Stray No Further

And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.  Luke 9:23-26 NASB

We feel fragile, we seek approval, often we don’t want to make others uncomfortable at the idea of introducing Jesus as our best friend, fearing what people might think of us,  ever the less, if we fear what people think of us, we will drift into idolatry.

I’m certain the remedies for destroying the idol of fear are to read the Bible, praise God, pray with Holy Spirit, worship God, and diligently make space in every moment for Jesus Christ - His mercy, the very love of God, overflows and vanquishes all fear! And when He comes into our life we receive a totally new outlook that is not satisfied with anything less than Holy Spirit moving into the furthest corners of our soul and the discernment and understanding with comes from His indwelling. 

It means no longer living for yourself but for God in obedience to Him. We must (we get to) leave the old life of sin, selfishness, pride, loneliness behind and step into a new way of living, where Christ makes possible what we think impossible. 

Genesis 2:7 NASB “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

This gifted life we walk comes from the breath of God. Are we so dominated by our physical lives that we are missing all the spiritual significance of His words.  God's Word benefits our physical self, my friends the Word is alive and must be understood through Holy Spirit. 

When we acknowledge Jesus Christ as the risen saviour and prayerfully, earnestly, seek the Lord God He will illuminate the Bible’s truths in our minds.

The Word of God is not merely paper and ink. Jesus is the Word, and He existed in spiritual form long before any words were inspired to be written down by Holy Spirit. The Bible is a physical representation of Jesus the Christ and is spiritual truth, given by God and, therefore, totally accurate and reliable.

If we want to know what spiritual truth is, we must believe the Bible. If we want to be led by Holy Spirit, then we must follow God's Word. If we want to hear from God, then we must listen to what He speaks.  God, the Spirit (Holy Spirit) and the Word (Jesus) are one.

John 1:1-5 NASB “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

Remember…..  to say we believe in God and then continue living for ourself as though nothing has changed is to deny the power of Jesus Christ in our ransomed lives!

There are lines that need to be drawn. Those lines are between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of satan. There are only two camps. Those who are for the Lord and those who are not.  Whether people are for US or not is irrelevant. The question is, are they on the Lord’s side….. It’s like when Joshua was getting ready to attack Jericho and and came face to face with a commander of God’s army…. the battle was not about those on opposing sides and the topic that fuelled their argument  - the battle is the Lord’s against the dominion of the enemy - 

(Side note to fighting amongst our brothers and sisters in Christ-  - Let’s not set our sights on conquering God's ALLIES but instead with the grace given to us by Jesus give freely, without human judgement, that same grace) 

Joshua 5:13-15 NASB  “Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my Lord to say to his servant?” The captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.”

The time is coming when we will each give an account of our life before God. Our human nature wants to be liked, wants to compromise, divert, and leave out the truth if it is uncomfortable - even at times God's truth. We've all said at one time or another “I just leave that up to God” or "To each their own" or “Everybody has to make up their own mind.” 

Those sentences are people-pleasing cop-outs. In those moments, when we easily could say something that wouldn’t offend but would be a lie, remember God’s truth - in that pressure moment, ask Holy Spirit for help to remember what Jesus Christ did for humanity on the cross. He didn’t deny us. He didn’t back down for us. He died for our sin. He created us. He saved us. He forgave us. We cannot not deny Him. 

When I face the judgement of God, the holy holy holy, magnificent, Lord of all creation, am I prepared to be sent away from Him for ALL eternity because of what I just said or did, or did not do as my response to the fear of people around me disapproving…  When we keep that in mind and keep our thoughts, ears and eyes focused on Jesus it’s going to change what we say, what we do, and who we try to impress in the here and now. Strong and courageous, remaining on the narrow path. We will wander no more.