“From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.’ But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.’” (Matthew 16:21-23 NASB1995)
We live in a day and age when many people are telling
Christians (or those who give lip service to Jesus only) that nothing bad will
happen to them, that they will not have to suffer, that they will not have to
die for their faith in Jesus Christ. And they are telling all who make
professions of faith in Jesus Christ that they don’t have to repent of (die to,
denounce) their sins, and that they don’t have to obey God, but that they will
still have salvation from sin and eternal life in heaven with God because they prayed
the prayer.
For they are listening to the voice of Satan, instead of the
voice of God. They have in mind the interests of human flesh, and not the
interests of God. Their minds are set on earthly things and not on the things
of God and of his will and his purpose for our lives. For it is God’s will that
we should die with Christ to sin, and be raised with him to walk in newness of
life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but as slaves to God and to
his righteousness, in walks of surrender to God in obedience to his commands in
holy living.
It is God’s will that we should suffer in these bodies of
ours for the sake of the name of Jesus, and for the sake of his gospel message,
and for the sake of our testimonies of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
promised Messiah of Israel. It is in God’s perfect will that we should be
persecuted and hated as Jesus was persecuted and hated by his enemies, who
mainly were the Jews. And all Jews today who do not believe in Jesus Christ are
still considered by God to be the enemies of God, to be the antichrist, the Bible
says.
But we should not be surprised if it is many of those who
profess the name of Jesus who are our greatest persecutors. For so many who
profess Jesus as their Lord and Savior are still walking (living, in conduct)
as enemies of the cross of Christ. For they have not died to their sins, and
they are not making obedience to the Lord and to his commands their practice.
And if we are following the Lord in obedience, and living the life he has for
us to live, then we may be rejected by professing Christians who are living worldly.
But the “cheap grace gospel” that so many are being taught
today does not teach that we must die to sin and obey God and that we will have
to suffer and perhaps die for our testimonies for Christ and for his gospel. It
teaches a friendlier and more comfortable message of salvation that makes God a
genie in the sky there to grant our every request and to make life comfortable
and enjoyable and fun for us. And it teaches that God will rapture us out of
this earth while the rest of the world has to suffer.
So we need to be students of the Scriptures who study them
in their context and who see that the Scriptures indeed insist that to be
followers of Christ, and heaven bound, that we must die to sin, deny self, and
follow Jesus in obedience to his commands, in practice. And we must suffer for
the name of Jesus and be hated and rejected and cast aside as unwanted because
we stand on the truth of God’s word, and because we are sharing the true gospel
with the people of the world. And Satan hates it when we do that!
Suffering Trials and Persecutions
[Matt 5:10-12; Matt
10:16-39; Matt 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:1-21;
John 16:33; John 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph
6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5;
Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev
11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]
Judged by Our Works,
Salvation and Eternal Life
[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn
10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co
6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph
2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb
12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
As the Deer
By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1
As the deer panteth
for the water
So my soul longeth
after You
You alone are my
heart's desire
And I long to
worship You
You alone are my
strength, my shield
To You alone may my
spirit yield
You alone are my
heart's desire
And I long to
worship You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70
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Minds Set on Human Interests
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