Don't Waste Your Life!

One of the greatest questions we can ask is "What am I doing with my life?" We hear so many different messages on how we should live our lives from the world today. Live your best life now, gain everything you can while your still alive, it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you believe in something, and on and on it goes. We live in a world that can easily be confusing. How as Christians do we respond to this question? How are we called to live our lives? God's Word is very clear on this crucial question on life! As Christians, we are called to DIE to Ourselves. John 15 tells that we are to abide in Christ, just as He abides in God the Father. We read in Leviticus we are called to "Be Holy as He is Holy." We are given the Ten Commandments as guidlines to what is right and what is wrong. Paul states that we are to "Pick up our Cross and follow Him." Okay, so maybe this isn't necessarily brand new to most that chooses to read this blog but here is the question. Do we really live this type of life? I hear more and more about how the Christian life is all about getting what we want from God and that God is all about making you comfortable. As I continue to grow in my faith and realize what life in Christ is all about, I see more and more a facade being put on by the church in the world today. I think about the words in 1 John that point out that there are false prophets surrounding us at all corners. I am appalled by how many different (Gospels) there are now in the world today. "Everyone goes to Heaven as long as they believe in something", "God is Love and He wouldn't send anyone to Hell", "God wants to prosper you according to all YOUR Wants", "Essentially, YOU are God" and it continues.... Anything that keeps people from being offended is acceptable and prefered! When is the last time you sat down and thought about the Cross? How can we look at the Cross, an incredible, essential truth within the context of the gospel and then say, "The gospel wasn't meant to be presented as to offend anyone." The Cross was used as a tool of destruction, torture, punishment and ridicule! So if we are to pick up our cross and follow Him then what are we to take from that? If we are to pick up OUR Cross, then the application of dying to oneself is already applied without Paul even having to point it out in the Bible! How are we living our lives? One of the most gruesome yet beautiful passages in scripture concerning how our lives are to reflect Christ is Galatians 2:20 which says, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." When you have down time just look up the word crucify and you will get the picture if you don't already. As a man striving to live under the direction of God, I exhort you church! Don't Waste Your Life! Carry your cross and follow Him!Jesus Christ willingly stepped in our place so that the curse of sin would be defeated and we could have life victorious through Him by surrendering our lives to Him.