Hello Apex family,
I hope that you had a relaxing weekend and an excellent Father's Day!
If you are anything like me, you also have the tendency to either go into "common sense/self-sufficiency mode" and lose track of the Father in the whirlwind of life, or on the other end of the spectrum, to over-think, over-analyze, over-do and over-complicate my relationship with Him. Oswald Chambers reminds us that all Christ wants is...us - fully focused on Him, in relationship with Him and concerned primarily with nothing else. The rest falls into place from there. This is not passive, however, and requires much. Although concise, it is a consuming life-pursuit to surrender our whole selves to God - loving Him with all that we have, caring for ourselves with this kind of love and then giving it away to others compulsively (Matthew 22:37-40).
. . . do you love Me? . . . Tend My sheep —John 21:16
Jesus did not say to make converts to your way of thinking, but He said to look after His sheep, to see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Him. We consider what we do in the way of Christian work as service, yet Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based solely on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on following after a particular belief or doctrine. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate . . . , he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). In this verse, there is no argument and no pressure from Jesus to follow Him; He is simply saying, in effect, “If you want to be My disciple, you must be devoted solely to Me.” A person touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says, “Now I see who Jesus is!”— that is the source of devotion.
Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people— the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a “doormat.” The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness. Yet it is like a grain of wheat that “falls into the ground and dies”— it will spring up and change the entire landscape (John 12:24). - Oswald Chambers
I am so excited to still be on this journey with you all. Let's not stop reminding each other to whom we belong!
Have a great week...
Chris
I hope that you had a relaxing weekend and an excellent Father's Day!
If you are anything like me, you also have the tendency to either go into "common sense/self-sufficiency mode" and lose track of the Father in the whirlwind of life, or on the other end of the spectrum, to over-think, over-analyze, over-do and over-complicate my relationship with Him. Oswald Chambers reminds us that all Christ wants is...us - fully focused on Him, in relationship with Him and concerned primarily with nothing else. The rest falls into place from there. This is not passive, however, and requires much. Although concise, it is a consuming life-pursuit to surrender our whole selves to God - loving Him with all that we have, caring for ourselves with this kind of love and then giving it away to others compulsively (Matthew 22:37-40).
. . . do you love Me? . . . Tend My sheep —John 21:16
Jesus did not say to make converts to your way of thinking, but He said to look after His sheep, to see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Him. We consider what we do in the way of Christian work as service, yet Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based solely on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on following after a particular belief or doctrine. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate . . . , he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). In this verse, there is no argument and no pressure from Jesus to follow Him; He is simply saying, in effect, “If you want to be My disciple, you must be devoted solely to Me.” A person touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says, “Now I see who Jesus is!”— that is the source of devotion.
Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people— the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a “doormat.” The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness. Yet it is like a grain of wheat that “falls into the ground and dies”— it will spring up and change the entire landscape (John 12:24). - Oswald Chambers
I am so excited to still be on this journey with you all. Let's not stop reminding each other to whom we belong!
Have a great week...
Chris
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