This was the last study I did on staying Free as a Christian. This one looked at how to stay with the Gospel and how to carry on as a Christian.
Mark 8:31-38 says some stark statements by Jesus. This is in fact one of my favorite passages in Marks Gospel. Jesus says:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
This whole passage is a challenge. Jesus talks about how we should deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. How do we carry on as a Christian? By not holding on to our lives but giving them up in order to follow Jesus.
This is hard for us because in our culture we have so much, giving all of that up seems like an impossible task! Is it all worth giving up for Jesus?
It is good to examine and look into what things we are tempted to hold on to rather then give them up. What are the specific areas of our lives where we have to take up our cross or lose our life? These are hard questions to chew over but its worth doing.
So how do we stay Free? We stay free by letting go of everything that binds us or everything that takes our focus off Jesus and then we take up our cross and follow Jesus. We stay with the Gospel, because the Gospel is about Jesus and reminds us of who He is, what He has done and how amazing He is. We will therefore see the immeasurable treasure that is Christ which will prompt our heart to let go of everything we have got and go after that which is most beautiful and most wonderful in Christ.
Following Jesus is all about staying Free.
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