What is an “Idol”?

Anything you love more than you love God is an idol. ANYTHING. Your wife, husband, brother, son, golf, TV, your hobby, gardening, singing in the choir. ANYTHING.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14.26.

Jesus gives us no other option but to be disciples!

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14.33

What does “renounce mean? It means “give up”, “say goodbye”. You still “have” it, but it belongs to God and always has. You’re the steward. And you have it until He tells you to give it away or sell it – or He takes it because of your lack of stewardship. Everything comes from Him. You cannot give away anything that was not already given to you.

Yes, I know that probably stings a bit – but that’s what the scriptures tell us. Don’t take my word for it, please – you read it and ask God to tell you what it means.

 

What Does “Abide” Mean?

What does “abide” mean? What did Jesus mean when He said “Abide in Me, and I in you.”? (John 15.4) Abide IN me! IN me? Jesus is not somewhere “out there” in the sky, who may or may not show up when I need Him. He’s HERE – IN me. So that’s what this Treasure is in earthen vessels. He is the Treasure IN me.  I’m just a vessel – a container.

” In John 15, the abiding of the Christian in Christ refers to his maintaining unbroken fellowship with Him. He makes his spiritual home in Christ. There is nothing between himself and his Savior, no sin unjudged and not put away. He depends upon Him for spiritual life and vigor as the branch is dependent upon the vine. The abiding of Christ in the Christian is His permanent residence in Him and His supplying that Christian with the necessary spiritual energy to produce fruit in his life through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.” – Wuest, K. S. (1997, c1984). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament

Continual Abiding: “There is a simplicity of the Life. But it does mean sin-sensitiveness; that’s a tremendous verse isn’t it? “If my eye is single it is full of light; if it’s anything else but a single sight of Jesus, it is evil.” Let me call it what it is. A verse that lines up in my mind with that and is much the same is in Romans 14:23, the last phrase of the last verse. It says it in another connection but we can pick it out I think quite fairly and make it a general statement: “For whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Well faith is seeing Jesus, of course. We have the faith of Jesus for we see Jesus. Of course we do. Faith is believing Jesus, seeing Him in our hearts, and knowing Him. That’s believing Jesus. So faith is seeing Jesus. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” is the same idea. The moment I am not seeing Jesus in a situation, the moment I am not seeing Christ in my neighbor, the moment I am not seeing Christ in a crisis, or Christ in a difficulty, [or in my husband, wife, or child], I am sinning because it’s not of faith. I’m not seeing Jesus; I’m seeing something else. That’s evil. Not to see Jesus is evil. That’s big! I’ve got to see Jesus in every one of my neighbors. I’ve got to see Jesus potentially even in the lost, those for whom, though there was only one on earth, He would have died.

“I’ve got to see Jesus in every circumstance, not a single circumstance but that it’s Jesus coming to me. That, I take it, is what Paul meant when he made that terrific statement around which I circle in my mind again and again and wonder at: “To me, to live is Christ.” That doesn’t leave much else, does it? “To me, to live is Christ.” That’s a single eye. Every circumstance, every person is just Christ to him. That’s this Life. Anything less than that is sin, because it veils Him.”

See March 26, 2007, post “Abiding In Christ”.

Norman P. Grubb
Karuizawa Japan Conference of 1954
Topic: “Daily Walk in the Spirit”

 

Falling Out Of Love

“People get the idea from books that if you have married the right person you may expect to go on ‘being in love’ forever. As a result, when they find they are not, they think this proves they made a mistake and are entitled to a change – not realizing that , when they have changed, the glamour will presently go out of the new love just as it went out of the old one. In this department of life, as in every other, thrills come at the beginning and do not last. The thrill you first fell on seeing some delightful place to live dies away when you really go to live there. Does this mean it would be better not to live there? By no means! If you go through with it, the dying away will be compensated for by a quieter and more lasting kind of interest.” – C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity.

So then, when one says, “I’m no longer in love with him”, she really means the thrill is gone. She must now CHOOSE to love. She must choose to cherish and honor. He must choose the same. The wonderful thing is that I believe they will discover they are “in love” on a much deeper, lasting, significant level.

How do you think those 50 plus year old marriages last? They chose to love, they chose to fight for each other, they chose to honor and cherish through the bad times as well as the good (and there will be “bad” times). They become friends, confidants, REAL lovers, sharing everything. They are IN LOVE with each other!

C.S. Lewis goes on to say (the man was a genius! – and I’m so stupid, but I’m learning) – anyway, he goes on to say, “It is simply no good trying to keep the thrill: that is the very worse thing you can do. Let the thrill go – let it die away – go on through that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follows – and you will find that you are living in a world of new thrills all the time.”

Jesus said that a thing will not really live unless it first dies. It will remain alone. – John 12.24.

I reckon Jesus is right. I reckon C.S. Lewis is right. I’ve been married for 26 years (my second) and I’m IN LOVE with my wife because I choose her and she chooses me. We choose to love each other every day!

There is no such thing as “falling out of love”! There is such a thing as deliberately deciding not to love. Looking for thrills? For your self-gratification? That is self love – that is pride. And pride is contemptable!