Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

• Galatians 2:20

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

• Mark 8:34

Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

• Matthew 10:38

And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

• Luke 14:27

“The evidence that I have accepted the Cross of Christ as the revelation of Redemption is that the regenerating life of God is manifested in my mortal flesh. Immediately I accept the Cross of Christ as the revelation of Redemption I am not, I must not be, the same man, I must be another man, and I must take up my cross from my Lord. The cross is the gift of Jesus to His disciples and it can only bear one aspect: ‘I am not my own.’ The whole attitude of the life is that I have given up my right to myself. I live like a crucified man. Unless that crisis is reached it is perilously possible for my religious life to end as a sentimental fiasco. ‘I don’t mind being saved from hell and receiving the Holy Spirit, but it is too much to expect me to give up my right to myself to Jesus Christ, to give up my manhood, my womanhood, all my ambitions.‘ Jesus said, if any man will be my disciple, those are the conditions. It is that kind of thing that offended the historic disciples, and it will offend you and me. It is a slander to the Cross of Christ to say we believe in Jesus and please ourselves all the time, choosing our own way.”

• Oswald Chambers, Daily Thoughts for Disciples (September 8, from Thy Great Redemption (the Highest Good volume))

I heard a few pastors recently say that Jesus loves and accepts you as you are, but do not expect to stay that way.

I like what C.S. Lewis said about it.  Jesus comes in and at first, all He seems to be doing is getting rid of the trash in which you aren’t interested in the first place, but then the changes start to become significant.  Instead of sweeping up, he’s tearing out walls, and adding extensions.  After all, He is preparing a mansion.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued this point that Oswald Chambers is making in his essays on Costly Grace.  When Jesus Christ took up His cross, He went to Golgotha and died for us.  That was costly for Him and His Father, and Jesus says that if we are to follow Him, we must take up our cross also.

But the point is, until Jesus comes into our heart, we neither have the power nor the inclination to change.  And the biggest change is love.  You see love differently, as if you never understood love before.

And if someone wanted to fake it, they cannot make significant changes or the changes are temporary.  It takes God’s power within us to change and to want to change.  Some sins may hang on for a while.  We will never be perfect, but we recognize the sin in our lives, and we want to change.

Then again, there are the gifts of the Holy Spirit to consider.  I, for one, read a chapter in the Bible that I had read the night before and it meant something completely different because the Holy Spirit was already giving me the start of understanding.

C.S. Lewis said in the last “book” of Mere Christianity that some people have so much that needs changing, their friends may have to observe for a while to see notable changes, but they happen in time.  With others, starting the very next day, friends notice a totally different person, and all because of the love God places in your heart.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.