God is teaching me so much right now that I can only try to begin to tell you all the things he's doing in my life.  Ministry has been amazing and really encouraging lately.  I was reminded this week that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  I have really been resting in HIS spirit this week.  At the same time, I feel like God is wrecking everything I ever dreamed of.  From the nice house, luxury car, making lots of money, success, comfortable lifestyle, etc.  I'm being called to something greater, which will not always seem greater at times.  The Lord wants all of me; my dreams, hopes, desires, thoughts, actions, passions, schedule, and plan. 

The Lord brought me to the story of Peter's confession of Christ in Luke 9:18-27.  Jesus asked Peter, "Who do you say I am?"  Peter answered, "The Christ of God."  Then Jesus said, "The Son of Man MUST suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."  Then he said to them all:  "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."  These verses have been reigning in my heart and I can only begin to explore this more. 

Greater intimacy comes with greater commitment.  If we want to experience God's intimacy, we must be committed to him in EVERY area of our lives.  Peter was like us; we love walking with Him but don't like the suffering that comes with it.  We must take up our cross to experience intimacy; it comes with a great cost.  Philippians 1:21 says, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."  Self-denial is one of the hardest things for me to comprehend because we live in a society that pursues instant gratification.  Everything is for our "convenience" and it's all about us, when the truth of the matter is that it's not about us, it's only about Christ and pleasing Him.  He's better than the amazing, luxurious lifestyle we could dream of.  Jesus' call on our lives is not comfort, but inconvenience.  Embrace inconvenience to make His name known!  I encourage you to study 2 Corinthians 4:7-12.  Verse 10 says, "We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."  To me this means that through our sufferings his life may be revealed and he will be glorified through it!  We should expect sufferings to come and if we aren't suffering in any way or having to make sacrifices, then we aren't acting as followers of Christ.