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Lordship
of Christ
Eternal
Life
B.J.
Honeycutt
a character on the T.V. series “M.A.S.H.
” gave this reason for why
he didn’t give in to temptation in the midst of the Korean War: “I live in an
insane world where nothing makes sense. Everyone around me lives for the now
because there may not be a tomorrow. But I have to live for tomorrow
because
for me there is no now.”
For
B.J.
his hope for the future was seeing his family again. That hope was
sufficient to define how he would behave in an extremely difficult situation.
How much more so should our future hope of the
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
One
afternoon author Patsy Clairmont found herself on an airplane
sitting next to
a young man. She writes
"I had already observed something about this
young man when I was being seated. He called me "Ma'am." At the time
I thought
'Either he thinks I'm ancient
or he's from the South where they
still teach manners
or he's in the service.' I decided the latter was the most
likely
so I asked
"You in the service?"
"Yes
Ma'am
I
am."
"What
branch?"
"Marines."
"Hey
Marine
where
are you coming from?" "Operation desert Storm
Ma'am."
"No kidding? Desert
Storm! How long were you there?" I asked. "A year and a half. I'm on
my way home. My family will be at the airport." I then commented that he
must have thought about returning to his family and home many times while he
was in the Middle East. "Oh
no
Ma'am
" he replied. "We were
taught never to think of what might never be
but to be fully available right
where we were." ── Focus
on the Family
July
1993
p. 5.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
My
favorite Abraham Kuyper quotation comes from a speech that he once gave before
a university audience in Amsterdam. He was arguing that scholarship is an
important form of Christian discipleship. Since scholarship deals with God's
world
it has to be done in such a way that it honors Christ. Kuyper concluded
with this ringing proclamation: "There is not one square inch of the
entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out
'This is mine! This
belongs to me!'" ── Richard J.
Mouw
Uncommon Decency
pp. 146-147.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
I
think that many of us
when Christ has enabled us to overcome one or two sins
that were an obvious nuisance
are inclined to feel (though we do not put it
into words) that we are now good enough. He has done all we wanted him to do
and we should be obliged if he would leave us alone. But the question is not
what we intended ourselves to be
but what he intended us to be when he made
us...
Imagine yourself as a
living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first
perhaps
you can
understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the
leaks in the roof and so on. You knew that those jobs needed doing and so you
are not surprised.
But presently he starts knocking
the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense.
What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a
different house from the one you thought of -- throwing out a new wing here
putting on an extra floor there
running up towers
making courtyards.
You thought you were going
to be made into a decent little cottage
but he is building a palace. He
intends to come and live in it himself.── C.S. Lewis.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
In
1991 a Gallup poll showed that 78 percent of Americans expect to go to heaven
when they die. However
many of them hardly ever pray
read the Bible
or
attend church. They admit that they live to please themselves instead of God. I
wonder why these people would want to go to heaven.
In an article title
"Are We Ready for Heaven?" Maurice R. Irwin points out that only 34
percent of the American people who call themselves Christians attend church at
least once a week. He says
"We sing
'When all my labors and trials are
o'er
and I am safe on that beautiful shore
just to be near the dear Lord I
adore will through the ages be glory for me.' However
unless our attitudes
toward the Lord and our appreciation of Him change greatly
heaven may be more
of a shock than a glory." ── Daily
Bread
July 31
1992.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
It
was in 1873
in Dublin that D.L. Moody heard British evangelist Henry Varley
utter those life changing words: "The world has yet to see what God can do
with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to
Him." It was after an all-night prayer meeting in Dublin
at the home of
Henry Bewley. Varley did not even remember making the statement when Moody
reminded him of it a year later. "As I crossed the wide Atlantic
"
Moody said
"the boards of the deck...were engraved with them
and when I
reached Chicago
the very paving stones seemed marked with them."
The result: Moody decided
he was involved in too many ministries to be effective and therefore began to
concentrate on evangelism.── W. Wiersbe
The
Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers
p. 200.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
Someone
once wrote and asked Emily Post
the etiquette expert of another generation
"What is the correct procedure when one is invited to the White House but
has a previous engagement?"
Replied Post
"An
invitation to dine at the White House is a command
and it automatically
cancels any other engagement." ── Today
In The Word
November
1989
p.7.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
Shortly
after joining the Navy
the new recruit asked his officer for a pass so he
could attend a wedding. The officer gave him the pass
but informed the young
man he would have to be back by 7 p.m. Sunday. "You don't understand
sir
" said the recruit. "I'm in the wedding."
