TAKE UP THE KNIFE

Death never felt so good.

Ok, I'm talking in spiritual terms for those of you who are shaking your heads at my opening line. For those of you who understand about death to your flesh you'll understand this next question. What takes us so long? We know God's word is true yet we hold back at times when we should dive in. Some how we think that if we hold on to these little areas in our life that it will make us happy. And it might for a moment, but ultimately it will become the very thing that robs our joy. Our flesh may be enjoying it but there is no real inner peace. It's a lousy substitute for the real thing. The way to life is by way of death. Not just life in the sweet bye and bye but now, here on this earth. There's a line in the movie Braveheart that says " All men die but not all men really live." I love that line. So much of our lives where we think that we're really living, is just a poor substitute to the abundant life that Christ promised to us. I find that when it's all about me, and whats on my list of whats important and whats not, thats when I am the most miserable .

Yesterday I was leaving my house with my little list of errands and feeling like there was not enough time in the day to do all I wanted to do and I was feeling a bit low. I hadn't gotten out of my neighborhood when my cell phone rang. It was a neighbor of mine from the beach. Her daughter had seen a color in my beach house and had asked if I would try to find the name of the color for her. To do that I would have to go to the store where I bought the paint and look through all the similar colors in hopes of determining which one it was. My flesh which was trying to raise its ugly head by this point and was telling me how easy it would be to say I would try to get around to it but I'm pretty busy at the moment. I found my self reciting an old saying that hung on my mothers wall all my life growing up. I could recite the first line, "If your life is unselfish, if for others you live," but for some reason the rest would not come. It didn't matter, I knew enough of the word of God. I could draw from any number of scriptures like the one that says " If someone asks for your shirt give him your coat too. " If he asks you to walk a mile with him , walk two. I knew in my heart what the Spirit would have me do I just had to take out the knife and cut off the old flesh. It was amazing what happened the moment I took up the knife and delivered the first blow. I was flooded with joy , I had a whole new outlook on my day. When I changed my plans to help someone else I found real joy. The popular saying you see on everything now days that reads " Its all about me" is a lie from the pit of hell. I want my teeshirt to read " Its not about me, never has been , never will be.

I want my life to be about Jesus, to glorify Him. When others look and me I don't want them to see me, I want them to see Jesus.