These words could have been written today about us today. This is timeless wisdom from Oswald Chambers and cuts deep into our desire to be about the things of Christ— but not actually about Christ. Often we find ourselves doing “busy work” for the kingdom and not sitting in obedience to the King. It’s classic Mary and Martha, the good versus the best, kind of stuff (Luke 10:39-42).
Read and be blessed, as I was, and resolve to make disciples of Christ and not converts to our own way of thinking.
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.
Today 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
Did you get that? Our Lord’s first obedience was to the will of His Father and not to the needs of men.
Lord, help us focus our ministry and our lives towards You and not towards what makes us feel good or look good in the eyes of others.
