We are not called to be successful in accordance with ordinary standards, but in accordance with a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying, becoming in that way what it never could be if it were to abide alone.
~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
~Jesus, King of The Universe, in John 12
Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.
~1 Cor 15:36
Oh beloved, it is true. There is this terribly painful aspect of our walks with and in Christ. There is this old husk of our fleshly selves that must die. And this death is not the sure future falling asleep of our bodies. It is, rather, a death that happened with Him at the cross, and is now to be reckoned true in our lives. We gotta die before we can truly live for Him. Said even more simply: sin must no longer be an acceptable option in our lives.
But…
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
~Psalm 23:4
And…
On the other side of that death of our old man is a simply, gloriously, wonderfully abundant Life in Him. There is this germination into our new existence. It is the beginning of a beautiful process wherein our lives will be used to produce orders of magnitude of more Life in others around us.
And as we grow, there is this process of being pruned that is really more of a bathing in the flow of His blood as it cleanses away the rotting dead flesh of our old lives. This cleansing making way for more of Him to have dominion in our existence – that we might live even more abundantly to the bearing of much more fruit.
Yeah, He saves us from our sins. But then, gloriously, He saves us from even ourselves – that our lives might be used to save others.
This is very Good News!
The nature of Christ’s salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist. He announces a Savior from Hell rather than a Savior from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness.
~Arthur W. Pink
