. . . If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters yes, even his own life he cannot be my disciple.
And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple (14:26-27).
What Christ is saying here is that faith in Him immediately introduces another and a higher loyalty into the life.
He demands and must have first place. For the true disciple it is Christ before family, Christ before country, Christ before life itself.
The flesh must always be sacrificed to the spirit and the heavenly placed ahead of the earthly, and that at any cost.
When we take up the cross, we become expendable, along with all natural friendships and all previous loyalties, and Christ becomes all in all.
In these days of sweet and easy Christianity, it requires inward illumination to see this truth and real faith to accept it. We had better pray for both before time runs out on us.
verse
Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
— Matthew 10:37-38
thought
Christ precedes all else in our lives as believers. He is our Savior and our Lord. When He is given precedence all else eventually falls into proper order.
prayer
O Christ, You are first in my heart and life.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The weakness of much that passes for the Christian faith these days is seen in the readiness of many professed followers of Christ to make any concessions in order to get along with people, especially with relatives and in-laws.
The philosophy of mid-twentieth century Christianity is a philosophy of appeasement.
Peace and unity have become the Castor and Pollux of the majority of religious leaders, and truth is regularly sacrificed on their altars.
The notion that peace on earth as the New Testament uses the words, means concord between light and darkness is foreign to the whole traditional Christian position.
Our Lord cared nothing for the good will of bad men, nor would He alter one word of His message to stay in favor with anyone, be he Jew or pagan or even a member of His own earthly family. For even his own brothers did not believe in him (John 7:5). No one has understood the meaning of the cross who puts blood ties alongside the ties of the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit (John 3:6).
All fleshly relationships will be dissolved in the glory of the resurrection, including the relationship between husband and wife. For this reason our Lord said plainly that for some people it would be necessary to break family ties if they would follow Him. Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law (Luke 12:51-53).
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters yes, even his own life he cannot be my disciple.
And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple (14:26-27).
verse
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters yes, even his own life he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
— Luke 14:26-27
thought
Christ is to be the first love of the believer. That means higher priority than even one's family.
Misunderstanding, even enmity, because of Christ being first is sometimes the believer's painful experince. It's part of cross-bearing.
prayer
Lord, that cross You command me to bear is an instrument of death my death to self and to family loyalties.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It should always be kept in mind that the Church is a divine family and that its loyalties sometimes cut sharply across the ties that bind earthly families together.
The cross is a sword and often separates friends and divides households.
The idea that Christ always brings peace and patches up differences is found nowhere in His own teachings. Quite the contrary is true.
For a man to cast in his lot with Christ often means that he will be opposed by his blood relatives and will find his true family ties only in the community of regenerated souls. Surely it is a most desirable thing to be reared in a Christian home. When a young man or woman is thus happily situated, conversion to Christ brings no rift to the family circle but rather seals and cements the earthly ties.
We see sometimes whole families from the aged grandparents to the youngest child all joyously serving the Lord, and hardly anything under the sun could be more delightful. But it is not often so.
More often the presence of a true Christian in the home, if it does not actually divide, does at least bring a serious divergence of interest and puts a real strain upon the solidarity of the household.
verse
Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.
From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.
— Luke 12:51-52
thought
How painful it is when members of one's family choose not to follow Christ.
It then becomes our responsibility to lovingly live Christ before them and faithfully pray for them.
But in the end it is each one who must decide.
prayer
Lord, I find it difficult to love those who reject me because of You. Love through me, Lord, love through me!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
It is much easier to say
I am thankful than to say as Paul did, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:25).
The first does not commit the man. It is broad enough to afford footroom to retreat if someone should challenge him. The second burns its bridges and takes up its cross.
In these last bright brown days of autumn, we will be reminded a hundred times that we have a world of blessings for which we should render thanks. Let's not withhold our expressions of gratitude. Thankfulness that is put into words has a healing effect upon the soul and has a good effect upon those who hear.
But let's avoid pagan ambiguity.
