From “Music For The Soul” by Alexander Maclaren

Do you have…

A CALL TO FAITH AND OBEDIENCE

If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be. – Joh_12:26

From the beginning Christ’s disciples did not look upon Him as a Rabbi’s disciples did, as being simply a teacher, but recognised Him as the Messias, the Son of God, the King of Israel. So that they were called upon by His commands to accept His teaching in a very special way, not merely as Rittel or Gamaliel asked their disciples to accept theirs. Do you do that? Do you take Him as your illumination about all matters of theoretical truth and of practical wisdom? Is His declaration of God your theology? Is His declaration of His own Person your creed? Do you think about His Cross as He did when He elected to be remembered in all the world by the broken body and the shed blood, which were the symbols of His reconciling death? Is His teaching, that the Son of Man comes to give His life a ransom for many, the ground of your hope? Do you follow Him in your belief, and following Him in your belief, do you accept Him as the Saviour of your soul, by His death and passion? That is the first step, to follow Him, to trust Him wholly for what He is, the Incarnate Son of God, the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and therefore for yours and for mine. This is a call to faith.

It is also a call to obedience. “Follow Me! ” certainly means, ” Do as I bid you “; but that is harsh. Sedulously plant your little feet in His firm footsteps; where you see His track going across the bog, be not afraid to walk after Him, though it may seem to lead you into the deepest and the blackest of it. Follow Him, and you will be right; follow Him, and you will be blessed. Do as Christ did, or as according to the best of your judgment it seems to you that Christ would have done if He had been in your circumstances; and you will not go far wrong. “The Imitation of Christ,” which the old anonymous monk wrote his book about, is the sum of all practical Christianity. “Follow Me!” makes discipleship to be something better than intellectual acceptance of His teaching, something more than even reliance for my salvation upon His work. It makes discipleship to be, springing out of these two, the acceptance of His teaching and the consequent reliance, by faith, upon His word – to be a practical reproduction of His character and conduct in mine.

It is a call to communion. If a man follows Christ he will walk close behind Him, and near enough to Him to hear Him speak, to be “guided by His eye.” He will be separated from other people and from other things. In these four things, then – Faith, Obedience, Imitation, Communion – lies the essence of discipleship. No man is a Christian who has not in some measure all four. Have you got them?

 

Advertisement

From “The Word For You Today” by Bruce Christian, What Kind of Example are You? (5)

     How true this is.  Read it and see if you don’t agree.

WHAT KIND OF EXAMPLE ARE YOU (5)

     In Bible times, Jews looked down on non-jews.  They actually referred to them as “dogs.”  So when Christ’s disciples went into a Samaritan village to find accomodation for the night, they were turned away.  How did the disciples handle this?  With understanding?  Not a chance?  “They said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’  But he turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what …spirit you are of”  (Lk 9:54-55 NKJV).  Check your spirit!  You can be totally unaware of your attitude toward others.  You can even use Scripture to justify yourself.  The disciples thought that because Elijah called down fire on his enemies at Mount Carmel they should be able to zap these poor Samaritians.  Amazing!  Christ had just got through telling them: “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!  For indeed your reward is great in heaven” (Lk 6:22-23 NKJV).  Only as you read the Scriptures and pray, can God shine the spotlight on your hidden biases and help you correct them.  Often the look on your face has more impact than the words you speak.  You can be arrogant and think you’re being assertive.  You can be insensitive and think you’re a truth-teller.  You can be purpose-driven and convince people that their only value to you is in what they contribute.  When it comes to your “spirit,” you need a regular checkup.

From Samuel Bagster’s “Daily Light on the Daily Path”

     Something to think about as you go through your day.

 

As the body without the spirit is dead,
so faith without works is dead also.
Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord. Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to
patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to
brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and
abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he
that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and
hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore
the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and
election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.
By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man
should boast.

Jas_2:26 Mat_7:21 Heb_12:14 2Pe_1:5-10 Eph_2:8-9