“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God]—he cannot be My disciple.”
God is our first love above all other and in that position our love for all will be of the best.
Emptying ourselves of all else we can be filled with Him and yet we will feel lonely.
The closer we get to Jesus the less we can take with us.
Jesus’ walk on earth was lonely. In the natural He was surrounded by family, friends, disciples and followers yet His walk with His Father in heaven was His first concern always. One that most did not understand.
His walk cost Him everything and in many ways it does us too.
The more others seem not to understand us the more we have to trust in the Lord to vindicate us.
The more we see His power as He moves our vision and perception of Him grows. He is altogether lovely.
It was His completely perfected sin free life that destroyed Satan Jesus plundered his power and the power of death and hell.
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,”
Jesus redeemed what sin had cost mankind. God’s love for us and the sacrifice made brought pay back to satan justice had been revenged. The bondage we were in was broken and we were liberated when we believed in what Christ has done for us.
“and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
Now we are being purified by the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It mattered that we live with the life of Christ in us and put behind us our sinful ways. It is more important to have relationship with and know Jesus than to ask for any of the spiritual gifts that He also bestows on us because all those gifts are His anyway not ours. They only become ours when we wear Him and encompass Him in our hearts.
When the end day conditions become so bad there will still be those who as His sheep hear His voice and those who are like goats and curse Him.
As Jesus was patient and long suffering so must we be and not give up.
“Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—”
Jesus is everything, the power, the purpose, the revelation unravelling always before us. Everything else we can consider as loss compared to that of knowing Christ in our lives.
“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”
Jesus descended to the lowest depth of hell to announce His victory and then ascended to be above all else.
Until we have revelation of Jesus our life is spent majoring on the minors.
Only knowing Jesus can we truly be liberated to major in the major keys.
He as our majestic King is above all else and fills the kingdom space that will not host the worthless enemy. We are delivered from his holds.
The complexity of it all vaporises into a simplicity that fills our soul with peace and joy.
They tied Jesus to a whipping post but they need not have bothered. He would have clung to it and have taken the lashings for us anyway.
They crushed a crown of thorns upon His head but He would have pierced himself for us.
Jesus is the reminder to satan that he is destroyed eternally and Christ is victorious.
Salvation sees Jesus as the meal and the host at the table at the same time.
Our heart sees Him and our hands and lives become His conduit.
The illustration shows satan spinning the world upon an axis of sin and holding accusing us to be in bondage to it. The sacrificial blood of sinless Jesus at the cross redeems that bondage and God has His revenge on the enemy breaking the chains liberating us and washing us clean in the blood. Light emanating to push back the darkness.
Six Scriptures that come to mind:
““If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God]—he cannot be My disciple.”Luke 14:26 AMP
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he [in behavior—one who manipulates]. He says to you, “Eat and drink,” Yet his heart is not with you [but it is begrudging the cost].” Proverbs 23:7 AMP
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,”. Hebrews 2:14 ESV
“and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” Hebrews 2:15 ESV
“Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—”. Philippians 3:2-3 ESV
“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”Philippians 3:7-8 ESV
The song We Fall Down. Jenn Johnson
Lessisgreater 