| STAY THE SAME AND DIE - TAKE UP THE CROSS, LOSE YOUR LIFE AND LIVE! |
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Mark 8:34-5 NIV
Jesus is the gentle Savior and compassionate Healer. But the heart of his work was to be the Lamb of God that goes to the cross in order to take way the sins of the world. Because our sins were already dealt with the Holy Spirit creates faith in our heart to believe that God no longer sees our sin, but sees us pure and holy, just like Jesus!
Why then should we listen to Jesus‘ call to take up our cross and follow him? The Holy Spirit gives the gift of faith to believe in Jesus and know that heaven is our home. But there remains a great challenge on this earth. To be a follower of Jesus means that we are called to die. Die to self in order that we might emerge with new life and victory.
Luther makes this clear in the Small Catechism, Baptism-Part Four:
What does such baptizing with water indicate?
It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, that that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before
God in righteousness and purity forever.
Where is this written?
St. Paul writes in Romans, chapter six: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:4
Take up the cross - renew your Baptisms every day. Die to sin and self and arise to a new life of loving service. Sin is turning inward on ourselves. Forgiven, we turn outward. We are to live in Christ by faith - and live in our neighbor by love. That love will flow only as we rejoice sin and self and offer
our lives to be the common clay pots that bring the treasure to others. Jesus, Priceless Treasure. (see 2 Corinthians 4:5-18)
HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO OUR LIFE TOGETHER AT GRACE?
The invitation is both personal and corporate. One by one we are to return again to our Baptism and there die in order to rise to new life. So it is with the congregation as a whole. Someone put it this way: “We are to die as a church and be born as God’s mission.”
To die as a church means the end of focusing upon ourselves. Look at what we do as a congregation. Jesus tells us we are to be on the move in order to make disciples. But so much of our activities, though good in themselves, are for our own enjoyment and comfort.
“Church” for many is a gathering of people doing what I like, giving me satisfaction and having things the way I want them to be. To die as a church is painful. It does not mean that we stop loving and caring for one another. Of course that continues. But we are to lift our eyes, look carefully at the harvest field at our doorstep and offer ourselves individually and as a congregation to be born as God’s mission.
The new mission logo for our Synod puts this together in a three-fold theme:
WITNESS, MERCY and LIFE TOGETHER
INDIA BLESSINGS
Working with the US India team for eight days and then staying for another three weeks to teach five Community Transformation Center church planter teams was another amazing, God-blessed time. Each CTC team is made up of twelve young missionaries who are on fire for Jesus and share the Good News and his heart in the power of the Spirit in their assigned villages.
When I asked one of the CTC teams how many of them were converted to Christ from Hinduism, of the twelve, eleven hands went up. All the teams reported opposition to the Gospel in some areas, but they gave many stirring testimonies of the way Jesus has touched the hearts of Hindu people who now have come to Christ. Praise and thanks to God!
Many thanks are also in order to the family of Grace for your prayer support and generous gifts. Jesus reaching the lost through us is the main reason we are still on earth.
We are God’s mission!
Pr. Ferd
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