With sarcasm, Wilbur Reese writes: " I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. . ."
Luke 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
How much of God do you want -- enough to follow in Christ's steps?
OR ENOUGH TO:
- Stop using your money, resources and time selfishly and start using them to help others and to build the Kingdom of God?
- Develop a hunger for the Word and let all other priorities fall behind you?
- Become passionate about prayer?
- Give yourself as a humble servant to others?
- Learn to forgive those who hurt you, forgo bitterness, give up resentment, and if possible, make peace with your enemies?
- Develop the passionate love of Christ for the most unlovely?
A Christian's fast-paced American life and culture gives him/her little uninterrupted time to think. One way to become a better thinking Christian is to study God's Word -- to know His thoughts and perspective.
2 Timothy 3:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
This beautiful song says it best.
To receive when others reject
To treat each one with true respect
To shield when others throw stones
To be with one who is all alone
To think and choose to see the very best
To live like this is nothing less than to possess . . . the mind of Christ
To build up when others tear down,
To seek the lost until they're found
To give grace where its needed most,
Rejecting pride when others boast
To sacrifice my all without regret
To live like this is nothing less than to possess . . .
The mind of Christ, my highest goal
The Lord's delight, the desire of my soul
The Father's heart will always guide my life
If I will have in me the mind of Christ
Have there been times in your life when you felt like you were at the end of your rope -- when enemies or problems shoved you between a rock and a hard place or into a wilderness.
Surely, David remembered the times he hid from enemies pursuing his life when he wrote the following verse:
Psalm 72:9 They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall "lick the dust".
I love David's metaphore, "lick the dust". He could've also said, "busted, whammed, bammed, thwacked, whacked, whomped, whumped, distroyed, smashed or gone."
or something like that.
The next time a debacle attacks your life, ask The Lord for a "lick the dust" victory and believe He will destroy the enemy.
Psalm 72:12 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
God is good!
How do you grasp the feeling of someone searching for their child or grandchild under rubble after a devestating tornado? You don't you can't, but you can pray for them. How do you comfort them in their loss -- in their panic as they search for loved ones not yet found.
Gazing like zombies at empty lots that used to be their home, many families are thanking God that they survived.
God is the great Comforter.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Blessed be God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
Pray -- pray --pray for them.
