Is it true?

 

Delirious? – History Maker

 

When King Nebuchadnezzar holds a personal interview with three men who disobeyed the call to worship him, he starts with this one simple question – is it true? What a test for Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. They took a stand for God and now they were sticking to their stand in this interview. Remember how hard it was for Peter to take this same stand when he followed Jesus after His arrest. Unfortunately, he wilted and denied Jesus when asked, “Is it true?”

I have two very strong words that were given to me today. I pray that they will inspire you. Inspire you if you are standing and being asked the question – is it true? – and if you are trying to figure out should you stand at all, never mind it being true or not.

“If, standing before the heart-searching God at this time, you cannot say, ‘It is true,’ how should you act? If you cannot say that you take Christ’s cross, and are willing to follow him at all hazards, then hearken to me and learn the truth. Do not make a profession at all. Do not talk about baptism or the Lord’s Supper, nor of joining a church, nor of being a Christian; for if you do, you will lie against your own soul. If it be not true that you renounce the world’s idols, do not profess that it is so. It is unnecessary that a man should profess to be what he is not; it is a sin of supererogation, a superfluity of naughtiness. If you cannot be true to Christ, if your coward heart is recreant to your Lord, do not profess to be his disciple, I beseech you. He that is married to the world, or flinthearted, had better return to his house, for he is of no service in this war.” (Spurgeon)

 

I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made–I am a disciple of His. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure.

I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colourless dreams, tame visions, worldly-talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean in His presence, walk by patience, am uplifted by prayer and I labour with power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed.

I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, shut up, let up, or slow up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until he comes.

And when He comes to get His own, He’ll have no problem recognizing me. My colours will be clear.

From “Words Aptly Spoken”, By Bob Moorehead.

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Knowing God

 

Ready, Set, Go!

 

It seems pretty easy to understand but it hit me today – eternal life, what I have heard talked about my entire Christian life and know is a promised gift of life from God – does not come by just accepting the cross, the blood and the resurrection – it comes because I know God. That is life, eternal life.

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. – John 17:3  ESV

While the cross, the blood and the resurrection may very well be doctrinal knowledge, life is a living interaction with the Father, His Son and His Spirit. It is walking in the trinitarian presence, in fellowship with one another, that is eternal life. This is the kingdom of God on earth and I can make my life a part of God’s life. What was Jesus’ gospel – the availability of life in the kingdom of God, now.

John 17 is a prayer, a family prayer one might say as His disciples were His family. Whenever I read this chapter, I come away with a sense of awe and reverence.  It reveals the basic relationship He had with His Father and it reveals that this is the relationship I can have with God too. There is a sense that this is the prayer I can pray.

Let me leave you with this quote that speaks directly to what I have taken away from my devotions today about knowing God:

Two points must be kept in view while we endeavour to understand the words:—(1) The force of ‘that;’ this word sets before us the ‘knowing’ as a goal towards which we are to strain our efforts. (2) That the word ‘know’ does not mean to know fully or to recognise, but to learn to know: it expresses not perfect, but inceptive and ever – growing knowledge. Those, then, who receive ‘eternal life’ enter into a condition in which they learn to know the Father and the Son as They really are,—learn to know Them in Their love and saving mercy,—and are thus enabled to ‘glorify’ Them. The knowledge of the Father and the Son is neither the condition of the ‘life,’ nor the same thing as the ‘life.’ It is rather that far-off goal which is constantly before us, and to which we come ever nearer, in proportion as we enter more deeply into the life which Christ bestows. The ‘life,’ on the other hand, is that state in which we are introduced to the knowledge of the Father and the Son, the state in which we learn to know Them with constantly-increasing clearness and fullness, and finally the state in which, when life is perfected in us, we come to know Them as They are, to ‘see’ Them, and to ‘be like’ Them (comp. 1 John 3:2). Strictly speaking, the knowledge is thus dependent on the life, rather than the life on the knowledge. But, in truth, the interdependence is mutual; neither can exist without the other; there is no life which does not lead to knowledge; there is no knowledge without life. The ‘eternal life’ is thus also a present thing, stretching indeed into the endless future, but begun now. – Schaff’s Popular Commentary on the New Testament

 

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