More Anticipation, John Bunyan, and Devotion
Well, today is the first day of spring. It doesn’t really feel like spring, with all the snow, but I’m used to it, that’s the way it is when you live in Winnipeg!
As of me typing this, it is….. 2 days, 14 hours, 24 minutes, and 37 seconds until the MACHS conference. I'm so excited!!! I listened to some of the recordings of sessions that I missed last year on Sunday. They were really good! I can’t wait to see what Bill Jack has to say.
I’m planning on changing the name of this site. Before it was “mysite-1” and I didn’t know how to change it to “rachelscorner”, but I found out how to change it, so tomorrow, the link to my site will be https://dyckrachela.wixsite.com/rachelscorner instead of https://dyckrachela.wixsite.com/mysite-1, Lord willing. Just thought I’d let you know that so you don’t try to go to my site and not find it😄.
I just finished reading a book called John Bunyan by Sandy Dengler. I had heard of John Bunyan before but I never took the time to find out his story. It’s very sad that in the 1600s so many men were ignorant of what the Bible really says and imprisoned and killed innocent men because they thought that they were teaching wrong doctrines. Many people today are ignorant of what the Bible says as well. But also, many people today do know what the Bible says, and they hate it. They utterly hate it because it tells them that they are sinners and that they will go to hell unless they accept the gift of Christ and His work on the cross.
Today I am talking about devotion. Devotion to Christ, to be more specific. John Bunyan was very devoted to Christ. He continued to preach the Word of God even though it meant that he was imprisoned many times and but for the grace of God might have been deported. He missed watching his children grow up, and he didn’t get to spend much time with his wife. But because of his devotion to the Lord and His Word, he remained faithful in preaching.
Are we devoted to Christ the way John Bunyan was? I have observed in my past life and in the lives of others a great deal of apathy toward Christ. My observations tell me that many Christians are not very devoted to the Lord. A couple years ago, I was not devoted to the Lord. I was a Christian, and I paid attention in church and sometimes read my Bible and prayed. And I truly loved Jesus. But I didn’t ask myself the question: What does God want from my life? I spent more time thinking about how I could have fun than thinking about how I could serve God. Although I gave my life to Christ at seven years of age, I’m afraid that for a long time I was ignorant of the fact that Jesus wanted my whole life, and I was not giving it to Him. And He certainly deserves it! But for His grace in showing me that although I honored Him with my lips my heart was far from Him, I would still be living in apathy and lukewarmness.
Why are so many of us lacking in devotion? I believe that it is because we are not obeying the command in 1 John 2:15-17. There it says, “ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”
When it says not to love the things of this world, it is not only talking about the things that Christians are supposed to avoid completely, such as drunkenness and sexual immorality. It is also talking about things such as sports, music, and art. It’s not wrong to play soccer or the guitar, but if we love these things, if we make these things the objects of our devotion, then it is wrong, because Jesus is to be the object of our devotion. If we make Him only a hobby or a “thing on the side” in our lives, then we are robbing Him of the devotion He is due.
The Laodiceans had this problem. They loved the things of this world more than or at least as much as Jesus. They tried to play in the middle between the world and Jesus. But Jesus is very displeased with this. He asks that we either fully reject Him or fully embrace Him, and He does not want us monkeying around in the twilight zone. Let’s get serious! Does not the One who willingly died a horrible death in our stead deserve our whole hearts?
The problem is that although we may desire to be devoted to the Lord and to live for Him and Him alone, it is very difficult. Our flesh keeps telling us that we should live to glorify ourselves and not Christ. But if we fervently ask the Lord to help us live to glorify Him, He will help us. He gives incredible strength if we admit we cannot do it on our own. I will be putting out more posts with tips on how to be close to the Lord and live for Him, but that’s all I can say for today. I will leave you with these verses:
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
