“Sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay.”
I remember a friend relaying to me how she found herself doing things she never imagined she was capable of doing. She had taken a path that led her away from the Lord. She ended up wandering so far from God she felt she would never find her way back.
In Mark 12:1-11, Jesus shares a parable and to be honest I find the actions of the husbandmen rather appalling. I even find their thought process inconceivable, “Let’s kill the heir, then the inheritance will be ours!” I mean really?!?
How did they get there? The same way that any of us get there.
Obviously, they took ownership of something that was not theirs to take. They did not see themselves as servants, stewards or managers of another’s property.
I Corinthians 6:19-20 clearly teaches that we are not our own and we have been bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus.
If I am honest with myself then I understand my body, time, relationships, possessions, and more do not belong to me. They belong to God. I must be careful to keep this in mind.
The path to taking ownership is the path to loss and destruction. Once we are on this path we can become so distant from God that our life can take unbelievable turns and we end up where we never dreamed we would be doing the unimaginable.
But, just as there is a path to loss, there is a path to deliverance. It may start with a prayer like this:
“I am thine, save me;” Psalm 119:94
“All to Jesus I surrender
Make me Savior wholly thine
May Thy Holy Spirit fill me
May I know Thy power divine”
Only Jesus has the power to save and deliver! And only when we are willing to lose our life in Him.
Theme Verse:
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.” Mark 8:35
“Lose” from the Greek word “Apollymi” means “to destroy fully.” It is translated “destroy” in Mark 12:9, our verse for today.
“What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.” Mark 12:9