This is a continuation of a past blog post. I wrote the original one 2 years ago, if you haven not read it, I would encourage you to read it here! Now on with part 2!
A lot has changed since I last wrote. The Lord has changed my heart, renewed my mind and will continue to! I feel like I am becoming more wise everyday because I continue to see how much wisdom I DO NOT possess. It is humbling to see what God is doing in my life and teaching me. I continue to be lead by the spirit and by truth of the Word of God. Praise to Him for that! In the last post we covered Matthew 19 and Jesus telling a wealthy man that he must give away his wealth to inherit eternal life. The man went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. Today we will build upon this. He was sorrowful because he had great wealth. And he valued it, but more importantly, he was comfortable in it. Jesus didn't say "if you have any money, you won't go to heaven." That is not what he is saying at all, but was saying if you have a lot of money, you are not generous with it, if you aren't using it for others and for the Will of The Lord, you will never inherit the plans God has for you, you will never inherit the Kingdom of God. What things of this world are you keeping close to you, what ways make you comfortable? We call Jesus, Lord. But what does Lord mean? Lord by definition is someone/thing of authority, of a master, of complete control. That said, who is your Lord, what is your Lord? - Is it Politics, where your comments on Facebook are at the center of your mind and you starve as you are looking to find fuel to fill that tank; to get going and debate your opinions against others? - Is it your Religion, where you have taught righteousness to the point where you are degrading others who are not as "righteous are you are" and you down upon them? - Is it Perfection, where you have tried to do everything you can perfectly to the point where you have lost sense of the humanity you are one with? - Is it Money, where even though on the dollar bill it says "God we Trust", your trust is the bill itself and the worldly value of it? - Is it in relationships or even the idea of a relationship, where you are searching in the world for love when love in it's most pure and passionate form is right in front of you? - Is it in Sports, where your year highlights are found in the performance of your favorite team in a big game and winning a championship. - Is it in Success, where your value is found in your performance and accomplishments and not in the identity of who you are in Christ? Are you uncomfortable yet? I am, but you wanna know what? The Christian Life is not comfortable. Do you think Jesus felt comfortable hanging on a Cross, being beaten and spit on. We are to take up our cross and follow him, giving his our lives as a living sacrifice because he sacrificed his own life for us. In our Lord(s) we find comfort. But none of these Lords compare to the One True Lord, Our God, who loves us unconditionally in all his fullness. God's nature is summed up in this one word. Glory. Were all things in this world fall short is where God shines the most. In His glory. A glory that surpasses our understanding. So, find comfort in that, but don't. What is the cost of discipleship? Comfort. Following God means sacrificing for God. It means to get out of the comforts of this world and do weird things. Love strangers, pray for others, proclaim the gospel, worship an invisible God. The Christian faith to the world is so weird, but it is truth. God made us to be uncomfortable; 2 Timothy 1:7 says that "For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." Being uncomfortable is to set yourself apart from The World, to live for something, someone larger than yourself. And that requires sacrificing everything of the flesh and living in the spirit of the living God. But we were created for God, and nothing, no one else. Since the fall, everything comfortable became uncomfortable, and everything uncomfortable became normal. Now we must reverse the tide back because we were created in the Image of God and through Christ and through his work in us, he is restoring that broken image. The Cost of discipleship, of following Jesus is Comfort, but the result is far greater than anything imaginable! Grace and Peace to you, Dakota Lowe
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AuthorLuke Fuson Archives
September 2016
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