Pat's Ponderings

Ok, so I really, really like Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest and will probably quote a lot of stuff from him on here. Anyway, below is today's entry and some thoughts.

BUILDING FOR ETERNITY
"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" Luke 14:28

Our Lord refers not to a cost we have to count, but to a cost which He has counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal and hatred, the deep unfathomable agony in Gethsemane, and the onslaught at Calvary - the pivot upon which the whole of Time and Eternity turns. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. Men are not going to laugh at Him at last and say - "This man began to build, and was not able to finish."

The conditions of discipleship laid down by Our Lord in vv. 26, 27 and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. "If any man come to Me, and hate not . . . he cannot be My disciple." Our Lord implies that the only men and women He will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately and devotedly beyond any of the closest ties on earth. The conditions are stern, but they are glorious.

All that we build is going to be inspected by God. Is God going to detect in His searching fire that we have built on the foundation of Jesus some enterprise of our own? These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and therein is the snare. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus takes us over for His enterprises, His building schemes entirely, and no soul has any right to claim where he shall be put.

So, what does abandonment really mean? what does it look like? I don't think I'm all the way there by any means, but Jesus says we must hate the people with whom we naturally have the closest relationships. Now that's tough! And, again, what does it really mean? Is Jesus actually telling us to hate our family and loved ones? Clearly, our Lord strongly emphasizes our love for each other (John 13:15). So, we see that the hatred here, put into context, is merely how our love for our brothers and sisters should look in light of our love for our Savior and Lord. Again, we think about the immeasurable grace that has been poured out for us, that Jesus did "count the cost" of Calvary and found that it was worth it all. How in the world can we look at that kind of divine love and not fall so deeply in love with Jesus that all our earthly relations are hatred in comparison!