FAMILY WORSHIP
And there went great multitudes with Him+: and HE+ turned, and said unto them,
If any man come to ME+, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My+ disciple.
Luke 14: 25-26
What can this possibly mean, to “hate” father, mother, wife, son, and daughter, from the mouth of HIM+ Who+ taught us to
love our enemies ?
How do Christians “hate” those whom he is exhorted to honor,
obey, love, cherish, and provide for ?
This “hate” refers to the savoring --- a Soul-ish love – of our family members. This Soul-ish type of love clings to our parents, our siblings, our spouse and off-spring and our kinsmen . . .
with MORE loyalty
than to CHRIST JESUS.
It is a natural-minded, humanistic, and Soul-pleasing
love.
It is not a Spirit-led, going-to-the-Cross-for-CHRIST type
of love for our family members. Yes, we LOVE our family but we are to SAVOR The LORD
JESUS CHRIST above those who are dearest to us.
The DIFFERENCE is readily revealed in our behavior.
For example, when a child misbehaves, a Soul-ish love
directs us to pamper the child, to try to divert his attention with lures and
bribes, and re-direct his activity. (This method is even written in books on
child-rearing ! )
The Soul-ish parent aims NEVER to hamper the child’s
Soul. The child is early taught -- by omission of discipline -- that he is
SUPPOSED to have his own way regardless of the hurt it afflicts on others.
Another example involves a demanding, churlish elderly
parent. He/she demands utmost attention
and acts wounded if it is not forth-coming.
That attention is demanded to feed
his/her Soul. The adult offspring
oftentimes do all they can to placate the parent under the auspices of
“honoring” one’s parent.
How does one honor his parents without wrongly nourishing the Soul of that soul-centered, demanding elderly family member ?
The Soul is part of the “I”, the “ME FIRST”, the old man
which must be kept under, by submission to CHRIST.
Our earthly emotions are soul-ish --- always clamoring to be pleased yet never satisfied for very long. They reside in the Soul and must be made to submit to the Truth of Scripture.
Why ? Because The LORD will see to it that the
un-restrained, un-tempered “I” of the soul brings death, not life.
Only The HOLY SPIRIT of GOD brings life to a man when he is born anew from above. This happens in the Conversion process: Conviction – Repentance – Conversion to CHRIST – Water Baptism.
Many, many worldlings and non-Christians love their family
members with a soul-ish type of love.
They pamper and indulge their youngsters
instead of correct them with Holiness as their standard. They instill in them their
own worldly values and soul-centered love. They give them everything they can
afford and help them to achieve, in the eyes of the world.
Likewise, many worldlings take admirable care of elderly
parents, laboring with those who are less-than-sweet in their demands. These
adult off-spring enter into servitude to the parent’s soul-ish demands. They
serve them in turn with a natural-minded, soul-ish love . . . which tolerates
evil.
A Follower of JESUS soon learns to stand for CHRIST within his family circle, both with young and old. LOYALTY TO CHRIST supersedes all other ties.
He corrects his children firmly with the love that comes
when you want to save a life from destruction. Sometimes, that type of love is
not gentle; sometimes parental firmness causes the sting of pain to be felt in
order to teach the child to choose right from wrong.
The Spirit-led parent does this NOT to vent his own Soul-ish anger, but to teach his child to forsake foolish and hurtful leadings of his youthful Soul.
A Follower of JESUS soon discovers his sibling and parents who are not Saved
dislike the new, Spiritual man he has become; they would rather have the old,
Soul-ish person instead.
Such siblings and parents often remain Soul-ish, feeding the flesh
and rejecting the Salvation message.
The Spirit-filled person will be rejected by aging parents
who would rather wallow in their Soul-ish-ness than have their Spiritual son or
daughter take care of them as they age.
The would prefer strangers to aid them, complaining bitterly all the
while about their “neglectful” son or daughter . . . whom they themselves have
rejected.
A serious CHRISTIAN who seeks to please CHRIST JESUS never drops his witness to placate his Soul-ish parents or siblings, child or spouse.
A Follower of JESUS soon learns to abhor
all things emanating from his own Soul-ish, natural-minded Adamic nature. He hates his own Soul-ish nature because it
hinders a closeness to CHRIST. Hating it, he thus fulfills Luke 14:26.
Similarly, a Follower of JESUS recognizes the danger of following the demands of the soul of his
family members.
He loves them still and grieves over their fallen nature, but he cannot
be disloyal to CHRIST JESUS, which is what they demand.
He cannot be disloyal to the Truth.
He cannot forsake Scripture in order to placate the Soul-ish
nature of parent or sibling, child or spouse . . . or even his own.
He has joyfully become unburdened as a New
Creature in CHRIST, a Spiritual man, made anew in the image of the SECOND ADAM now. See 1 Corinthians
15:49.
