The "go" of unconditional indentification

"One thing thou lackest..come take up the cross and follow Me."

Mark 10:21

The rich young ruler had the Master passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our LORD never puts personal holiness to the fore when He calls a disciple, He puts absolute anihilation of my right to myself and idnetification with Himself  - a relationship with Himself ub which there is no other relationship. 

Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvationor sanctification, but unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us know the absolute "go" of abandonment to Jesus. 

" then Jesus behold him and loved him." The look of Jesus will mean aheart broken forever from alleginance to any other person or thing, Has Jesus ever looked at you? The look of Jesus transforms and transfixes. Where you are "soft" with GOD is where the LORD has looked at you. If you are hard and vindicative, insistent on your own way, certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, it is an indication that there are whole tracts of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.

" One thing thou lackest..." The only "good thing" from Jesus Christ's point of view is union with Himself abd nothing in between. " Sell whatsoever thou hast..." I must reduce myself until I am a mere consious man. U must fundamentally renounce possesions of all kinds, not to save my soul ( only one thing saves a man - absolute reliance upon Jesus) - but in order to follow Jesus.

" Come and follow Me." And the road us the way He went.

Excerpt from My Utmost for His highest  by Oswald Chamber

180

Conversion

False Profession

Worldly people seem to be well aware that it is only in this life that they will be able to get vent to their worldliness. They quite count upon death putting an end to it all; and this is one of the main reasons for their dread of death, and their dislike even of the thoughts of it.

The character as well as the life of these men is undecided and feeble. They are not decided in their worldliness, and they are not decided in their religion. If they were compelled to choose between their two masters, the probability is that they would prefer the world; for their heart is not in their religion, and religion is not in their heart. Religion is irksome [ so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness. ] to them; it is a yoke, not a pleasant service. Their consciences would not allow them to throw it off; but it occupies a very small part of their thoughts and affections. They are, in fact, worldly men varnished over with religion; that is all. They are made up of two parts, a dead and a living; the living part is the world, the dead is religion. These are the ambiguous disciples of our age, who belong to Christ but in name. These are the stony-ground or thornyground hearers (Luk 8:14); men who have a place at our communion tables, who figure at religious committees, who make speeches on religious platforms, yet are, after all, wells without water, trees without root, stars without either heat or light (Jude 12-13).

The religion of such is but a half-and-half religion; without depth, or decision, or vigor, or self-sacrifice. It is but a picture or a statue, not a living man.The conversion of such has been but a half-and-half conversion. It has not gone down to the lowest depths of the man’s nature. I do not say it is a pretence or a hypocrisy; but still, I say it is an unreality. It has been a movement, a shaking, a change, but it has not been a being “begotten of God,” a being born from above (1Jo 5:18).

Pragmatism?!?

The work done in…apostolic days by the preaching of the Gospel was very decided. The religion that it produced was of no diluted nor ambiguous kind. The Christians then were men about whom there could be no mistake—uncompromising, unworldly, out-spoken men, who were not ashamed of their faith, or of their Lord, or of His badge, the cross. They came out and were separate, and touched not the unclean thing. It was in this way that “the masses” of Corinth, and Ephesus, and other Gentile cities were “evangelized” and “elevated,” not by concerts, and clubs, and amusements either for eye or ear.

Pakistan

Christians in Pakistan...
 Though the Church exists and we are thankful for that, her activities are curtailed through a set of laws that make evangelism to Muslims and conversion to Christianity a crime. Fundamental Islamists cause discrimination from grass root levels all the way up to a governmental level. Islamic identity gives the man on the street power over a Non-Muslim and violation of his or her rights, without the fear of being reprimanded by the authorities. Christians are denied opportunities to become literate.  Discrimination of Christians in the workplace, in receiving scholarships, education, healthcare and in some extreme and remote areas even in accessing basic amenities like clean water, food etc. 

