So, I'm sharing them both! ;-)
The first one is Jesus speaking to a crowd about what it means to follow Him.
Mark 8
34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said,
"If any of you wants to be my follower,
you must turn from your selfish ambition,
take up your cross,
and follow me.
35 If you try to hang on to your life,
you will lose it.
But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News,
you will save it.
36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
37 Is anything worth more than your soul?
38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Whenever I read this passage, I always think of so many people who "gained the whole world" but may have lost their own souls.
********
This next passage begins with John talking about the personhood of Jesus, & then moves into how we then should live in that personhood.
34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said,
"If any of you wants to be my follower,
you must turn from your selfish ambition,
take up your cross,
and follow me.
35 If you try to hang on to your life,
you will lose it.
But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News,
you will save it.
36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
37 Is anything worth more than your soul?
38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Whenever I read this passage, I always think of so many people who "gained the whole world" but may have lost their own souls.
********
This next passage begins with John talking about the personhood of Jesus, & then moves into how we then should live in that personhood.
1 John 1
1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen.
We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands.
He is the Word of life.
2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us,
and we have seen him.
And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life.
He was with the Father,
and then he was revealed to us.
3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us.
And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you:
God is light,
and there is no darkness in him at all.
6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness;
we are not practicing the truth.
7 But if we are living in the light,
as God is in the light,
then we have fellowship with each other,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we claim we have no sin,
we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
9 But if we confess our sins to him,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
10 If we claim we have not sinned,
we are calling God a liar
and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
Today, there is no such thing as sin.
All situations & realities are relative, & are up for interpretation.
There's all kinds of excuses & reasons given for who & what we all our.
We're "living our own truth."
Or "that was then, this is now."
And "there are no absolutes, except there are no absolutes" - which is a profoundly self-negating statement ;-) LOL
John says here that we all sin.
But there is a way out p- if we admit it to ourselves & God, God will forgive us.
But most people today don't buy into the concept of sinning, let alone needing to be forgiven of it.
When I read verse 10 this morning, I thought of the many people in my life who just don't see that a lot of what what they're doing is a sin.
If there's one thing I've become more & more aware of as I've grown older is how sinful I really am.
But our world & our culture seem to teach the opposite - that whatever works for us works.
It seems that every day I see people who are playing fast & loose with their lives...
we just don't seem to grasp the truth that God is so infinitely holy that if we ever drew close to it, it would just incinerate us.
And God & sin cannot co-exist - like oil & water, but raised to an infinite level.
I'm rambling... sorry.
Anyway, I hoe these 2 towering passages have spoken to you in same way & sat some level.
Read through them again, just for good measure, & listen out for what God may whisper to you through them.
1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen.
We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands.
He is the Word of life.
2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us,
and we have seen him.
And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life.
He was with the Father,
and then he was revealed to us.
3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us.
And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you:
God is light,
and there is no darkness in him at all.
6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness;
we are not practicing the truth.
7 But if we are living in the light,
as God is in the light,
then we have fellowship with each other,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we claim we have no sin,
we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
9 But if we confess our sins to him,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
10 If we claim we have not sinned,
we are calling God a liar
and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
Today, there is no such thing as sin.
All situations & realities are relative, & are up for interpretation.
There's all kinds of excuses & reasons given for who & what we all our.
We're "living our own truth."
Or "that was then, this is now."
And "there are no absolutes, except there are no absolutes" - which is a profoundly self-negating statement ;-) LOL
John says here that we all sin.
But there is a way out p- if we admit it to ourselves & God, God will forgive us.
But most people today don't buy into the concept of sinning, let alone needing to be forgiven of it.
When I read verse 10 this morning, I thought of the many people in my life who just don't see that a lot of what what they're doing is a sin.
If there's one thing I've become more & more aware of as I've grown older is how sinful I really am.
But our world & our culture seem to teach the opposite - that whatever works for us works.
It seems that every day I see people who are playing fast & loose with their lives...
we just don't seem to grasp the truth that God is so infinitely holy that if we ever drew close to it, it would just incinerate us.
And God & sin cannot co-exist - like oil & water, but raised to an infinite level.
I'm rambling... sorry.
Anyway, I hoe these 2 towering passages have spoken to you in same way & sat some level.
Read through them again, just for good measure, & listen out for what God may whisper to you through them.
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