Dying for Jesus

I was reading the book "Radical" by pastor David Platt and it just really made me think. He said that Jesus told the disciples not to be afraid over and over and especially not to be afraid of those who can kill the body, but not the soul, but be afraid of the ONE who can throw both of them into the lake of fire. He said that Jesus was basically saying, " Well, is that all?"( talking about someone who want to kill you body). Is that all they will do? No big deal!

But it is a big deal to us. Everything on TV and internet, in commercials, and even our education focuses on taking care of this body. Make sure you exercise it, feed it, put make up on it, clean it, give it a good and comfortable house to live in, etc. Moreover, even Christians are so caught up into this that they are afraid to take their bodies somewhere out of fear of being killed. Who cares that some people out there NEVER heard the Good News of the Jesus coming to die so we can be forgiven and if they believe they will be home with the Lord?

We have become a society led by fear of what might happen to us IF...

We will not get involved or if we do just enough to make sure God gives us a pat on the back and we are safe and not die. Please do not get me wrong. I am not saying we should just balatantly go and die. No! I just want us to take a good look at our lives and how we live and why.

The Bible says that our bodies belong to God and it is the temple of the Holy Spirit; it is the temple of God; God lives in US. If He live sin us then wouldn't it be natural for Him to do what He wants with it, go where He wants to go, do with it what it pleases? But, if we are honest with ourselves, we have changed God into a god that we can worship. we made Him like us. We think He is like us, a person who just caters to our whims. Why should He when we do not cater to His wishes? Why would He bless us, when we do not obey Him?

Look at the church. It is full of immorality and idolatry. Yes, focusing on OUR well-being at the expense of not sharing the Gospel in the whole world, is a worship of OURSELVES. We are our own gods.

2Cor 11:15 says that even the servants of satan will "pretend" to be servants of righteousness, but their end will be according to their deeds. This is not talking about demons! It is talking about us, people, that will go to church, act holy, and seem to do so much for the Lord, but in the end they will perish because they are not really part of God's family. This can be the pastor, the deacon, the worship leader, and the pew member! How can that be?

Let me give you an example. How many people are divorced and remarried while their previous spouse are alive? And they remarried and now they are pastoring and oh, they do so much for God and their homes are so godly! Lots of junk! Faith in Christ means you allow Him to live now, not you. He will not do anything that goes against the Scriptures. " Oh, but, you need to decide in your own heart what is right", some say. Others say, " Well, God is not that way!" , and others, " Well, from now on I will be better". Listen, if it is disobedience and if your life doesn't reflect what it is written, then you are still in your sins. How can we even say that we have to decide what is right? are we capable of that? How did that work out before Jesus came? He is the only right one and wise and only His rightesouness matters not yours. His righteousness doesn't mean that you rely on Him while you live for yourself to take you to heaven. Believing in Jesus does cost something: the laying down of your life. It means to lay down your dreams, wishes, your agenda, your plans, because you are not dead! He lives and if He lives , He would not contradict His own Word with His lifestyle, right? He wants obedience. He is love and holy. He is so holy that He cannot accept sin in Heaven. That is why Jesus died. If we could have gone with sin in Heaven, then Jesus did not have to die.

We are so focused on this body; so focused on this life here. Jesus came to show us that this is not who we really are. We used to be part of God's family in the garden of Eden, but we went our own ways and rebelled. Father had to send our big brother Jesus to die so we will be bought back. He not only saved us from sin which we deserved the punishment for, but also brought us back home. He awakened our spirit to an "aha" moment and revealed to us our identity! That is that we are God's creation, not satan's and Father wants us home because He loves us. We are first and foremost spirits. This body was given to us here so we can relate to the physical world. Unless you really believe you are spirit and there is a life after we lay down these bodies, you will not live as a spirit, but constantly focusing on your body. That is why Jesus said that he who tries to save his body ( constantly focuses on it), will lose his live ( his spirit, his soul). Our real life is home with Father. This body was lended to us temporarily so we can fulfill the mission we were sent on, but we forgot the mission and started building our own temporary lives on the misson field. It would be like the US army going to Iraq and forgetting to protect the country, but just start caring about themselves. Would you feel safe with that kind of an army? Would you trust them to protect you? Should God trust us to carry out the mission? Are you trustworthy? Am I?

"Well, not everyone is called to go". That is a lie. All of us are. Jesus told ALL the disciples to go into the whole world and preach the Gospel. He did not pick and choose, " Well, you go to Samaria. You go to Jerusalem. You go to Asia". No. As long as there are people who have nopt heard yet or do not know Jesus, we need to go and go and go. Our King sent us yet we dare tell Him, " Well, you did not really send ME, right? I think you mean John. " . I know that Paul went to the Gentils and Peter to Jews. Ok. But they did. How many people have we told about Jesus just this week? If we cannot do it right here, no wonder we do not want to go further.

The problem is that John thinks that God called you and so we keep putting the responsibility on other people.
The King of Kings whome satan even fears, gave a command ( not a choice) to go and tell and yet Sunday after Sunday we sit in church and we barely do anything.

Stop focusing on your body. Yes, take care of it so you can do the work, not so you can live for yourself. I remember Jim Elliot's biography and journals ( missionary to the tribe of Auca who died for Christ at the age of 30 or so) that he wrote that he used to wrestle, but not just to have fun, but so he can train his body to endure hardship when he was going to go on the mission field. Amazing! What if we excercised with that kind of thinking? What if everything we do would be exactly as Paul said: TO LIVE IS CHRIST. Everything should be about Him and everything else rubbish.

This body will die anyway. You cannot stop it. Look around. People die daily. You and I are next. Why not wake up now to that reality and try to live for Christ, tell others about Jesus, because this is only the missionfield. Are we doing what we were sent here on Earth( by birth) to do?

If we will be more aware of the fact that we are spirits first, then we will not be afraid. I think that is why Jesus said not to be afraid. Those who know their identity and where they are coming from will go knowing that if they have to lay down their bodies, it is just going home as our Father calls us.

There is joy in this revelation!