For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live? (1 Corinthians 8:6).It is much easier to say ?I am thankful? than to say as Paul did, ?Thanks be to God ? through Jesus Christ our Lord!? (Romans 7:25). The first does not commit the man. It is broad enough to afford footroom to retreat if someone should challenge him. The second burns its bridges and takes up its cross. In these last bright brown days of autumn, we will be reminded a hundred times that we have a world of blessings for which we should render thanks. Let?s not withhold our expressions of gratitude. Thankfulness that is put into words has a healing effect upon the soul and has a good effect upon those who hear. But let?s avoid pagan ambiguity. ?For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live? (1 Corinthians 8:6).
verse
Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
— 1 Corinthians 8:6
thought
Martin Rinkart expressed it well when he wrote: "All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given, the Son, and Him who reigns with them in highest heaven, the one eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore; for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore."
prayer
All thanks to You, O God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, blest Three-In-One.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/to
It is important that we trace our benefits back to their source and express our thanks to the One from whom all blessings flow, rather than merely to feel a vague stirring of gratefulness that results in nothing real. I once lived with a fine old couple, neither of whom was a Christian, and I was impressed with the profound sense of gratitude they felt for everything they possessed.
When the winter winds moaned through the trees and made the old house tremble, the old man would smile and say, Ah! How good it is to have a warm place to sleep on a night like this. And the mother would often speak of her large family, now grown and scattered: How grateful I am that they are all healthy and all mentally sound. I am so thankful. Their gratitude was genuine.
Of that there could be no trace of a doubt, but I often wondered who was the recipient of it. Whom were they thanking They never said.
The irreligious world has its own way of reacting. When things break fortunately for a businessman, an athlete or a politician he will slap his hands together and shout, Great! Wonderful! He is thanking someone; but whom?
It could be that the old couple of whom I speak were actually meaning to express their thankfulness to God, and that the modern man who shouts his pleasure at his lot in life secretly feels his indebtedness to God; the trouble is that they were and are ashamed to direct their gratitude pointedly to One with whom they are not acquainted.
They flee like Adam and hide among the trees of the garden rather than face up to the God they know they have offended.
Fear of being thought queer sometimes leads people to express religious ideas in generalities instead of in concrete terms.
verse
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
— Ephesians 5:19-20
thought
It is not always sufficient to thank God for "everything." What do we mean by "everything"? From time to time we need to meaningfully enumerate those blessings and give Him thanks for each one.
prayer
Forgive me, Lord, I'm prone to take for granted those blessings from You. For each one I give thanks. It is from You that all blessings flow.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
There is probably no such thing as a wholly thankless heart.
Everyone at some time feels a sense of gratitude for benefits received.
This seems to be instinctive, or if not instinctive then surely acquired at a very early age. That a great many persons fail in the degree of their thankfulness we all know too well. Hardly anyone but has known remorse for his failure to express proper gratitude to father or mother or friend till it was too late. And most of us have felt the chill that comes to those who do acts of kindness for persons who receive them as matters of course without so much as a word of thanks.
Even Christ appears to have suffered from such treatment, for after He had healed ten lepers and only one returned to give Him thanks, He asked rather sadly, Where are the other nine? (Luke 17:17).
We dare not read too much into this, but it seems fair to assume that He wanted the cleansed lepers to thank Him, and was disappointed when they did not.
But even here we must not conclude that these men were wholly thankless. They may quite easily have been grateful to friends and relatives, or even to total strangers who might have helped them in the past, and still have failed to express their thanks to the One who deserved it most.
This habit of thanking everyone but God is not confined to those nine lepers.
Enter a plane, a train, a restaurant or any other place where modern civilized men and women meet and mingle and you will see evidences of the same spirit. You will hear thanks given and acknowledged right and left without so much as a mention of God. Somewhere I read of the Christian farm boy who went to college and who in the dining room always bowed his head to thank God before beginning to eat.
When some of his fellow students ribbed him for it, he grinned and said, Hogs dont thank anybody either when they eat their swill.
It might have been a bit direct, but I am sure everyone got the point.
verse
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him ? and he was a Samaritan.
