DISCIPLE

Donald L. Norbie When a ship comes into port it must be kept from drifting. The tides ebb and flow, causing a ship to drift. A storm may drive a ship onto the beach, causing extensive damage. A ship may moor to a pier and be secure. Or the captain may order the anchor lowered to keep the ship from drifting.     Religions emphasize emotion as an indication of spirituality. Then, leaders will seek to whip up emotion. This may be done through ritual, singing, shouting or meditation. At times repetition of a phrase will work up a crowd’s emotions. Even an Islamic crowd can become intensely emotional, shouting the praises of Allah. A man here once said to me, ‘I love to go to that church to get high on Jesus’. But emotions come and go. It is impossible to sustain a ‘high’ indefinitely.     How can one know that he is right with God? How can one be sure of forgiveness and of God’s commitment to him? A Christian who is relying on his emotions for sat...

    Herbert W. Taylor “And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness. And He said unto him, 1 am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (Gen. 15:6-8). God’s people often are impetuous, and through want of understanding His dealings do not bear the fruit of patience; they would, in their haste, have things at once, for which their heavenly Father, in His wisdom, sees fit to keep them waiting. The spirit of such is too much that of the world, whose saying is, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” But the Christian, in communion with God, knows that it is better to lack in the present time the portion that the world covets, so that in the eternal future he may possess that which shall never pass away. The Spirit of God calls Esau a “profane person” (Heb. 12:16), because, by selling his birthright for a mess of pottage, he ...