September 23rd, 2004

[Plankeye]

Quote[/b] ]"Behold, we go up to Jerusalem." Luke 18:31

Quote[/b] ]In the natural life our ambitions alter as we develop; in the Christian life the goal is given at the beginning, the beginning and the end are the same, viz., Our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him - "until we all attain to the stature of the manhood of Christ Jesus," not to our idea of what the Christian life should be. The aim of the missionary is to do God's will, not to be useful, not to win the heathen; he is useful and he does win the heathen, but that is not his aim. His aim is to do the will of his Lord.

In Our Lord's life Jerusalem was the place where He reached the climax of His Father's will upon the Cross, and unless we go with Jesus there we will have no companionship with Him. Nothing ever discouraged Our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted, or lingered in others where He was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned Our Lord one hair's breadth away from His purpose to go up to Jerusalem.

"The disciple is not above his Master." The same things will happen to us on our way to our Jerusalem. There will be the works of God manifested through us, people will get blessed, and one or two will show gratitude and the rest will show gross ingratitude, but nothing must deflect us from going up to our Jerusalem.

"There they crucified Him." That is what happened when Our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that happening is the gateway to our salvation. The saints do not end in crucifixion: by the Lord's grace they end in glory. In the meantime our watchword is - I, too, go up to Jerusalem.

 

[Genesis1315]

WOW!!!! This one really made me stop and think. I am having some problems working through a part of this though. I am clear on the part of reaching the climax of God’s will in our lives, but I am foggy on the rest.

Or am I reading too much into this and just need to stop and apply the first part?

Gen

 

[Plankeye]

Apply the first part and the rest will fall in place. Several of the devotionals have been very specific about making Christ the focus and following God's will. Our will just gets in the way on our road to Jerusalem.

Personally I am struggling with the part about Jesus not hurrying through the villages that persecuted him and not lingering in the villages he was blessed. I think I have been lingering to long, only the village that is blessing me is the Church, family and here. We had a pretty convicting sermon last week about the need to evangelize as the lost are not those that are already in the flock and that to use the excuse that I need to know more before I go out is to just deny the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

[Genesis1315]

When I first read this devotion, I thought about Galatians 2:20....but I guess the best way to put it, if I understand this correctly, working through Christ and following the examples of Christ, we can can reach that climax?

Naturally, we want to stay where we are appreciated. It is hard to move out of that comfort zone. Especially if the persecution was not that far away.

Do you get a lot of feedback on the devotions? They seem like such a great way to follow through on your pastor's sermon.

 

[Kidan]

i think the important aspect here is summed up in the text as "The disciple is not above his Master."

Basically, we must remember that our tasks in this life are not what we desire, but what our Master desires for us to do.  Our Master, did not falter in His tasks as set up by the Father, nor can we falter in the tasks that Jesus sets for us, regardless if those tasks lead us to prosecution or reward. Just as Jesus, walked calmly and on His Father's time table through His life, we must walk calmly and on Jesus' time table through ours. We must emulate Christ even in this!


We must strive to not hurry through those areas where we are prosecuted, yet I believe its probably even more important that we do not linger where we are praised.   The enemy can use that to hurt our walk with God, and the Bible is clear that if we do things for the praise on earth, then we do not receive a reward for that in Heaven.