“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”. Where is that found? Oh, just in three out of the four Gospels – Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, and Luke 9:23. God has spoken, in His Word, three times the same thing. Are you listening?

The Christian life exists in a very interesting niche from the rest of the world. The liver of the Christian life recognizes God for who He is – supremely sovereign. As Christians, if we have the correct view of God – a high view of God – we do not struggle when the Bible says “The fear of the YHWH is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10; Psalm 111:10). We struggle with how much fear to have. That good fear is having a right view of God – perfectly sovereign, perfectly holy, perfectly just, perfectly almighty. And that fear is having a right view of man – imperfect, sinful, helpless, unable to do good. We can never put ourselves above God let alone judge Him or His Work.

However, and there is the Christian glory in that “however”, God still wants to have a relationship with us. Not only does he justify us and save us from our sins – He doesn’t stop there. He continues to sanctify us and improve upon our walk. Again, we cannot view this as us being better than others and definitely not better than God – it is God who is both the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). And sometimes God making us useful to Him is hard; but the Bible talks about this – “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4). That is the topic of discussion today with Pastor John Samuel Barnett

https://youtu.be/Clf_Ei5yfQk
(From 2014DEC14 – FTF-11 – What God Wants To Do With Spirit-Filled Days, Moms & Children – Lessons From The First Spirit-Filled Family)