I want to learn how to die; I am learning how to die. All my hopes, fears, dreams, assumptions, misconceptions, lies, and even what I have come to know....all down at the cross. I want to use my head and my heart that the Lord has given me and make decisions; living life intentionally by holding on to Him and conviction. I want to live a life of love, not of how lovely I can make my life.
You are loved.
The following are just some verses that I searched for, in His Holy Word. I pray the Lord blesses you, convicts you; that somehow you are uplifted in this blog post...if you have been called to Christ, then you know we have also been called to die. Now, what do I mean by this? I mean that living for Christ takes intention, it takes being on guard, being alert and aware, which, as you read, you would realize God calls us to do this. I am not saying we are called to be oppressed, passive and sad.- On the contrary-it is His admonishment that we should be joyful at all times, ever persevering in the Truth, wherever we walk. In God's word, Peter actually says that we stumble because we forget that our sins have been forgiven, "But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed of their old sins"(2 Peter 1:9 NLT) He acknowledges our morality, and the only way we are not enslaved to it is through seeking Him; is in Christ alone. Simple, not easy. Walking the narrow path. I want to type more but I think from this point it might be a going on of rambling tangents. I still have to 'chew the cud' on this, myself to be a doer and not just a hearer of the Word. Also, God's word just speaks for itself.
You are loved.
God bless you, Reader.
"He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.."
-Titus 3:5
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
-Galatians 2:20
"And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
-Luke 9:23
"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?"
-Matthew 16:25-26
"Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
-Hebrews 12:2
"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus..."
-Philippians 2:1-30
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed."
-1 Peter 2:24
"For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
-Colossians 3:3
"But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."
-Ephesians 4:20-24
"So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples..."
-John 8:31
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."
-Romans 8:1-4
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
-2 Corinthians 5:17
"So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
-1 Peter 2:1-25
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."
-Luke 14:26
"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."
-2 Corinthians 5:14-15
"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
-Philippians 1:21
