Daily
Saturday's Devotion (4-28-07)
"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Luke 9:23 (KJV)
If we want to be saved, if we want to go where Jesus is... We have to follow in His footsteps. We have to deny ourselves, our own desires, our own ways, and we have to follow His ways! This is how we take up our cross, we daily crucify ourselves by denying ourselves the things of the flesh. By starving our flesh and feeding our spirit we crucify ourselves daily. It says to take up our cross daily, that means that we have to obey and follow the ways of the Lord DAILY! Hear that church-goers? It takes more than Sundays! The rest of the week is required as well. Jesus is literally THE PERFECT example of how we are to live our lives. Thank the Lord that He left a map for those of us who weren't here to see Him walk the earth, that map is the Bible. I believe in a God great enough to write a book about Himself before He was born and after He left the earth. The Bible is not just inspired by God, it is written by God using the hands of many great men. Don't leave this miracle sitting on a shelf some place, READ IT!
The Bible also teaches us that if we're crucified with Christ, we are also risen with Him and we will share in His glory eternally and we will have eternal life. Some would say that being a Christian makes this current life easier, but there's nothing easy about being crucified daily! We have to deny ourselves daily, we have to follow Jesus' footsteps daily and that isn't easy at times. We're to live in His shadow, and that's not an easy thing to live up to! When we as Christians fail... The whole world sees it! The whole world mocks us for it! Most importantly they don't just mock us, but they mock our Lord. To some we are the closest comparison that they have to Jesus. If we're misrepresenting Him, then we have failed miserably. We all need to take a look at ourselves and ask, "Am I misrepresenting Jesus?" We can only find the answer to that question through the study of the Bible, and through prayer. We can only be strong enough to be good representatives through prayer. We cannot do it on our own! And we will fail at times, but God knows this and that's why He sent Jesus for us! We are salesman, we are trying to sell Salvation so to speak... If we misrepresent the product, then nobody is going to buy into it! If you were trying to sell a television set to a customer, you wouldn't go find a broken set to show to the customer would you? You would show them the best that you have, right? If we ourselves are broken (Not living up to His standards,) then nobody will see that what we're selling is the greatest thing ever.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins as we forgive all those who've wronged us. Help us to come after you, to deny ourselves and to take up our cross daily and follow you. Let us represent you well in every thing that we do. Make us the best that we can be so that we can bring many people to you. In Jesus name. A-men!
God bless