From today’s Palm Sunday sermon:
Worldliness and godliness represent two different approaches to life. Worldliness is dedicated to the futile, vain desire to avoid death at all costs. Worldliness says don’t let go, don’t give up, don’t surrender (to God), get what you can and hold it in a death grip. Worldliness isn’t about lipstick or some kinds of music. If only it were so easy! Rather, worldliness is not wanting to take up your cross daily and follow Christ.
Godliness, on the other hand, is about death and fruitfulness. The abundant life that Christ offers requires dying daily, following Jesus to the cross and the tomb, and living the resurrection life in Him on the other side. But no one wants to die. That is the center of worldly thinking. Dying daily means putting others first, letting go, giving ourselves up (for our parents, our children, our spouses, our neighbors). If we want to know Jesus, we must follow Him, and that’s the path He has taken.
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wow – great words.
*Sigh* Thank you…much needed wisdom before Monday 🙂
You wrote: “Worldliness isn’t about lipstick or some kinds of music. If only it were so easy! Rather, worldliness is not wanting to take up your cross daily and follow Christ.”
Those are profound words. I had to read them several times to adequately absorb their entirety. I admit I can get caught up in avoiding the “worldly things”… but worldliness isn’t things, it’s an attitude. A wrong way of approaching life, a centering of life on the self, rather than the Lord. Thanks for showing me this truth in a new way?
This is exactly what my husband and I were talking about this morning. We have been asking ourselves and asking God to show us in which areas has He been requiring us to pick up our crosses and are we obeying or not.