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LYL: Lose Your Life

A Christ-Centered Pathway to Sacrifice

There are few things Christ mentions in all four gospels.  The Sermon on the Mount is only recorded in Matthew, though a number of its principles are mentioned in another sermon in Luke.  The Golden Rule is only mentioned in Matthew and Luke.  Christ's famous line, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone..." which teaches us about how to treat those who have fallen only appears in one gospel (John 8:7).  The conversation with Nicodemus in John 3 is only recorded once, though we find a similar statement to John 3:16 in Mark 12:6.  People would assert that these as well as many more are core values and tenants of Christian faith.  However, they don't fall into the category of being mentioned across all four gospels.  

Does this make them less valuable than those that do?  Of course not.  All of Christ's actions and utterances deserve our attention and consumption.  However, there is a certain level of reverence that is owed to those that were thought of by all four writers of the gospel to include. Christ's death, burial and resurrection are found in all four gospels along with several key actions and miracles.  The Great Commission-every Christian's purpose in life beyond salvation and relationship with Jesus-is found in every gospel right towards the end along with other great statements and thoughts from our Lord and Savior.  One of those cross-gospel statements is found right in the midst of Christ's ministry on Earth and it cuts us to the quick. 

• He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. (Matthew 10:39)
• For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. (Matthew 16:25)
• 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)
• For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. (Luke 9:24)
• Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. (Luke 17:33)
• He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. (John 12:25)

That's six times that Christ talks about losing or wanting to lose our lives!  When we look further, three of those accounts are from the same story from different accounts (Matthew 16, Mark 8 and Luke 9).  That leaves us with four separate instances Christ talks about losing one's life for the sake of Christ and His Kingdom.  It's clear this is an important idea to God and deserves our further examination.  With that in mind, over the next four weeks, we will learn what it means to lose our lives (a real LOL moment) for the sake of Christ.  We will do so by examining the context surrounding Christ's utterance of this phrase and how it relates to us today.  Here's what you can expect to receive:

Wednesdays:  Weekly devotion detailing the Lose Your Life (LYL) moment, what was going on before Christ spoke the phrase, what spurred him to speak it and what happened directly afterwards.  We will then do our best to relate it to our world and walk today.  

Fridays: ACCESS only activity that helps us to try out the LYL moment discussed on Wednesday.  The activity will be both spiritual and practical in its application and our hope is to here feedback on your results as you try the activities

Mondays: Special creative story that centers around a character struggling with their own LYL moments.  These fictional stories will hopefully provide another perspective of the concept we are covering.  You will be able to read an excerpt on our Compass Page, but the full version will only be available via the ACCESS Page.  

We look forward to sharing this new experience and believe that, due to the season we are in, it is a great way to honor the sacrifice Christ made for us by sacrificing ourselves for him.  Find out how starting this Wednesday!