"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
This statement was written on October 28, 1949 by Jim Elliott, not long before he headed deep into the jungles of Equador to attempt to reach the violent and mysterious Waodani Indians with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I first read this quote as a teenager and it profoundly impacted my life. When he penned this, Jim had no idea that he and four companions would be murdered by the Waodani nor did he know that his death would pave the way for two of the widows, including his, to bring God's message of love and peace to the people who had known neither. Many of us mistakenly live with the notion that our lives our ours to do with as we please, thank you very much, but God says otherwise. 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (ESV) 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. The real beauty is that when we give up was is not really ours anyway, we gain that which we would never have attained otherwise. When we surrender our lives to God and to his will, far from robbing us of joy and fulfillment, he grants us a rich and full life and the privilege of storing up treasures in heaven (Matt. 6:19-20). Jim Elliott understood that and it is my prayer that we do too.
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Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:2–3, ESV)
When our boys were little and were on that "milk-only" diet that seems to be the rave among newborns, my wife and I would sit and laugh as we listened to the noises they made. There were loud slurps, gulps and splutters as they rapidly chugged their milk. Such noises were crescendoed by a large belch (now that they're older, as I think about it, not much has changed!). The Apostle Peter challenges Christians in these two verses to be the same way . . . with the Bible. How desperately and how often we need to be filled with God's precious Truth. As those with infants know, it is a wonderful thing when they can sleep through the night without waking and loudly alerting you to their hunger pangs. But even when they make it through the night, their waking hours seem to revolve around feeding times. They eat a lot and they eat often. We should consume our spiritual food the same way. If many of us ate regular food as infrequently as we do our spiritual food, we'd starve to death. We absolutely need to spend frequent time in God's Word lest we grow spiritually weak and anemic. When we come to him, our soul longing to be satisfied, he graciously and faithfully fulfills our needs. As the Psalmist could attest, For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things. (Psalm 107:9, ESV) He never turns us away hungry. When come to him craving the truths of his Word, we always get what we need. Many of us have seen the effects poor diet has on the growth and development of a child. They must have enough food and enough of the right food to develop the way they're supposed to. If we lack the spiritual nutrients necessary to mature in our faith, it's no one's fault but our own. We have access to scripture on our shelves, computers and smartphones. Marvelous Bible teaching can be found in a church near you, on the radio, online or on that smartphone. In the same way we take in our favorite foods, let's endeavor to feed our souls with the good things spread upon the table of God's Word. While reading Luke 5 this morning, I was struck by the fact that our response to the miraculous is often wanting. God is at work doing the amazing all around us every day. A crimson sunrise. A sleeping baby. A summer thunderstorm. An unexplained healing. A prodigal returning home.
Do we respond the way we should? Luke 5 provides a guide. The first example comes from Simon. After fishing unsuccessfully all night , he, at Jesus command, lowed his net only to bring up more fish than the boat could handle (Luke 5:5-7). His response to the miracle is difficult for many of us to comprehend: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (v. 8). He was so amazed by what he saw (v. 9) that he was overwhelmed by the presence of a holy God. Sometimes we feel small when we see God's great actions, but how often do we feel our unholiness? The second response comes after Jesus heals a paralyzed man. After dealing with a couple skeptics, he commanded the lame man to walk (v. 22-24). When the man did so, he began to glorify God, but not just him. The people around him were filled with awe and glorified God as well (v. 25-26). They knew the Source of the miracle and rightly acknowledged the great thing he had done. Don't let miracles pass you by. Let them make you holy and humble. Give glory to God for them all for there's no such thing as an ordinary miracle. It is a privilage and a blessing to share our faith in Christ with others. But we often don't feel that way. We feel intimidated, unsure of ourselves and deeply concerned about what others might think of us. If that describes you, then be encouraged by this scripture and the words of this missions worker:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16, ESV) Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within his followers except the adoption of Christ's purpose toward the world he came to redeem. Fame, pleasure and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal plans. The men who are putting everything into Christ's undertaking are getting out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards. -J. Campbell White, quoted in John Piper's "Desiring God", p. 188 Some encouragement from Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson in Give Them Grace:
The disciples couldn’t hinder the children from coming to him even though they tried. When God calls our children to come to him, even if we haven’t gotten it all right, even if we’ve trained little Pharisees or have a house full of prodigals, nothing is impossible for him. He can break through all our flawed methods and redeem all our frail errors. The world tells us that their success depends upon our success. The world knows nothing of God’s ability to use our failures as means to bless. “What is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). So, even though we desire to be the ones who place our children in the lap of God’s mercy and even though we stumble so badly trying to do so, Jesus is strong enough to pick each of us up and carry us all the way. Parents, too, are weak but Jesus is strong. No one, not even you, can thwart his purpose to bless those who are his (Eph. 1:11). from Justin Taylor's blog |
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