Death to self

Daily we are to be dying to self and living unto God. Jesus made it clear what it means to follow Him

Luk 9:23 And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

I think the question we must ask ourselves is two-fold.

1. Is Jesus worthy of following?
2. Am I willing to follow?

Christianity is never an intellectual ascent to a few points of doctrine because if that were so the demons would be saved (Jas 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder). Christianity is not following rules and regulations so that our good will out way our bad. Christianity is humbly coming to Jesus, receiving His Spirit into your life and following daily the God that created each of us for fellowship with Him. I think it can be summed up in one of Jesus's most profound statements.

Mat 18:3 "I assure you," He said, "unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Too many of us still live in the mire of the worlds system yet want the blessings of God. So many of us are getting aggravated because we are not hearing the voice of God and walking in the Spirit, but that great preacher Leonard Ravenhill summed it up best when he said

• Keep this in mind from an old man, there is no finality to the Christian life this side of eternity. We pray that some of us may go to our own funeral tonight and die to self and end all the failure and all the weakness...We just come from an altar in church and come back the next week and we are as fascinated (with the world) and we haven't spent a half hour with Jesus but will stay two stinking hours in a movie house. Are we compromised?

And Paul in his letters to the Philippian church had this to say:

Php 3:18 For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself.

The times are troubled and our security, significance and happiness from this world are all being shattered...Come to Jesus to have life and have it abundantly and present your bodies wholly to our Lord for He alone is good.