SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 - DAY 98 (Authority)

Is Jesus really God in your life? Is he in mine?

Tonight I listened to a sermon that talked about Jesus' authority and why Christians deliberately ignore Jesus' commands.

1) We ignore his commands because we think Jesus wants us to be happy. We couldn't actually be happy if we followed the command to: _______________. (Break up with a non-Christian, stay married to our spouse, quit getting drunk, etc...you fill in the blank for your own life.) We think Jesus wants us to be happy all the time but in reality he wants us to be joyful, not necessarily happy. He has some hard commandments that won't bring happiness...but they are for our joy and our benefit.

2) We abuse God's grace and figure we can ignore whatever command we want because God will forgive us anyway. Tricky tricky tricky. How many of us do this? ME!

3) There was a 3rd reason but I totally forget it right now.

So then I turned to Luke 9 where I am currently reading from and lo and behold here are some key verses that pop out to me:

Luke 9:23-26 

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

I mean come on. What does it mean to FOLLOW Jesus. To DENY ourselves? Jesus didn't sit around and talk about God. He was out DOING. How many of us sit around and just TALK. GUH. This is such a struggle for me right now.

I don't actively live out ALL of the gospel. I don't tell my neighbours about Jesus. I don't tell my extended family about Jesus. Why? Because I'm afraid of what they'll think of me or that they won't be saved anyway. Really? My 'looking good' is worth them going to Hell? Terrible.

Why else do I not tell people? Because I'm ashamed!! I don't know of what....but obviously I fear looking stupid so I don't tell people. Shame. BUT LOOK AT THOSE VERSES!!! "Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them...."

So there it is. I abuse God' grace and think that God will forgive me for not telling people about him. I abuse it. I deliberately ignore his command to tell people about him and then expect him to forgive me.

I expect my son to listen to me and follow my instructions. I do it for his safety, his benefit and his joy. I don't have rules to make life hard or make him unhappy. I do it for his good. I do it to raise him well. I do it so that he'll become a man of God and a well mannered child and one day adult. I do it so he won't hurt himself. So why do I ignore God's commands sometimes and expect otherwise?