deep
‘Cuz You’ll be next to me
You’re in the eye of the storm
And the calm of the sea
You’re never out of reach
God, You know where I’ve been
You were there with me then
You were faithful before
You’ll be faithful again
I’m holding Your hand
There’s a raging sea
Right in front of me
Wants to pull me in
Bring me to my knees
So let the waters rise
If You want them to
I will follow You
I will follow You
I will follow You
God Your love is enough
You will pull me through
I’m holding onto You
God Your love is enough
I will follow You
I will follow You
Ohhh
There’s a raging sea
Right in front of me
Wants to pull me in
Bring me to my knees
So let the waters rise
If You want them to
I will follow You
I will follow You
I will follow You
Ohhh
Follow the call of wisdom and head to Proverbial Thought!
Jesus said to many people, “Follow me.”
When He said it to Matthew (Matthew 9:9), we read that Matthew pulled out his smart phone, opened his Facebook app, found “Jesus of Nazareth”, and clicked “Add Friend”. Then he switched to the Twitter app, found @JesusofNazarethMessiah, and clicked “Follow”.
And the world was changed forever! @MatthewLevi and his 11 closest friends re-tweeted and shared everything @JesusofNazarethMessiah tweeted and posted, and lives were changed as all of their followers re-tweeted and shared everything again and again.
Then they all went out for a cup of over-priced coffee to talk about it.
. . .
Or maybe it happened differently? Maybe Jesus expects more from those who follow Him?
Is it enough to follow @JesusofNazareth on Twitter? Is it enough to “Like” or “Friend” Jesus Christ on Facebook? (For the record, I do these!)
Perhaps Jesus expects more of us. Perhaps being a Christian calls for a greater commitment than clicking “Like” or “Follow”.
Perhaps Jesus expects us to change our entire lifestyle and literally follow Him: become like Him, think like Him, walk in His footsteps.
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? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Matthew 16:24-28, ESV
