This sobering fact brings to us tremendous privilege and serious responsibility.
Discipleship is a name for self-control and becoming steadfast in unwavering loyalty to Jesus. Even if it causes (Luke 14:26) hurt to loved ones because discipleship travels in a new direction. Love and loyalty to Jesus must always come first; must always dominate our lives. Loyalty to Jesus (Mark 8:34) means self-denial.
Jesus sent out the 12 disciples (Matthew 10:5, Luke 10:1) and later 70 to leave their homes and villages and go to other towns to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead. While they were obeying Him in places strange to them. He went Himself and taught in their home-towns. Several years ago, God called a young man to be an overseas missionary. But his mother said that if he loved her, he would not go.
Of course, he loved his mother but it seemed like hate to her because he refused to honour her wishes. While he was obeying God far away in a distant land, God dealt with his mother. Before he returned home for his first furlough, his mother had become a born-again Christian and fully supported his choice. We can never lose by obeying God. Success for a Christian is always obedience. Obedience is our business. The result of obedience is God’s business and the consequences of disobedience are also God’s business. I would rather have God’s results than His consequences.
Never somehow, but (Psalms 103:19, Daniel 4:34-37) always Sovereignty. Nothing happens in our lives or in the universe SOMEHOW but only and always by the SOVEREIGN CONTROL of Almighty God.
We cannot live under our circumstances and we certainly cannot live above our circumstances. We can only live in and through them. If we keep our focus continually on our circumstances, we are priming ourselves for depression. But if your focus is on God, Who personally selected, prepared and engineers our circumstances and is with us in them, we will get God’s viewpoint on our circumstances and we will be content, thankful and worry-free in all our circumstances. Remember - - God’s Sovereignty is effective medication for worry.
God has a good and holy purpose for everything He does. Do we? We have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) and hold the thoughts, feelings, and purposes of His heart. Of course, the mind of Christ is always filled with the things that fill His own heart. If I am fully surrendered to the Lord, the mind of Christ will be the Source and control of all my thoughts, choices, decisions and attitudes.
Do we hear Jesus saying (John 4:7) “Give Me a drink” and are we prepared to be drunk to the dregs? (Oswald Chambers) “warns us of the danger of being devoted to our service for God rather than being devoted to Jesus Christ”. It is our loving devotion to Jesus that satisfies His thirst. Many things that express our love for Jesus can be precious secrets known only to Him and to ourselves. Listen - - Jesus is speaking (John 14:21) if you truly love Me, you will obey Me. My loving unquestioning obedience can satisfy the thirst of Jesus and my heart will be (John 14:23) a fit, clean dwelling place for God the Father and God the Son. Jesus is (John 15:1) the True Vine and we, with His Life within us, branch out from Him, in total abiding in Him, to make Him known. How well do we know Him ourselves and how intense is our desire to be like Him? Do we recognize Him and identify with Him when we see Him (John 13:5) washing the feet of Judas?
We are (2 Corinthians 2:14) the trophies of the victory of Jesus and He always leads us in triumph and through us to make known the evidence and the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere. Not somehow, but God has no beginning and no end but He does have an inheritance. Our inheritance (Ephesians 1:11, 1 Peter 1:4) is in heaven. We the saints, we the Church, we are (Ephesians 1:18) God’s inheritance. Think of your life and conduct and then think of this eternal Truth - - that you are part of God’s inheritance. This sobering fact brings to us tremendous privilege and deeply serious responsibility.
This page is being written because these words were in my heart and mind all through the night. These words have far greater riches than all the silver mines, gold mines and diamond mines of the whole world put together.
(Isaiah 9:6) Unto us a Child is born, a Child of miraculous birth (Luke 2:7) to the virgin Mary. Unto us a Son is given, the Son of God because (John 3:16) God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.
These are the 6 most important words that were ever spoken in all of human history (John 19:30) IT IS FINISHED and (Mark 16:6) HE HAS RISEN! These words sum up a journey, the journey of Jesus, from a stable in Bethlehem, to abandonment in an olive garden, to a Cross of shame and anguish on Calvary and then explodes in an empty tomb. His journey should give us a heart of worship all the way through our journey until we see Him, our glorious victorious Lord, and are with Him forever.
From my 2 favourite hymns - -
My God how wonderful Thou art, Thy majesty how bright,
How beautiful Thy mercy seat in, depths of burning light.
And
Jesus I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art,
Iam, finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.