ANOTHER ORDINARY DAY TO DIE
Following Jesus, according to Jesus, involves dying to self: discovering places in your soul where self has to be conquered, and then conquering it.
You put ‘you’ on the cross. You deny your self, and yes, I intended ‘your’ and ‘self’ to be two separate words. Denying self isn’t merely keeping things from yourself, but learning to say “no” to your self’s desires and drives – saying no to the self itself.
Denying things to myself isn’t dying to self. It sets the stage for dying to self. Dying to self isn’t not having “things” but is rather the soul’s ability to get past the inner ‘want’ of the things. It is attaining the satisfaction of not needing to respond to the want, the sense of joy or contentment or fulfillment that doesn’t require dependence upon things (or people) to provide that sense from outside of me.
Dying to self is me getting past me, an escape from enslavement to my ‘needs’, from being driven merely by feelings and my wants. The feelings and wants don’t disappear. They can’t; they are a part of you.
They remain within you but your soul masters them.
Or better, your soul masters itself. You master you.
Or even better: your soul yields to and is mastered by God’s wishes.
This is what we mean by “spiritual growth”.
This where the soul finds its true freedom.
This is what followers of Jesus are supposed to be doing: practicing and learning the art of dying to self (and the flip side of the coin – loving God and others).
The process begins when you decide to follow Christ, abandoning your soul’s efforts to save itself and trusting instead in God’s promise that the death of Jesus is sufficient to rescue you.
And then you start walking into life, and each step provides a new challenge to die to self in the face of temptation. Sometimes the temptation comes from things – maybe a bad habit or a life-dominating fear. Sometimes the temptation comes from people who anger you or lie to you or demean you or hurt you or betray you. And you must find a way to die to yourself.
You don’t have to go anywhere special looking for the challenges. Life brings them to you. Nothing wildly unusual, just ordinary days. But suddenly you see God working on you at every turn. He is behind each challenge.
If this is what God is doing in each one of us – what is a church?
And what does God hope to do through the church?
What is a church’s mission?
You put ‘you’ on the cross. You deny your self, and yes, I intended ‘your’ and ‘self’ to be two separate words. Denying self isn’t merely keeping things from yourself, but learning to say “no” to your self’s desires and drives – saying no to the self itself.
Denying things to myself isn’t dying to self. It sets the stage for dying to self. Dying to self isn’t not having “things” but is rather the soul’s ability to get past the inner ‘want’ of the things. It is attaining the satisfaction of not needing to respond to the want, the sense of joy or contentment or fulfillment that doesn’t require dependence upon things (or people) to provide that sense from outside of me.
Dying to self is me getting past me, an escape from enslavement to my ‘needs’, from being driven merely by feelings and my wants. The feelings and wants don’t disappear. They can’t; they are a part of you.
They remain within you but your soul masters them.
Or better, your soul masters itself. You master you.
Or even better: your soul yields to and is mastered by God’s wishes.
This is what we mean by “spiritual growth”.
This where the soul finds its true freedom.
This is what followers of Jesus are supposed to be doing: practicing and learning the art of dying to self (and the flip side of the coin – loving God and others).
The process begins when you decide to follow Christ, abandoning your soul’s efforts to save itself and trusting instead in God’s promise that the death of Jesus is sufficient to rescue you.
And then you start walking into life, and each step provides a new challenge to die to self in the face of temptation. Sometimes the temptation comes from things – maybe a bad habit or a life-dominating fear. Sometimes the temptation comes from people who anger you or lie to you or demean you or hurt you or betray you. And you must find a way to die to yourself.
You don’t have to go anywhere special looking for the challenges. Life brings them to you. Nothing wildly unusual, just ordinary days. But suddenly you see God working on you at every turn. He is behind each challenge.
If this is what God is doing in each one of us – what is a church?
And what does God hope to do through the church?
What is a church’s mission?