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Dying to Self
Resurrected in Christ
"If anyone would
come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."
Mark 8:34 NIV Verse
35 goes on to say that, "For whoever wants to save his life will loss it,
but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it."
W e
must deny ourselves. Jesus is talking about living in the self-life.
We must get out of ourselves. We must die to that which is coming out
of the independent self in order to make a transition into life lived out of
the Spirit. When we are born again, Jesus comes to live in us and
relates to our spirit.
To make the transition
from the self-life to life in the Spirit, we must embrace the cross
experientially. The abundant life we are promised by the Lord will
continue to elude us without the cross. In our
self-life we relate to Satan.
"The thief does not come except to steal,
and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that
they may have it more abundantly."
John 10:10 NKJV
Jesus doesn't tell us to pick up
His cross. He has already done that to make a way for us. No, we
are to pick up ours. His cross included being rejected, ridiculed,
scourged, mocked, beaten and ultimately killed. Jesus embraced the
cross and so must we.
The cross
we are to
bear
is the environment in which we live and
any circumstances that God has allowed to take place in our fallen world.
But we don't have to go it alone.
We can team up with the Lord and let Him guide us, direct us, comfort us,
heal us.
"Come to Me, all you who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and
learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest
for your souls."
Mathew 11:28-29
To take the Lord's Yoke means to
inwardly stay with Him in the Spirit for a consultation. Do not
consult your mind to determine how to respond to your environment. To
be yoked with another is to be tied together. Resistance causes pain
and suffering,
whereas, submission, or to go with the flow, is easy and pleasurable.
"And we will learn from Him." We will see things from God's
perspective as he reveals truth.
"But let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he
who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to
himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak
and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves,
we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by
the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world."
1Corinthians
11:28-32 NKJV
We have a choice. We can examine ourselves objectively or God will do it for
us. God's judgments, however, are because he loves us and wants us to return
to him, not to condemn us as we believe when into self. They invariably come
in the form of calamity. He doesn't cause the calamities of our lives, but he
uses them to transform us out of ourselves and into His Spirit.
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Teachings
New! Righteous
Judgment
The
Mind of Christ
(Apr-08)
Loving
Your Enemies
(Mar-08)
Self Expression - Our Flesh
(Feb-08
Forgiving Our Debtors
(Sept-07)
Honoring Your Parents
(Aug-07)
Unevenly Yoked
(June-07)
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More teachings will be posted as we explore how the self manifests itself
in our lives. Much of what keeps us tied to self is hiding. Our
purpose is to expose this hidden self to the light so we may live out of the
resurrected Christ.
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an email.
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