ASHAMED OF JESUS?

ASHAMED OF JESUS?

The word "advantaged" occurs just once in the new testament:

For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?  Luke 9:25

Wikipedia defines advantage as follows:

To have the advantage or be advantaged.  to assist, to be useful or advantageous, to profit

In tennis it means you only need one more point to win the game.  In military terms it is "the superiority in elevation which one side enjoys over the opposing element (Advantage of terrain)". 

To have the advantage or be advantaged is usually a good thing.

The Bible asks the question, what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? 

The next verse, Luke 9:26,  links gaining the world, and losing himself, with being ashamed.  Luke 9:26

For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.

I want to focus on the link between advantage and shame for a minute. 

Often we are faced with choices.  Decisions.  And their are times when those decisions make us ashamed of Jesus.  For example, we know we should feed our spiritual side, with church going, Bible reading, prayer, but we don't, we choose not to.  We know we should do good deeds, good works, such as working in the church, or in the community to help others.  But we don't.  When we make a decision to leave Jesus out, preferring some other activity, ignoring His word, isn't that being ashamed?  If we spend our time talking about God and Jesus, reading His word, fellowshipping with other Christians, and praying, doesn't that mean we are choosing to focus on Him?  The scripture is telling us that we can gain the whole world, but are we truly advantaged if the price for that is losing ourselves, being cast away from usefulness to God?  What good is our advantages in the world if it makes us useless to God and makes us ashamed of Jesus.

The penalty for being ashamed of Jesus is that, when he returns, and he will, he will be ashamed of us.  Jesus is coming back a glorified Man, a Superman, unlike no other.  He is coming in the clouds, indicating he will be flying without an airplane.  He will arrive, not just in his own glory, but also in the glory of His Father, and the holy angels.  A trinity of glory.  What magnificence.

Luke 9:26

For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.

Do we really want to risk Jesus being ashamed of us, because we were ashamed of him, and used our time and energy focusing on the world, instead of glorifying God and Jesus?

The truth is, we are truly advantaged when we follow Jesus, unashamedly:

Luke 9:23

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Luke 9:24

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

Daily Bible Reading and Study Report

SEPTEMBER/04/2013

READ:
2 Kings Chapter 9
Lamentations Chapter 5
2 Corinthians Chapter 3-4

Bible Study:  30 minutes

Daily Prayer Report

SEPTEMBER/04/2013

Evening Prayer:  15 minutes
Morning Prayer:  30 minutes
Noon Prayer:       15 minutes  

(DEER)

Daily Exercise Report

SEPTEMBER/04/2013

Pull Ups - 20
Crunches - 100
Ab Work (Crunches, leg lifts, bicycling legs) - 4 minutes
Push Ups - 65

P.S.

In the movie Imitation of Life, a woman has grown up all her life ashamed of the fact that her mother is black.  The woman can pass for white, and, she decides to do so, ashamed of her mother, and keeping her mother out of her life to keep her secret.  She did it because it gave her an advantage in the world.  We too can often pass and get an advantage  in this world if we keep our relationship with Jesus a secret.  But oh how ashamed of ourselves we will be, when Jesus returns, and is ashamed of us.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father,  Thank you for Jesus.  Help me to never be ashamed of Him, so He can never be ashamed of me. In Jesus Name, Amen.