Devotional 180809

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good evening. I just finished my 4 days annual staff meeting. We had a fruitful meeting even though it was tiring. Praise God for His guiding hands in leading this mission organization to fulfill His salvation plan on earth.

"When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth" (Luke 18:23). The rich young ruler went away expressionless with sorrow; he had not a word to say. He had no doubt as to what Jesus said, no debate as to what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow that was beyond word to describe. Have you ever been there? Has God's word come to you about something you are very rich in - temperament, personal similarity, relationships of heart and mind? Then you have often been expressionless with sorrow. The Lord will not go after you, He will not plead, but every time He meets you on that point He will simply repeat - If you mean what you say, those are the conditions.

"Sell all that you have," undress yourself morally before God of everything that might be a possession until you are a mere conscious human being, and then give God that. That is where the battle is fought - in the domain of the will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Himself? If so, you are likely to hear one of His hard sayings that will produce sorrow in you. What Jesus says is hard to your ears; it is only easy when it is heard by those who have His mind. Beware of allowing anything to soften a hard word of Jesus Christ's.

I can be so rich in poverty, so rich in the consciousness that I am nobody, that I shall never be a disciple of Jesus; and I can be so rich in the consciousness that I am somebody that I shall never be a disciple. Am I willing to be destitute of the sense that I am destitute? This is where discouragement comes in. Discouragement is to disappoint self-love, and self-love may be love of “my devotion” to Jesus but not Jesus Himself.

The last paragraph is realty difficult to comprehend. I believe what Brother Chamber wanted to say was to let go of even our “consciousness of giving up all things” for Christ. Some people enjoy making sacrifice for others; it is a virtue of greatness to some who choose to live in poverty as a sign of sainthood. If we are not careful, we will easily fall into this trap of self-love. We sell or give up everything to follow Christ is not to show off our greatness but for our gratitude toward Christ and what He did on the cross for us. May God help us put to death even “our desire or mindset to be more holy and devoted than other.” We simply do what Christ wants us to do.

Love you because of His love,
Lawrence