Whosoever Will, Let Them Come!

 

Mark 8:34-38

"When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

The above scriptures are powerful, challenging, and thought provoking! So many talk about how loving, kind and gentle Jesus was during His earthly ministry, and He was, and still is! BUT have these same people actually APPLIED what Jesus said in their own lives?

If ANYONE literally does what Jesus said and taught, they would be complaining and crying like babies! Just one day without the pleasures of the flesh and people will think the world is ending! That's how challenging Jesus words are to those who are completely engrossed in a world that is dying and full of sin.

The call of Jesus here is to let go of everything in this world, even who you THINK you are! Everything you've done in the flesh and by the strength of your flesh, put it behind you! Let go of all your worldly knowledge, schooling, training, parent's advice, teachers' advice, friends' advice, you have to become as nothing, like Paul, the Lord's apostle did, like Jesus did, who was God Himself manifested in the flesh. He humbled Himself and became as a servant, and became obedient to the will of the Father, even unto death!

These sayings and teachings of Jesus are absolutely paradoxical, they seem senseless and self-contradictory, unacceptable and undoable, but that's exactly what Jesus calls us too! You can deny yourself; you can put to death the misdeeds of the body; you can live a holy life on this earth right now! Jesus did it as a man, and we are called to walk in his footsteps, to become LIKE HIM!

You can't do anything though without receiving the Dunamis power from God above, the Spirit of the Living God in your soul, because the carnal mind is hostile to God and WILL NOT submit to God or His commandments, you MUST first believe that you need Jesus to deliver you from yourself, from sin, from the devil, and from the world. It all starts with BELIEF!

This is why Jesus uses man to preach His gospel, because only through believing His word can we be set free, only when we feel the conviction of the Spirit in our hearts and respond to it with repentance, can we begin to change our minds and our lives. 

It can be extremely hard to change our sinful lifestyles, our bad habits, our erroneous ideologies and our upbringing. But change we must, if we want life, if we truly want the salvation of our souls, if we want the blessings of God in our lives. There is only ONE way, and that is the way of Jesus, and His way is the way of the cross, and DEATH TO SELF!

What way will you choose?

Abiding In His Love,

Tyrone