I've Bad News and Good News

i believe it is both very hard and very easy to be a follower of Jesus. it is very hard bc our job is to surrender completely to Him.

we use various phrases to describe it...but it is always the same.

surrender.
dying to self.
living for Jesus.
taking up our cross.

that's hard stuff. no one wants to die. no one wants to pick up thier cross. chickens surrender, not men. the living for Jesus part we like...but in order to live forHim, you have to die to you...

even after we "die to ourselves"...we pick it (our lives) back up again. we choose to do things in our own power, with our own guidance, with little or no regard how it effects others, never mind our relationship with Jesus.

death must be a regular event for us...a daily event...an hourly event...a moment by moment event...

and death is hard. it is hard to be a follower of Jesus.

but, then (once we get past the death thing) it is easy.

bc it is His work. it is He who works in us to "will and to do that which is pleasing in His sight". it is His to renew us day by day. He leads us. He feeds us. He weeds us. He even seeds us, again.

all when we live our lives surrendered to Him.