A female pastor shared with me: \u201cI had been coughing for a long time and was feeling very tired and dizzy, but that night I had to drive a distance to preach. I was afraid that my body wouldn\u2019t be able to handle it. That morning I read the President\u2019s desk article \u2018Die for Jesus\u2019, and I thought, I have already given my life to Jesus, I am willing to die for Jesus. I will go like this, and if I die, I die. The amazing thing was, after thinking this, my mood was lifted. I went happily, and I returned happily. Even though the circumstances didn\u2019t change, my heart had changed!\u201d<\/p>\n
I thanked her for sharing and said to her, \u201cThis is what the Apostle Paul was talking about: \u2018I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.\u2019\u201d (Philippians 4:13)<\/p>\n
Baptism is dying for God Brothers and sisters, when we are willing to die for Jesus, only then can we live for Jesus. In fact when you are baptized, you have decided to die for Christ, as the Bible says: \u201cOr don\u2019t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?\u201d (Romans 6:3)<\/p>\n
When I understood \u201cdie for Jesus\u201d, I also learned to \u201clive for Christ\u201d. In my marriage, I learned to love my wife more. For example, everyone knows that I love playing basketball. I play almost every day, rain or shine. But when I was willing to die for Christ, I learned to \u201clive for Christ\u201d. I would think about how my wife loves walking as exercise. Even though I don\u2019t like it, I was willing to live for Christ, so I was willing to learn to lay down my rights and my pleasures, and accompany her occasionally on her walks.<\/p>\n
The Bible says: \u201c14 For Christ\u2019s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised again.\u201d (2 Corinthians 5)<\/p>\n
Christ\u2019s love compels us<\/strong> Friends, you need to receive this sacrificial love, to trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Only then will Christ\u2019s love compel you. This love causes you to love God and love people. This love makes you to have \u201chigh fever\u201d. We have died with Christ. From now on, we do not live for ourselves, but we live for Christ.<\/p>\n A young brother in Christ, compelled by Christ\u2019s love, immediately took action, to die for Christ, and to live for Christ. At 4 or 5 in the early morning, he would kneel to read the Bible and pray. He was willing to sacrifice his sleep to draw closer to God, to express his love for God.<\/p>\n A father, compelled by Christ\u2019s love, heard the heartfelt words of his child and understood he was in the wrong. He confessed to his child and asked for forgiveness, and his relationship with his child became as loving as before. This father was willing to sacrifice his \u201cface\u201d to love his child.<\/p>\n Brothers and sisters, \u201cliving for Christ\u201d will positively impact your love for God and your love for other people.<\/p>\n \u201cLiving for Christ\u201d is also obeying Jesus Christ\u2019s greatest commandment: \u201c30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31 The second is this: \u2018Love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019 There is no commandment greater than these.\u201d (Mark 12)<\/p>\n By Rev Dr Tie King Tai, SCAC President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A female pastor shared with me: \u201cI had been coughing for a long time and was feeling very tired and dizzy, but that night I had to drive a distance to preach. I was afraid that my body wouldn\u2019t be able to handle it. That morning I read the President\u2019s desk article \u2018Die for Jesus\u2019, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,230,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWe decide to \u201cdie for Christ, live for Christ\u201d, because Christ\u2019s love compels us. His love is a love to the point of dying for us.<\/p>\n