Following Jesus Christ Part 2!

‘Then Jesus began to tell them [His disciples] that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.

Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”’ – Mark 8:31-38 NLT

We like most recent items, clothes etc. so we tend to buy them or get them updated, even though we know that they are temporary. My mother really likes to buy new clothes for her, my sister and me. I am not a “clothes person.” I think I am kind of “technological person” in a sense that I like to get them updated and get new features. For example, I like my iPad to be updated from time to time and get new applications, if possible, because iPad is a great gadget for me. I do most of things I need to do on my iPad or laptop, such as writing and posting devotionals. Thus, I count them as my “tools.” They help me to communicate with others as well, due to my disability in talking.

As we looked into Mark 8:34-38 yesterday, Jesus Christ wants us to give our lives to Him since He is the bridge between humans and God. “For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity--the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5) Since we probably know God is eternal (Psalm 90:1-2) and 1 John 2:15-17 states that everything in the world is going to fade away, why don’t we give our lives up to Him by surrendering to Jesus Christ? We cannot take anything and ourselves with us to kingdom of heaven at the end of the age (1 Timothy 6:7). Nonetheless, God can take us to His Kingdom, if we are willing to surrender to Jesus by believing in Him. He loves us so much and wants to take all of us at the end of the age. We know this because Jesus Christ has paid our death penalty and given us eternal life in Him (John 3:16-18; 1 John 4:9-10). “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Therefore, let us consider that Jesus Christ is the Good News and get satisfaction in Him rather than things of the world. We can probably do this in several ways but I think two primary methods for abiding in Jesus are by meditating on His written Word, which is the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and by prayer (Philippians 4:4-7). However, we should open our minds and let the Holy Spirit to flow within us.

Ask yourself a question today: “Am I getting my satisfaction in Jesus Christ or things of the world?” If you think your satisfaction comes from things of the world, then meditate on Romans 5:6-11 and ask the Lord to reveal those verses to you! We should also meditate on Colossians 3:1-4 and pray that our eyes of the heart be enlightened towards Him. In addition to this, let us not forget to also ask Him to let the Holy Spirit continually flow within us (Luke 11:11-13).