GOD’S WORD FOR OCTOBER 4

We are reading from a daily devotional  called “Running To Win” written by Erwin Lutzer  and the late, great D.L. Moody.   Erwin Lutzer is a light in our day as D.L. Moody was in his.  Besides his many ministries, and many books, Pastor Lutzer was Senior Pastor at Moody Church in Chicago for 36 years and now serves as Pastor Emeritus there.  He is  Chancelor and a former professor at Moody Bible Institute, where he taught Theology and Ministry, and now has numerous radio teachings.

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DYING TO LIVE

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24

D.L. MOODY

Take a little black flower seed and sow it; after it has been planted some time, dig it up. If it is whole, you know that it has no life; but if it has begun to decay, you know that life and fruitfulness will follow. There will be a resurrected life; and out of that little black seed will come a beautiful, fragrant flower.

Here is a disgusting grub, crawling along the ground. By and by old age overtakes it, and it begins to spin its own shroud, to make its own sepulchre, and it lies as if in death. Look again and it has shuffled off its shroud, it has burst its sepulchre open, and it comes forth a beautiful butterfly, with different form and habits.

So with our bodies. They die, but God will give us glorified bodies in their stead. This is law of the new creation as well as the old: light after darkness; life after death; fruitfulness and glory after corruption and decay.

ERWIN LUTZER

Moody’s illustration is Biblical: When we die, we are like a seed that has fallen into the ground, but shall be raised with an incorruptible body. We are sown in weakness, but raised with strength. There will be both continuity with our present body, but also discontinuity (see 1 Cor. 15:35–49). For we shall have a body “like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).

The point Jesus was making in John 12:24 not only applies to our physical death and resurrection, but to our present life. We must die to ourselves. As someone has said, we cannot pray, “thy kingdom come” until we have prayed, “let my kingdom die.” Dying to self-will is the most challenging struggle we will ever have. In our sinfulness, we cling to self-will until our knuckles turn white. There is truth in the statement that we must “let go and let God.”

    PRAYER

    Father, teach me to die that I might live only unto thee.

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Matthew 16:24

    “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’

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Luke 14:27

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

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Mark 8:34

    “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.’”

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Galatians 2:20

    “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.”

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Romans 12:1

    “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

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Matthew 10:39

    “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

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Philippians 3:8

    “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”

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Luke 9:23

    “Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.’”

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1 John 2:15-16

    “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”

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