{"id":986,"date":"2017-10-21T23:24:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-21T23:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=986"},"modified":"2017-10-22T00:30:08","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T00:30:08","slug":"death-the-path-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=986","title":{"rendered":"Death, the Path to Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of\u00a0wheat<\/strong>\u00a0falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.\u201d John 12:24<\/strong><\/p>\n

Picture this: You and a couple of your closest friends are on a journey together. I mean these are close friends. In fact you’ve pretty much spent all of the last three years with them in one long adventure. One of these friends, the leader and mentor to all, opens up and tells you he’s about to be captured, that he will endure tremendous suffering and eventually be killed.<\/p>\n

What would your reaction be? I’d imagine you would object and assure your leader that as long as you have something to say about it, this wouldn’t happen. Maybe you resolve to fight for your friend. After all, having the man you look up to suffer and be taken away from you is not acceptable. It’s not the way life’s supposed to work. Right?<\/p>\n

Bringing this story home, see yourself as Peter in the following scene:<\/p>\n

First Jesus asks you,\u00a0\u201cBut who do you say that I am?\u201d\u00a0 And you say,\u00a0\u201cYou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”<\/p>\n

At your response, Jesus blesses you and tells you that God has revealed this to you. He tells you that upon the truth of your saying his church will be built and that the gates of Hades will not overpower it. On top of that, he gives you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the ability to handcuff or bind the activities of Satan and release or loose those held captive.<\/p>\n

About now you’re feeling pretty good. But then Jesus begins to talk to you all about\u00a0 his\u00a0 pending suffering and death.<\/p>\n

This rocks your world and you argue, \u201cFar be it from you, Lord! This shall not happen to you.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 response is stark and jolting,\u00a0 \u201cGet behind Me Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesus was talking to Peter, but he spoke to Satan, exposing his desire to keep us thinking about our own welfare.<\/p>\n

So evidently Satan’s strategy is deeper than just getting us to do evil deeds. All he really has to do is keep us thinking about what’s best for us. What he doesn’t want is for us to think about God.<\/p>\n

If we focus only on our desires for comfort, smooth circumstances, and a life free of pain, we’re not free to seek God’s desire for our lives.<\/p>\n

Days later, it would happen to Peter again. Mindful of his own safety, he would deny even knowing his Lord on the day of his crucifixion.<\/p>\n

But Peter would eventually get it.\u00a0 See what he wrote decades later concerning our life in Christ, \u201c<\/em>\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>In this you greatly rejoice, even though now\u00a0for a little while,\u00a0if necessary, you have been distressed by\u00a0various\u00a0trials,\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>so that the\u00a0proof of your faith,\u00a0being\u00a0more precious than gold which\u00a0is perishable,\u00a0even though tested by fire,\u00a0may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at\u00a0the revelation of Jesus Christ;<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>and\u00a0though you have not seen Him, you\u00a0love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and\u00a0full of glory,\u00a0obtaining as\u00a0the outcome of your faith the salvation of\u00a0your souls.\u201d <\/em>I Peter 1:6-9<\/strong><\/p>\n

What changed Peter?<\/p>\n

Only a few verses after Jesus let Peter know he was speaking the words of Satan, he said\u00a0 \u201cIf anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses His life for my sake will find it.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

After Peter’s encounter with the Risen Lord, the above words would guide his life. History tells us he was crucified upside down for his faith, not considering himself worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven so consider yourselves to be\u00a0dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>I have been\u00a0crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but\u00a0Christ lives in me; and\u00a0the\u00a0life<\/em>\u00a0which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in\u00a0the Son of God, who\u00a0loved me and\u00a0gave Himself up for me.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

The path of following Jesus is the path of dying to what we want and embracing what Jesus wants for us.<\/p>\n

Challenge: <\/strong>In what ways are you embracing the \u2018things of man\u2019? It could be an obvious besetting sin, or more subtle sins of living only for comfort and ease of circumstances.<\/p>\n

Bring these things to the cross of Christ where Jesus died for you and all that needs to die in you. Out of each death to self, you will experience his life.<\/p>\n

Lord, may we respond as Peter with great rejoicing and joy inexpressible and\u00a0full of glory to your work in our lives, knowing your purposes are for our ultimate good. Teach us to die to what we want and live our lives fully mindful of what you want. Amen<\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Matthew 16:15-22 (NASB unless otherwise noted)<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Matthew 16:23 NKJV<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Matthew 16:24-25<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Romans 6:11<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Galatians 2:20<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of\u00a0wheat\u00a0falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.\u201d John 12:24 Picture this: You and a couple of your closest friends are on a journey together. I mean these are close friends. In fact you’ve pretty much spent … Continue reading Death, the Path to Life<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[129,480],"tags":[482,489,104,486,492,493,127,491,494,128,487,75,483,490,497,498,499,481,495,488,496,484,124,485],"class_list":["post-986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crucified-with-christ","category-dying-that-we-might-live","tag-binding","tag-church","tag-death","tag-denying-christ","tag-denying-ourselves","tag-following-jesus","tag-galatians-220","tag-get-behind-me-satan","tag-i-peter-16-9","tag-john-1224","tag-keys-to-the-kingdom","tag-life","tag-loosing","tag-matthew-16","tag-matthew-1615-22","tag-matthew-1623","tag-matthew-1624-25","tag-peter","tag-risen-lord","tag-rock","tag-romans-611","tag-satan","tag-taking-up-our-cross","tag-wheat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}