In last three weeks’ studies, Cruxhost spoke to us about disappointment. With God and with ourselves... and last week we spoke about others. We spoke about letting go, about knowing when an association would be more of a burden than a blessing, and when God lets us know that for that person’s own good, and our own, we may need to take a step back. But I’d like to revisit that second phase once more, concerning ourselves, but from another angle: When do we hold on to the plans and desires we have? And when do we let go?

In our Christian walk, we will find many occasions to make decisions. Do I go here, or there? Do I speak to this person, or just walk by? Shall I marry this one, or that one? How do we know which is the right way?

Well, surely some things are left up to individual conscience. Paul wrote about matters like marriage, giving his views on the virtues of being joined to another person and remaining single, but ultimately, he says... it’s really up to you.

"But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you." (1 Cor 7:28)

There are purposely no "commandments" given about certain aspects of our lives, for how can we say we are free if we have our every move dictated? Some things we should rather die than commit, like denying Christ, for one extreme example. These are "convictions." Other things are up to us, these are "pereferences." Naturally, there is a pattern, and that pattern is the life of Christ - but while we are to have His SPIRIT, we will not have His circumstances, His memories, His exact experiences.

But now, there are some things which there ARE commands about. Love your neighbor as yourself. Worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Seek first the kingdom of Heaven.

Tonight we are going to talk about these things: submitting to the will of God in our lives. Now, this isn’t always an easy thing to do - particularly if they go contrary to our desires, or against the plans we have made. Sometimes the obvious answer isn’t always the right one - and this was exhibited very plainly in the book of Jeremiah.

The scene is this: Babylon is invading Jerusalem, and the chosen people are in danger of being wiped out by foreign armies. The young prophet Jeremiah speaks to the people an extremely unpopular message. God tells Jeremiah this, our key passage: "And unto this people thou shalt say, 'Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey. For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.'" (Jer 21:8-10)

That must have hurt. Both for him to speak it, and for the dignitaries of the nation to hear it. Jeremiah must have been hesitant, and describes the message, "But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." (Jer 20:9)

Notice the phrase, "the way of life and the way of death." This isn’t the first time such language has been used while addressing the people of God. It was also spoken by Moses after the people of Israel had hear the way of the Father, and were rededicating themselves to Him.

"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." (Deu 30:19)

Sometimes, there are certain decisions we MUST make, such as accepting Christ. I’m sure most if not all of us will agree this is an absolutely necessary step towards eternal life. I’m certain you can come up with lots of verses with the Son declaring He was the only way to the Father.

Now in the case of Jeremiah, we see that this was a theme through several of the chapters of this book. Remain in the doomed city and die. Surrender to the invaders and live. It was a simple decision - a way of life and death.

So how do we apply this to our modern times? How do we apply this to our daily lives? Consider this verse: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24)

It’s often this way. When we try to come to terms with how holy the Father is, and how wretched our own righteousness is before Him... we feel unworthy of life. We may fall on our faces, we may consider ourselves dead. The prophets who saw a vision of God sitting on His throne all describe feelings of utter despair when faced with those glorious images of perfection.

Who will deliver me from this body of death? Even a born-again Christian is not above temptation. Christ Himself was "tempted in all points," so surely we will suffer the desires of the flesh. We are promised we can overcome these through the grace of Christ, but we know we will not be free of temptations themselves for a little while yet.

"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." (Gal 5:24) Do you start to see the parallel with Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day yet?

Have any of you read "Pilgrim’s Progress," by John Bunyan, or have heard of it before? You may know the plot - the hero, "Christian," must leave his home, allegorically called, "The City of Destruction," in order to start his journey to salvation. This is the precise message Jeremiah brings to the Israelites, only it’s the actual city they must leave.

So we have seen the message once in the physical world, in allegory... and now, for the modern Christian, here it is in spirit: Our "old selves," are doomed cities. From our birth, we have not known Christ. We have done things in ignorance and on purpose that were contrary to God’s plan for our lives. As Paul says of Greek idolatry: "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31)

So now that we have repented of our former lives, and accepted the grace of Christ, we are born again, correct? And we are led by the Spirit of God, right? If we claim this, we do well, for then we will have accepted the promise the Son left with us: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:26)

Good, so then you see that when the Spirit lays before you the will of God, and it is a dramatic choice - It also will lay before you the way of life and death. As Paul said in the Galatians verse, those who are in Christ will "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." In other words, we will put God’s will before our own wishes. If we cling to what we want even when the Spirit of God specifically instructs us to do something, is this obedience? I am sure we pass up many blessings for both ourselves and others when we do this. The key word here is SUBMIT.

