Tuesday, September 15, 2009

FOLLOWING THE LIVING ONE

You can begin at once to be a disciple of the Living One, by obeying Him in the first thing you can think of in which you are not obeying Him. We must learn to obey Him in everything, and so must begin somewhere. Let it be at once, and in the very next thing that lies at the door of our conscience.

-- George MacDonald


#2376
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 16, 2009 at 8:58 AM

    I wish George MacDonald had chosen another word rather than obey to describe our faith relationship with Jesus Christ. The great difficulty with obey is that others will need to tell you how to obey Jesus. Jesus simply said, "Love one another as I have loved you." That in itself will be a lifelong endeavor to grow in faith, mature in grace, until all barriers to self and the other person fade away. Only then will forgiveness bubble up and hope in new beginnings become visible. The mature faith relationship is more than simply obeying the Lord; it is relating constantly with the Lord not in a childish or adolescent way, but in a grown up way as brother to brother, sister to brother. If, as George seems to put it, one relates to Jesus as a human being would relate to God, the only thing that invites us to
    continue in humility and faith is the boundless love of God shown us by the words and actions of Jesus. God already knows what we need; we need the heart and soul to see it ourselves. Then the Spirit flows and as we are lifted we lift others around us like a rising tide lifts all boats.

    Chaplain Mike Murphy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rev. Dave WilkinsonSeptember 16, 2009 at 9:00 AM

    Thanks, Chaplain Mike. As I see it, love is an action, not a feeling, in this case. Jesus says, in essence, "act in love." I don’t believe he is saying, “feel love for one another.” The act of love is then in obedience to Jesus’ command to love one another.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 17, 2009 at 6:12 AM

    Thanks for the response, Dave. Love is truly an action. I believe that the call of Jesus is an invitation more than a command, a firm direction rather than a militarylike order. It isn't that obedience is so difficult, rather that brotherhood and adopted sonship are a
    relationship that is orderly more than ordered. The grace God showers on us is freely given and our response in turn ought to be freely accepted and returned, thus opening us up to greater
    respect for ourself, to all other people, and even to the planet earth.
    Mike

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for sharing your comments about a quote or about this ministry. Please include your name and what state or country you live in. If you do not have a registered profile, you can login using the "Anonymous" tag in the "Comment as:" box below.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)