He went out, not knowing
where he was going. —Hebrews 11:8
{CHAMBERS} “In the Old Testament, a person’s relationship with God
was seen by the degree of separation in that person’s life. This separation is
exhibited in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his
family. When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not
have a personal relationship with God, but to be separated mentally and morally from their viewpoints. This is
what Jesus Christ was referring to in Luke 14:26. Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led.
But it does mean loving and knowing the
One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding
and reason— a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the
biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely
lead us to success in the world. The
final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we
encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us
when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes.
A life of faith is […] a life of day-in and day-out consistency; a life of
walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31). It is not even a question of the
holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the
road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test.
{ELGIN} (Luke 14:26) “If
anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my
disciple.” We all have family who are
not Christians .. well, ALL may be too strong a word … but I think that is true
for most of us. If we carry that a little further, although some Christians are
“isolated” in that they do not have any non-Christian friends, most of us do. People we care deeply about. To stay mentally
(natural versus spiritual perspective) and morally (the things we say, desire,
and do) is a challenge. Jesus was
accused, in a round about way, of being a sinner because He associated with sinners. (Luke
19:10) “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” So you are
thinking – “But I am not Jesus!” Right! But you have the Spirit of God in you
.. you have the Word of God … what you may lack is a deep devotion to the
Father. (Matthew 22:37) “Love God with
all …..” It does not leave any room for
anything else. Any love that you
experience is .. should be … an outpouring from you love for God. We are warned that “bad company corrupts good
character” (1 Corinthians 15:33) How?
It happens when Christians are not “mentally and morally separated from the
viewpoints of the lost.” So Jesus was,
always, but we are not always. In fact, since
we struggle so with our old nature, we are often drawn like a moth to a
flame. We accommodate sin for fear of rejecting the sinner and even participate in the sin with the excuse that we are being a witness to the lost. In the end, we dilute our faith
and compromise our testimony and devotion to God. The
point today … be careful my friend and if you have already given in to the temptation
… repent and let your light shine to the glory of God.
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