Let the whole world know  Posted on 08/26/2011 12:00 AM

Friends this is an urgent prayer request. On the 4th of January, earlier this year Salman Taseer, the Governer of the Punjab was killed. He was killed because he defended Aasya Bibi, the Christian woman who has been in prison for almost two years now on false blasphemy charges. He has refered to the Blasphemy law as an unjust law and has even gone as far as saying it was poisonous. Although he himself was not a believer, he was killed because he spoke up for the rights of Christians in Pakistan. Today his son Shahbaz has been kidnapped! Pakistan's Christians ackowledge that the Taseer Family have already paid a high price for our rights in Pakistan. We do not want them to lose another member of their family. As I heard this news I was led by the Holy Spirit to pray a prayer. I want to share that prayer with you. Will you pray it with us that Shahbaz be released in more ways than one? My friends, you have prayed for men of courage to rise in Pakistan, you have prayed for Christians in Pakistan and the voice of these men rose because of your prayers. Salman gave his life because you prayed that someone would speak up for us, his son has been kidnapped because of that. Now it is time to pray that God will honour the sacrifice of this family and our prayers and will free Shahbaz and will bring him into a knowledge of God's protection. The prayer God led me to pray was 'Dear Lord Jesus, I know Salman was not a believer in Jesus, but I also know that he spoke up for us and I know you will honour that. Lord his son is suffering because his father spoke for the Maarias and the Aasyas and the Abraham's of Pakistan. So Lord please make yourself known to Shahbaz wherever he is. Lord visit with him and say to him, 'My Son Peace to You'. You have said that the weary should come to you, Lord invite Shahbaz at this moment, still the storm in him and calm him and speak with him Jesus please'

The Religion of the Day

“Head religion”

The popular religion of the day is either a head or a hand one: that is to say, the labouring to acquire a larger and fuller intellectual grasp of the things of God, or a constant round of activities called “service for the Lord.” But the heart is neglected! Thousands are reading, studying, taking “Bible-courses,” but for all the spiritual benefits their souls derive, they might as well be engaged in breaking stones. Lest it be thought that such a stricture is too severe, we quote a sentence from a letter recently received from one who has completed no less than eight of these “Bible-study courses:” “There was nothing in that ‘hard work’ which ever called for self-examination, which led me to really know God, and appropriate the Scriptures to  my deep need.” No, of course there was not: their compilers—like nearly all the speakers at the big “Bible conferences”—studiously avoid all that is unpalatable to the flesh, all that condemns the natural man, all that pierces and searches the conscience. Oh, the tragedy of this head “Christianity.”

“Hand religion”

Equally pitiable is the hand religion of the day, when young “converts” are put to teaching a Sunday school class, urged to “speak” in the open air, or take up “personal work.” How many thousands of beardless youths and young girls are now engaged in what is called “winning souls for Christ,” when their own souls are spiritually starved! They  may “memorize” two or three verses of Scripture a day, but that does not mean their souls are being fed. How many are giving their evenings to helping in some “mission,” who need to be spending time in “the secret place of the Most High”! And how many bewildered souls are using the major part of the Lord’s day in rushing from one meeting to another, instead of seeking from God that which will fortify them against temptations of the week. Oh, the tragedy of this hand “Christianity”!

How subtle the devil is! Under the guise of promoting growth in “the knowledge of the Lord,” he gets people to attend a ceaseless round of meetings, reading an almost endless number of religious periodicals and books, all under the pretense of “honouring the Lord” by all this so-called “service.” He induces the one or the other to neglect the great task which God has set before us: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Pro 4:23). Ah, it is far easier to speak to others, than it is to constantly use and improve all holy means and duties to preserve the soul from sin, and maintain it in sweet and free communion with God. It is far  easier to spend an hour reading a sensational article upon “the signs of the time,” than it is to spend an hour in agonizing before God for purifying and rectifying grace!

Excerpt from Guarding your heart by A.W. Pink

May the LORD keep us from living in such manner.

In Christ

J

Contentment

Many people place great expectations in varied circumstances and conditions. One thinks he could serve God much better if he were more prospered temporally; another, if he passed through the refining effects of poverty and affliction. One thinks his spirituality would be promoted if he could be more retired and solitary; another, if only he could have more society and Christian fellowship. But, my reader, the only way to serve God better is to be content with the place in which He has put you, and therein get a better heart! We shall never enter into the advantages of any situation, nor overcome the disadvantages of any condition, until we fix and water the root of them in ourselves. Out of the heart are the “issues of life,” and not from our surroundings. “Make the tree good, and his fruit good” (Mat 12:33): get the heart right, and you will soon be superior unto all “circumstances.”

A.W.Pink