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What It Means To Be A Christian

Posted by Tkulp , 18 October 2017 · 576 views

Our Daily Walk by JB Meyer October 15 What It Means To Be A Christian
In the same way therefore not one of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his own possessions. — Luke 14:33 NET

 

Three times over in this chapter, our Lord says these solemn words: “he cannot be My disciple.” There are three conditions of discipleship. First, we must be prepared to put first things first; second, we must be willing to suffer daily crucifixion; third, we must be detached from all things, because attached to Christ. The conditions seem severe, but they must be fulfilled, if we would enter Christ’s School.
Disciple stands for learner. Our Lord is prepared to teach us the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; but it is useless to enter His class unless we have resolved to do as He says. Put first things first. When our Lord uses the word hate, He clearly means that the love we are to have for Him is to be so much greater, that comparatively our natural affection will be as if it were hate. No one could have loved His Mother more than our Lord did. In His dying agony His special thought and care was for her, but on three different occasions He put her aside. We are sometimes called to put aside those who are nearest and dearest, if their demands conflict with the claims of Christ.
The daily cross. In each of us there is the self-principle, and for each of us there is a perpetual necessity to deny self. Some talk about bearing the cross in a glib fashion, but its true meaning is shame, suffering, and sorrow, which no one realizes but God, and which perhaps strikes deeper down into the roots of our being as we grow older. There is an opportunity in your life, in respect to some person or circumstance, for an ever-deepening appreciation of union with Christ in His death, and for which you must be daily prepared to surrender your own way and will.
Renunciation. It may be necessary to surrender all we have for Christ, or it may be that He will ask us to hold all as a steward or trustee for Himself and others. No one can lay down the rule for another. The main point to decide is this: “Am I willing to do what Christ wants me to do; to yield my will for Him to mould it, and my life for Him to work through it?” If so, all else will adjust itself.



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Our Daily Walk 
by F.B. Meyer




November 6

The Fruit Of The Spirit--Love!

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. — 1 Cor 13:13 NET

Let us lay the emphasis on the word fruit, as contrasted with the works of the law. In work there is effort, strain, the sweat of the brow, and straining of the muscles; but fruit comes easily and naturally by the overflow of the sap rising from the root to bough and bud. So our Christian life should be the exuberance of the heart in which Christ dwells. The Apostle Paul prayed that Christ might dwell in the heart of his converts, that they might be rooted and grounded in love. It is only when the Holy Spirit fills us to the overflow that we shall abound in love to all men.

We must distinguish between love and the emotion of love. The former is always possible, though not always and immediately the latter. Our Lord repeating the ancient words of the Pentateuch, taught us that we may love God with our mind and strength, as well as with our hearts. We all know that the mind and strength are governed not by our emotions, but by our wills. We can love, therefore, by determining to put our thought and energies at the service of another for the sake of God; and we shall find our emotions kindle into a sacred glow of conscious affection.

In the chapter from which our text is taken, St. Paul distinguishes between the Gifts of the Church and Love. After passing them in review he comes to the conclusion that all of them, without Love as their heart and inspiration, are worth nothing.

The greatest word in the world is the unfathomable phrase, “God is Love.” You can no more define the essence of love than you can define the essence of God, but you can describe its effects and fruits. I give Dr. Weymouth’s translation: “Love is patient and kind, knows neither envy nor jealousy; is not forward and self-assertive, nor boastful and conceited. She does not behave unbecomingly, nor seek to aggrandize herself, nor blaze out in passionate anger, nor brood over wrongs. She finds no pleasure in injustice done to others, but joyfully sides with the truth. She knows how to be silent; she is full of trust, full of hope, full of patient endurance.”
We ought to take each of these clauses, and ponder whether our lives are realizing these high ideals. God send us a baptism of such love!


Prayer
O Lord, my love is like some feebly glimmering spark; I would that it were as a hot flame. Kindle it by the breath of Thy Holy Spirit, till Thy love constraineth me. Amen.
 
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I consider the idea of love, especially an unconditional love, to be rather messed up in the world today. This devotional was thought provoking, in an attempt to understand a rather difficult word, "love".
 
Love is a very important part of being a  Christian. Like every thing else in life, we demonstrate what we have by the influences that we choose to place ourselves under, what we say and what we do.
 
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1Corinthians 10:20-21  No, I mean that what the pagans sacrifice is to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons.

 

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.

 

You cannot take part in the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
 
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What table do you feed at? 

 

The Word of God or the words of the world?

 

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  "The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!  Matthew 6:21-23 

 
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John 15:6  If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned up.
John 15:7  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you.
John 15:8  My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.
John 15:9  "Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love.
John 15:10  If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commandments and remain in his love.
John 15:11  I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.
John 15:12  My commandment is this — to love one another just as I have loved you.
John 15:13  No one has greater love than this — that one lays down his life for his friends.
John 15:14  You are my friends if you do what I command you.

 

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Real Christianity is not something that is just in my mind, it is something that must be lived through an intimate, obedient, relationship with Jesus Christ and His Father!

 

I know what is really in the heart by the fruit that the mouth and actions bare, without effort on my part.

 

The effort that I must make is to sit and feed at God's table, submitting to and obeying His Divine influence; letting it change my life; real Grace.

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