So You Want To Be Like Jesus

My Utmost For His Highest

 

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church . . . —Colossians 1:24

 

‘This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed. […] To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.’ CHAMBERS

 

How do you view life’s circumstances? Do you see life through the prism of your old nature or your new nature.  In the physical context or the spiritual.  Think about this .. God, the Father .. used His Son’s pain and sacrifice for the good of others.  So you want to be like Jesus? When God allows difficult time to come your way … some relational .. emotional .. or physical challenge … how do you receive it? Do you ask, “Lord, why is this happening to me?” or do you say “Your will be done … take my life and let it be consecrated Lord for Thee!”  Is it OK for the Lord to make you broken bread and poured out wine for the benefit of other people .. even in the absence of your understanding how or to whom the benefit will come? Jesus said “This is my body, this is my blood” Do not miss the connection between His sacrifice and yours.

 

Is the experience painful?.. yes … will it cost you something? … yes … will it be worth it? … oh yes … it is a spiritual journey that is manifested in the physical/natural part of your life.  How you deal with it depends upon where you look for strength …. you will always need His strength to get through it … Perhaps you are going through something now or have in the past … consider what happens in your life from the proper perspective … from God’s perspective …. rest in His sovereignty and grace … even when life brings more than you think you can bear … ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

You Are Called To Love

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘If you have ignored, and thereby removed, the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances. See where you have put your own ideas of service or your particular abilities ahead of the call of God. Paul said, “. . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” He had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to “preach the gospel” was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength.  If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end.’ CHAMBERS

 

What has God called you to?  It may not be to be a preacher of the Gospel … but you have been called to something.

 

1 Corinthians 12:12-14,27-31  “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. […]  Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?  Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.”

 

1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

 

You may not have been called to preach but you were called to love.  (Matthew 22:37-39) To love God and then love others.  It doesn’t matter what part of the body you are.  The Gospel is an expression of God’s love toward us.  Our love should be a reflection of His.  Preachers tell people about God’s love in Jesus Christ.  We should show people that same love by the way we live, every aspect of our lives.  Are you resisting your call by clinging to bits and pieces of your old nature.  Let them go.  What you think brings you comfort and security actually is keeping you from being what God has intended you to be.  Fulfill your calling to the glory of the One who has called you. ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

For Your Good and His Glory

My Utmost For His Highest

 

“Jesus . . . said to him, ’One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor . . . and come, take up the cross, and follow Me’”—Mark 10:21

 

“The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple. Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships. 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.”]  has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but deals solely with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us truly know what is meant by the absolute “go” of unconditional identification with, and abandonment and surrender to, Jesus.

 

“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . .” (Mark 10:21). This look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you? This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates, and captivates. Where you are soft and pliable with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on having your own way, and always certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.” CHAMBERS

 

We must be careful when we share our story with people.  They seem to zero in on what we have “lost” and not what we have gained. The point of the rich young ruler is not about possessions.  It is about devotion and dependence.  The young man trusted more in money that in the Lord.  I think people, particularly people in the United States, see abandoning possessions as the epitome of spirituality … it is far from that … it is merely s condition of the heart and a necessity to go where the Lord leads.  The physical release of possessions is not the point.  The point is a change of heart where your trust shifts to the Lord and not what you can do or have.

 

From the beginning of your walk with the Lord, there has been a transforming work happening .. some growth is slow, some happens very quickly .. the rate of growth is a function of your willingness to release those things that you trust more than the Lord.  But we are all being shaped by God … conformed to the image of Christ.  2 Corinthians 5:17 “old things are passing away, all things are becoming new”  To live for Christ is to die to yourself.  When they Lord confronts you over a condition in your heart … don’t walk away sad … but embrace it .. yield to it … walk in it .. it's for your good and for His glory. ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

What Really Has First Place In Your Heart?

My Utmost For His Highest

 

Luke 9:57-62  As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

 

“These words destroy the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do. And the strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows for nothing to remain in my life but my Lord, myself, and a sense of desperate hope. He says that I must let everyone else come or go, and that I must be guided solely by my relationship to Him. And He says, “. . . the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

 

Luke 9:59 . This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor did he want to show a lack of respect for his father. We put our sense of loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to take last place. When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ whatever the cost.

 

Luke 9:61 . The person who says, “Lord, I will follow You, but . . .,” is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes, as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.” CHAMBERS

 

These are hard words .. I have several conversations with people in ministry over the years who have said … the family must be first … my wife must be first … in the context of these verses, what do you think Jesus would say? That is saying my wife must be first … I love God, but not more than I love my wife.  Then who is your god?  If I were to say, “I love god but I love money more.” What would you say to that?  “Well the Bible says you cannot love God and money!” Replace money with any other noun you wish.  God must be first .. husband, wife, children, parents … the list goes on.