Let us look at the first two verses of our key text again: "And unto this people thou shalt say, 'Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.'" (Jer 21:8-9)

Those who are stubborn to the leadings of the Spirit, these are they who remain within the doomed city when the fires begin. The basic message here is - true faith will always lead to obedience.

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous." (1 John 5:3)

Having the love of God, the true Spirit, that makes the commands He gives us easy yokes to bear, and they are our delight, if we know we are doing the best possible good for everyone. We just have to put away this little thing called pride.

Consider the Jeremiah example again. What possible reasons could the people have had for not wanting to leave the doomed city? Pride, certainly, and also comfort... familiarity, all of these. Aren’t these the same reasons we may cite when we cling to our fleshy desires? But we are called to leave that doomed city so we can live. The paradox is this: The way that seems to lead to death is actually life, and the way that seems to lead to life is truly death. What do I mean by this?

"Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it." (Luke 17:33) The Savior taught us to take up our crosses and follow Him. This is submission unto death of self, and unto life with Him forever. One of my more commonly repeated verses is this: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Gal 2:20)

Notice, Christ could have fled the test at any time, but He chose to bear the cross to His appointed place, and then he did the exact OPPOSITE of dodge His burden. He had them nail Him to it! This is what we are to do also. We shouldn’t seek to avoid our responsibilities, we should never try to escape God’s appointed place for us in regards to the calling He has for each of us.

Rather let us say, "Father, this task may be difficult for me, but I know I can do all things through you. By my faith, I will go forward in your name, and let not MY will be done, but YOURS." This is what Christ did, and it is surely what we are to do.

It must have hurt the Israelites to leave their home city. But in order to live, they had to go where God called them to go. We also are to leave our doomed cities of self, and pride, and all those fleshy-desires that stand in the way of our connection with the Father, and bring ourselves into submission, into captivity to Christ.

"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.""(Luke 15:4-6)

See what Christ does to His erring sheep... He lays them on His shoulders, and brings them home. He doesn’t walk behind the sheep. He doesn’t lead it by a cord. He brings the sheep into the fold with His own power, on His own shoulders, with His own body. It is not by our merits we are saved, not by our efforts can we do the will of the Father. All we must do is submit, and let HIM carry us home.

Yes, it can be scary to give up our notions of what our lives should be. On the shoulders of a man, a young sheep may get quite nervous. It may struggle a little. But Christ is strong enough to hold us upright. We just have to trust and not give Him too much trouble about it :)

"Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32) What a wonderful verse. Fear not! Do not be afraid of leaving your comfort zones. Do not be afraid of dying to self. Those old bodies were destined for death in Adam anyway. But now in Christ, when we are reborn, we are destined for life eternal.

Some of us have accepted this already. Some of us still struggle with it, and for a few of you, a lot of this may be new. This is why fellowship is so important. The elders teach the younger, and so all grow. For those who have come to this place already, the commandment is now: "And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation." (Psa 35:9) "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." (Phil 4:4)

For those who have not quite settled into the truth of the cross yet, there is this: "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off." (Deu 30:11) "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it."" (Deu 30:14-16)

The challenge for everyone is to always give God our very best. Let us be bold and fearless in moving forward in what we know He has called us to do. And if we don’t know yet, let us be fearless to ask, even if it may involve leaving our comfortable "cities" of self and pride. Is it scary at first? Yes, a little, but we know we will have all we need.

"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." (Eze 36:26)

When we have surrendered to Christ, we are new creatures... and we are well able to do what He asks of us; moreover, it is our pleasure to do so. Let us examine ourselves and see if Christ is not calling us out of a city today, and let us choose to be captured by Him, and taken home. Rejoice if you have done so, and if not, the Bride and Spirit say, "Come."

"I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily." (1 Cor 15:31)

"I die daily," so that I may live. This is the way of life and death.

David.