— Luke 17:15-16
thought
The only one of the ten lepers who returned to thank Jesus was a Samaritan ? a foreigner, looked down upon by the Jews. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked Him. When was the last time we fell at Jesus' feet and thanked Him?
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for cleansing me; for holding me in Your arms; for feeding me and leading me. Thank You!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
I have noticed lately among so-called evangelicals a renewed interest in the religious gadgets that our Protestant fathers once threw away to make room for the Holy Spirit.
It is becoming more common now to see in our churches (and in some Alliance churches, I regret to say) huge pictures of Christ, crosses on the altar, candles and other symbolic objects.
This is the sure way back to formalism and death.
In proportion as the Presence of Christ is felt in a congregation these things will be unnecessary, even offensive.
And as the Presence lifts and withdraws, these symbols are brought in as poor substitutes.
The human heart must have something to love and fear. If it misses the true God it will make a god of its own.
A crowd of persons who pray to a false god is not a church in any sense of the word, even if the word Christian or church appears on the front of the building.
verse
'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
— Matthew 16:15-16
thought
Symbols of Christ's presence hardly substitute for that presence. Do we sense His presence among us and within us? If we experience the genuine there is no reason to resort to representations.
prayer
Today may I take the time to be quiet before You and recognize Your presence, O Holy One.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The cure for superstition is an increased appreciation of the being of God: not names only, but character and being.
The idea that the devil is afraid of a word or a gesture is pure superstition. He is not afraid of any name, not even the name Jesus.
There are thousands of little boys in Latin America who bear that name, and surely Satan does not stand in fear of them. No, it is not a combination of letters that strikes terror to the heart of Satan. It is the glorious Person who bears the name Jesus whom he fears. To the name Jesus God has added the titles Lord and Christ, and this means that all power has been given unto Him in heaven and in earth.
Back of the name is the sovereign Person of God's Son, our Savior.
From this Person Satan flees, but it is a waste of time and effort to try to impress him with mere words and phrases.
In the degree that we know God Himself, we shall be free from superstitious fears; and in the degree that we are affected by signs, gestures, phrases and religious objects (as they are naively called), we are in the bonds and snares of superstition.
verse
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
— Philippians 2:10-11:
thought
The more we come to know the person of Christ the less drawn to superstition we shall be. Christ is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords exalted to the highest place to the glory of the Father. All power is His!
prayer
I want to know You, O Christ, not just about You but know You. It is for You I hunger in heart.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
But someone may say, it is not God people fear, but demons the devil himself and evil spirits generally. The answer is that the whole business is still superstition, for it makes God a party to all this supernatural carryings-on, and even if He is on our side He is unable to help us without certain magic passes on our part, such as knocking on wood, throwing salt over our shoulder or making the sign of the cross.
God is therefore subject in some measure to these evil powers and helpless against them unless we play along with the cruel game by staying off the thirteenth floor of hotels, looking at the new moon over our right shoulder, wearing a charm that has been blessed by a priest or reciting a religious phrase that is supposed to have some special power to terrify the devil.
This is all unworthy of God and altogether beneath the dignity of the Majesty in the heavens.
Some persons also think of God as being vindictive, churlish and quick to take vengance on anyone who is careless about words or gestures or customs, no matter how innocent he may be or how unintentional his error.
Of course this is simply a case of judging God by ourselves and thinking that He is altogether such a one as we are. How utterly grateful we should be that when we sinned and fell away from grace in the beginning, God did not act like us. Our eternal hope lies in the fact that at that tragic hour God acted like Himself. His conduct sprang out of His own holy nature and led Him to send His only begotten Son to die for the very ones who had been guilty of such an awful affront to His Person.
For this the redeemed shall sing forever, Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain(Revelation 5:12).
verse
'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.'
— Revelation 1:8
thought
It is for us to come to know God as God. Through the Word and the illumination of the Spirit we can come to know Him. To know Him as He is will brush away the superstitions and misconceptions.
prayer
Thank You, O God. You are God and You act like God.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/