the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time
“What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
It is always eminently fine when a believer makes great renunciations for Jesus’ sake. Here is a man whose talents have brought him wealth and fame, yet in obedience to the divine call, he lays them at the Saviors feet. Or a woman whose voice has opened doors to the world’s great concert halls. But now she feels she must live for another world, so she gives up her career to follow Christ. After all, what are reputation or fortune or earthly distinctions when compared to the incomparable gain of winning Christ?
Ian MacPherson asks, “Is there anywhere a sight more deeply moving than that of a man laden with gifts, laying them all numbly and adoringly at the Redeemer’s feet? And that, after all is where they were meant to be. In the words of a wise old Welsh divine, ‘Hebrew, Greek and Latin are all very well in their place; but their place is not where Pilate put them, over Jesus’ head, but rather at His feet.’”
The Apostle Paul renounced wealth, culture, and ecclesiastical status and counted them loss for Christ. Jowett comments that “when the Apostle Paul regarded his aristocratic possessions as great gains, he had never seen the Lord; but when ‘the glory of the Lord’ blazed upon his wondering eyes these things faded away into shadow and even eclipse. And it was not only that the Apostle’s former gains were cheapened in the effulgence of the Lord, and stood revealed as contemptible nothings m his hands; it was that he ceased to think of them at all. They vanished entirely from the mind where they had been treated as supreme and sacred deposits.”
It is strange, then, that when a man forsakes all to follow Christ, some think that he has lost his mind. Some are shocked and uncomprehending. Some weep and offer alternate routes. Some argue on the basis of logic and common sense. A few approve and are stirred to their depths. But when a person walks y faith, he is able to appraise the opinions of others properly.
C. T. Studd forsook a private fortune and fine prospects at home to devote his life to missionary service. John Nelson Darby turned his back on a brilliant career to become an unctionized evangelist, teacher and prophet of God. The five martyrs of Ecuador renounced the comforts and materialism of the United States to bring Christ to the Auca tribe.
People call it a great sacrifice but it is no sacrifice. When someone tried to commend Hudson Taylor for the sacrifices he had made for Christ, he said, “Man, I never made a sacrifice in my life.” And Darby said, “It is no great sacrifice to give up refuse.”
'Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time' Copyright 2007 © William MacDonald. 'Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time' articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
