“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33)
As we concluded in the previous study, Cassie René Bernall, a student at Columbine High School in 1999, was asked by
one of the gunmen, who was also a fellow student, if she believed in God, while
he had a gun pointed at her, she bravely and boldly replied "Yes", and then he
killed her. (see THE GOSPEL: Price of Being a Follower of Christ - pt.1) Jesus said..., “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he
may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me
shall never die. (John 11:25-26) Yes, we all will die physical deaths, All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. (Ecclesiastes 3:20) All flesh would perish together, And man would return to dust.(Job 34:15) But we are more than flesh and blood; we are also both soul and body, and spirit, and ...the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it. (Ecclesiates 12:7) And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, (Hebrews 9:27); we will either choose on this side of eternity to have Jesus confess [us] before My Father who is in heaven, or we will choose to have Him deny [us] before My Father who is in heaven.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matthew 10:34-39) Choosing Christ may cause division in our relationships with other, including our relatives. We have to understand that when God spoke the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before Me." (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronoy 5:7), He meant absolutely nothing and no one can come before Him in our lives. (see Ten Commandments & Christ)
We can't love anything in this world or of this world more than we love God, and we demonstrate this commitment to God by becoming more Christ like. You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. Of course, your former friends [and family] are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. But remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead. (I Peter 4:2-5 NLT)
“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.” (Matthew 10:40-42) If we witness or testify to people about Christ Jesus and they "receive" what we're telling them, they are also "receiving" the Truth of Who God is; because of their acceptance, they will also receive the "rewards" or benefits of believing. Just as God blessed the widows who received the prophets of old into their homes and fed them, as they traveled sharing God's Word, and God blessed them because of it (I King 17:8-24; II Kings 4:1-7), God will bless us if we do the same.
And if we help the cause of Christ by helping those who are doing the work of God, And whoever gives one of these little ones [workers for Christ] only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, God will bless us. But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:9-12)
In summary, the be a follower of Christ, He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30) We must not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2) Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:5-7) And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28) Finally, He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. (John 9:23) Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. (Matthew 11:1)
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