Blue Prints To Real Life

Hosea 14 --  Repentance to bring blessing.
V.1 -  Return, O Israel to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall.
God's cry to the people he has chosen to reveal himself to. He has protected them, delivered them out of slavery, fed them, gave them water, established them as a nation. Gave them a King even though he warned them about what would happen. Now, once again, Israel has turned their back on God to pursue the gods of the nations around them. "Your sins have been your downfall." We discount the effects sin plays in our daily lives. Psychologists reject the notion of sin (at least that is what I have been told). The idea of late has been that all we need to be successful is to feel good about ourselves. Have a positive image of "self". Take my word on this (not to mention the Word of God...a.k.a. the Bible) that only Jesus can break the power of my sin.  Scrubbing Bubbles ain't got nothing on Jesus. I'm talking divine clean.

I think every problem that mankind has faced as a species and as individuals can be traced back to a sin nature. Murder, greed, immorality, jealousy, you name it........all originates from the bent in our nature that we can thank Adam for. "Don't eat the fruit!".....oops...too late.

Jesus said in Luke 9:23...."Hey anyone out there who wants to follow me......(The emphasis is on "anyone"). This is an invitation to leave the place you currently occupy, not only physically, but spiritually and mentally,and go with him. Go where? With Jesus. He leads.......we follow. Pretty simple, but I want to complicate it, which reveals that very nature he wants to remove from me. Selfish....what's in it for me.....kind of attitude.

Jesus continues in the Luke 9:23 passage...."Deny yourself and daily take up your cross."
Deny myself?
"Myself" is what gets me in trouble.
I have worshipped at the altar of "Great Me!"
"Me" was the god I worshipped.
I gave "Me" whatever it desired, even if it meant breaking the law sometimes.
I fed it.
I nurtured it.
And all it did was cry out for more.
Pretty soon it became more about "ME" and less about myself.
This is the nature or attitude I have been talking about when I referred to the sin nature.
For the most part, we would not carve a graven image out of stone or wood and worship it.
But boy howdy do we bend the knee to "ME".
"ME" usurps the rightful place that God should occupy in my heart and in my life.
I reject the directions of God to embrace the demands of "ME".
This very  notion of what I have just written about, is why I am in such a great need for a Savior.
That is why I turned away from sin and gave myself wholly unto Jesus.

I celebrate the death of "ME" and the inclusion of God's Holy Spirit into my life.
I celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus because it was the act that broke the power of "ME" and allowed me to triumph over "ME".
He is a great God......

God on you...
mb