Monday, June 19, 2006
how can i love God more?
I was in a personal time of worship the other day and i just felt this gut feeling of desire to love God more. How vague. But i distinctly heard God saying to me "if you love people you do it for me and love me". Not an audible voice a thought that came into my mind. Sometimes people ask me how i can tell the difference between my thoughts and His. Sometimes its next to impossible but this time i wasn't mthinking of an answer or loving God as a problem to be solved yet the thought just came suddenly before i could process anything. It wasn't like i was remembering scripture but later this one came to mind.- Matt 25:40'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." This is not new information for any of us but a fresh revelation (truth being made more truthful).
so today i read the following in My utmost for His Highest" "Lovest thou Me? . . . Feed My sheep." John 21:16
Jesus did not say - Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on adherence to a belief or a creed. "If any man come to Me and hate not . . . , he cannot be My disciple." There is no argument and no compulsion, but simply - If you would be My disciple, you must be devoted to Me. A man touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says - "Now I see Who Jesus is," and that is the source of devotion.
To-day we have substituted credal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many are devoted to causes and so few devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is a source of deep offence to the educated mind of to-day that does not want Him in any other way than as a Comrade. Our Lord's first obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of men; the saving of men was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted to the cause of humanity only, I will soon be exhausted and come to the place where my love will falter; but if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity though men treat me as a door-mat. The secret of a disciple's life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of the life is its unobtrusiveness. It is like a corn of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies, but presently it will spring up and alter the whole landscape (John 12:24). "
usually i am very wary of devoltionals because they can be turned into a Christian horoscope.
so this is kind of an example of how God speaks to me sometimes.
so today i read the following in My utmost for His Highest" "Lovest thou Me? . . . Feed My sheep." John 21:16
Jesus did not say - Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on adherence to a belief or a creed. "If any man come to Me and hate not . . . , he cannot be My disciple." There is no argument and no compulsion, but simply - If you would be My disciple, you must be devoted to Me. A man touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says - "Now I see Who Jesus is," and that is the source of devotion.
To-day we have substituted credal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many are devoted to causes and so few devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is a source of deep offence to the educated mind of to-day that does not want Him in any other way than as a Comrade. Our Lord's first obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of men; the saving of men was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted to the cause of humanity only, I will soon be exhausted and come to the place where my love will falter; but if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity though men treat me as a door-mat. The secret of a disciple's life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of the life is its unobtrusiveness. It is like a corn of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies, but presently it will spring up and alter the whole landscape (John 12:24). "
usually i am very wary of devoltionals because they can be turned into a Christian horoscope.
so this is kind of an example of how God speaks to me sometimes.