Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Jesus' Impossible Sayings
"After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?' Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God'" - John 6:66-67.
At every step of sanctification, God is growing our capacity for Himself. We pray to have our love and faith increased. We pray to be like Jesus, and yet most often the only path towards these realities in our lives is the narrow and difficult path of suffering. But the suffering Christian doesn't have to be a dreary, morbid, depressed creature. God intends the suffering Christian to be a glorious picture of Christ's overcoming victory. Our suffering usually involves a loss of something earthly or an earthly disappointment. But, in the loss of these temporal things, room is made for the permanence of eternity in our hearts.
We overcome the world by faith. The riches, pleasures, and comforts of life are all in competition with the greater life of faith. Without checks, these things dull our spiritual senses and leave us setteling for the pursuit of our own kingdoms rather than God's Kingdom. "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?"- John 6:44. How can we afford to miss the commission of our Lord? He bestows divine calling, and desires to lift us to ever higher heights and deeper depths in our experience with God: "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus"- Ephesians 2:6.
How could we rather make our own sand castles, than be part of the eternal empire built on Christ? I cannot bear the thought of missing out on this commission. We only have one life to live, only a few short hours left of glory in suffering. In heaven, will I cry, "Lord! That was nothing, I wish I could go back to have suffered more for you to be praised. I wish I had used that opportunity so that I could have decreased and you increased. Why did I shrink away from all that You could have been made manifest in?" Eternal Paradise with God is at our doorstep, so these few short hours are worth our being broken bread and poured out wine for the lost to be found.
The past month I have been wrestling with God. Rather, He has been wrestling with me. I said to Him once- much more than once - that I want Him to take me all the way. I want to go all the way with Jesus, not holding back or holding out for this life. I counted the cost and agreed that Jesus is worth it, but then came the testing of this. So in this wrestling, God has been helping me to see the prying grip of this world on my heart, and by His love and grace, He is wrestling me free. Jacob wrestled with God and came out renamed, "Israel," meaning, "governed by God." The disciples had an opportunity to shrink back and govern themselves. Jesus had given them impossible sayings, and many, excluding the 12, did turn back. Like the disciples, we also can decide if the cost is too high. We are given opportunity to shrink back and settle for a lesser plane. We can say, "Ok, I'll pretend I didn't hear all of that, just the parts that I can deal with - or - that part isn't relevant to today's church anymore. I think I can just continue in my version of following Jesus for now, just this much and no more."
But I hear God say, "Remember Lot's wife"- Luke 17:32.
So this has been an unfolding saga of the sanctification of my mind lately. I desire the mind of Christ & to have eternity in my heart. Is there anything I wouldn't do for God? Is there anything more precious than all of His fullness in my heart? Can anything be more dear to me than God's presence, fellowship in His suffering, joy of my salvation, and the very life of Christ in me? I cannot think of anything worth the competition of my Desire. So I cannot stop here. I refuse, by God's grace, to shrink back or settle for less than all of His best... Just now I know that God's best is not always what I had in mind, and praise God for that! Because it is instead, exceedingly, abundantly above all I could ask or think, and it is discovered by faith in the unseen, not by what the world approves of.
I still want to see what the omnipotent God can do with a life that is absolutely surrendered to Him. God, bring revival to us! Remove every love of self and every pulling desire for this world. Spend us for the Gospel in the few short hours that we have left.
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit"- 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Glory, glory to God!
At every step of sanctification, God is growing our capacity for Himself. We pray to have our love and faith increased. We pray to be like Jesus, and yet most often the only path towards these realities in our lives is the narrow and difficult path of suffering. But the suffering Christian doesn't have to be a dreary, morbid, depressed creature. God intends the suffering Christian to be a glorious picture of Christ's overcoming victory. Our suffering usually involves a loss of something earthly or an earthly disappointment. But, in the loss of these temporal things, room is made for the permanence of eternity in our hearts.
We overcome the world by faith. The riches, pleasures, and comforts of life are all in competition with the greater life of faith. Without checks, these things dull our spiritual senses and leave us setteling for the pursuit of our own kingdoms rather than God's Kingdom. "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?"- John 6:44. How can we afford to miss the commission of our Lord? He bestows divine calling, and desires to lift us to ever higher heights and deeper depths in our experience with God: "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus"- Ephesians 2:6.
How could we rather make our own sand castles, than be part of the eternal empire built on Christ? I cannot bear the thought of missing out on this commission. We only have one life to live, only a few short hours left of glory in suffering. In heaven, will I cry, "Lord! That was nothing, I wish I could go back to have suffered more for you to be praised. I wish I had used that opportunity so that I could have decreased and you increased. Why did I shrink away from all that You could have been made manifest in?" Eternal Paradise with God is at our doorstep, so these few short hours are worth our being broken bread and poured out wine for the lost to be found.
"We
have all eternity to celebrate the victories but only a few
hours before sunset to win them."
—Amy
Carmichael
The past month I have been wrestling with God. Rather, He has been wrestling with me. I said to Him once- much more than once - that I want Him to take me all the way. I want to go all the way with Jesus, not holding back or holding out for this life. I counted the cost and agreed that Jesus is worth it, but then came the testing of this. So in this wrestling, God has been helping me to see the prying grip of this world on my heart, and by His love and grace, He is wrestling me free. Jacob wrestled with God and came out renamed, "Israel," meaning, "governed by God." The disciples had an opportunity to shrink back and govern themselves. Jesus had given them impossible sayings, and many, excluding the 12, did turn back. Like the disciples, we also can decide if the cost is too high. We are given opportunity to shrink back and settle for a lesser plane. We can say, "Ok, I'll pretend I didn't hear all of that, just the parts that I can deal with - or - that part isn't relevant to today's church anymore. I think I can just continue in my version of following Jesus for now, just this much and no more."
But I hear God say, "Remember Lot's wife"- Luke 17:32.
So this has been an unfolding saga of the sanctification of my mind lately. I desire the mind of Christ & to have eternity in my heart. Is there anything I wouldn't do for God? Is there anything more precious than all of His fullness in my heart? Can anything be more dear to me than God's presence, fellowship in His suffering, joy of my salvation, and the very life of Christ in me? I cannot think of anything worth the competition of my Desire. So I cannot stop here. I refuse, by God's grace, to shrink back or settle for less than all of His best... Just now I know that God's best is not always what I had in mind, and praise God for that! Because it is instead, exceedingly, abundantly above all I could ask or think, and it is discovered by faith in the unseen, not by what the world approves of.
I still want to see what the omnipotent God can do with a life that is absolutely surrendered to Him. God, bring revival to us! Remove every love of self and every pulling desire for this world. Spend us for the Gospel in the few short hours that we have left.
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit"- 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Glory, glory to God!
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