I was reading a blog posting the other day and ran across this question: Does your “To die for” list look like what Jesus died for?

Which got me to thinking about about two things:

The first is, what does my (your) to die for list look like (sound like)?

• I’m dying for sleep, rest, money, relaxation, retirement, a certain food, clothes, housing…

Now there is nothing wrong with any of those items, except none of them are what Jesus died for.  You see everything on that list is me centered, and certainly leads to an emphasis that the most important thing in life is the physical.

But what about Jesus’ “To die for” list:

• Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
• John 4:34 “…My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”
• John 10:15 “”…I lay down my life for the sheep.”

I think that Jesus instructs us on what our “to die for” list should look like:

• Luke 9:23 “…If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
• Luke 10:2 “…Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
• Luke 12:8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God…”
• Luke 12:31 “Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things [food, clothing, shelter] will be added to you.”
• Luke 14:33 “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

 

You see Jesus died that you and I might be brought into right relationship with the Father through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  As Acts 26:20 puts it “…they[we] should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their [our] repentance.”  Now about that “To die for” list, what additions and subtractions do we have to make on our personal “To die for” list so they look like what Jesus died for?