Discipleship Dare Day Two - Deny Yourself

Published by Angela | Filed under Uncategorized

I received an email from a Disabled Marine Veteran of the Vietnam War about the same time I first read this chapter.  This is what he had written to me:

During boot camp training, the drill instructors would yell at you  “You joined the Marines to die, and die you’re going to guarding America.”  I almost did. 

I believe they yelled those kind of things at you to get the fear of death out of you and a purpose of mission into you.  It is not something that goes away.  The mission is something you become.   Only I’m that for the Lord now –serving the same people though a Marine for Jesus.” 

Carl, my brother,  was critically wounded in Vietnam and almost died of a gunshot to the brain stem.  He lost most of his hearing, some eyesight, all of his sense of smell and has many shrapnel wounds. His Marine training had prepared him to die.

  “No person is truly alive until he has found a cause he is willing to die for.” The original twelve disciples all literally died for the mission. 

Jesus lived, died and conquered death not for his benefit but for ours.  He changed the course of history by dying for the mission of seeing you and me reconciled to God and living the abundant life.  Now he asks us to follow him in the mission and be willing to die for it.  Die to self – crucify the fleshly comforts that keep us at home in the easy chair, instead of sharing our lives with others.

What is the mission you ask.   “Go, get out of your comfort zones, get out of your church pew, get out where the people are and make disciples.  

In the New Testament time there were no cars, no buses, no bikes,  people walked everywhere.  As they walked they met people, talked with people became involved in their lives.   In the New Testament a persons business was usually just below their home on the first floor.  They had a culture of intermingling business with life. The women gathered at the well to get water and at the lake to wash clothes exchanging stories of their lives.  They naturally shared their stories of the change Christ had made in their lives with those who came into their business.

Today our business and homes are separated.  We go to work, school and everywhere isolated in our cars.  We fear rejection if we share our stories – what will people think?   We have been brain washed that you don’t talk about politics or religion with other people – it can get you in a hot debate or worse, fired from your job.  We lost sight of the mission – we think that’s what we’re paying the pastors for. 

We need a renewed sense of the purpose of the mission.  We need to get the fear of  man out of us and the purpose of mission into us.  The Spirit is saying,  “You’ve got to die, and die your going to –  building the Kingdom. 

Are we living a life worth dying for?  Or did Jesus die in vain? Are we willing to die and what might that mean for each of us?