Pastor Brian's Article for 04/20/2008
The writer of Psalm 119 writes this in verse
33: “Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will follow them to the
end.” The psalmist hits on a very important principle; when we make the
decision to follow Jesus, we are committing ourselves to a lifetime of obedience
to Him. We are to give all that we have to Him as long as we live. Our love
for Christ is to be so great that we cherish His decrees and “keep them to the
end.” We cannot claim to love God if we disregard what He requires of us.
A life lived for Jesus is a life of
sacrifice and self-denial. There are some who would have us believe that as a
follower of Jesus that life is one of health and wealth. Some would have us
believe that since we are children of the king, we can ask for all kinds of
creature comforts and expect to receive them. There are others for whom Jesus
is nothing more than a life coach. He will help you be the best you, you can
be. All of these concepts, these perversions of the Word, these heresies, make
Jesus our servant rather than us His. The gospels make it clear that Jesus came
to serve. Those who follow Him will live a life of sacrifice and service.
In Luke 14:16-24 Jesus tells the story of a
host who prepared a great supper and called his many guests to attend. Each of
the guests that he had invited turned down the invitation because of other
pressing matters. Each had an excuse that showed the invitation of the host was
not very important to them. The disappointed host opened the doors of the
banquet hall and invited those who had neither busy schedules nor impressive
social credentials. These ragtag souls were willing to put the supper of the
host at the top of their appointment books. Christ’s lordship supersedes all
else.
Obedience implies submission and that is
almost a four letter word in our society. We think that submission applies only
to servants and slaves. The apostle Paul understood the relationship between
obedience and submission and embraced it. Paul opens some of his letter with
the descriptive phrase, “a slave of Christ.” Paul knew that being a slave to
Christ was the beginning of liberty, not the end. God gives us liberty in
direct proportion to our deliberate submission. Mother Teresa submitted her
life to the Father each day and said, “There is not demand so unreasonable that
God cannot make it of my life.”
Dr. Miller says this about a missionary
couple who had served in Argentina for thirty-five years: “The home where they
spent their retirement was modest but spiritually elegant. An aura of joy
enveloped these saints, for they had been set free from any need to serve
themselves. They did not hoard the days for some agenda of their own. Their
love for their Savior made obeying Him a delight. The more they served Christ,
the greater their hunger to please Him. Pleasing God became their passion to
the end of their days. None I have ever met were so free.”
That Jesus May Be revealed,
Brian
Taken from A Hunger for
The Holy, Calvin Miller, chapter 6.
 Scripture References:
Matthew 6:11 –
Prayer to God for the necessities of life is
proper. God is recognized as the beneficent Creator upon whom we depend. Our own
giving reflects our trust in God’s giving to us.
Job 1:21 – He said, "Naked I came from my mother's
womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD."
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