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...

by C.H.Spurgeon      ..."Read the text, and note it well: "If ye love me, keep my commandments."       What a great amount of religion may be cast out as worthless by this text! Men may keep on going to church, they may be religious throughout their whole loves, and they may be apparently blameless in their moral conduct, and yet there may be nothing in them because there is no love for the ever blessed Christ at the foundation of their profession of faith...      Yes, it was necessary to speak in this way even to the apostles. He said to the chosen Twelve, "If ye love me." We would never have doubted one of them. We now know, by the outcome, that one of them was a traitor to his Lord and sold Him for pieces of silver. But no one suspected him, for he seemed as loyal as any one of them. And if that question, "If ye love me," needed to be raised in the sacred college of the Twelve, how much more must it be a...