The “Go” of Unconditional Identification

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

“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? 

I just love what Chambers comes up with. That question is really something to ponder. Years ago, I had a mentor named Mike. I was 20-something and Mike and his wife spent hours with me and a few other young people. They really exhibited to us what it was like to walk closely with Jesus. One day Mike looked at me and said, "Do you still love Jesus?" That question has stuck with me all of these years later.

Do I love him enough to break away from all other allegiances?

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 manages to cut right to the core of my heart. Nothing can come between my heart and Him. The rich young ruler had an allegiance to something other than Jesus.  When Jesus looked at him and called him on it...it was his way of calling for a transformation.  It may have been just the beginning. I'd like to think that that gaze stuck with him for years and that he did turn fully to Christ.

Photo by Xip. Flickr Creative Commons

The “Go” of Preparation

If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift—Matthew 5:23-24 

I'm thinking of all the things in life that need constant checking and redoing:

1. oil levels in cars
2. toilet bowls needing to be cleaned
3. dust levels in house
4. air pressure in tires
5. food supplies in cupboard
6. dishes
7. mowing the lawn
8. gasoline in cars (no one wants to think about that lately)
9. physicals
10. baby's diaper
11. eating
12. fluid intake
13. getting sleep
14. bathing
15. bills to pay
16. clothing-yeah...they wear out or need washing
17. diabetics need sugar levels checked
18. snow shoveling in winte
19. updating virus protective software
20. ...now you think of one

You see?  No matter how ready we get...we are never done getting ready or fixing things or updating or redoing, etc.  But as Christians we often forget to check ourselves...and repent, and turn from sin.  We constantly need updating.  Look at your hearts...see what's there.  Ask God what needs to change. Repent of the sin He points out.  It's not fun to do.  No one likes it...but it keeps us running smoothly.

Some direct quotes from today's devotional:

• It is dangerous to become settled and complacent in our present level of experience. The Christian life requires preparation and more preparation. 
• The “go” of preparation is to allow the Word of God to examine you closely  
• Do you have anything to hide from God? If you do, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin in your life, don’t just admit it— confess it. 
• Never disregard a conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to you. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to bring it to your mind, it is the very thing He is detecting in you. You were looking for some big thing to give up, while God is telling you of some tiny thing that must go.
• Behind that "tiny thing" lies the stronghold of obstinacy, and you say, “I will not give up my right to myself”— the very thing that God intends you to give up if you are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Are you ready to give up yourself and "go" prepare yourself?  It's tough...I don't like to see my sin.  I guess I have to anyway...just like a little kid who hates taking a bath.

Photo: Molly Gets a Bath, by Ginny.  Flickr Creative Commons.

The Missionary’s Goal

He  said to them, ’Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem . . . ’ —Luke 18:31

Interesting statement to read in Chambers devotional today since I have been lead to believe in the past that my big goal as a Christian is to win souls.
The goal of the missionary is to do God’s will, not to be useful or to win the lost. A missionary is useful and he does win the lost, but that is not his goal. His goal is to do the will of his Lord. 

This is actually freeing for me because I have been certain over the years that I am sinning or a big disappointment to God because I don't know that I have won a lot of lost people.   I have been told that I have been an influence...along with other people.  I never could say that someone has converted to Christianity because of me.  I just don't know.  I went to a church in the past where this was stressed.  How many people have you won?

In our Lord’s life, Jerusalem was the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will upon the cross, and unless we go there with Jesus we will have no friendship or fellowship with Him. Nothing ever diverted our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted, or lingered in others where He was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned our Lord even the slightest degree away from His purpose to go “up to Jerusalem.”

What is his purpose for me?  I must be lead daily.  I don't know where I will be next week or even next year.  I the meantime- he wants me to:
1. To love Him above all else.
2. To be His servant.
3. To love others the way He does.
4. To obey His word.

Everything else will fall into place if I just do these things. (I've added one today...I thought of it yesterday but thought it would be an obvious part of #1 and #2...but today I added it)

I'm still taking baby steps and I can hear His voice a little better.

Photo by me. A road in Pifo, Ecuador.

The Missionary’s Predestined Purpose

Now the Lord says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant . . . —Isaiah 49:5

Here's something to think about:
And when we are born again we are brought into the realization of God’s great purpose for the human race, namely, that He created us for Himself.

I'm created for Him, and yet I almost always get it wrong-that I am created for myself.

We must continually keep our soul open to the fact of God’s creative purpose, and never confuse or cloud it with our own intentions. If we do, God will have to force our intentions aside no matter how much it may hurt.

Believe me...I've experienced this.  I can attest to the truth of it.  What is God's purpose for me.
1. To love Him above all else.
2. To be His servant.
3. To love others the way He does.

A missionary is created for the purpose of being God’s servant, one in whom God is glorified. Once we realize that it is through the salvation of Jesus Christ that we are made perfectly fit for the purpose of God, we will understand why Jesus Christ is so strict and relentless in His demands. He demands absolute righteousness from His servants, because He has put into them the very nature of God.

Every day I think I need to keep this in mind-I exist for His purpose.  I was created for Him. In other words: I am not my own. 

Photo by Joe Shlabotnik. Flickr Creative Commons

The Divine Commandment of Life

. . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect —Matthew 5:48

The focus of today's devotional is Matthew 5:38-48. Take a minute to read it. I've linked it to Bible Gateway for your convenience.

So today we are about loving our enemies rather than just those who we feel a natural affection for.

Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections— some people we like and others we don’t like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7), even those toward whom we have no affection.

