Jesus' Invitation to Us
by Chaplain Jim Robinson
“If
anyone wants to come with Me . . . he must forget himself, carry his cross and
follow Me.”
Mark 8:34-35
These words of Jesus seem so hard! They go against the attitude of our age and even against the attitude present in too many Christian churches. These simple principles are amplified in other places in Scripture, but they don’t get any easier
Luke 9:57,58: “One said to Jesus, ‘Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests. But the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.’” (Apparently Jesus had not been exposed to the prosperity gospel.)
Luke 9:59: Jesus invited one to follow him and the individual requested that he first be allowed to go and bury his father. Jesus replied to him, “Let the dead bury their dead; but you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God,” (Jesus had obviously not been taught that self and family should come before all else.) Why do Jesus’ words and attitudes seem so tough? They remind one of the attitudes and words you encounter in a combat unit of the military.
The apostle Paul seems to be saying much the same in Romans 12:1,2: “. . . Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
Hebrews 12:1: “. . .lay aside every weight and the sin, which doth so easily beset us.” Much of the church in this country is weighted down with materialism and self-centeredness, making it truly impossible to follow Jesus. Of course this is sin, and sad to say, the overt sins are too often present also.
In a recent Bible study we got stuck on one verse and spent the whole hour on it. I Peter 2:1: “Lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking.” Our Lord loves us and would richly use us, and make us into a spiritual house, but we must lay aside a lot of things first.
Now that doesn’t mean lay away in order to pick up in the future. “Lay
aside,” as used here, means to discard – to get rid of permanently.
My guess is that when we read I Peter 2:1 reverently and thoughtfully, we will
find it necessary to do some laying aside. Along with the “laying aside”
is probably appropriate confession and repentance.
Jesus said to forget about self. To do that we must come to the place of complete trust in Him and throw ourselves, as it were, at the foot of the cross. If we spend our lives doing what we want, what we like, thinking of the respect we should have from others, we will be miserable. We can be as miserable as we choose.
Romans 1:28: “Because men refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God . . . He has given them over to corrupted minds so that they do the things they should not.” How do you keep in mind the true knowledge about God??
1. Forget self
2. Pick up your cross (die to self)
3. Follow Jesus
4. Live in fellowship with the brethren
“The only reason you do wrong is because you don’t do right.” I don’t know where I picked up the above quote, but I think it is profound. If all your being is given to following Jesus and doing good, you won’t have to worry about avoiding wrong. Your lifestyle will have simply eliminated it.
Brothers and sisters, let’s meet the requirements of selfless living that Jesus gave us. Let’s do it through the transforming power of His Spirit within us.
Go, Go, Go!
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