Today's topic: dying. I know, not the most fun thing to consider in the world, but one that is absolutely essential if you want to follow Christ. The reality of Jesus' life was that he left the eternal to become temporal in order to redeem us, but after His death and burial, He was resurrected to new life. Our call is no different, we must die to ourselves in order to be raised to new life which comes by knowing the Father. As John 17:3 tells us: this is eternal life, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. Coming into relationship with God is what opens the door of eternal life for all of us. That is why natural death, though sad and a loss for those who remain, should never be feared by the follower of Christ because in knowing Him, we've already entered into eternal life.The question then is how do we die to ourselves? The key is repentance. Jesus began His ministry by preaching: repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17). How do we access the Kingdom? By repenting of all that is not of God and turning to Him through accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (John 14:6). Now you may be saying, "sure I know this. I've already done that." Whether you have or not, the truth is, unless we continually repent (turn away) from all of those things that are not pleasing to God and turn to Him, we are fooling ourselves with religious actions. Our fruit must be of those who continually repent and die to ourselves that we may continually experience life in Him. How do you speak to your spouse, children and co-workers or classmates? How do you drive :-)? What do you watch on television? What do you listen to? What are your thoughts like toward others and about yourself? How do you spend your money? All of these things, and so many others, testify as to whether or not we're continually dying to ourselves in order to live to Him. Keep Jesus in focus and we'll keep what He loves in focus. Nothing else will shed light into all areas of life like He will (Psalm 119:130). He is the word of God (John 1:1-2) and will truly lead us into all truth by His Spirit. Jesus called us to take up our cross daily to follow Him (Luke 9:23-25) signifying a continual death to self. Our response to Jesus' command should be as the Apostle Paul who declared: I die daily (1 Corinthians 15:31). By doing this, he realized he would walk in the totality of all that Christ had for him. We have the opportunity everyday to do just the same.
So today, remember that if we're in Christ, we are new creations. Old things have passed away and all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). Let's allow everything that doesn't please him to die so that we may experience His life at work in us and truly say, "I'm dyin' to live."
