You call Me Teacher and Lord,
and you say well, for so I am ….I say to you, a servant is not greater than his
master… —John 13:13, 16
{CHAMBERS} “To have a master and teacher is not the same thing as
being mastered and taught. […] Our Lord never takes measures to make me do what
He wants. Sometimes I wish God would master and control me to make me do what
He wants, but He will not. And at other times I wish He would leave me alone,
and He does not. “You call Me Teacher and Lord…”— but is He? Teacher, Master,
and Lord have little place in our vocabulary. We prefer the words Savior,
Sanctifier, and Healer. The only word that truly describes the experience of
being mastered is love, and we know little about love as God reveals it in His
Word. […] Our Lord was not simply God’s servant— He was His Son. “…though He
was a Son, yet He learned obedience…” (Hebrews 5:8). He [Jesus]wants us in a
relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that we have no
conscious awareness of it— a relationship where all we know is that we are His
to obey.”
{ELGIN} “When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a
glory he sheds on our way! While we do his good will, he abides with us still, and
with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to
trust and obey.” There are probably not
too many Millennials who would know that hymn.
John Stammis, the author, wrote over 100 hymns. I often wonder what the
song writer had experienced that was the inspiration for the words he
penned. But then, the nature of man does
not change from generation to generation, even if we want to believe that it
has. If you consider people in the
context of their flesh, the cultural and generational accoutrements may morph
over the years .. I am typing this not writing with a quill and ink. As many as 100 people, virtually around the
world, will have read these words by the
end of the day using computers, laptops, tablets, and even phones … incredible,
No? But the spiritual nature of man has
not changed and won’t change. In every
generation, until Jesus returns, there will be sheep and goats. Those who belong to the Creator god and those
who belong to the god of this world. And
for us sheep, our challenge across the generations is to trust and obey.
(Luke 6:46- 49) [Jesus asked] ““Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and
not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does
them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who
dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the
stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been
well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who
built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against
it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” Our children would sing that song “Don’t
build your house on the sandy land” I
used to think it had to do with salvation, but it actually has to do with
obedience. Think about it the goats do
not call Him Lord. I once heard someone
say “If Jesus is not Lord OF all, then He is not Lord AT all.” God demands everything if we want to follow Jesus. No other gods, our whole heart, a living
sacrifice, picking up our cross and going where He leads, living by faith , walking
with the Spirit. That has not changed
since Jesus spoke the words during His ministry and will not change, ever. We spend a lot of effort trying to figure out
how to reach each generation .. how to attract them to the Light. God has already implemented a “trans-generational”
solution. (John 12:32) “ when I [Jesus] am lifted up from the earth, [I] will
draw all people to myself.” Having trouble with obedience? We all do to some extent. Walk with the Lord in the light of His word
.. what a glory He sheds on our way!
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