‘How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from
hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices! […] We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus
Christ— not a “prayer meeting” Jesus Christ, or a “book” Jesus Christ, but the
New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us
dead at His feet. Our faith must be in
the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute,
unrestrained devotion to Himself.
[…] It is because of our trusting in
experience that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against
unbelief. All of our fears are sinful,
and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How
can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our
lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect,
irrepressible, triumphant belief.’ CHAMBERS
Do you ever think about what you must give up or
leave behind as you walk in the calling of God? Think about that for a moment … Philippians
2:6-11 ‘who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal
with God, (7) but made
Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in
the likeness of men. (8) And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to
the point of death, even the death of the cross. (9)
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which
is above every name, (10) that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the
earth, (11) and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’
Do you want to talk about sacrifice? What can God ask of us that is no invisible
in comparison to what Jesus did for us? Have you ever heard a conversations like
this? “After all the things I have done
for you, I ask you to do this one thing .. and you won’t.” OK, here comes that hard lesson … when we
cling to something that we know we must let go, it is because we love it more
than the Lord. It all comes down to
faith. What is ‘it’? Everything …. If your life is in Christ,
there is no room for the things of this world in your heart. There is no room
for pride in our act of laying things down to follow Jesus.
Matthew 4:18-22 And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and
Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were
fishermen. (19) Then He said
to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." (20) They immediately left their nets and
followed Him. (21) Going on from there, He saw two other
brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with
Zebedee their father, mending their nets.
He called them, (22) and immediately
they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
Do you marvel at their sacrifice? Or do you just
read on to the next verse. When we hear
the voice of our Lord say ‘follow me’ what else is there to do but follow. How was Zebedee going to keep the business
going without his two sons? What were
they thinking?!?
When you are faced with a decision, perhaps you
are today, … a life choice .. one that
will change the direction you are going … remember what the Lord has done for
you … and obey in the light of that great sacrifice and not in the fact that you
must toss something on the fire that consumes the wood, hay and stubble of your
life … let the refiners fire do its work in your life … and then give all of
the praise and glory to the Lord.
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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