the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time
“Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” (Lu. 9:57)
Sometimes I think we talk and sing too glibly about the Lordship of Christ, about total commitment, and about absolute surrender. We parrot neat little cliches like, “If He’s not Lord of all, then He’s not Lord at all.” We sing, “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give.” We act as if total commitment involved little more than attending church every Sunday.
It isn’t that we are insincere; it’s just that we don’t realize all that’s involved. If we acknowledge the Lordship of Christ, it means that we are willing to follow Him in poverty, rejection, suffering and even death.
“Some faint at the sight of blood. One day a young enthusiast came to Jesus with the finest of all possible purposes in his heart. ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.’ Nothing could be finer than that. But Jesus did not thrill. He knew that the young man did not understand all that was involved in his promise. Therefore He told him that He Himself was more homeless than the foxes, that he might have to sleep supperless upon the mountainside. He showed him a cross with a bit of crimson on it, and at that he who was all eagerness fell into a dead faint. While he yearned for the goods, the price was greater than he was willing to pay. It is too often the case. Some of you are not in the fight, not because the call of Christ makes no appeal, but rather because you are afraid of a little bloodletting. Therefore you say whiningly: ‘But for these vile guns, I would have been a soldier’” (Chappell).
If Jesus didn’t thrill when the young man in HYPERLINK "javascript:" volunteered to go with Him all the way, I’m sure He did thrill when Jim Elliot wrote in his diary “If I would save my life blood—forbear to pour it out as a sacrifice in opposition to the example of my Lord—then must I feel the flint of the face of God set against my purpose. Father, take my life, yea, my blood, if Thou wilt, and consume it with Thine enveloping fire. I would not save it, for it is not mine to save. Have it, Lord, have it all. Pour out my life as an oblation for the world. Blood is only of value as it flows before Thine altars.”
When we read words like those, and remember that Jim did pour out his blood as a martyr in Ecuador, some of us realize how little we know about absolute surrender.
'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.
