Monday, June 16, 2014

Laying Our Lives Down For One Another

My Utmost For His Highest
 
‘Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. […] It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God. […] “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). Yet it is contrary to our human nature to do so. If I am a friend of Jesus, I must deliberately and carefully lay down my life for Him. It is a difficult thing to do, and thank God that it is. Salvation is easy for us, because it cost God so much. But the exhibiting of salvation in my life is difficult. God saves a person, fills him with the Holy Spirit, and then says, in effect, “Now you work it out in your life, and be faithful to Me, even though the nature of everything around you is to cause you to be unfaithful.”’ CHAMBERS
 
Just as we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1), we are to also love others in the same way.  In the Army, I was taught to dig foxholes.  They were called Depuy fighting positions.  The fighting positions were unique because your field of fire .. or where you could see to shoot was in front of the foxholes next to you, not in front of your own.  In other words, you were protecting the men next to you.  And those men, in turn, were protecting you.  Your wellbeing was dependent upon others.  God wants us to be interdependent .. not independent.
 
Ecclesiastes 4:12 “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
 
Don’t isolate yourself from other believers.  That is not God’s design and is not healthy for your spiritual wellbeing.
 
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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