When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:19‭-‬21 NLT)

This is a theme that runs through the New Testament. We can’t claim the verses we like, and ignore the sober warning here. To be on firm footing as Christians, we must be “all in”. Jesus made it plain that anyone who claims to be His must “take up their cross daily” and follow Him (Matthew 16:24).

The cross, in that day, was not a shining ornament worn around the neck. It was an instrument of torture!

And yet, “abundant life” (John 10:10) is what we find when we “lose our lives for His sake” (Matthew 16:25) – abundant life that is found in a daily close walk with Him. He is the gift – one which we cannot enjoy with one foot in the world.