Erase me... It's the only way you get glory

I have been dealing with a phrase the past few days that I believe embodies everything that is essential about serving the Lord. This one thing is the rise and fall for many believers and has become the most daunting task as of late for me as a minister, a preacher and a child of God. The phrase in all of its three-syllable glory rings like this… “Erase me”. I want to lay this out so you get it and keep it and hopefully die to yourself today. Think of it like this. You know how you could write your name in huge letters on an old black chalk board and then erase it and your name be gone but the residue of the chalk be left in a big white smear? I hope you got that visual, because it is a beautiful parallel to how our lives should be in Christ. We should be erased into his presence in such a way that when we are looked at… in every area of life people no longer see you and I, but a life smeared and erased into the presence of God. So in turn they look and identify us as being Godly, Chosen, and Different. It is the only way. I mean this with complete love and humility but for you and I to be productive for God means that you and I have to become less and less. It was said once like this… “ I pray that some of us go to our own funerals tonight…and that we die to self… that we pick up the cross that God has called us to carry…it is the only way that God can get glory from a human”. The cross that God has called us to carry is one that screams for selflessness, compassion, humility, and abandonment of our own desires. It is a cross that demands our time, passion, energy and gratitude. It is a cross that demands our lives. The bible says that no one in their right mind would build a house without first counting the cost. Count it. Before you pick up the cross you understand and know that to be successful at following Christ you have to learn to die…every single day. Can you handle that? In place of your name is His. In place of your wants… His, in place of your dreams… His. I have this to say with absolute confidence. When you give your life to the cause of Christ, His dreams become your dreams, His wants become yours, and his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead become the most exciting thing you’ll ever speak of. In confession I will say this. I have not obtained a perfect life of dieing to myself. Everyday I want my way… I mean it is my nature but cannot be my excuse. The remedy. I MUST decrease so that Christ can increase. If that does not happen then talk is just talk and words are just words. In lieu of that statement I am off to carry my cross. Want you join me?