![]() |
||||||||
|
|
"Spiritual Martyrdom - Part II" Daniel Valles The second thing we can learn from these two verses is that although to die is gain, man cannot die to himself. We already know that man cannot live for himself, and know we know that die to himself. Man does not die to himself, because to die (in this spiritual sense) is to cease from being subject to. To put it more mildly, we cease from being subject to Satan and his will, when we "die" to Satan, and give ourself to God. We need to forget what we want, and make God's will in our life a priority. John 12:24-26 says, "Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." There are many, many truth's which we can learn from this passage. First of all, it goes along with what I just said. In our spiritual life, we can do one of two things (since we can only be for one purpose in life, as we saw earlier.)., we can either live life as a "dead" Christian (spiritually dead), or we can grow and thrive in Christ. The verse talks about him that loveth his life. Now this isn't talking about the live of being alive, this is talking about those who like to live for this life. Luke 12:19 says, "And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." In this verse, we saw how the rich man surveyed his goods and regarded everything as OK. He thought he had everything he could ever need. Seeing all of this, he mentally purposed to live a careless life, doing nothing. What good is that? That is exactly what John 12:24 talks about! He cared too much for lifestyle, instead of working for God, or dedicating something worthwhile to God's purpose. His dedication was to self, to take life as though nothing mattered. And, of course, everything does have a consequence. continued... |
||||||