"No
you don't
understand
" the officer shot back. "You're in the Navy!". ── Source Unknown.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
The
captain of the ship looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the
distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message" "Alter
your course 10 degrees south."
Promptly a return message
was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north."
The captain was angered;
his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: "Alter your
course 10 degrees south--I am the captain!"
Soon another message was
received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am seaman third class
Jones."
Immediately the captain
sent a third message
knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course
10 degrees south--I am a battleship."
Then the reply came
"Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a lighthouse."
In the midst of our dark
and foggy times
all sorts of voices are shouting orders into the night
telling us what to do
how to adjust our lives. Out of the darkness
one voice
signals something quite opposite to the rest- -something almost absurd. But the
voice happens to be the Light of the World
and we ignore it at our our
peril. ── Paul Aiello
Jr.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
Bruce
Larson
in Believe and Belong
tells how he helped people struggling to
surrender their lives to Christ:
"For many years I
worked in New York City and counseled at my office any number of people who
were wrestling with this yes-or-no decision. Often I would suggest they walk
with me from my office down to the RCA Building on Fifth Avenue. In the
entrance of that building is a gigantic statue of Atlas
a beautifully
proportioned man who
with all his muscles straining
is holding the world upon
his shoulders. There he is
the most powerfully built man in the world
and he
can barely stand up under this burden. 'Now that's one way to live
' I would
point out to my companion
'trying to carry the world on your shoulders. But
now come across the street with me.'
"On the other side of
Fifth Avenue is Saint Patrick's Cathedral
and there behind the high altar is a
little shrine of the boy Jesus
perhaps eight or nine years old
and with no
effort he is holding the world in one hand. My point was illustrated
graphically.
"We have a choice. We
can carry the world on our shoulders
or we can say
'I give up
Lord; here's
my life. I give you my world
the whole world.'"── Richard A. Hasler.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
On
the tombstone of an old Cavalier soldier who lost his life and property in
battle for the royalist cause: "He served King Charles with a constant
dangerous and expensive loyalty." ── B. Larsen
Luke
p. 59.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
A
wife who is 85% faithful to her husband is not faithful at all. There is no
such thing as part-time loyalty to Jesus Christ.── Vance Havner.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
A
Glamour magazine survey of 25
000 readers
most of them women between the
ages of 18 and 35
reflects a powerful swing to life's spiritual side: 77%
pray
and 87% feel that God is always helping them or has helped them through a
particular period in their lives. These readers seem to choose aspects of their
religion they can live with and ignore what they can't
without discarding
their faith. For example
the poll finds that nearly half disagree with their
church's teaching on premarital sex
and a third (42% of the single women)
disagree with their religion on abortion.── Glamour
May
1986.
Peter T. Forsythe was
right when he said
"The first duty of every soul is to find not its
freedom but its Master".── Warren W.
Wiersbe
The Integrity Crisis
Thomas Nelson Publishers
1991
p. 22.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
A.W.
Tozer says that people who are crucified with Christ have three distinct marks:
1. they are facing only
one direction
2. they can never turn
back
and
3. they no longer have
plans of their own.
── Tim Hansel
Holy
Sweat
1987
Word Books Publisher
p. 187.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
A.
W. Tozer in "The Old Cross and the New".
"From this new cross
has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life; and from that new philosophy
has come a new evangelical technique -- a new type of meeting and new type of
preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as of the old
but its
content is not the same
and the emphasis not as before.
"The new cross
encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist
does not demand abnegation of the old life before a new life can be received.
He preaches not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key into the public
view the same thing the world does
only a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad
world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the
very thing the gospel offers
only the religious product is better.
"The new cross does
not slay the sinner; it re-directs him. I gears him to a cleaner and jollier
way of living
and saves his self-respect...The Christian message is slanted in
the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the
public.
"The philosophy back
of this kind of thing may be sincere
but its sincerity does not save it from
being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole
meaning of the cross. The old cross is a symbol of DEATH. It stands for the
abrupt
violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took the cross
and started down the road has already said goodbye to his friends. He was not
coming back. He was not going out to have his life re-directed; he was going
out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise; modified nothing; spared
nothing. It slew all of the man completely
and for good. It did not try to
keep on good terms with the victim. It struck cruel and hard
and when it had
finished its work
the man was no more.
