Love of Christ = Crucifying the Self

To kick this thing off, I would like to put out there where I am in my studies (just in case anybody is following along). Right now I am doing the One Year Bible Reading through Reality, last year's Sonshine staff devotional (going through the culture points), this years Sonshine staff devotional, The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and Discipleship on the Edge by Darrell W. Johnson. If I ever post or reference on of these things, you now know.

This week is Passion week. The week that we remember the cross. The wondrous cross. It's a super heavy thing. This idea that we are totally undeserving of the grace God has given us. The gravity of that concept always trips me up. I can never full grasp that. During today's Bible reading, it was Deuteronomy 25:1-3 says “If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight." This was something that took me back. Jesus took on the fullest punishment for my sins. He was also beaten by the Roman soldiers who don't abide by the law of the Hebrews. The punishment towards Him was probably far greater than 40 lashes. And on top of that, the full wrath of God was upon Him. I don't think that will ever truly sink in. The idea that God literally forsook His own son and turned His face from Him.

This week for the SSCM staff devotional is Passion week. Seems appropriate. It describes the time leading up to Jesus' death from the point of view of a child. I get bazinga'd constantly reading through it. The simple way of describing the cross conveys it in a way that my ESV doesn't.

I am going through last year's staff devotional because I love the way it lays out the "Our Culture" section in a deeper way. This week is "Genuine Love of Christ". In today's reading, it talks about the fragrant aroma of Christ. Who smells life on you? One of the lines that really gets me is "If Jesus stoops to serve you, thank Him. If Jesus violently confronts you, thank Him. Whether served or beaten you are having the kingdom wrestled into you and for that, you rejoice. You see Jesus saves you for sweet mercy for your brokenness and severe mercy for your pride". Letting Jesus violently shake me to draw me closer to Him is kind of what I need right now. I love being close to Him and to come to the realization that I have valued things higher than Him is saddening. My deepest desire is to be with Him. I think about how Bo smells. Whenever people are around Bo, other dogs can smell him. That's how we are to be with Christ. When we are close to Him, people will notice. They will see our joy. It will either cause them toe turn to Jesus in repentance or disgust, but either way, it's to Jesus and not ourselves.

When we say that we love Christ more than our sin and more than ourselves, we are crucifying the flesh. We are saying that those old habits are dead to us. So why do I still sin? After I've sinned, I repent and say I will never do that again, but then I fail. It is because I am not letting Christ do that work in me. I am trying to take it all on myself and failing. I need to let Christ do that work in me. I need to let the crucifixion take place at God's timing.

Yahweh, may you reign in my life. May your blood wash over me and cleanse me. I pray that as I am living today, You would be the fragrant aroma coming off me; that You would be Lord. Let me not be drawn in by my old sinful habits, but rather, be transformed into the man that You are calling me to be. I love You Lord. Amen.

Revitalization!

I started this blog a while back but never put anything on here of any significance and it never really took off the ground. Basically, I didn't take it serious. As I'm getting back from Spring break, SSCM training, and preparing for the summer, I have realized my lack of true intimacy with Christ that has been substituted with head knowledge. This has become prevalent to me in that I am not as disciplined as I should be.

This blog is to help me write out my thoughts on that morning's scripture readings, devotionals, staff studies, books, etc. My goal is to make writing in here a learned discipline and to ultimately draw me closer to God. Another goal is for the day's devotionals to not be just a read out of habit thing but to actually sink in and transform.

I realize that on here, in order to be honest with myself, I need to be vulnerable. I realize as well that there is the potential that people are going to read this. They will see my struggles as well as be able to rejoice in the work that God is doing in me. I pray that this will benefit those who actually end up reading as much as myself.

Study Kick Off

I'm super excited to study the Book of Revelation. This is going to be an incredibly challenging task both comprehensively and spiritually. I had the idea of doing this blog study through recommendation by a bunch of staff at Sonshine Ministries. They went through it during the off-season and found that it spoke a lot to what we did out on the water and also in our daily lives. It gives practical application to a seemingly "out there" and hard to grasp book. After one particular Sonshiner, Mike Corsetto, basically raved on and on about how awesome it was and how it was nun-chucking him in the face daily, I felt like I had to at least check out the book. This is going to be one wild and crazy ride.