Lord, I will follow You, but…
—Luke 9:61
“Suppose God tells you to do
something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against
it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing
something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break
the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again
and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will
turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon
yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do
obey God in this matter, what about…?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what
He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a
step in the dark.”[…] In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you
risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by
faith into what He says.” CHAMBERS
Perhaps when you read what Chambers
had to say, you thought, “well, that is about doing something great for God,
being called to some great ministry or performing some great act of faith.” There is not a greater act of faith than
choosing to follow God in obedience to His revealed will. Choosing God and rejecting the world, your
culture, the natural desires and way of life “is an enormous test of your
common sense.” It is so natural to yield
to the common sense way of living. There
is a diagram in mathematics called a Venn diagram that describes the dilemma we face.
There
is part of our life (in the part where the circles overlap) where the world and
the Word are in agreement. The problem
is, that that space gets smaller and smaller over time. The world, the cultural definition of truth
and what’s right, is at odds with its Creator.
Man wants to go his own way, and does. On the other hand, Christians secretly hope that
there might be heaven on earth in their lifetime. When the truth of the matter is that life on
earth will get much worse before it gets better. (Matthew
7:13-14) “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is
the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the
gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Many that are going to hell are satisfied
that what they do in this life is adequate to get them to heaven. It is not.
Jesus is the only way. He is the small
Gate, the narrow Way. As Christians, we soon
learn that as Christians, we are yet drawn to the natural life. We are tempted to accept the definition of
good and true that our culture offers. It
seems to be common sense. It is
certainly the way to find acceptability from those that live and work around us.
But that is not who we are. (2 Corinthians 5:17) “If anyone is in
Christ, they are a new creature. Old
things have passed away. All things have
become new.” Our new life requires faith
and focus. Faith in Jesus and focus on the
Truth. And rejection of the World. CHARLEY
No comments:
Post a Comment