"The race of Adam is
under the death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape. God cannot
approve any fruits of sin
however innocent they may appear
or beautiful to
the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him
and then
raising him again to newness of life.
"That evangelism
which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is
false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ
does not parallel the world; it intersects it. In coming to Christ we do not
bring our old life to a higher plane; we leave it at the cross....
"We
who preach the
gospel
must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to
establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves
commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business
the press
or the world
of sports
or modern entertainment. We are not diplomats
but prophets; and our
message is not a compromise
but an ultimatum." ── The Biblical Evangelist
November 1
1991
p. 11.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
Jesus
who died for thy sins
is worthy to receive power
and riches
and wisdom
and
strength
and honor
and glory
and blessing. We can never ascribe too much to
Jesus. But He is worthy also to be believed
in preference to Satan
unbelief
the world
or appearances; to be trusted with all
for all
before all; to be
loved more than any other
in opposition to any that would rival Him;...to be
followed
wherever He may lead us
through evil report or good report; to be
preferred to ease
pleasure
wealth
health
to anything and everything. Jesus
is worthy to be our example
our confidant
our king
and our all. He is worthy
of all He requires
all we can give
all His people have done for Him or
suffered in His cause. ── James Smith
in Daily Remembrances.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
The
Greek word for lord is indeed used in scripture in the sense of master
and as
a mere honorary title as in the English Sir. But
on the other hand
it is the
translation of Adonai
supreme Lord
an incommunicable name of God
and
the substitute for Jehovah
a name the Jews would not pronounce. It is in this
sense that Christ is 'the Lord
the Lord of Lords
the Lord God'; Lord in that
sense in which God alone can be Lord--having a dominion of which divine
perfection is the only adequate or possible foundation. This is the reason why
no one can call him Lord
but by the Holy Ghost. It is a confession which
implies the apprehension of the glory of God as it shines in Him. It is an
acknowledgement that He is God manifested in the flesh. Blessed are all who
make this acknowledgement with sincerity; for flesh and blood cannot reveal the
truth therein confessed
but only the Father who is in heaven.── Charles Hodge.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
I
am not sent a pilgrim here
My heart with earth to
fill;
But I am here God's grace
to learn
And serve God's sovereign
will.
He leads me on through
smiles and tears
Grief follows gladness
still;
But let me welcome both
alike
Since both work out his
will.
No service in itself is
small
None great
though earth
it fill;
But that is small that
seeks its own
And great that seeks God's
will.
Then hold my hand
most
gracious Lord
Guide all my doings still;
And let this be my life's
one aim
To do
or bear thy will.
There is not an inch of
any sphere of life of which Jesus Christ
the Lord does not say
"Mine."
── Abraham
Kuyper
quoted in The Devil's Gauntlet
by Os Guiness.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
Jesus
Christ is not valued at all until He is valued above all.── Augustine.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
I
said: Let me walk in the field.
God said: Nay
walk in the
town.
I said: There are no
flowers there.
He said: No flowers
but a
crown.
I said: But the sky is
black
there is
nothing but noise and din.
But He wept as He sent me
back
"There is more
"
He said. "There is sin."
I said: But the air is
thick
and fogs are
veiling the sun.
He answered: Yet souls are
sick
and
souls in the dark undone.
I said: I shall miss the
light
and friends
will miss me
they say.
He answered me: Choose
tonight
if I
am to miss you
or they.
I pleaded for time to be
given;
He said: Is it hard to
decide?
It will not seem hard in
heaven to have
followed the steps of your
Guide.
I cast one look at the
fields
Then set my face to the
town;
He said: My child
do you
yield? Will
you leave the flowers for
the crown?
Then into His hand went
mine
and into my heart came He;
And I walk in a light
Divine
the path I had feared to
see.
── George
MacDonald.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
Ye
call Me Master and obey me not
Ye call Me Light and see
me not
Ye call Me way and follow
me not
Ye call Me Life and desire
me not
Ye call Me wise and
acknowledge me not
Ye call Me fair and love
me not
Ye call Me rich and ask me
not
Ye call Me eternal and
seek me not
Ye call Me gracious and
trust me not
Ye call Me Noble and serve
me not
Ye call Me mighty and
honor me not
Ye call Me just and fear
me not
If I condemn you
blame me
not.
── Resource
July/August
1990.
LORDSHIP
OF CHRIST
God
is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.── Andrew Murray.