Evidence of Our Allegiance
If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15.
Let this point be fully settled in every mind: If we accept Christ as a Redeemer we must accept Him as a Ruler. We cannot have the assurance, the perfect, confiding trust in Christ as our Saviour, until we acknowledge Him and are obedient to His commandments. Thus we evidence our allegiance to God. We have then the genuine ring in our faith. It works by love. Speak it from your heart: “Lord, I believe Thou hast died to redeem my soul. If Thou hast placed such a value upon my soul as to give Thy life for mine, I give my life and all its possibilities in all my weakness into Thy keeping.” The will must be brought into complete harmony with the will of God.
Today the invitation is given: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:28, 29). Christ has rest for all who will wear His yoke and learn His meekness and lowliness of heart. Here we are taught restraint and obedience, and in this we shall find rest. Thank God that in humility and obedience we shall find just that which we all need so much–the rest that is found in faith and confidence and perfect trust. We must not manufacture an oppressive yoke for our necks. Let us take the yoke of Christ and in entire obedience draw with Him. . . .
“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10). This is the yoke which Christ invites us to wear–the yoke of obedience. Can we not say, “Lord, I take Thee at Thy word; I receive Thy promise. I come to Thee because I need Thee as a personal Saviour. I must have an abiding Christ. I am dependent on Thee. Thou art mine.” Christ says, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them”–not in pretense, but with the whole mind, heart, soul, and strength–“he it is that loveth me” (John 14:21). This is the true test of character. We must be doers of the Word.
That I May Know Him p. 293
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Prayer Requests
—– Kathy had a kidney transplant a few years ago. Evidently she got a virus that took a toll on her body. She is frail, lost lots of blood, and kidney stopped working. It COULD return to work! We pray for that! She is now in rehab and, hopefully her kidney will start working. Please join me in prayer for Kathy. Thank you, Fran
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Dear Friends
It’s funny how the mind can play tricks on us. Many times, we’ll see something ahead when driving and our mind will decide it’s one thing but when we get there, it is something totally different. That happened to Ron a few years ago. As he was driving to work, he saw a car that had been tipped over onto its side in the distance ahead. He wondered why no one was stopping to help whoever had tipped over their car and felt quite impatient with all of those uncaring people. He could not understand how people could be so wrapped up in their own little world that they would not get involved.
When he got closer to the object he felt very silly. How different it looked from that perspective. The object was not a tipped-over car at all. It was a large spool of gray cable with a large flat, black plastic object connected on one side and a transformer box nearby. Now he understood. Those people were not uncaring at all. The oncoming traffic could see the objects clearly and knew that no help was needed.
How often we think we have a clear view of all things and wonder why those around us do not react as we think they should. We become impatient with them and often attempt to force them into our mould. Many times our well-meaning attempt is met with resistance. Sometimes, when we get a clear view of someone’s situation we realize that we would react in the same way.
Our Dear Saviour warns us, “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”Matt 7:1-5 Paul adds, “why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.” Ro 14:10-13
Yet, this does not mean that we should never judge. Jesus tells us, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” John 7:24 There are blatant sins that must be dealt with but even then we are to have compassion on them restoring them as Jesus would restore placing their feet back on the Heavenly path saving”with fear, pulling them out of the fire [so to speak] ; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” Jude 23
“Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers.” 1 Peter 3:8-12
Rose