|
|
BIBLE STUDIES (Newest ones are last) |
|
|---|---|
 |
What Is In Your Mind? |
|
Pleasing God |
|
Take Up Your Cross |
|
Are You Deceiving Yourself? |
|
Let God Speak Through You |
|
Adorn Yourself |
|
Sacrifices Are Complete |
|
What Does God Require? |
|
Don't Offend While You Defend |
|
Take Up Your Cross |
|
|
We Must Surrender ALL |
|
|
Laying Down Your Life |
|
Freed from Sin? Really?? |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NOTE FROM KAY: At the time I thought I had been doing something wrong. Looking back, I see that the only thing I had done wrong is assume that men would not misinterpret what I said and did. What I had to do was be extremely careful that nothing was taken the wrong way. I had to pick my words more carefully. I had to be careful who I hugged and who I joked around with. Unfortunately it isn't always possible to just relax and be yourself. In this day and age marriages are perceived as being disposable. People allow themselves to think about people in ways they shouldn't. So, it is important that I make very sure I am sending the correct messages. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not
blamed." |
I end up making a point that does absolutely no good. I might feel vindicated, but I have usually acted in a very unloving way. I am never setting a good example as a Christian. Not only that, I generally generate some anger and unforgiveness. The unforgiveness is usually temporary, but is not good irregardless of how long it lasts! I've been working on allowing God to defend me. I've been allowing Him to comfort me when I feel wronged. I have been working on releasing those things to Him immediately so I can move on in a positive direction. If I do it right then I will not be affecting anyone else's walk with the Lord. I won't be the cause of someone thinking I am a hypocrite. God is able to
comfort me, give me the strength I need to forgive and move on, and is able
to help me to speak the right words. Maybe more importantly, He is able to
help me with my facial expressions and tone of voice. When I am "being
good" in my own strength I find that it is nearly impossible for me to put
on a totally convincing "show." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
"And he that taketh not
his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that
findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake
shall find it." |
The other reference was in chapter 16 verses 24-25, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Jesus spoke of losing our lives for His sake. Dying on the cross was not the only way to die. Jesus was making reference to the way He was going to die. He told them exactly how He was going to die. A cross was used to put people to death by the Greeks and the Romans. Both times Jesus mentioned taking up crosses He was speaking directly to His disciples. What do you think they were thinking?
Here's some of the thoughts they may
have had:
It didn't say that they asked any
questions about what He was saying. I wonder why. If Jesus
spoke about something more than one time to His disciples I would imagine
it was something very important. He was indicating to them that He
knew how He was going to die. It seems that most, if not all of them,
were unaware of the fact that He was going to die soon. They also
seemed to be unaware of the fact that He even had to die although He spoke
about dying on many separate occasions. Secondly, He was indicating to them that the cross was going be significant to all believers down through the ages. He wanted them to know that they were expected to do something along the lines of dying. When Jesus was nailed to the cross there was more than just Jesus' body nailed to the cross. He took our sin with Him to the cross. That caused a separation between Him and God, the magnitude of which we will never comprehend. He willingly offered Himself to be nailed to the cross because He knew it was absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, positively necessary. Taking up our cross is significant to us today. The cross was only used for killing people. It was an instrument of torture. Taking up our cross is nowhere near the kind of experience Jesus had when He took up His cross, but it isn't designed to be easy. It is symbolic of a tortuous death. Do I have your attention? Taking up our cross means we must die to our selves. Jesus is asking us to nail our "self" to our cross. He said, "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." It is human nature to make self preservation a priority. We take many precautions to make sure we don't die accidentally or prematurely. Not only do we focus on preservation of our physical life, we also focus on preservation of our reputation, superiority, prestige, and value. We seek to have the approval, recognition, and respect of people. It is natural to think more highly of ourselves than of other people. After all, we live inside our our own bodies and minds. How can we not think we are important? Our instincts are screaming out, "Me! Me! Me!" In order to be fully used by God we must die to ourselves. We must take up our cross and follow Jesus. We must be willing to be tortured. No, I don't necessarily mean be whipped, beaten, and physically tortured like Jesus was. Most of the torture we will have to endure is when we choose to think more highly of other people than ourselves. We will have to learn how to keep our mouth shut when someone hurls insults at us. We will have to learn how to clean up after other people's messes without being angry at them. We will have to come to the conclusion that we are actually nothing except for what God has blessed us with. There are many things involved in dying-to-self. We must find out what things God wants us to release and then we must willingly nail those things to the cross. Therein is more torture as we pound the "nails" into the things we have so carefully developed and protected all our lives. God gives us a choice. If we choose "self" then we are not worthy to follow after Jesus. We will not be able to be fully used because our "self" will get in the way. We will be too focused on self-preservation and won't be capable of doing as God requires. If He wants us to humble ourselves we must not think about looking foolish, or becoming embarrassed. When He wants us to open ourselves up to being hurt by people in order to reach them with the gospel we must not hesitate because of the pain it will cause us. When He wants us to demonstrate unconditional love to an unlovable person we must not have the mindset that people should only get what they have earned or what they deserve. Each person is different and the dying-to-self process will be different for them than it is for another. God will show each of us what things in our life He requires us to remove. We must allow Him to empty us of ourselves. It is necessary that we go through the process so we can be God's ambassadors. We cannot be walking in His will if we are walking in our own. If you are interested I described some of my own experiences with dying-to-self in one area of My Prayer Closet. There are many scriptural references to the need to die to self. I will close this study with a few of them.
