We have been taking a journey through discerning what safe relationships look like. Last week we began peeking at ourselves, which is the reason I gave us a bit of time before taking another look. Most of us are already cripplingly observing our ways. We are to extend the
same gentleness with our selves as we do with those we love. For some reason, we tend to be at either end of this spectrum. Balance in self, I believe, can only come from the Holy Spirit. And Yet we attempt to do it "all by our self" again and again and again.......
We are not even trustworthy to a faithful God much of the time. We say of course just as the parable of the faithful servant (we will visit that later). Our choices cost us much as we have discussed many times. Our liberty cost even more, but it was paid for by God himself, because we never could afford it. Let's look at what Oswald Chambers said discipleship would cost.
True Cost of Discipleship
"Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” From the book of Luke chapter 9
Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the
true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about . . . ?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”
Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.
By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.
My love to each of you - Have a wonderful weekend,
Candace
exclusion / Oswald Chambers
©Candace Huffmaster 2013, All Rights Reserved
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