The most powerful verse in MY Bible is Philippians 1:21. This verse has more impact on me than any verse in the entire Bible when it comes to my walk with Christ. I think that for an outsider to scripture it can seem like a radical text, but to me it is humbling, yet an everyday challenge. To me it speaks of the need to surrender our lives to Him as He surrendered his for us. It speaks of our need to live as Christ, for we are made in His image, and to surrender -- and die to this world -- in order to truly live with our Savior.

Jesus says that unless a grain of wheat dies, it is only a grain of wheat. Only in death can the wheat produce a harvest. Similarly, until we have surrendered ourselves and our lives, we cannot really live in the way that Christ desires we live.

In the book "Everything Belongs," Richard Rohr mentions a need to shed the manufactured identities and worldly boundaries we put up in our lives and to try and get to our "core," and cites Paul's words in Colossians 3. Here Paul describes where we are when we've "died" to the world and given our lives to the Lord. He says we are then "hidden with Christ in God." Paul goes on to say that when we've died, Christ becomes our life. And when he appears, we appear with him in Glory just as He.

This is something to die for, to live for; yet we are reminded in Matthew just how difficult it is, and how few people will truly live. I am challenged daily when I start to wander down the broad road to the wide gate.

Matthew 7:14, John 12:24, Philippians 1:21 and Colossians 3:3