Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College

time and not in his own home, shows that his father was probably not
dead yet. If his father had already died, he would not have been where
Jesus was, but at home, since it is always the Jewish custom, even till
today, to bury someone on the very same day that he died.
So what this second prospective disciple was really saying was this,
“Lord, please let me wait until my father dies and is buried, and then
after that, I will follow you. I cannot be available to you now, but
perhaps later on.”
At some time of our lives we may have also done this: times when
we know that it is the will of God for us to improve our quiet time with
God, or do something about our insufficient knowledge of the Bible, or
about those books in the Old Testament that we hardly know about. And
we know that God wants us to do something about our lack of prayer
and service to Him. But then, at the same time, there are other things in
our lives which distract us and call for our attention. So we end up
postponing the things we should do, and in effect we tell the Lord to
wait until a time when we are free. We put God “on hold”!
A young person enrols in college or university. When campus life
begins he may find it hard to keep up with all his assignments, required
reading, writing term papers and preparing for tutorials. And then, in the
midst of all that, someone from church approaches him and asks him to
help out in some area of service for the Lord. But he says, “I’m sorry,
but please excuse me because right now I am just too busy to serve.
Maybe later on.”
Then when the exams are over and summer vacation begins, that
person approaches him again, but he feels that after all that hard work,
he deserves to take a well-earned break. So he decides instead to join a
group of friends on an overseas trip. When he gets back from the trip, a
friend of his returns from overseas and he feels that he must spend time
with him before he leaves again. And so once again he excuses himself
from serving the Lord. Then school term begins once more and again he
has to concentrate on his studies and so cannot be available. So he says
to himself, “After I graduate, I will have more time.”
82 A Consecrated Life