No Turning Back

Luke 9:23 "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."

When missionary Dr. David Livingstone was working in Africa, a group of friends wrote him: “We would like to send other men to you. Have you found a good road into your area yet?” Dr. Livingstone sent this message in reply: “If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”

There’s a big difference between just being interested in doing something and actually making a commitment to doing it! Just being interested allows us the freedom to do a thing only when our circumstances make it convenient for us. But making a commitment to do that thing means accepting no excuses and no reservations — it means putting aside our fears and reservations moving forward till we see the end result! Dr. Livingstone was looking for results, and this required men of commitment!

Jesus states that we must deny ourselves. That means that we must deny what we want to do and do what He wants us to do. That is difficult for most today because society pulls at us with the thought of "whatever I want is most important". But that is so contrary to what God says. We have to put our desires on the back burner when it comes to God and his work.

We used to sing a song at church camp that I attended when I was in Jr. High and we sang it every night for vespers service. It was "I Have Decided To Follow Jesus". If you know it, the lyrics are very strong and to even sing the song, one needs to make a conscious decision because to make this commitment, it will take 100% of our being. It starts with a decision to Follow Jesus, secondly, a promise that we will follow even if we are the only ones to do so. It ends with a statement that our eyes are fixed on the cross and nothing else. We put the world behind us and the cross before us. That is true commitment!

With 2009 under way, let’s make some commitments! Let's make solid commitments to our Lord and our church. They deserve it. There is so much work to do, that it will require our 100% dedication, and really, doesn't God deserve it? That's the real question we must answer.

Proper Lip Service

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. "They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men” (Matthew 15:8, 9).

You’ve heard people say:

• “Talk is cheap.”
• “He’s just giving lip-service.”
• “Put your money where your mouth is.”

I learned these from my mom and these sayings are all just ways to express that the words you speak have little value if they are not followed up with action.

Even more importantly, God is interested in the sincerity of our hearts rather than our words.

God sees our hearts; He knows our thoughts; He knows the attitudes and motivations behind our actions.

When we say we love God, but haven’t surrendered our will to Him, we are just like the Pharisees He addressed in these verses from Matthew (also in Mark 7:6, 7).

The Pharisees had become caught up in the rules they had created for daily life. Their worship of God became an opportunity to show everyone how well they followed the rules. Thus, rather than worshipping God, they were merely glorifying themselves. By focusing on their outward conduct they forgot that unlike men, God looks at the heart:

• “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
• “God does not judge by external appearance” (Galatians 2:6).

Let us be mindful of the fact that our words are meaningless to God if they don’t reflect a heart that is seeking Him.

There is no greater pleasure to God than when his children’s words match their lifestyle. Let’s be a people that “practices what they preach” and “puts our money where our mouth is”. Let’s give him proper lip service: our words matching our actions!