Denial without Regret

Today we again feature excerpts from the 1993 book, Thirty Days at the Foot of the Cross. These thoughts are by Javier Amaya who lived in Boston at the time and now has returned to serve the church there again.

"Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers" (1 John 3:16).

 And Jesus said, "That's enough!. . .Have him do it not me!. . .That's not my responsibility!. . .I'm tired; let somebody else do it. . .I'll do it later!. . .Why me?. . .You do it. . .It's too late, and I've done enough. . .That's not my job. . .Get off my back!. . .I'll do it at my pace and when I feel like it."

Life through Death

This week we are reprinting an excerpt from a chapter by Gordon Ferguson in Thirty Days at the Foot of the Cross.

  

"Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:23-25).

We human beings are our own worst enemies.  We want control.  We want our own judgment, our opinions, our desires, our power!  We refuse to deny self daily and stay surrendered.  Therefore, failure and frustration creep in once more. 

Who Gets the Credit?

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Galatians 6:14)

 The cross affirms our worth.  The cross frees us from performing, from making sure we get the credit due us.  In our old natures, we take that credit and very carefully wrap our sense of worth around it.  We are fearful of losing any credit, because that would lessen the amount of worth that we could wrap around it.  Less credit—less worth, we reason.

Watch Out for the World's Mold

“With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.” (Romans 12:1-2, J.B. Phillips New Testament in Modern English)

New life in Jesus means a different life in Jesus. It means saying “No” to a whole system of thinking that is all around us, trying to press us into its mold. It means saying “Yes” to a radically new way of thinking that presents itself as the Age to Come breaks into this present age in the form of the Kingdom of God. Sadly, too many say “Yes” to Jesus and then proceed to just baptize their culture and keep living by its dictates instead of letting Jesus remold their thinking and lead them on a new road altogether.

If that is all you have time for today, let me suggest you just meditate on that idea, but when you have time for a much longer read, I hope you will check out this piece on “Jesus, Politics and Social Media” which is found on our new “Articles” tab on the Mind Change site.