Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College

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these must never be used as an excuse for not getting ourselves involved in the work of God’s Kingdom. Dear reader, when Christ bids you to follow Him, He means that you should start following Him and doing His will now, and not at your own convenient time. He wants commitment and availability from you, not in some future time that you are comfortable with, but right now, in the present time. Someone may perhaps say, “This is too hard for me to do. How can I do it?” There is one way that is sure to work: Love the Lord Jesus with all your heart, soul and mind. Then you will be most willing to make yourself available to Him. Isn’t it true that no matter how busy we are, we always manage to make time for those we love very much? A young man may sometimes spends hours talking on the phone with the girl he loves. And she in turn may spend a few hours shopping for a gift for him at a shopping mall. If we really love God, therefore, we would gladly make ourselves available to do anything He wants. III. We Must Be Single-Minded in Doing God’s Will A person will experience great difficulty in doing the will of God if his loyalties are always divided between God and something else. Jesus Himself said that no man can serve two masters (Matt 6:24). Have you ever tried working under two different directors or heads at the same time? It is an extremely difficult and frustrating experience. No matter how hard you work, you can never please both directors at the same time. One of them will always be displeased with what you do to please the other. In the end, the work becomes a terrible mess! In Luke 9:62: Jesus said, “No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” In saying this, He was really using a farming illustration. If a farmer wants to plough a 84 A <strong>Consecrated</strong> <strong>Life</strong>
straight furrow he must concentrate fully on controlling the direction of the plough. He must keep his eyes looking in front and no where else, otherwise he will start to veer off course. What do you think will happen if he keeps looking back all the time? He will end up with a very crooked or curved furrow. Good ploughing requires single-mindedness. In the same way, our commitment to do the will of the Lord requires us to be single-minded. Why did Jesus need to emphasise this point to the third prospective disciple? Perhaps it is because our Lord who is omniscient, knows every man’s heart. He probably knew what was in this man’s heart, and could see that his loyalties were divided, when the man said, “Let me go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.” Such divided loyalty would very seriously affect his commitment and service. God’s kingdom requires nothing less than single-minded, whole-hearted commitment. Half-heartedness and divided loyalties makes a person unfit for promoting God’s kingdom and doing His will. Let us ask ourselves, “Am I unfit for promoting God’s kingdom? Are my loyalties divided between God and something else?” The problem with many people is that they often want to have the best of both worlds: they want God’s best plans and blessings for their lives and yet they also want the best of all the good things that the world has to offer to them. They want to be successful in God’s eyes and they also want to be successful and popular in the eyes of the world. And they can’t decide exactly where their loyalties should lie. And so they choose to remain somewhere in between, without wanting to give up either of the two choices. Sometimes this situation results in living a dual life: Six days a week they seek to do their own will: they live the way the rest of the world does, and their lives are no different from the lives of their non- Christian friends. And then on Sunday they suddenly become totally different: They become transformed into super-spiritual Christians in church, and they seek to do God’s will. But its very hard to keep up with this kind of life for long. They overestimate ourselves if they think that they can maintain a full-hearted single-minded service to God while at the same time being in full pursuit of the world’s highest Commitment to Do the Will of God 85
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Far Eastern Bible College Press Sin
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Contents Foreword..................
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Foreword A Consecrated Life—Roman
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Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life Text:
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God rather than our bodies? After a
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elong to him. He has to bear the lo
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from now on. It means living only t
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are afraid of embarrassment, and of
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Chapter 2 The Motivation for Consec
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people, but being mocked, insulted
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cross, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthan
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how can it ever be possible to feel
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suggested. It was done by the Roman
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permission to give Jesus a proper b
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Truly we must be greatly amazed tha
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was a church leader named Stephen.
Page 35 and 36: I. Busy in Doing Whatever the Lord
Page 37 and 38: Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Ari
Page 39 and 40: As Philip came nearer the carriage
Page 41 and 42: go around boasting to others about
Page 43 and 44: Abraham showed that he was willing
Page 45 and 46: life. It was not a static faith or
Page 47 and 48: There was no law in Canaan to prote
Page 49 and 50: Lord be proud to reveal Himself to
Page 51 and 52: honest to ask yourself, “Do I hav
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 5 Hindrances to Consecratio
Page 55 and 56: leaving behind any will and his chi
Page 57 and 58: But then something quite unexpected
Page 59 and 60: How frail your life is! The news is
Page 61 and 62: three generations. All the wealth t
Page 63 and 64: III. Be Rich Toward God, and Not to
Page 65 and 66: Chapter 6 The Objective Of Consecra
Page 67 and 68: Another person whose life was wonde
Page 69 and 70: II. Renew Your Mind and Conscience
Page 71 and 72: 5:16 says, “Walk in the Spirit, a
Page 73 and 74: We must maintain the desire in our
Page 75 and 76: To Be Like Him What can it mean to
Page 77 and 78: Through this Book, God has made kno
Page 79 and 80: 9. Does it come from or have the po
Page 81 and 82: from this then I must follow Him. T
Page 83 and 84: your feet; ye also ought to wash on
Page 85: But after he graduates four things
Page 89 and 90: that we want to observe in the pass
Page 91 and 92: The reason why Basanio succeeded wh
Page 93 and 94: where Christians never faced persec
Page 95 and 96: Having seen what the motivation for
Page 97 and 98: What this passage prophesies is tha
Page 99 and 100: to even live for Christ, how then c
Page 101 and 102: My own turning point took place in
Page 103 and 104: partners had sailed back to shore e
Page 105 and 106: elievers are sometimes reluctant to
Page 107 and 108: If God calls you today to forsake a
Page 109 and 110: III. The Grace We Have Received fro
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