The example our Lord gave us here is not that of a good person, or even of a good Christian, but of God Himself. “. . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” In other words, simply show to the other person what God has shown to you. And God will give you plenty of real life opportunities to prove whether or not you are “perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God’s interests in other people.

It's a real tall order, I know...but that is what God calls us to do and that is what being a Christian is all about.  I don't really have too many people that are enemies...at least that is what I told myself initially.  But when I really stop to examine myself, I know that there are people that I would rather not deal with. I am a substitute teacher.  There are students that are difficult to like.  I'll give you an example of a student that I encountered 2 days ago. Within 5 minutes of class starting, I had to write him up and send him to an in-school suspension room because he kept mimicking every word I said in order to throw off the lesson and amuse his peers (even while I was on the phone to the office regarding him).  How do I love a kid like that? How do I love the teenage girl who rolls her eyes and lies to me when I tell her that she needs to put away her cell phone? ("I don't have a cell phone!")  How do I love a teacher who treats me like "just a sub" who hasn't quite arrived at the grandeur of "teacherdom?"  How do I love some neighbors (who have since moved away) who constantly picked fights with me and the other neighbors over petty or even nonexistent things?  How do I love the special needs high school girl who's social skills equal an elementary school girl-and who annoyingly engages me in conversation and monopolizes all my time in class?  (That one makes me feel terribly ashamed...but I am all about opening my heart here).  So, I may not have enemies in the traditional sense...people threatening my life or trying to hurt me...but I have plenty of people that I can chalk up to being "enemies" in the spiritual sense.  How do I love these people? It's really hard to do that! Sometimes, quite frankly, I don't want to love them.

I'm trying to learn this "secret" that Chambers speaks of:
The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian’s life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God. And when we come in contact with things that create confusion and a flurry of activity, we find to our own amazement that we have the power to stay wonderfully poised even in the center of it all.

The truth is that I cannot supernatural love others who I find irritating on my own. I can even "act" like I love them outwardly...but inside I wish they would go away. I want God to transform me so that in my heart I truly do love them.

Lord God, you are perfect.  The only way I can love others perfectly the way you do, is if you put that love in my heart for others.  I can't love them on my own.  They are just too annoying.  Help me to see them the way you do.  Amen.

Image Source: "Ithaca Street Art" by Shira Golding. from Creative Commons.

Are You Going on With Jesus?

You are those who have continued with me in my trials. Luke 22:28

Chambers:

Many of us turn back from going on with Jesus from the very moment we have an experience of what He can do. Watch when God changes your circumstances to see whether you are going on with Jesus, or siding with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We wear His name, but are we going on with Him?

I've experienced some changing circumstances. Some good and some not so good-my brother dying, depression, losing another loved one, marriage, low income, no income, children, best friends moving to other countries, my father dying, my mother's aging and dementia, my children growing...and needing me less and less, the disappointment of being unable to find a job after going into debt to earn a Masters Degree,...actually I have it pretty easy compared to so many in the world.  This is all that's gone wrong in my life?

Anyway, my point is that everyone goes through changes.  Sometimes these changes are very good and sometimes they are painful.  In either case, it is easy to stop following Jesus.  If things are going great...we sometimes slack off in following him.  It seems we are doing fine on our own.  If things are going terrible, it might be easy to say, "Where is God?  He doesn't love me!"

We can't be Christians in name only-showing up at church, saying the mealtime prayer, saying the right things because we all know "church talk." That's not enough.  I was "raised born again."  I hardly know how to live another way.  But is it in my heart?  We need to be Christians in our hearts. In needs to be sincere through the good times and the bad.  Steadily onward.

 Jesus Christ’s honor is at stake in our bodily lives. Are we remaining faithful to the Son of God in everything that attacks His life in us? 

Image:  The score of the hymn: Onward Christian Soldiers.

Missionary Weapons 2

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet  John 13:14.

What does it look like for me to wash another's feet?  Sometimes it mean offering to hold a crying and fussy baby so a mother can eat.  Sometimes it means clearing the dishes...when the dirty dishes aren't yours.

Sometimes it means volunteering your time to help another who is swamped with work. Sometimes it means doing a little extra at your job without getting paid for it-and that is where I failed today.  I was in a school library today, because I had two hours of free time while subbing for another teacher at the school.  I did some work in the library to help out.  I am an unemployed librarian...so I know library work.  I did a little cataloging, book processing, and I showed the new aid a few things.  The new library aid is in her second week of work at the school and she knows almost nothing about library work.  The librarian has had almost no time to show her how to do things...and the aid is not a quick learner.  I only had to work until 11:00 today...and left promptly at 11:00.  It has occurred to me that I should have volunteered some time to help out.  It would have been washing her feet.  I didn't have to be anywhere, I just wanted to go home and eat lunch. Oh I hate it when I am so humanly selfish.

Aside from that I have ample opportunity to wash the feet of those around me every day.

The things Jesus did were the most menial of everyday tasks, and this is an indication that it takes all of God’s power in me to accomplish even the most common tasks in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels, dishes, sandals, and all the other ordinary things in our lives reveal what we are made of more quickly than anything else. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the most menial duty as it ought to be done.
Jesus said, “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (13:15).

How can I wash someone's feet today?  How can YOU wash someone's feet today?  (and do it willingly without complaint)  Sometimes we have to plan for it, other times opportunities can come upon us unexpectedly.

We have to go the “second mile” with God (Matthew 5:41). Yet some of us become worn out in the first ten steps. (Right after I finish this post, I am going to email that librarian and offer her my help.)

Photo: Statue of Christ washing the feet of saint Peter ( 18th century ), by Giovanni Giuliani.-taken by Wolfgang Sauber. Wikimedia Commons