“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” —Galatians 2:20
“These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. […] All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is— will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable— “I have been crucified with Christ….” […] The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. […] Will we allow Him to help Himself to us, or are we more concerned with our own ideas of what we are going to be?” CHAMBERS
So many have come to the point of deciding to yield their lives to Christ and then turned away. They would not give up their rights to themselves. You cannot convince someone to become a Christian. There is a spiritual interaction between the Spirit and the heart of an unbeliever. It is a mystery .. one that we have said “yes” to. But we watch as people, perhaps those we care about, turn away. (John 6:60-66) “Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”
There are many people who like going to church. Who like to say the things that Christians say. But when it comes to the point of decision … to give their life, control over their life to the Lord, they say “No”. You can’t make them say “yes”. You can’t convince them to say “yes”. You should not “pretend” with them, meaning “let’s just pretend that you are a Christian, even though I know you are not, and maybe one day you will be.” You are not doing them any favors by letting them think their religion is a reasonable substitute for faith. Pray for them, love them, but don’t enable them. Jesus did not try to convince those who left not to leave by saying “please don’t go!” By watering the truth down so it would be acceptable to them. He let them go. Although He still died for them, He did not and will not compromise the Truth to gain the favor of man. Nor should we. Think about it. ELGIN
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
Charley Elgin
No comments:
Post a Comment