Friday, March 07, 2008

Dying Daily

Read today in A Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent (pp.40-41):

... My love affair with the world was crucified [on the cross] (Galatians 6:14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.") The cross is also the place where I crucify my flesh and all its sinful desires. (Galatians 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.) Truly, Christ's death and my death are so intertwined as to be inseparable.

God is committed to my dying every day, and He calls me to that commitment. (Luke 9:23 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.') He insists that every hour be my dying hour, and He wants my death [with Him] on the cross to be as central to my own life story as is Christ's death to the gospel story. "Let this same attitude be in you," He says, "which was also in Christ Jesus . . . who became obedient unto death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2)

. . . When called to do something I don't want to do, I must die. When I wish to be selfish and serve no one, I must die. When shattered by hardships that I despise, I must die. ... When enticed by allurements of the world, I must die. ... When dreams that are good seem shoved aside, I must die.

"Not my will, but Yours be done," Christ trustingly prayed on the eve of His crucifixion; and preaching His story to myself each day puts me in a frame of mind to trust God and embrace the cross of my own dying also.

This book is life-changing--definitely paradigm-shifting for most of you growing up in the same background as myself. Please consider buying this book for yourself and someone you love:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Paul, I pasted this on to a blog I have started for a group of us at RBC that are reading the Love to Eat, Hate to Eat book.

The website is http:/legladies.blogspot.com

Tell Audrea to check it out if she would like to...it might be a neat way for her to stay in touch with a few of us from church up here in the frozen tundra.

~Kim