among many brethren." God saves you not to make you happy but to make you holy, pure, gracious and loving. This is an area of present demands on our discipleship. The Lord wants us to experience Christ even in the midst of sufferings and strain. Such a life is attainable and should be the realistic goal of ev eryone who names the name of Christ. Considering all that God has and is doing on our behalf should put a personal obligation upon us in wanting to share the good news with others. You see, discipleship can never be conditioned upon God's plans for other people. It is always a very vital personal thing. Sometimes it can prove to be a very costly thing. We cannot fol low the Lord just an inch at a time. We must be enthusiastically whole hearted in our approach. We should be more than willing to give up our sins. We perhaps may need to let go of our own concept of self, including individ ual plans and provisions. When you give things up you will always dis cover that Christ always gives us more in return. It need not be monetary, but more than likely it is spiritual. Even the things that we surrender are so arranged by God that they work for our own spir itual well-being. Jesus reminds us, "There is no man who hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or chil dren, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life" (Mark 10:29, 30). How interesting Page 45
without being alive spiritually. If one is spiritually dead the Word of God is absolutely a hidden book to him. It is only God's touch which can bring life out of death (II Cor inthians 5:17). Jesus testified, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should re main" (John 15:16). The Bible gives us many chal lenging pictures of those who were apprehended by God. Abraham was called out of a life of ease from a pagan culture. Moses was appre hended when he was still a baby floating in the Nile. Through him the children of Israel were deliv ered. God put His stamp of ap proval upon David when he was still out watching the sheep. The Lord chose John the Baptist even before he was born. He was filled with the Spirit when he was still in his mother's womb. Jesus appre hended His disciples while they were still fishermen, tax gatherers and involved in other menial tasks. Has God called you today? Has He given you spiritual life by your faith in His Son? Or, are you possib ly just pretending to be a Christian? How unfortunate such an insincere existence. You must acknowledge your need for Him, asking His for giveness for your sins. In this way He will give a new life in Jesus. The second step in becoming an effective disciple of Christ is to be aware of the purpose for which God has called you (Philippians 3:12). In writing to the church at Rome, Paul spells out the purpose of the call (Romans 8:28, 29). We have been predestinated "to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
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