…they went forth for His
name’s sake… —3 John 7
{CHAMBERS} “Our Lord told us how our love for Him is to exhibit
itself when He asked, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:17). And then He said, “Feed
My sheep.” In effect, He said, “Identify yourself with My interests in other
people,” not, “Identify Me with your interests in other people.” 1
Corinthians 13:4-8 shows us the characteristics of this love— it is
actually the love of God expressing itself. […] Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is
the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy
Spirit— “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit…”
(Romans 5:5). And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and
comes in contact with everyone I meet. […] The key to the missionary’s devotion
is that he is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself. It
does not mean simply being detached from the external things surrounding us.
Our Lord was amazingly in touch with the ordinary things of life, but He had an
inner detachment except toward God. […] The duty of a faithful
missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually
open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women our Lord sends
out on His endeavors are ordinary human people, but people who are controlled
by their devotion to Him, which has been brought about through the work of the
Holy Spirit.”
{ELGIN} “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the
desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4) That verse can be taken two ways. First, if you pursue God then He will give
you anything your little heart desires.
Second, if you pursue God, He will make His passion, your passion. He will change your “wants” to those things
that reflect His will and purposes. That
is what Jesus was telling Peter. “If you
love Me, then pursue those things that I pursue. Do what I say to do, even if it makes no
earthly sense.” What makes missionaries distinctive is that they place less value
on earthly comforts and relationships than they do on the call of Jesus on
their lives to pick up their cross, abandon the things of this world, and follow
Him. To feed His sheep if you will. The thing about a shepherd, when everyone
else is at home sleeping, he is standing guard over the flock. I am typing this
while sitting in a travel trailer, parked next to a church, listening to the
cars zoom up and down the highway. My
point? God has called us to this place.
When He calls, you must be willing to lay what is comfortable and familiar,
down.
From time to time when I tell
my wife that I love her, she will say “I love you more.” Then I say “No, I love
you more.” And we go back and forth several times with that. But where is the proof of that love? The proof
of love is not words, as affirming as they might be. Ephesians 5:25 says this, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved
the Church and gave Himself up for her.”
Do you love God enough to give yourself up for Him? – your hopes, your dreams, your comfort, your
secure retirement, your family holidays, the list goes on ….. The theme of the
Bible is that God is supreme and deserves our total devotion … like David, we
must love God with our whole heart. (1
Kings 14:8). Listen, men, you won’t
love your wife that way (Ephesians 5:25) if you first don’t love God that way.
(Matthew 22:37-39). And you won’t
love God that way if you are unwilling to lay your life down.
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