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

A Daily Lifestyle!

 

Luke 9:23

"Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."

I've said this a few times before in posts over the years, but it has to be said again, THE CHURCH BUILDING IS NOT THE CHURCH!

How many times have we heard pastors say that, but then go and say this building is the house of God? Isn't that contradictory? Of course it is!

So just because you attend a service at a church building every Sunday or even mid-week service usually on a Wednesday, that attendance does not make you a Christian!  

That truth was made even more evident during the lockdown of the whole country and nobody could go anywhere except to the grocery store for the necessities of life. Everybody got sat down for months, and even crime decreased, I bet the police enjoyed the rest!

I believe that was a precursor to the coming days when Christianity will be outlawed, bibles will be confiscated, the internet scrubbed of all Christian content and there will only be house churches and Christians praying and worshipping God in their own homes because church buildings will be shut down or owned by the states and the government.

That is why the coming revival will prepare Christians for the inevitable appearance of the man of sin, who will implement laws that will cause Christians to go underground, like they're doing in China right now. This is also why now is the time to get the word of God in your heart, and the Spirit of God in your soul! 

Being a Christian is a daily lifestyle, a daily denial of the lusts of the flesh, lust of the eye, and ungodly habits that quench the Spirit and hinder the spiritual growth of those who are in Christ. 

The 1st century Christians met every day in the temple courts and ate together from house to house daily! How often does this happen today? A few believers may get together to watch a football game after church service, or go out to eat at a restaurant, but how about meeting together every single day? 

How many of us would get tired of another believer coming to our house everyday? It takes true genuine Love of God, the fruit of the Spirit and great grace to meet everyday and go to another believers house to eat, drink and fellowship daily. 

But that's exactly what many other organizations and religions do, they're always together, eating, talking, and enjoying life, while many Christians just say hello and goodbye, see you next week, to each other!

Acts 2:44-47

"Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved."

We WILL see these days again! It won't just be quoting scriptures but LIVING the REALITY of unity in the body of Christ, united in the faith by the Spirit of God!

In Jesus,

Tyrone