"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts." "Yea doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and
do count them but dung, that I may win Christ," "Precious in the
sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." "I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Yea doubtless, and I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung, that I may win Christ," |
|
COMMENTS: This is another study
about dying-to-self. Paul was saying he counted ALL things but loss in
order that he would please Jesus. He knew that there was nothing
valuable in himself, in his talents, or in his abilities unless God was
behind them. We must come to the point where we surrender all things.
We can't pick and choose. We can't be in charge at all. We must
surrender all. That means ALL! We must surrender our children, our loved ones, our desires, our jobs, our homes, our everything! Are you in a panic? Are you building up reasons that say this can't be true? What's happening in your mind? This isn't a bad thing, it's a good thing.... if you are serious about being used by God. God will give the things back that you should have. He will. What needs to be done is you have to let God have control. (OH NO!) That's right. He needs to have control over everything in your life. If you hold things back then they will end up hindering your spiritual growth. Holding things back from God is similar to having idols. We are placing more importance on those things (including feelings, pride, people, attitudes, whatever) than we are on God. We can't hold things in reserve. We can't make
excuses like: God won't care. Think about Jesus. What did He hold back? He laid down His all for us because, if He had held anything back, His wouldn't have been the perfect sacrifice that we so desperately needed. He held back NOTHING! I'm not going to do the entire study for you this week. You have homework. Read the rest of this chapter and meditate on it. Let God show you what it means to you, personally. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." |
|
Short and sweet. Plain and simple. Or is it? I'd like to think that I would choose to allow myself to be sacrificed for the sake of my family. I would also like to think that I would do the same for my friends. Yet, when it comes right down to where the rubber meets the road, would I? It's all about love. Do I love others at least as much as I love myself? Do I carry that love out in front so that I wouldn't even consider comparing it to the love I have for myself? Is it big enough and strong enough? In the flesh I wouldn't be able to do it. Yet, if I am walking in the spirit and practicing allowing the love of God to flow through me then I probably would choose to do it. It is a result of choices. First I have to choose to allow myself to be used by God. I need to choose to love as He wants me to love. In actuality, I need to make that choice every day.... every minute, even. It seems like a big sacrifice, choosing to lay down your life for a friend. Have you ever thought about it? Laying down your life doesn't necessarily mean physical death. It could be a giving up of your life as you know it. For example, if a friend became too ill to care for himself, would you be willing to give up your life style to tend to him? Would you sell your house and move to another state? Another country? Would you quit your job? Laying down your life could involve many different things. Since Sunday is Easter let's talk about Jesus laying His life down. I often catch myself not thinking of the wonderful gift of salvation that Jesus gave me. I take it for granted. It is one of those things that I know that I know that I know and don't spend time in the realization of what He went through for me. Shame on me! It's time to really reflect on the enormity of what He chose to do for us and think it through from beginning to end. ~~He deliberately chose to leave Heaven and come to earth.~~ ~~He deliberately chose not to sin, every day of His life.~~ ~~He chose to suffer great physical pain for us.~~ ~~He chose to suffer the biggest mental pain of all times by taking all the sin of the world on His shoulders and being separated from Himself (from God). (Don't ask me how, I just know He did it.)~~ He did all this out of love for us (for me) (for you)! He didn't have to do it, He chose to do it. He lay down a lot for us! I'm glad that we celebrate Easter and what Jesus did for us. If we tend to not think about it as much as we should then it is a reminder to us. Plus, it is a reminder to the people who don't know Jesus. Easter and Christmas put Jesus into people's minds. This may be your opportunity to share Him with someone. Be ready and be equipped. God may give you a job to do. Have a blessed Easter. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Knowing this, that our
old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." |
|
Last week we
talked about the word "free". This week we have another scripture that
talks about free... "he that is dead is freed from sin." This
doesn't mean we have to wait until we are dead to be able to not sin any
more. This is talking about right now, while we are still alive. We are to allow ourselves to be crucified with Jesus... as in killed... as in die.... No, not as in have a funeral and allow your body to be buried kind of dying. This is the dying-to-self kind of dying. If you pay attention to the times you sin you will find that almost all the time the sin has to do with something that benefits your self. Sometimes we lie to make ourselves look better. Sometimes we put someone else down because we decide that we know better than they. We can't help but sin if we are living in our self. We are like a one-man army. We have to defend ourselves because nobody else will, or so we think. In order to be used by God we must let go of our "self" and allow God to defend us. We have to decide that He is more important than we are. We have to trust Him to take care of our needs. Then, we have to choose to not sin. We can then be truly freed from sin. |
|
|
|
||||
