Dying to Self

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 22nd of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Jonah 1:12:

“Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” - 

Dying to self, preferring your fellow man. Then we go to John 11:50 and of course, the chief priest, Caiaphas, did not even know what he was talking about when he said:

”…one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” 

He was talking about Jesus. Jesus Christ was sacrificed for you and me, my dear friend. You see, Jonah knew that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and so in order to save those crewmen and to save the ship he said, ”Please throw me overboard.” When the high priest soldiers came into the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, you know what He did? Yes, the same thing that He always does. He said, ”Let these go their way I am the one that you want.” (John 18:8) He was prepared to sacrifice His life for you and for me.

I’m just thinking of William Carey, that country boy from England, who went all the way with his young wife and children to India to preach the Gospel. He became a great Bible translator. He translated the Bible from English into many other languages. Sanskrit was a very difficult language. This man was uneducated, but He did it for the sake of the Gospel but it cost him dearly. He lost his wife, she died there and some of his children. He paid an incredible price. 

Jim Elliot went to the Amazon jungle to preach the Gospel, and at the age of 29 years old, he was murdered, but through his death, many came to Christ. He said, ”It is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Today, you and I, let us lay our lives down for our fellow man and then we will really start living for Christ.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.