STEPPING OUT OF THE SHADOWS

Then he said to them all: ."If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."

Luke 9:23-24

All things are but shadows cast by the great Reality, God, and if we were to gain the whole world and miss God, we should have no more than a handful of shadows. With this great eternal truth before His mind—the absolute reality of God as the central fact of existence—Christ taught the necessity of separation from the world and of complete consecration to God as the only way to escape the shadows and obtain those riches that cannot pass away.

The modern Christian who insists upon separation as a condition of true spirituality is not the old-fashioned narrow person he is currently declared to be. His religious philosophy is altogether sound and wholly in accord with the total sum of things in heaven and earth. God being who and what He is and things being what they are, complete consecration is the only way to peace for any of us.

The drift among Christians today is definitely away from this truth. More and more, our religious leaders are coming to place confidence in shadows and are teaching others to do the same. And just so far as shadows are accepted as real, the one great Reality is ignored. It is hard to think how a greater tragedy could possibly come upon us

Thought

One day we will step on heaven's shore into the full glory of God-Reality. Will we then discover that here on earth we spent most of our life in the shadows, in cultural Christianity, when we could have embraced the reality of God?

Prayer

O Lord, how often I forget that in this world system I am an alien. I want to know You, to follow You. That means taking up my cross daily. May I do it even if few around me understand.

https://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer?id=462