by G. D. Watson
If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25
If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He will put on you such demands of obedience that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He seems to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.
Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.
Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.
Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day-to-day basis, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.
The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.
God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work which you have done; this to teach you the message of the Cross, humility, and something of the value of being cloaked with His nature.
The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over.
So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.
God will take you at your word. If you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and let other people say and do many things that you cannot. Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways which others are not dealt with. However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven, the high calling of God.
Mike,
The truth of Gods sovereignty is beautiful and loving. I am so glad that my salvation does not depend on my own will or any other man.
Compare Evangelyns poem with this quote from Rick Warren’s video
“Warren says that if Christians fail in their duty to evangelize, “there will be people who are not in heaven who should have been there”…”
This quote can be found at Bible Bulletin Board.
Love in Christ,
Rachel
Rachel,
R.W.’s theology is completely man based. It seems here lately that God has been continually reminding me of His sovereignty. That is why we must be obedient to Him, but we do so knowing full well that He will save His people.
In our daily lives as believers we need to learn to see His sovereignty in everything as well. When we finally come to grips with it we will find that those things that stress us and lead us down paths of despair are being allowed by Him to drive us to submit more and more to the Lordship of Christ.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
Amen.
Mike,
I sent this to my sunday school class last night. I hope you do not mind me posting it here? If you want to remove it for another time I understand.
These are some more recent quotes by Rick Warren. For those of you who have made it clear to our church that being purpose driven is not a good idea, this is verification that you are correct.
“We’ve got some people who only focus on moral purity and couldn’t care less about the poor, the sick, the uneducated. And they haven’t done zip for those people.”
“Christians these days are defined by their “big mouth” — what they argue against, not what they embrace.”
“Any church that fails to fulfill the five purposes…is not really a church!”
“…churches will need to help people understand that being a fully devoted follower of Jesus means involvement in P.E.A.C.E.”
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Not as recent, is the following reminder of what the Jewish Journal attributed Rick Warren as saying at Synagogue 3000 and NOT saying at Synagogue 3000 late last year.
“The other secret to his success is his passion for God and Jesus. Warren managed to speak for the entire evening without once mentioning Jesus — a testament to his savvy message-tailoring.”
These words are supposed to be a praise for Warren by the Jewish Journalist! How sad, as we are told clearly that anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ and these Jews are on their way to Hell without Jesus. What an opportunity and Warren remains silent. Whose side is he on?????
“Warren told Wolfson his interest is in helping all houses of worship, not in converting Jews. He said there are more than enough Christian souls to deal with for starters.”
I personally have never met a Christian who would try to help “all houses of worship” as we all know what happened to those who did this kind of stuff in the old testament. Also, I have never met a Christian who would say we have enough Christian souls to deal with! This statement is clearly anti-christ.
We are to be watching and waiting for the Lords return at all times. There are clear signs to be watched for given in the gospels, epistles, Daniel and Revelation. I am encouraged to not be caught unaware.
Love in Christ,
Rachel
Rachael,
I also am suspicious of R.W. as being one to watch. That would be thanks to all the disernment sites the Lord had led me to over the last couple of years. Bless them for all the time, research, and all the persecution they get just for telling the truth. Which in turn led me to the truth. Reformed theology. Praise God! Bless my brothers and sisiters who really are out there for the church and our merciful Lord.
Deborah
I accidently attributed ONE of the quotes: “…churches will need to help people understand that being a fully devoted follower of Jesus means involvement in P.E.A.C.E.” to Warren. This quote was from Lance Witt, Saddleback executive pastor and teaching pastor. This quote can be found on Pastors.com, Warrens web site. All other quotes ARE attributed to Warren.
Rachel
Did you say Rick Warren?
http://christianresearchnetwork.com/?cat=2