Living Life for Christ Alone

I need to tell you about the title of this blog. Partly because I have forgotten about it and just noticed afresh what it's called. "What, you forgot the name of your blog?" you ask. Well, yes... and no. I just forgot what it means to me, what it ought to mean every time I wake up in the morning, when I lie down at night.... what it ought to mean all the time. First, living for Christ alone means exactly that. So this should not take too long to explain. :) Living:  In other words, not being in a dead, un-moving state. It's growing. It's walking. It's being. Being everything you are meant to be. Are you alive? If you're not, do you want to be?

"Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." I have been studying this passage for the past week or so, and one thing that I didn't notice at first glance completely changed my perspective on the verse when I finally saw it. It is found in a phrase that occurs twice: "Whosoever will." Both times, "whosoever will" in the Greek means, whoever wants to  or purposes to.  It's not enough!  "Whosoever will come after me..." In our American church, it's easy to become introspective and look for a  desire in yourself to come after Jesus. You might be asked, "do you want  to live for Jesus?" and you say "Yes." Somehow that answer is enough, and we need not worry further as to our spiritual state.

Today, I want to talk about death...  Many of you read that, and whoever was sitting nearest you heard a sharp intake of breath.  No, I am not talking about physical death.  I'm talking about a different kind of death. I alluded to it in my last post, but I must talk more specifically about it, since I myself have been meditating on it more in depth, and praying about it, and seeking to apply it to my own life over the past week. 

It's the new year... It's the time when everyone thinks through what they want to change about their lives, and then set goals for the upcoming year that should spur that change on. It's called a New Years Resolution. It seems many set them, and then forget them. Is that what you do too? Yesterday, which was the very first day of 2014, I sat on the front porch pondering last year, talking with God about what kind of year I wanted this one to be.