Fear & Death!

A brief mull over Luke 12.4-7:

Death is a pawn in Satan’s diversion; an instrument at God’s beckon. “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.”

Death (and Satan) will be the subject(s) of God’s judgment. “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.” Death and hell (Satan’s future temporary quarters) will be cast into the Lake of Fire!

“Yes, I tell you, fear him!” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Therefore, “Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

enjoy, ron

Christmas Grace: Salvation!

Grace is impossible for sinners to grasp. And as soon as we gather that it is impossible, we turn the “grasping of it” into a contest. Once we get it, we begin to work it! And the winner of the best “grace project” award gets a stint at “the head of the class”. Yet in the end, grace means that some with the wrong answers will be saved and some with the right answers won’t be. The salvation that came to the world was all of grace!

Ephesians 2.8-9

Luke 18.26-27
Matthew 25.31-46

Immanuel, ron

Cross-Living!

What is Cross-living? Sounds like the title to a new TV mini-series. What does Cross-living have to do with a world of pleasure seekers?

Jesus stated in Luke 9:23 - "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself & take up his cross daily & follow me." When Christ died on the cross for sinners he not only stood in my place, doing what I never could do, but he also showed me how to Cross-live.

Christ’s death saves us from eternal death but not from the cross life! He died so that we could be glorified, but not to keep us from being crucified. "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself & take up his cross daily." For the Christian the cross of Christ isn’t merely a past place of substitution. It’s also a present place of daily putting to death. That is Cross-living!

We can never let the cross lose its crucifying power in our life! We can never let it slip into the muted & murky past as though Christ died for sinners so that we can live for pleasure. That is pleasure-living!

Eternal pleasures are coming! Many are already here! (forgiveness & acceptance & holiness & healing). But just like Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him, so it is with us in this fallen age (Hebrews 12:1-11). Since most of the joy we long for is still over the horizon, we are to "…go forth to him outside the camp, bearing abuse for him. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come" (Hebrews 13:13-14).

In other words if you would save your life you must lose it & if you would follow Jesus you must take up Cross-living daily. The huge calamity of much contemporary Christianity is that Cross-living has no appeal. And practically what it means is that Jesus lived in poverty so that I might live in wealth. And the more stuff we have the more we honor the cross - so goes the prosperity gospel.

So what is Cross-living? Plainly put it is taking up my own cross & dying to self, daily.