Wed., Nov. 10th Update from Joni

By |Published On: November 10, 2010|Categories: News|

Wednesday, November 10th Update from Joni:

November in sunny California is an odd season — the roses and purple sage along my back fence are expiring in one last burst of color, as if to stave off the coming cold. Not even flowers like to die, I guess. Neither do we Christians, yet lately when I flip through the New Testament, I keep reading “… unless a seed falls to the ground and dies” or “… put to death, therefore” or “… I have been crucified” and finally, “… take up your cross.” It seems from the moment we are born, we need to learn how to live and die.
 
None of us, in our culture of comfort, know how to prepare ourselves for dying, but that’s what we should do. As I shared in a recent Christianity Today interview, every day we are called to die a thousand deaths — not just walking through the valley of the shadow of death when we get a bad medical report; but when we say ‘no’ to our selfish desires or ‘yes’ to trusting God when it’s hard. And nothing helps us learn how to die better than suffering. My struggle with cancer and chronic pain is teaching me on a much deeper level how to yield to Christ and embrace both his cross and mine — at times it’s so hard the only thing I can do is give in and groan alongside my Savior, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.”
 
When I was 14 years old and a new Christian, I wanted my life verse to be Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” I may not have understood it at 14, but that’s how to die — and it brings power, joy, peace and contentment. May God give you and I the strength to lose our lives for Christ’s sake… because that’s when real living starts :-)!

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