Today's "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers is another very good lesson to make us REALLY re-evaluate our own fellowship with the God of the Bible!
The Discipline Of Dismay
And as they followed, they were afraid. — Mark 10:32
At the beginning we were sure we knew all about Jesus
Christ, it was a delight to sell all and to fling ourselves out in a hardihood
of love; but now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is on in front and He looks
strange. “Jesus went before them and they were amazed.”
There is an aspect of Jesus that chills the heart of a
disciple to the core and makes the whole spiritual life gasp for breath. This
strange Being with His face set like a flint and His striding determination
strikes terror into me. He is no longer Counsellor and Comrade, He is taken up
with a point of view I know nothing about, and I am amazed at Him. At first I
was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to
realize there is a distance between Jesus Christ and me; I can no longer be
familiar with Him. He is ahead of me and He never turns round; I have no idea
where He is going, and the goal has become strangely far off.
Jesus Christ had to fathom every sin and every sorrow man
could experience, and that is what makes Him seem strange. When we see Him in
this aspect we do not know Him, we do not recognize one feature of His life,
and we do not know how to begin to follow Him. He is on in front, a Leader Who
is very strange, and we have no comradeship with Him.
The discipline of dismay is essential in the life of
discipleship. The danger is to get back to a little fire of our own and kindle
enthusiasm at it (cf. Isaiah 50:10-11). When the darkness of dismay comes,
endure until it is over, because out of it will come that following of Jesus
which is an unspeakable joy.
My take on this is that we MUST come to a point where, when we realize that we have grown up in the things of God, we also realize that there is SO MUCH MORE to learn! The most dangerous thing in our walk with the Lord is to have the mistaken idea that we, while on this earth, will EVER ARISE to a point where we are completely mature IN HIM! We all have room to grow and to get to know JESUS MORE than EVER before! Let's go after HIM and HIS WORD! Here is Hillsong with "Scandal of Grace":
Shalom in Him!
