Go To Where There Is No Lasting City

[S] Hebrews 13:13-14 --
 ¹³So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. ¹⁴For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.

[O] Just like the Mosaic times of giving sacrifices to God (vv. 11-12) the animals used as offering for sin are burned outside the city gate, Jesus suffered outside the gate as well symbolizing that He was our sin offering.  Denying myself to follow Christ is to go outside the gate myself to a place of outcast where Jesus was crushed selflessly.  It is not a place of establishment of a lasting city but a place where God will establish His city in the future for eternity on that foundation.  If you ever looked at the construction site preparing to build a large building, it's a mess with all kinds of equipments and foundational materials digging away into the dirt.  But once that process is over and then the actual construction of the structure takes place, before we know it an awesome building will take place on top of that messy place of nothing but dirt.  That's what I envision here because in the desolate and "messy" scene of the crucified Christ outside the gate is only a temporary and yet necessary foundation for the lasting city to come.

[A] How am I going to join the crucified Christ outside the gate rather than staying inside the comfortable city?  For me, it's about dying to myself more by smoothing out the rough edges of "pride" that sticks out, at times even without my awareness, through interactions with people close to me.  This time it was feeling self-righteous or self-justifiable caused me to pride over others.

[P] Dear Father, why is that I keep failing to follow the footsteps of Jesus' humility outside the gate?  More I reflect, more I am so awed by Christ's complete humility (when He didn't have to at all).  Please grant me just a fraction of that humility to rule my life.  Lead me to that desolate place where there isn't anything so that I will witness Your everlasting city establish itself there to live in there forever.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.