Now, with our children we can set the standard of behavior: Soul-ish desires, soul-centered behavior will be addressed firmly every time by the Spiritual parent.
With spouses who are natural-minded and Soul-ish, we
MAINTAIN our own standard of holiness regardless of his/her Soul-centered nature.
In this situation, the Cross of JESUS becomes very real to us as we learn to die daily to our Self and live unto CHRIST. HE+ becomes our closest daily companion. Rejection and scorn may be placed daily upon our plate in our own home.
We maintain our witness of LIFE in CHRIST alone with our
siblings as well. If they are unSaved, rejection and scorn will be our portion from
them also. Soon, we may find ourselves ostracized from our family circle.
Our unSaved parents invariably know ONE Bible verse: honor
thy father and mother; it is always on their tongue. They demand that we bow to their ungodliness
to prove that we “honor” them.
Our command, however, is NOT to honor their ungodly, CHRIST-rejecting behavior.
We honor them by seeing that they are lovingly cared for in their old age.
We are NOT commanded to obey their Soul-ish lusts and
desires because they would rather have us forsake CHRIST and yield to their
Soul-centered nature. No, rather, we
are to MAINTAIN our witness for CHRIST regardless of the rejection it costs us as we try to care
for them.
Without even a word being spoken, the Spiritual person
who has escaped servitude to his own Soul-ish Self will irritate his
Soul-serving aged parent ! Parent – offspring ties will be reduced to an all out effort
to make the Christian return to the servitude of the parent’s Soul.
So much total discomfort reigns on either side that such an
aging parent would rather have a stranger care for him/her than live with
his/her offspring who follows CHRIST seriously.
Many Christians have faced these real-life situations, but The LORD requires us to be loyal to HIM+, loyal to His+ Truth of Salvation, and loyal to His+ Word.
We NEVER deny CHRIST before men . . . and that includes our dearest of family members.
We cannot return to a
Soul-centered relationship with our family members or we will forsake our
witness for CHRIST where it counts the most.
Like a dog does, we cannot do. We
cannot return to the vomit.
CHRIST JESUS requires of
us
to be WORTHY of His+ Grace.
We cannot be His+ disciples unless we maintain loyalty to HIM+.
We must maintain our
witness to CHRIST through all the pressure from our family members to return
to our unclean vomit called Soul-ish
Self-worship . . . theirs or ours.
This is the difference in the family circle between
worldlings versus Followers of JESUS. We Savor CHRIST; worldlings savor their Soul-centered
life.
We never deny CHRIST JESUS in order to
win their approval and love. They with-hold both to force us to re-enter into
the servitude of the Soul which we escaped in our own life.
How CAN we re-enter our Soul-Servitude at their behest ?
None of them can save our souls from destruction. Nor can they save theirs.
In order to be WORTHY OF
CHRIST, we must maintain our witness. If we
deny HIM+
before our children, with our spouse, before our siblings and parents just to
have their love --- we have denied CHRIST before men !
Matthew 10:37- 38
He that loveth father or mother more than ME+ is not worthy of ME+: and he that loveth son or daughter more than ME+ is not worthy of ME+. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after ME+, is not worthy of ME+.
Repentance is in order, if we have done this. Grace covers a REPENTANT heart; it is of His+ mercy that we are not destroyed before we
repent.
A stubborn heart which refuses to submit its Soul-ish nature to CHRIST will end up UN-worthy of His+ Grace.
Then those dreadful words will be spoken to the stubborn of
heart:
Not every one that saith unto ME+, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven;
but he that doeth the Will of My+ FATHER WHO is in Heaven.
Many will say to ME+ in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy+ Name? and in Thy+ Name have cast out devils? and
in Thy+ Name done many wonderful works [ of power ]?
And then will I+ profess unto them,
I+ never knew you:
depart from ME+, ye that work iniquity.
Matthew 7:21-23
+ + +
Let us search our hearts. Have we established loyalty to our family members ABOVE our loyalty to CHRIST JESUS ?
If so, we will be found UNWORTHY of CHRIST, unworthy of His+ Grace, and in danger of losing our Salvation.
In China, Mothers have been called upon to choose between
their children or CHRIST.
At least one mother, it is recorded at Asia Harvest
ministries, chose CHRIST and prison instead of her young children and freedom . All
she had to do was to sign the papers stating that she renounced CHRIST JESUS. That is all she had to do in order to live freely and
continue to mother her children as they grew.
She chose JESUS. She was imprisoned for years. Her children grew up in a
state-supported housing, piped full of the world. When she was released from
her imprisonment, she found her grown children.
Her now-grown daughter had turned to CHRIST; her son hated her
and “her GOD.”
She paid the price to follow CHRIST.
Will we ?
No comments:
Post a Comment