I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Galatians 2:20
Over 14 years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Haiti for a weeklong mission trip; it was shortly after the earthquake they experienced that devastated the island. It was a medical mission trip, but my job was to present the gospel to each person who was medically assisted with the help of an interpreter as the people only spoke French Creole. If you know anything about Haiti, you know it is desperately poor and suffering from corruption in the government. To my surprise in talking with people, I almost always heard that they knew that they needed to “repent” of living a self-willed life and surrender in faith and even die to self-rule to be right with God. These poor people with little education had a better grasp of living the Christian life than many I meet in churches of America! The essential truth that when we come to faith in Christ, we are to be identified with Jesus on the cross in dying to our self-rule to accept His payment for all our sins. Once born again by God’s Spirit and grace, we are to let Christ rule in us, and we are to live identified with Him for His purposes. We literally die to self to live for Christ spiritually. This is what Jesus taught in Luke 9:23 when He said, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” My friends, many a person in church today wonders why they do not find the Christian life to be full of purpose, energy and satisfaction. We are supposed to be living by the same resurrection power that brought Christ out of the tomb as we go through our day. We are to be motivated by love for God and people through faith in Christ; this will not be possible if we only live for self-gain and our own ambitions. If we find ourselves lacking today, let us do a little self-examination: are we sure we are in Christ by faith from our heart and are we living for His glory, not our own? Blessings!
Love in Christ,
Pastor Gary Houdek