"A Price to Pay" -Too

"They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land." (Psalms 74:8) Just for your information, a chain is only as strong as the weakest link. If you are the body of Christ, then you must do your part in shinning the light of the Lord; we all must be a light in this dark world, it is the reason we are here. If you really want to get right down to it, then you are to be doing just as Jesus did, you are to be a servant and pour out your life for others. It's really not a question of if you have to do anything, it's more about us asking the Lord, What would you have me to do? We can be such hypocrites sometime, it's not even funny; in fact, it's downright unholy and ungodly. We are just fine when we get around our fellow believers, but as soon as we are out in the world, it's all about me, myself, and I. There is absolutely a price to pay for this salvation that we have been given, and that price is our lives! We have got to surrender our old lives to the Lord and start living in the Spirit; there is no way we are going to do any good if we continue to live in the flesh, none whatsoever! As I was sitting through yesterday's Men's Conference, I was amazed at how much of the teachings were speaking directly in line with what I shared yesterday; it was no doubt that God had prepared my heart for what was going to be taught. We have got to stop living for ourselves and start living for others, that's all there is to it! The lost souls that are waiting for proof need to see the proof in our lives, and they are not going to see it without God's love being evident in us. The enemy has been very successful in making us look no different from the world. One or two bad apples, that's not such a big deal; but whole churches filled with bad apples, that's something totally wrong; and it's not going to be of any service to the Lord. Something that was said during the third session, was, "Paul knew that his relationship with Christ would cost him something." As I heard that, I could not help but think about my own salvation, and how I knew also; on that very first day, I knew that I was no longer the same man that I once was. I knew that this new life was going to cost me something; be it my pride, my sexual cravings, my anger, my love for the things of this world, or even my relationships with friends and relatives. It was not going to be the same life that I once knew, and I was totally fine with that. It's not easy to say this, but some how, those things I once was willing to freely give up, have somehow become things I still want to hold on to. It surely does not happen over night; because if it did, we would not stand for it. But little by little, we let certain things remain; certain little idols, which become a life of their own; and before you know it, you're building shrines, making sacrifices, and burning incense to your little idol; until those little idols are not so little anymore; they have become big idols, which stand between you and your God. Something else I heard yesterday that I need to share, it was spoken in the last session: "Jesus did not come here to die for our sins; he came here to reconcile us back to the Father; just so happens, dying for our sins was the only way for him to do what he came to do." Don't think for a moment that your salvation is not going to cost you something, because it was not free; God gave His all for you, now give your all for Him... "If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we all have died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!" For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:13-21) NLT