Scripture

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”

~John 5:24, NLT

Quote

God’s purpose and plan for your life far exceeds anything you can come up with for yourself.

~Charles F. Stanley

Practically all great spiritual truths are paradoxical. They are upside down from our human way of thinking. We gain by giving, we win by losing and we live by dying are just a few. Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher and theologian, believed that truth and God were coexistent: therefore all truth is of God which makes truth infinite. Dr. Jack Taylor said it another way, “We can’t make sense of God’s sense because we don’t have enough sense for God’s sense to make sense.” Many times the truth looks upside down and it doesn’t make sense to a human. Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” If you wish to bear much fruit, you must be willing to be buried in darkness and solitude. Simply stated: you must die in order to live. You must not give in to your lust for comfort and ease. You must crucify the flesh with all its desires. Paul testifies in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;  and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.” You can see the paradox clearly: Paul said, I am dead {crucified} yet Christ lives in me. What is he, dead or alive? He is both: he is dead to self and alive to Christ. What no one seems to fully understand is that the Christ life is infinitely superior to the self-life.

Remember, our physical life began in the womb but our spiritual life began in the tomb. What place in the world is more hopeless, more depressing, and more despairing than a tomb; yet of all places on the earth, our life begins in the tomb. Normally, we think of the tomb as a place of the end but with Christ it became the place of beginning. This is the radical way of the kingdom: Adam goes from life to death but Christ goes from death to life. Our life is possible because of His death. We must come to the end of ourselves to find real life in Christ. Before some things, good things, can begin, some other things have to die. You don’t plant good seeds in a field of weeds: You first plow up the weeds and clear the land. Why did God shatter your dreams? Why did He allow you to fail? Why did the new house, car, job, mate not bring you to a place of contentment? Why are you always dissatified? It is all a part of God’s grace. He is bringing you to the end of yourself. Perhaps you are cringing in fear thinking, “If He brings me to the end of myself and my resources, all I will have left is Him.” Exactly, that is the point and I can assure you that you will not look back with regret. You will not want the old self-life back; it is filled with stress, anxiety, fretting, self-pity and discontentment. The life that Jesus offers is abundant; it is full and overflowing. You will not miss anything from the old life. F.B. Meyer calls it the GREAT EXCHANGE–Christ life for my life. You give Him your life and He will give you a life that is greater than you can imagine.

EXTRA

This is my second attempt to post: the first failed. Have a good Wednesday and thanks for reading the blog.