July 7, 2013 … Faith Has Consequences Too

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 188

Passage of the Day #1: Romans 6: 4 [Conditional control in The Garden. ] [NLT] …  
4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
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 Contextual Study involving today’s passage found in Romans, Chapter 6 … Go to this link … 
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Reference Passage of the Day #1: Luke 9: 23-24 [Christ’s command to discipleship involves nothing less than the consequences of death of self.] …
23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. ..."

Reference Passage of the Day #2: Romans 12: 1-2 [Faith requires living sacrifice.] …
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

Devotional Song: Go to this link   … Today, please use this link to hear Faith Hill singing, “I Surrender All” which once again challenges all who claim to be in Christ to give all to Him, which becomes the consequences of our faith.

My Journal for Today: Fellow follower of Jesus, you’ve probably heard, someone declare in your discipleship, “… sin has consequences;” … and in your walk as a saved sinner, you’ve undoubtedly experience the outflow of conviction and personal trials brought on by sin.

However, as a Christian I also hope you realize that faith in Christ also has consequences. It’s God’s law of reciprocity. What we sow, … we will reap. We can’t escape the consequences of either sin or faith. There will always be the resultant outcome of either.

I think we all have experienced the dreaded outcomes of sin in our lives; and I hope (and pray) that we all have experienced the outflow which comes from a surrendered – completely surrendered – faith in Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior. What about you, my fellow, born-again Christian? Have you experienced the rejection from a world which hates Jesus? Paul said [see Romans 12: 1-2 above] that we, in living the Christian life, … a life of “living sacrifice,” must do all we can to avoid becoming sucked in by the vortex of the world; and in that process there will be rejection from a world which will do all it can to take away our testimony of victory in Jesus. … Yes, faith in Jesus always produces the consequences of rejection from the world.

Jesus said to any who would follow Him that we disciples must be willing to give up our own desires to follow Him in handling the consequences that faith will mean as we are identified with the cross in this life. When I became a Christian at age 39, I found that I no longer could hold onto my old desires for things like p0rnography; and my “old friends” no longer wanted to identify with my new way of thinking and acting. My faith produced a death of the old self and a rebirth of faith into a new life [see 2nd Cor. 5:17]. Those are the consequences of faith which Jesus, Himself, talked about in Luke 9: 23-24, a passage which I end up quoting so often in my devotional journaling.

But there is one other glorious consequence for giving all to Jesus, as Faith Hill sings about in the song to which I’ve linked you above. And that consequence of faith in being able to reap the fruitfulness of God’s Spirit and not having to live with the outcomes of partaking of the fruit of the flesh. Take a few moments and mediate – with this link  on Galatians 5: 19-26, which will give you what God’s Spirit has for those who’re willing to surrender all – in faith – to Jesus. Which consequences do you want to partake of today … the consequences of the fruit of the flesh or the consequences of surrendering all in faith to our Lord and Savior?

My Prayer for Today … Lord, to You … I surrender all !! … Amen