Denying Youself

What does it mean to live a life of self‑denial, dying to self? What does that really mean? Have you ever thought about that? Think of it this way. When you are neglected, unforgiven, or when you are purposely set at naught and you sting and you hurt with the insult of that oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ, that is dying to self. When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed and your advice is disregarded and your opinions are ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, you take it all patiently in loving silence, you're dying to self.

And when you lovingly and patiently bear any disgrace, any regularity, any annoyance, when you can stand face to face with folly and extravagance and spiritual insensitivity, and endure it as Jesus did, that is dying to self. When you are content with any food, any money, any clothing, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God, that is dying to self. And when you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or record your own good works, or itch after commendation from others, and when you truly love to be unknown, that is dying to self. When you see your brother prosper and have his needs wondrously met, and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy and never question God, though your needs are greater and still unmet, that is dying to self. And when you can receive correction, and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and humbly admit inwardly as well as outwardly that he's right and find no resentment and no rebellion in your heart, that is dying to self.

John Macarthur - Sermon "Winning by Losing: The Paradox of Discipleship"

The Most Important Thing.

Mike Hanzas was a different sort of guy. He lived alone. Two years before he died, he began making preparations for his death. He bought a lot in the cemetery. He made weekly visits to the cemetery, planted grass over his plot, mowed it regularly, even put flowers there. He wanted to see the flowers there before he was gone. He bought a casket and visited the funeral home to see the casket. He’d stand beside the casket and say, “That’s where I’m going to live someday!”

One day Mike invited his family to come and see him. After a good meal, he gave out some canned goods he figured he wouldn’t need, and some personal items, and his will. As he did this, he suffered from a heart attack and passed away.   

A lot of preparation I’d say. . . .  

But you know what the sad thing is?   

As far as we know, Mike Hanzas had made every provision for his body but none for his soul.  

Do you recall the words of Matthew 16:25, 26

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake
will find it.  For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own
soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”   

If you stand before God, with a lost soul, an unsaved soul, a soul that never got around to
accepting the Lord Jesus Christ, you will face tremendous loss.   
  
You will have nothing to look forward to but hell. . . .and eternal separation from God. At that moment when you stand before God, what will you use to bargain with God for your soul?   

Nothing...

When you stand before God, it will be too late to make any changes. . . you won’t be able to
exchange anything for your soul.   

You’ll be lost forever.   

If you’re waiting for your deathbed to do business with God about your eternal destiny, Satan’s
got you so fooled. He’s got you right where he wants you. And if you keep putting that decision off, and putting it off, thinking that you can sluff your way into eternity, God will somehow open the doors of heaven to you. . . you’re fooling yourself.   

By the time you finally wake up and see the truth, it will be too late. Vast amounts of people in good churches across this nation are pursuing their financial future, their comfort and their possessions to the detriment of their soul.   

Don’t let that be you!!! Because in the end, God will say, “you fool, this very night your life will be required of you!” And you will be able to do nothing about it.   

I can guarantee that within less than a second after you die, that money you spent a life time
amassing will be the furthest thing from your mind. The only question on your mind will be. . . “am I ready to face eternity?” And by then, it’s too late to prepare.   

No one escapes death. . . no one!   

The question is. . . are you ready?

The only way for you to be ready is if your soul has been bought, paid for and purchased.   
What buys, pays for, and purchases a soul?  
  
Only the blood of Jesus.   

When He died, He hung on that cross in agony, to pay for your soul.   

When He rose again, He did it for you. . . to insure that if you trust Him, He will raise
you up from the dead.   

The only thing that remains for your soul to be ready for death is to come to Christ to be
saved from sin.   

Jesus said:  
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out.”

Have you come to Jesus?   
If you haven’t. . . you’re selling your soul to something that doesn’t care about you.   
But Jesus is the rightful Owner of your soul. . . .  

Have you received Him personally?   

Why not now?

A Dream of Denial

There was once a Christian who had a dream.

I saw in a dream that I was in the Celestial City. I was one of a great multitude from all countries and people and times and ages. I found out that the saint who stood next to me had been in Heaven more than 1,860 years.

"Who are you?" I said to him? We both spoke the same language of Heaven, so we could understand each other.

Said he "I was a Christian who lived in the days of the apostle Paul. I was one of those who died in Nero's persecutions. I was covered with pitch and fastened to a stake and set on fire to light up Nero's gardens."

"How awful!" I exclaimed.

"No," he said. "I was glad to do something for Jesus. He died on the cross for me."

Another man beside me then spoke. "I have been in Heaven only a few hundred years. I came from an island in the South Seas. John Williams a misionary, came and told me about Jesus, and I too learned to love Him. My fellow countrymen killed the missionary and they caught and bound me. I was beaten till i fainted and they thought I was dead, but I revived. Then next day, they knocked me on the head, cooked and ate me."

"How terrible!" I said.

"No," he answered, "I was glad to die as a Christian. You see the missionaries had told me that Jesus was scourged and crowned with thorns for me."

Then they both turned to me and said, "What did you suffer for Him? Or did you sell what you had for the money which sent men like John Williams to tell man kind about Jesus?"

And I was speechless. And while they both were looking at me with sorrowful eyes, I awoke, and it was a dream! But I lay on my soft bed awake for hours, thinking of the money I had wasted on my own pleasures; or my extra clothing, and costly car, and many luxuries; and I realized that I did not know what the words of Jesus meant: "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

Love one another - C.S. Lewis

"Be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still undecided. If they are wrong, they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them."

C.S. Lewis