 

So what is at issue here?  Does God have your whole heart … Matthew 22:37-39  “Jesus replied: [to the question what is the greatest commandment] “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

 

How many things can be first?  That’s right .. one.  There are no “ties” in our relationship with God. He is either first or He is not.  God included this encounter between Jesus and the man in Luke because we need to know what it means to follow Jesus.  It does not mean to abandon your family .. reject them .. it means that obeying God has primacy in your life.  Your relationship with God is like the relationship of a prime number to the number 1.  A prime number in math, simply, is a number that cannot be divided by any other number but 1 or itself.  No other number can enter into the relationship between 1 and that number.  (Sorry if you don’t like math analogies.)   Your relationship is “prime” with God.  I will resist continuing with the analogy.

 

The bottom line … there are a number of “good” things that might cause you to not follow Jesus … Things that would cause you would turn away … you are tempted every day to choose something else … I want to encourage you to choose Jesus .. to live by faith … stop treating God like He is a divine waiter, standing by waiting to take your next order.  What He wants is of no consequence, it is all about what you want.  That is what the man in Luke was struggling with .. it is what we struggle with  … to offer ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1).  To take up our crosses and follow Jesus. ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

What To Do WHen Your Heart Is Not Right

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘This verse says, “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you . . . .” It is not saying, “If you search and find something because of your unbalanced sensitivity,” but, “If you . . . remember . . . .” In other words, if something is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God— “First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:24). Never object to the intense sensitivity of the Spirit of God in you when He is instructing you down to the smallest detail.’ CHAMBERS

 

If your actions ever wronged another person? Have you been hurtful?  Have you been unjust?  Your actions caused a rift between you and another person? Has the Holy Spirit brought that person to mind?  That is called the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  There is no place in the Christian’s life for sin.  You cannot approach a holy God with sin in your heart.  That sin might be against someone or it might be an attitude of your heart … whatever it might be, you must deal with it.  When the curtain that covered the access to the holy of holies was torn in two, Jesus gave us access to the Father.  But not under any circumstances … Before you enter God’s presence, you must “wash your feet”. It is so easy to become casual with the creator God, but in doing so, we deceive ourselves.  I am not referring to salvation .. but having a clean heart …

 

Don’t slip into the delusion that sin does not matter .. that God doesn’t care about it .. that Jesus paid the price for it .. so we can just move on and forget about our transgressions against God.  Not so. Paul wrote ….   Romans 6:1-4 “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

 

In 2 Samuel 12, the prophet Nathan confronted King David over this sin.  He had Uriah killed so David could cover his sin with Bathsheba.  David could not go to Uriah in this case, but he realized that he was unclean before God.  Psalm 51 “Create in me a clean heart o God and renew a right spirit within me.”  Let that be your prayer today.  Set things right with men and with God. ELGIN

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

More Like Jesus - Less Like Me

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘Our Lord’s teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that He demands for us is an impossible one unless He has done a super-natural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that His disciple does not allow even the slightest trace of resentment in his heart when faced with tyranny and injustice. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear the strain, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself— a relationship that has been examined, purified, and tested until only one purpose remains and I can truly say, “I am here for God to send me where He will.” Everything else may become blurred, but this relationship with Jesus Christ must never be.[…] Jesus Christ has changed my nature by putting His own nature in me. […] If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally. And as long as we consciously maintain the determined purpose to be His disciples, we can be sure that we are not disciples. Jesus says, […]  Our Lord’s making of a disciple is supernatural. He does not build on any natural capacity of ours at all. God does not ask us to do the things that are naturally easy for us— He only asks us to do the things that we are perfectly fit to do through His grace, and that is where the cross we must bear will always come.’ CHAMBERS

 

We face challenges everyday … people challenges … people doing things that are not right .. deceiving … for something another than the glory of God, but doing that thing in the name of God.  In the midst of that, most often we don’t think of it as a test. As Jesus shaping us to be His disciple .. to be like Him.  Many times resentment toward those people will creep in … resentment is just another form of judgment and condemnation … neither of which reflect the nature of Jesus. We cannot learn to be like Jesus if we are not faced with opportunities to be like Him.  When we face the opportunity the question is .. do we turn to ourselves or to Jesus for strength and wisdom.  Jesus said to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, give him your coat also, pray for those who despitefully use you.  But what do we do? Get angry … judge the person .. condemn them … Oh Lord, we still have a long way to go … ELGIN

 

“More like You, Jesus. More like You.  Touch my lips with holy fire and make me more like you."

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

What Is Your Motivation For Serving?

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned our Lord even the slightest degree away from His purpose to go “up to Jerusalem.” “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master” (Matthew 10:24). In other words, the same things that happened to our Lord will happen to us on our way to our “Jerusalem.” There will be works of God exhibited through us, people will get blessed, and one or two will show gratitude while the rest will show total ingratitude, but nothing must divert us from going “up to [our] Jerusalem.”’ CHAMBERS

 

We serve others not to receive praise from them but to receive praise from the Lord.  “Well done my good and faithful servant.” Matthew 25:21  Doing the will of the Father is our purpose.  In that process we will often bless the lives of others. Never expect gratitude from those you serve.  You may receive it, but most often you will not.  In nearly all of the cases, you will soon be forgotten by them.  Their remembrance and gratitude should never be a condition for your service. Your service should be motivated by your love for God and submission to His will.  “We love because God first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)