“Do I have even the slightest interest in the
death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin,
worldliness, and self? Do I long to be so closely identified with Jesus
that I am of no value for anything except Him and His purposes? The great
privilege of discipleship is that I can commit myself under the banner of His
Cross, and that means death to sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either
decide to tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you, or that at any
cost you want to be identified with His death. When you act in confident faith
in what our Lord did on the cross, a supernatural identification with His death
takes place immediately. And you will come to know through a higher knowledge
that your old life was “crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your
old life is dead, having been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the
amazing ease with which the life of God in you now enables you to obey the
voice of Jesus Christ.” CHAMBERS
When you identify yourself as a Christian, do you
really appreciate what that means? To be
completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness and self. Just like
Jesus. Not to say that you live a
sinless life, but you know that God is doing a work in you .. shaping you …
molding you .. into the image of His
Son. For the most part, Christians in the United States have been shielded from
persecution for their faith. But I can see
a shift in the wind. The culture we live
in today, rejects the authority of the Bible and clings to the wisdom of man
and the lusts of the flesh. As a
Christian, you must make choices. You are called to a life that means you may
not be accepted … you may be rejected .. you may be persecuted for what you believe.
To be crucified with Christ … to be identified
with Him is to welcome the rejection as affirmation that the Word is true. That your faith has substance. That the world needs a savior, just as much
today as it did during the darkest times in the past. Your challenge will be the same challenge
that Peter faced when Jesus was arrested. “Hey isn’t that one of those Jesus
followers?” “Uh, no! I am not one of them.
Are you kidding me?” Or will you stand as Stephen did, with your eyes
fixed on your Lord with no worry about what the world may say or do? This world is not your home. You may live in the United States, but your
citizenship is in heaven.
John
15:18-21 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that
it hated me first. If you belonged to
the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to
the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates
you. Remember the words I spoke to you:
'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will
persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They
will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who
sent me.”
“This world is not my home, I'm just a passing
thru, My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, And
I can't feel at home in this world anymore.”
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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