For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps (I Peter 2:21). To choose to be a disciple of Jesus Christ means effectively to opt for a SLOW DEATH (this is really what you are signing up for when you say you decide to become a Christian). The reason the Way is Narrow that leads to Life, the reason the Gate is called Straight, is not only because the Door to Life is too small for our pride, our love of money, or for our love of this world to fit through it (you have to be of short stature with no luggage from this world if you want to fit into the Gate of Heaven), but also because men love their flesh too much and want to feel every sensation the world and the Devil offer their flesh. Men want to be titillated; men want to enjoy every agreeable feeling their mind and body can experience. The Sons of Adam desire the sweet juice of the fruit of the forbidden tree of sin, they do not want to mortify their fleshly fancies and senses, let alone die an acutely painful, protracted deaths -- and the Christian life is nothing more than a drawn-out, dramatic death scene. The body of flesh desires tantalizing sensory input, elusive desire. The death of a Christian begins the moment he is Born Again (akin to the old apothegm that says, As soon as you are born you start dying), and the Christian life is, at its core, an extremely prolonged, excruciating, slow and lonely death of the flesh. Dont let anyone sell you any other Gospel than this that our Lord and His Apostles first delivered to us. There is only One Way, One Door, One Narrow Road to Heaven, and it is more difficult than any path the world the world will pave. The Via Dolorosa that leads to the Hill of Crucifixion is a path that is strewn with thorns, sharp stones, deep waterless pits, mud, blood, and tears. The Blood and Tears of our Lord Jesus at Gethsemane litter this Narrow Trail. To be His disciple one must follow in His steps, bow the head, and resolve to bear the cross and not look back (Remember Lots wife), to die alone and slowly. The more painful the death of the flesh is (everyday some part of the body of the flesh much be amputated, some work of the flesh painfully removed), the more glory in the Life of the Spirit. May we be glad to allow the body of sin to feel its death (this emboldens the conscience before God), to liberate the our spirit to a life of holiness and righteousness before Him! The Lord of Heaven and Earth demands we die with Him slowly every day -- do you feel the death of the flesh, does the sting of self-denial burn in your flesh everyday, are you disciple of Jesus? Or do you enjoy a complacent life of self-satisfaction, one in which you are actually killing your spirit (if it is not already dead)?
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 10:56:48 +0000